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Can anyone tell me if it is necessary to brace the front cross member on cars with (hopefully) improved front brakes to prevent it deflecting at the ball joint under braking loads? I assume that the longtitudinal member running between the cross members on coupled brake cars does this, or is it mainly to support the centre of the brake cross shaft?
It would be easy enough to add some extra support here but most of the lost motion may be due to the front axle twisting which is impossible to cure without major modification of the radius arms.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 628 Threads: 19
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Location: Sheffield South Yorks
Car type: 1932 RN saloon
Tom, my 1929 uncoupled brake chummy had a bent front crossmember for years. I did a temporary “repair” on it by packing out the ball joint with a 3/8” piece of steel flat. This was not enough so I added horse shoe shaped washers between the radius arms and axle. The steering was then much improved. I finally got round to doing a proper job on it after 40 years with it in this state when I removed the body for a complete rebuild. I put a thick baulk of timber across the rear crossmember. A scaffold pole and hydraulic jack was then used to push the front crossmember straight pushing against the timber/ rear crossmember. So that it wasn’t likely to happen again I cut to size a piece of my late grandma’s bedframe angle iron (marvellous stuff -very strong) and fitted this behind the front crossmember, bolting it up tightly. You cannot see it unless you know it’s there.
Dave.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,393 Threads: 106
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Location: Darkest Bedfordshire
Bent by braking Dave? Or by not braking in time...?
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 628 Threads: 19
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Location: Sheffield South Yorks
Car type: 1932 RN saloon
06-04-2020, 04:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-04-2020, 04:27 PM by Dave Wortley.)
Chris,
It did have a crash into one of those Z Cars Zephyrs in 1979 on my way to work and came off the worse but then it could have been when I turned it over in the Lakeland trial in 1971 ish. Or possibly it was already bent when I bought it. Only the Lakeland incident was my fault!
Cheers,
Dave.
Certainly not by braking!
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,393 Threads: 106
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Location: Darkest Bedfordshire
The vision of you shunting something even resembling a police car has brightened my evening!
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Location: Monmouthshire
I look forward to the full story; "How I Put My Seven into a Jam Sandwich" by Dashing Dave Wortley! If you have no pictures, the forum's maitre d'photoshop will quickly concoct a couple.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,007 Threads: 168
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Location: Sherwood Forest
Car type: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
Perhaps we should start a thread on 'How to hit a Police Car'. My first accident back in 1964 involved driving my Opal into the side of a Police Car ... and getting away with it! It was at a set of cross-roads in Chesterfield: a van coming the other way turned right in front of me, I swerved to the left to avoid him ... straight into the side of the (unmarked) Police Car. The van driver jumped out full of apologies, at which point the driver of the car I had hit extracted himself from the passenger's side and said "That's alright, I'm a Police Officer". I reversed out of the Ford Zephyr, twisted the Opal's front wing back into shape, straightened the headlamp, and then we all duly drove down to the Police Station to sort the matter out. When the Duty Officer came to look at the cars, he asked where the other vehicle was - he couldn't believe the the apparently undamaged Seven had inflicted so much damage to the Ford. I heard no more about the incident!
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 628 Threads: 19
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Location: Sheffield South Yorks
Car type: 1932 RN saloon
Sorry to disappoint everyone but I didn't hit a police car. It was a Zephyr with the enormous aircraft runway type bonnet as in Z Cars. It was driven by a poor bloke who had finished his night shift and was on his way to hospital to visit his ill wife so he was a little distracted and tired when he attempted to drive into a side road right across the front of my chummy. Chummy damage was one kingpin fractured in 2 places, bent front mudguard, bent wheel, elongated axle eye and dented headlight. Damage to Zephyr was front bumper and number plate. The chummy kingpin was one of those dangerous incorrectly overhardened type ones.
Joined: May 2018 Posts: 331 Threads: 51
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Location: East Sussex Coast
My first crash with/in a cop car was when I was a rooky cop we had a Landy at work and I was tasked to attend due to "the crowds" at Boris Karloff's funeral procession from his house and was a bit late so was hurrying through the lanes towards his house, I think it was called "Roundabout" at Bramshott. Well those lanes are a bit tight with steep sided banks and the funeral courtege had already left and approaching when I had little choice but to hit the bank and scrape a bit off the side of Boris Karloffs hearse. Whoops, that took a bit of explaining!
