Hi all,

As promised an update on progress so far. It’s been a while coming as the farmer that had these has certainly not made things easy for me!

My local tyre fitter could not remove the agricultural tyres so I had to cut them off manually, and it also appears that the makeshift axle was welded to both the front and rear bearings so I am still struggling away trying to remove the axles whilst preserving as much as I can of the original parts.

The loose flange is quite rightly corroded to the wheel assembly. This part contains a separate part number AH7106 with the lettering B7408F. The main wheel assembly is also profusely stamped with serial no. Y106795 and SL2550, and numerous inspection stamps. One wheel has a Hoffmann bearing and the other a an R&M bearing marked “made in England” and I presume these are original. The bearing covers have the part number SA1685 with and inspection stamp Z7. Oddly one has a (possible) grease nipple and the other doesn’t.

I cannot get access to the welds where the axle is welded to the inside bearing so am thinking that I will need to press the makeshift axle shaft out from the outside in, but it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere at present! Would anybody know if these bearings should come out, or are they press fitted from different sides?

Unfortunately the is nothing left of the original brakes, but I don’t think the wheels themselves will look too bad once cleaned.

Darren

Thanks again David; that makes sense as the area they come from is a stones throw from ex RAF Coltishall and I believe there may have been Tempests operating from there.

Thanks all; your knowledge is truly outstanding. Found a pic of the rear sear release. I,m quite happy with this group of parts; there has proven to be some quite interesting items.

Anyone fancy a Saturday night challenge? Here are the latest pieces that have turned from indistinguishable blobs of rust to parts (kind of). These are from the same batch as the above. The first appears to be some kind of turn switch which would raise the brass bar at the bottom. This has the part number 8A/1163 and measures 2 inches by 3 inches. The second part may not even be linked but looks like some kind of tool. It measures 12 inches long and seems to be made from some kind of lightweight alloy.

Many thanks,

Darren

I’m getting through the batch of parts from this batch and have come across this. I have searched high and low and cannot find anything like it. It appears to be an electrical component with a viewing hole. It has been ripped open to expose some electrical components. Any ideas?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]231057[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]231058[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]231059[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]231057[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]231058[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]231059[/ATTACH]

Excellent; exactly what I was looking for. Thanks very much Tony.

Many thanks Richard.

I contact the guys on the site you linked and was lucky enough to have Al blue (the author of “The B-24 Liberator: A Pictorial History”) have a look at the pictures and he confirmed that it was part of a alarm bell made by Schwartz Electric company on behalf of Ford. Bob and the guys from this site were very friendly and helpful so well worth baring in mind.