Mystery Crankshaft ID?

Hi all, I have inherited from my late grandfather a selection of stuff. In amongst the stuff is a mystery crankshaft, still in its protective wrapping from when he ran the garage on Bowes Moor in the 50's and

60's. The tag on it says Austin 5HP STD, =A315-6-6, =A36-6-6 Exchange, and the address of the garage. It has 3 mains and 4 cylinders, one end is stepped, the other end has a flange with 4 holes in it. I cannot see if its part of the crank, or a seperate piece, as its covered. on the web near the flange end is a cast in number, 1746, with maybe an L in front. I would measure the journels, but it seems a shame to remove the protective cloth (?) wrapping.

Does anyone know or have any idea what this might fit? I suspect its austin seven, but they werent 5hp... dimensions of bore and mains spacing can be taken, if its of help.

thanks

Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson
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I'd guess the 5HP is a red herring - just a bit of a part number, etc. Most likely for an A or B series, if it's something he kept in stock from the 50s/60s.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
60's. The tag on it says Austin 5HP STD, £15-6-6, £6-6-6 Exchange, and the address of the garage. It has 3 mains and 4 cylinders, one end is stepped, the other end has a flange with 4 holes in it. I cannot see if its part of the crank, or a seperate piece, as its covered. on the web near the flange end is a cast in number, 1746, with maybe an L in front. I would measure the journels, but it seems a shame to remove the protective cloth (?) wrapping.

Does anyone know or have any idea what this might fit? I suspect its austin seven, but they werent 5hp... dimensions of bore and mains spacing can be taken, if its of help.

thanks

Dave

I don't actually know the answers to your questions, but I don't advise taking off the protective wrapping unless you absolutely have to. Once you let the damp air in, you will never get it out again.

The stepped end would be the crankshaft pulley end; the four holes would be where the flywheel mounts. The price suggests a relatively early date.. I would guess that this could be A30, A35 or perhaps A55.

Have you tried asking the Owners Club? There might be someone there who can positively identify it.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Warren

Ive not tried an owners club yet, as I didnt really know which owners club to contact. Im pretty sure its not an A Series crank (Im a mini owner), they have taper flywheel mounts. Ill take some measurements with a ruler tonight to see if I can figure out bore spacings. Is there a 'generic' austin owners club?

thanks Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson

Only on transverse installations. Morris Minors etc have flanges just as you describe.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Thats a mini crank with the taper for the clutch east west motor - the a series A do have a flange for the flywheel/clutch mount.

Could even be an old side valve crank if its that old. rm

Reply to
sam

Ive learnt something then. I assumed all a series fitments had the same crankshaft. Do the longitudinal engines have 'skinny' cranks, ie no balance webs/ weights? Ill have a look in Vizards TBASE tonight, but iirc that mostly deals with the mini engine...

Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson

A few dimensions might help.

Overall length for a start, and some idea of the stroke, which you should be able to give us without unwrapping it too much.

Ron Robinson

Reply to
R.N. Robinson

au...

Was just in the garage doing that... All measurements with a ruler, so reasonably accurate, but not precise. Cranks is ~17" oa length. stroke is ~3.5", give or take a smidge. Mains are ~1.75" dia, 1 3/32 wide. big ends are ~1.5" The cylinders are on centers of: 1 and 2 ~2 9/16" 2 and 3 ~3 and 9/16 and 3 and 4 ~2 9/16" the extra inch is in the center main, not thicker webs. The center web has no extra past the main bearing,neither do the mains at the ends. Ive not seen a crank like that before, usually there is some balancing web. In Vizards TBASE the photo of the A30 crank (pg

359 in the second edition) looks similar, but the webs between 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 are to thick, and there are balancing weights, whih are not present on the mystery item. This itself suggests to me it is a crank for an earlier engine? The measurements are a bit approx as ther wrapping is in the way, otherwise Id have used the micrometer etc.

Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson

The old Morris Minor side valve 918cc motors had a 3.5" stroke. That motor was from a Morris series which started in about 1935? and continued till the OHV Minors were introduced in 1953. There could have been what they classified as a Morris 8 (8hp) Morris being 800cc motor ( or could this writing be 8 HP not the 5 HP) something to do with road tax of the time. This would make sense.

I would rule out the OHV A series motor. A series OHV motors were from

2.7" to 3.3" stroke the 3.3" is a 1275.

most mains are 1.75" the journals are 1.625" stroke 3" on a A series

948 CC engine there are no flanges on the crank for counter balance.

The conrod bigends are offset on the rod so the pistons line up in the bore.

Reply to
sam

sam ( snipped-for-privacy@example.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Indeed it would make sense... but for one subtle detail...

Why would a SV Morris Minor crank be labelled "Austin"...?

Reply to
Adrian

Cause I think Lord Nuffield in about 1953 had something to do with that.

Reply to
sam

Even in the '60s there were still different part numbers for identical components shared between Austin, Morris, Riley, MG, Wolseley...

And I'm not talking engines etc where there might be slight differences, but things like nuts and bolts. No wonder they went bust.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Was just in the garage doing that... All measurements with a ruler, so reasonably accurate, but not precise. Cranks is ~17" oa length. stroke is ~3.5", give or take a smidge. Mains are ~1.75" dia, 1 3/32 wide. big ends are ~1.5" The cylinders are on centers of: 1 and 2 ~2 9/16" 2 and 3 ~3 and 9/16 and 3 and 4 ~2 9/16" the extra inch is in the center main, not thicker webs. The center web has no extra past the main bearing,neither do the mains at the ends. Ive not seen a crank like that before, usually there is some balancing web. In Vizards TBASE the photo of the A30 crank (pg

359 in the second edition) looks similar, but the webs between 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 are to thick, and there are balancing weights, whih are not present on the mystery item. This itself suggests to me it is a crank for an earlier engine?

The stroke is about right for a late 1940's A40 (Devon, Dorset) but I would expect those to have had counterweights. The lack of them would indicate something earlier and Austin before the war did the whole range from 8hp up. I don't know the bores and strokes of these, but I'm guessing Austin 8 or

10hp. The 12hp was 69mm bore x 100mm stroke or thereabouts so it would have to be smaller than that.

Ron Robinson

Reply to
R.N. Robinson

Been mulling this over, so tonight I had another look at the tag on the crankshaft. I think that the number I though was a five might actually be an eight, especially after comparing with some of my late grandfathers writing. New question now, does anyone have a pictute of an Austin Eight crankshaft? older cars used to have parts booklets, with line drawings showing all the bits, even this would help. Or specs of the engine, the usually helpful internet seems not to have much on these earlier austins (what did we do before all the information was available instantly?)

thanks all

Dave

Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson

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