Graham AdlamCan’t be,that guys signature clearly shows he has a sense of humour….
LOL :diablo:
Graham AdlamThats what made me think it might be the governors, one of the Scandinavian countries was the last to operate the cent, & I think a party piece of the drivers was to drive them in a manner to make the governor’s operate which created all kinds of popping & banging, in part due to the unburnt igniting in the exhaust system! although obviously that wouldn’t have applied to you.
Anyway, glad you sorted it.
any Video?
Myford
That makes sence, Plenty of unburnt fuel igniting trust me LOL:diablo:
Video here.
http://spitfirespares.com/SPITFIRESPARES.COM/pages/Spitfire%20MkVIII%20Replica%20page%203.html
right at the bottom of the page is the best one. I havent got one of it runnning properly yet ,still fixing coolant leaks.
Graham AdlamHard to believe full power could be mistaken for idle but glad you got it sorted! ISTR suggesting you check the throttle linkage….:D
The banging and misfiring at full speed is the governers cutting the ignition. This allows unburnt fuel into the exhausts which, if hot enough, will ignite the mixture. Not good for the engine!
You would think so ,but of coarse i havent had allot of experiance running these engines and they only run to 3500 flat out nothing like a car engine, it doesnt sound like its revving hard even at full tilt. They make so much noise even on tick over its not as easy to work out as you might think.
Thanks to ISTR but i had so many things to check got to it eventually.:)
Graham AdlamProblem solved
Finally got the Meteor running properly and it turned out the be the simplest of problems.
When started and running the rev counter was showing 3500 to 3750 RPM and although i worked out it should operate properly at the correct revs i just assumed that the calibration was wrong.
The throttle linkage was made up and in fact from tick over to full power without load only requires about 1 1/2 inches of movement from the throttle in the cockpit. Of coarse there is no load on the engine.
I had a look at the throttle stops and with the throttle full shut in the cockpit the carb throttles were still slightly open.
The linkage was touching the base of the carb and would not allow the throttle to close completely. I put a slight bend in the linkage so it would completely close.
The engine now starts and runs smoothly and the rev counter shows 1000 rpm, i can rev it up to about 3500 before it starts missing and backfiring.
So basically we were starting the engine at full speed and any increase in throttle without load causes missfire as its over revving.
Everytime we started it before it refused to go without some juice being put into the inlets.
It now starts without any priming, just like a car they dont like starting on full throttle.
I still need to change the inner mag covers as its not running perfectly but its 100% better than before and we are not revving its nuts off, no wonder it was heating up so quickly and using so much juice.
I want to thank all of you who contributed to this thread 🙂
Graham AdlamIf they do then the fact that it was mounted over a hole in the underlying structure may be apparent as well.
Pete
hello Pete
sent you an email through the forum about Meteor mags did you get it?
Cheers
Graham
Graham AdlamIn my opinion, it looks like someone started to scratch in the serial and got the last digit wrong so re-did it….so is it XP865?
Graham, did you post the mag switch old chap as there is no sign….I tried pm’g you.
No sorry will try to get it off tom, have been away looking at some complete crashed Merlins two packards and a rolls but thats another story
Graham AdlamHi
looks hard to make out the scratch marks,could X mean ‘ex’
P8645 was a CBAF spit as mentioned, it all gets more interesting.
And could the P be an F ?
And the ‘4’ seems to have an ‘8’ underneath ?Naill’s research, I have found thro’ experince to be spot on.:D
so the mod’s unless out of sequence ? :confused: would not been higher than 158, as he mentioned.It’s all a bit of a mystery, why i started the thread out of curiosity.
Westlands are a hard nut to crack, first line of defence seems to be haven’t got anything…
Some drawings do exist, as other board members & fellow whirlwind researchers will confirm.personally not sure it from a heli,just seemed a high number of mod’s, why I posted here for the expertise on the board.
Just a random,
could it be a engine mod plate of a wright whirlwind ?Cheers
jerry
I agree its not very clear, but somebody obviously went to the trouble of removing it and scratching something on the back of it.
Do we know how high the MOD numbers went on the Whirlwind Hellicopter?
What are the chances of getting some Whirlwind drawings?
Westlands put me on to a chap who was their historian, cannot remeber His name but he did promise me some pictures, but they never appeared.
Graham AdlamIt certainly looks wartime Graham, but the scratched serial is quite a clue. P8645 was a Spit which ditched returning from Lille in 1941 so probably not that one!
