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Originally Posted by karlosdeville  Fascinating to see the covers on the tyres. You learn something new everyday on Team BHP. 
Can you tell me anything about the curious registration MN 4? Being only 2 alphabets I mean. Ive seen Chandigarh with CH and Andaman and Nicobar AN, but thats it. |
If I remember the car came from Madras. The chassis wood was rotten and had to be changed, the fitch plates were ok. The dash board was also rotten (the vertical board behind the engine, this term originally came from horse drawn vehicles for protection against stones thrown up from the horse's hooves and later became the dash board we all know of today. It needed new mainshafts/crankpin and bearing re-metalling and half of the gearbox shaft bearings were also re-metalled. The day before it's first rally its differential pinion exploded and a new one was machined and heat treated and arrived for me to fit in the night ready for the morning. I think I finished the work about 5 in the morning and its done about 6 or more rallies since. Sturdy little car. Unfortunately it has a teens zenith carburettor fitted as the original leather bellows original was missing and they didn't work to well apparently. The king pins and differential bushes were replaced. Again, like the Cottereau, very little bore wear so onlythe rings and gudgeon pin and bushes were replaced. The engine, clutch and gearbox share a common aluminium chamber and the flywheel picks up oil and throws it into a weir system which passes the oil to the main bearings. It had a magneto fitted and this was replaced with the original trembler coil and contact breaker system with a battery in a wooden box, a total loss system no means of charging.
Trembler coils give an incredibly strong spark which will jump an inch gap and it is unadvisable to test for a spark by hand.