I fitted a new nose cone to
my pressure fed engine; this will allow for a starting handle to be remotely
fitted, if the need arise. Most pressure fed engines just have the
end blanked off thus preventing the use of a handle.
However, having now fitted
the very nice copy of the original Austin design which was supplied by Quarry
engineering I found that I had a small problem with it.
It all started because I
could not start my car due to a flat battery. When I tried to use the
starting handle, I found this was not possible, due to engine oil having filled
all the cavity and preventing the shaft from moving in [hydraulic lock]. I
could not engage the starting handle shaft into the crankshaft and so I had a
new nose cone but could not use it!
The
original plan was to drill and tap the housing and fit a pipe and tap etc and
thus removing the oil trapped, but having removed the nose cone, I found that
this was not a good idea, due to location of the pipe and fitting. Also
the aluminium wall of the casting was just too thin to accept the fitting
[bearing in mind there is 60psi behind it].
A much better solution is to
drill down through the starting handle and fit a M6 tapped hole at the end and a
small cross drilled hole about 2.5" from the starting handle. This allows for a
small bolt to be fitted in the end and thus preventing oil leaking out; this
bolt can be removed and allow any oil to escape out through the front in to a
waiting rag.
This modification now has the
added feature of locating the starting handle by using a bolt to hold it in
place and has two benefits:
1. With the handle bolted
in place it looks like the original,
2. It does not fly off and
hit the wing when starting the car using the handle.
.
This article, written by Mike Davies, originally appeared in CA7C Seven Focus
in Apr 2008 p25.
