Petter W1H refurb (1950)

I bought this off a now friend not long ago, tis quite rare and mechanically sound as I discovered today as I began dismantling.
I paid £300 quite happily and Dave gave me some other bits too.

I thought I'd just give it try before commencing work and it fired straight up.
Here from cold

Looks like a pretty decent example of a Petter W1H.

It will be yes, I'll start the blog shortly

First thing I didn't like apart from the colour of the petrol tank straps was that they were not round and fit badly against the tank.




I haven't got an anvil so I thought to clamp them around a cast iron belt drum and beat them into shape on this and in the vice




I persisted until I had an even snug fit around the tank


Good


These are both now fixed and just require the correct colour paint and as with my other tanks I'll use a thin strip of cork between brackets and tank on final assembly

All is good apart from I need another 3/8 BSF stud and long nut.
The piston is STD size the rings are free the valves I will lap in, the bore barely has a noticeable lip and I will hone it.
The tappets are very very lightly indented so I will do a skim of those.
The bottom end is solid with no noticeable play

This is very bad


I intend to try and weld part of another gib key to it so I can use the Claas drift which has yet to fail. If the weld holds it will come out.

This will be sacrificed to do the job

This is exactly the same engine as an A1 from the cylinder base downwards. Refurbishing of my other engines has always suffered lots of hours from tin work repairs and cleaning cylinder barrel and head fins but this has NONE
Clearly this one has had an easy life so won't take very long to make it mint.
The wheels and trolley I hate as far too heavy so I guess I'll be making yet another.

The starting dog is a super long one but Dave gave me a normal one to replace it as I see fit.
The petrol tank can be fitted on any of three sides of the hopper, I'll decide later.
The tank had no holes or filler

One day I might actually get around to finish the restoration of the one I started several years ago!

Pete.

I hope my blog spurs you into action

Meanwhile I found this by Dave on U tube. Gives the date of supply and who to  

Quote
Sold new by Petters England ltd on the 13/7/1950 to West Cumberland Farmers ltd of Cumbria possibly for general farm use ,  it's the slightly rarer hopper/water cooled  version of the A1 aircooled Petter series , it's been previously restored by someone unknown and really only needs a repaint ,  it's only the 1.5 HP version it seems to have plenty of power and compression starts very easily.

So this is the same age as my Lister 28DH

Mine was supplied to West Cumberland Farmers as well but has the larger tank similar to the Petter diesels.  This was the cylinder block, they often crack there, it also had to be rebored and the crank reground.







Pete.

Looking good Pete, I'm just dealing with the barrel at the moment, fortunately its all good my end.
I've just ordered some 3/8" BSF x 3" studs from Austin 10 drivers club, I can extend the thread and shorten to match my originals. I'm struggling for head nuts but I can find brass barrel nuts as an alternative.

Pete,

Nice repairs and nice to see old school workshop i.e. the kitchen worktop

Maryalice

Just wondering if the tank is original or a replacement, it might explain the rather loose fit in the tank straps.

maryalice wrote:Pete,

Nice repairs and nice to see old school workshop i.e. the kitchen worktop

Maryalice

Well the coffee table in the front room was a 'no go area' according to 'management' so it had to be the kitchen worktop, no room in the shed as it was already full!

Pete.

I believe it is original and having looked at other examples the tank straps are universally badly made. I don't know why they used such thick steel bar without having the means to make them uniform consistently with probably not very skilled labour. Obviously its thick bar as it relies on a single fixing point to the hopper per bracket.
The tank straps are not a loose fit once the clamping bolts are tightened when around the tank.

I've prepared the sacrificial Gib key head for my mate to weld tomorrow



As I begin stripping paint I can see the original Light Green colour that I believe they started using in 1950. I will be using RAL 6002 Ambersil again like my A1 engines and its fast drying aerosol.








Refresher of RAL6002

Good luck with the key, hopefully the heat of the welding will help as well.

Thank you, alas that attempt failed three times. So I borrowed the welder and took everything back to my workshop for a better method of attack.
I needed a slide hammer but had nothing that people normally knock one up from. So like scrap yard challenge I spied what I had to hand.
A yard of 1"BSP pipe threaded both ends looked like a winner along with a threaded fitting and a 6" cast iron belt drum. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I wasted no time stripping and priming the flywheel. There's absolutely no need to re fit this tight up to the crankcase and in fact that's just stupid to do that on this model. There's plenty of room to leave a 1/4" gap to make future removal an easier job.
I had a new key in stock so just had to shorten it appropriately and fettle it.

Well done, I must admit when I looked at the final picture in your previous post, I thought you were showing a broken off Gib key. Now I realise that you were actually totally successful. Hopefully that will be another one for your museum!

Neil.

Thank you Neil
It's been 47 yrs since I last used an arc welder so I'm pleased with my effort so much so that I've bought my own welder today for delivery Thursday. I've put off lots of jobs over the years that I needn't have and only £75 for a good DIY one just now.

Hello Andy and all

Plenty  of variations  on the petter A engine.
I recently purchased  my WH1 at a farm sale

Just some photos from sales brochure I have

Very nice thank you for sharing