Thanks Ian
Do you know what P8685 is? I dont think this is from a Hellicopter, what do you think? it may have to high a mod number but it doesnt tye in with a whirlwind Hellicopter either.
Perhaps Westlands ran out of spit mod plates and used a Whirlwind one??? they did build spits there, Its a theory 😉
Graham AdlamJerry
I think you may be right in believing the data plate is from a Whirlwind heli rather than the original Whirlwind. The highest mod number I’m aware of for the Whirlwind fighter is Mod 158 – introduction of Mk III IFF. This was approved 16/12/43 – very late in the aircraft’s life -and then cancelled 1/2/44 shortly after the aircraft was declared obsolescent.
Niall
PS: Stuart – I’ve sent you a PM
Hello Nial
How you 158 do was the highest MOD? Seems like quite a low number to me. I am amazed didn’t think info like that is available on such a rare aircraft.
When I spoke to Westland’s they didn’t seem to have any info that survived.
Graham AdlamI just noticed that if you take the X away which seems to be joined across the top you end up with a serial of P 8645 are you sure this is from a hellicopter??
Graham AdlamHi Graham,
Firstly a great site you have, Secondly, my interest was the number of mod’s on the plate, no implied ‘false description’ intended.‘XP864’ seems to be in a batch of u nused serials so not that, although interestingly a westland batch.
Slightly O/T but when doing MOD(N) stuff we were using brass plates right up until the late 80’s,
cheers
Jerry
Hello Jerry
Thanks.
Certainly a surprise to me, looks like every mod plate I have ever seen from a WWII aircraft, you learn something every day, I had never noticed the serial scratched on the back, until I had occasion to take a closer look.
Although it seems to have 6 characters instead of 5?
I guess this Helicopters history could be traced?
I have noticed that its alloy plated with brass, that seems allot of trouble to go to for a MOD plate? Must admit I cannot see the point of it…
Always amazes me that Westland’s used the same name for two aircraft types.
Have a special interest in the Whirlwind living in Taunton, tried to get some info from Westland’s once they weren’t all that helpful, do you know are there any drawings ?
Graham AdlamHad a look on goggle and it shows some helicopters with an XP serial, therefore it may from a helicopter and the listing has been removed until I can confirm one way or the other its identity.
Graham AdlamJust had another look at this plate on the back it has xp 8645 scratched on it. Not sure if this is an aircraft serial number.
Graham AdlamNo need I have been watching this thread with interest.
Firstly this plate was sold to me as being an original, whirlwind plate. I have seen allot of these plates and it certainly seems like an early type of plate. I am not sure they would have used a brass plate on a post war Helicopter.
So far it seems to be guessing work but if it’s proved it’s from a helicopter I will happily edit the listing. You should read our disclaimer on the home page, not sure why you added the sarcastic icon at the end of your post.
Are you suggesting it’s deliberately described incorrectly?
Graham AdlamThanks Keith for posting the photos of the replica Whirlwind cockpit section at the Fenland Museum.
The person who spent some 18 months or so constructing this cockpit in the garage of his home in the small village of Weeting, just NW of Thetford, is Ray Wood. He is a long-time buddy of mine; we were both closely associated in the 1960s/70s with the preservation of Lanc. NX611 (now ‘Just Jane’ @ East Kirkby) so he has a long proven interest in historic aircraft.
Ray moved from Holbeach, Lincs. in 2007 and soon decided he needed to start some sort of ‘project’, something a bit different to his other passion, that of ‘aviation art’, Over the years he had managed to accumulated a large quantity of (surplus) wooden kitchen doors and other wood remnants (I won’t say from what!) and always thought “they’d come in handy sometime”.
Not long after moving into his new home he was set upon the idea of trying to create a replica of his long-time favourite WW2 aircraft, the twin engined Westland Whirlwind, using his stock of wood and other bits and pieces of material he had in his garage (the car had no chance of getting in there !!!).
Over the course of the next 18 months Ray toiled undauntedly away inside his garage and you now know the handsome result of his efforts. He sent me a few of his photos during that period which showed some of the stages in the cockpit’s construction. I was never really amazed by the many unlikely bits of wood, plastic etc. that he managed to utilise in making the various pieces of equipment, guns, etc as he was able to transform everything into realistic replicas of the originals.
Here’s a few of those shots – I’m sure Ray won’t mind me sharing with you as they’re a testament to his skill :
Enjoy.
Richard
Wow a whirlwind I didnt think there was anything of this aircraft type around, do you know where he got the drawings?:)
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