Happy new year, at last the blackberries and the grass are in retreat so the shed beckons once more, so today I thought it was time to tempt the Sizaire out of the shed where she has been malingering on the pretext that carrying a couple of middle aged blokes across Australia was quite enough for a 100 year old, however that was last year so time to be a beast of burden once more.

If you have been reading my previous posts you would know that I have had no luck getting the Siz to start or run very well and I have been trying all sorts of stuff to remedy this without success. Today that all changed even though it has been said by some “that most fuel problems are really ignition problems” in this case it really was fuel and when you have a carby as simple as the Siz what can go wrong? The float weighed in at 64g, after I drilled a hole in it and emptied the fuel out and soldered it up again it weighed 51g so more submarine than float.

I went out for a run and the Siz is running beautifully although that made another problem more apparent as pulling on the brake lever did not really have the desired effect.  Up on the hoist revealed that part of the braking system must have fallen off somewhere between Perth and Sydney due to a dodgy weld also the left hand wheel bearing seal was chewed out so LH  brake shoes were coated in 250W oil, I suppose the trip was more about going than stopping.

Andrew and Geoff have put modern seals on their Sizaires so I should probably do the same although the felt seal on the RH side is still doing a stirling job but where to get felt?

We started with a small crack around the bolt hole as you can see in the photo a much larger crack (now brazed) has appeared, Colin admits it may have been a result of the heat applied to repair the first crack even though the whole thing was thoroughly preheated with a large blow torch. The final job was done in Colin’s forge, in good old fashion coals, at least there is less to rust now.

The bolt (second photo) that holds the water jacket onto the head has been remade and hopefully will last another 100 years and lastly I took a guess on the engine colour and ended up about half a colour card out,  it was blue, I think it will count as primer.

Went and had a look at what will hopefully be my next project a 1928 500cc Rudge Special, it is the first model with a saddle tank, 8” drum brakes and the usual Rudge stuff like 4 speed gearbox and 4 valve head so should get along very nicely. They originally came with a plate under the barrel to lower the compression….I wonder how many people left that intact?

Unfortunately we are being invaded by blackberries, scotch thistles and the grass will not stop growing so little to report of actual work done by me, I have moved the engine crane close to the Sizaire to give the impression that something is happening on the shed cam.