Piled up at the back of the beach at the Sands of Evie is a section of anti-torpedo netting. This is made up of interlocking rings of thick gauge galvanised wire, somewhat like chain mail.
Where it’s above the high water mark it’s still in good condition but where it’s regularly covered by the salt water it’s got a fair amount of surface rust.
The steel hawser that ran across the top is still clearly visible as are a number of joints with shackles attached, I assume this is where the floatation boys were attached.
Orkney’s mainland has very good EV infrastructure, not really surprising when there are so many wind generators round the island and if you’re driving for more than 30 miles you’re either going back on yourself or you’re in the sea.
As well as the usual suspects in the form of many Nissan Leafs and the occasional Tesla I have seen a few of both PSA flavours of the Mitubishi i-MiEV EV – normally a very rare sight.
Fully Charged has been to Orkney and is covering the renewable technology.
Note: as there isn’t any oil circulation until the engine is running, lots and lots of oil is applied everywhere during re-assembly so that there won’t be un-lubricated metal-on-metal when it starts running. Additional lubrication with petroleum jelly was applied to some virgin metal surfaces which need more lubrication, this has a higher viscosity so will adhere for a bit longer during first start-up.
Starting with the off side crank case shell (the one with the studs in it) the crank and cam shafts go in. There are locating lugs in the bearing receivers and it’s important to line up the corresponding hole in the bearing shells when placing them. If you don’t the crankcase won’t shut properly.
The timing marks on the crank and cam gears must be aligned.
The oil pickup is fitted and the retaining bolt is secured.
The crank case halves are now ready to be joined, a thin bead of high temperature sealant was run round the mating surfaces.
Final check as the crank case halves are closed, the timing marks are still aligned.
The four 16mm crank case bolts can be put in finger tight at this point.
Next, the oil pump can be fitted to the end of the cam shaft. Start with a new paper gasket, this is dry fitted with no sealant.
The housing fits into the crank case first. There is a flat that goes at the top, next to the crank shaft – this ensures the oil galleries line up correctly.
The the inner rotor goes on next, it has a flat that goes onto the flat at the end of the cam shaft.
The outer rotor goes on last as it can be easily rotated to the point where it fits with the inner rotor.
The oil pump cover receives a new o-ring and some sealant round the outer edge before it is bolted on. In order to align these bolts with the oil pump and the crank case the pump housing may need to be rotated which is why the crank case bolts haven’t been tightened yet.
With the oil pump in place, the crank case bolts can now be tightened according to the sequence and torque settings in the manual.
The two crank shaft oil seals can now be fitted. The are a push fit but the tolerances are tight so use plenty of lubrication (also prevents them tearing when first running) and carefully drift them into place.
Now’s a good time to put the tappets in – I’m using new tappets as I have a new cam shaft. These are a tight fit and plenty of lubrication is necessary.
The cylinders had previously been lapped to the crank case so time to fit the pistons. With some light persuasion the gudgeon pins slide through the pistons and the con-rod little end bearings.
With the gudgeon pin mostly through the retaining circlip can be fitted. The gudgeon pin can then be pushed through until it seats on the clirclip at which point the other circlip can be fitted.
As I’ve had nothing but trouble with the wiring of the wings I’m re-wring both of them so I know where I am.
First step is to work out the wiring diagram, it’s not complicated but having something like this to work from makes the job easier.
(Note that I’ve added a blade connector onto the back of the indicator, normally that wire runs directly from the indicator’s bulb live connector to the main wiring loom’s bullet connector. Adding the blade connector makes it easier to remove/ replace the indicator as you don’t have to cut that wire.)
The indicator live (red) and earth (black) both run through a 12mm grommet at the front. The live runs through a red sleeve.
The indicator earth attaches to the indicator via the upper retaining bolt. It’s important it’s the top bolt as the head is connected to the earth of the bulb inside the assembly.
The repeater live runs through a grey sleeve and connects to the repeater via a blade connector.
With the wires cut to length the connectors go on and I’ve added heat shrink over them to tidy them up, keep the clart out and take a bit of stress off the wire where it enters the crimped connectors.
The white exhaust valve stem oil seals are a tight fit on the valve guides, even without the securing collar. They’re also a tight fit on the valve stems so it’s worth fitting the valves at this point before the springs.
The springs have caps at either end so, with a generous covering of oil, these sit over the valve stems.
The valves are attached to the springs via the collets. Like removal, this is a three handed job involving a heavy spring under compression so I didn’t take any photos. Essentially, with the spring compressed and some grease on the valve stems to hold the collets in place the spring can be slowly and carefully uncompressed until the spring cap rides up on the taper of the collets until the whole assembly is secure.
The biggest departure from the removal was the replacement of the “special” bolts used to to hold the lower end of the rocker pivot. As fitted by Citroën in their infinite wisdom the bolt has a strange head that has two flats. Whilst this came off with the assistance of an adjustable spanner I didn’t want to put it back so I used a 35mm M8 threaded hex headed bolt. This fits exactly as the original and uses a standard tool.
With the rockers fitted that’s the heads reassembled as far as possible.
Bag The Hun uses a 1″ hex grid which is about the size of the 2p piece here.
Looking at these the 1:300 FW 190 looks about the right size for a gaming piece, as does the 1:600 B-17. If this was a commercial boxed game I wouldn’t be surprised to see the asymmetrical scales but that doesn’t sit right with me on my own project.
Whilst the 1:600 probably is a more realistic overall scale to convey the distances involved between aircraft on the table the Focke-Wolfs are simply too small. In terms of where to compromise, I’d rather have the larger Fortresses than the smaller Focke-Wolfs.
Conclusion: I’m going with the 1:300 scale aircraft and, consequently, a 2″ hex might be worth investigating.
