Stanley model 85 ongoing restoration

                                                                Part 4

                                                                 Steering

The steering was found to be in a very dangerous condition. We concluded that the steering was  incorrectly installed by the then owner when the car was first constructed in early 2000.
The pinion to segment mesh was just connecting on the tip of the segment resulting in extreme wear and load to both the segment and pinion. We recommended to the owner that a new segment and pinion should be installed in place of the existing pieces, or that the pieces should have a non destructive test to check for cracks etc. in the units. Unfortunately this suggestion was refused.

This left us with having to construct a steel mounting unit to be bolted to the body in place of the usual wood block. Unusual angles were need to allow the pinion and segment to mesh correctly, and also allowing the mesh to be adjustable when meshing correctly.
Although this was an improvement to the steering, it did not satisfy us that it was safe. We followed the owners instructions, given after we informed him of our findings and concerns.

                                                            Boiler and Burner.

With the steering complete we turned our attention to the boiler and burner.
With the new boiler ring complete we inspected the boiler for installation.
​Although the owner had himself installed a new Bourdon boiler and burner a few months earlier we discovered that the installation had been incorrectly done (this had lead to some of the major fires the car had recently had). 
As can be seen below an attempt to seal the burner to the boiler was made but failed, note the fire damage and damage to the recently fitted new burner.

As can be seen we saved the burner outer skin, although we did have to weld in some new sections to replace the burnt areas and replace the inner skin correctly including new insulation .
The boiler was re-drilled and tapped with NPT thread in the correct places. We plugged the incorrect tapped holes, but this was a problem as the holes had been drilled slightly into the boiler shell itself meaning the plugs hit the burner inner skin not allowing the burner to fit correctly to form a seal. We did overcome the problem successfully.
So we were now satisfied that the boiler, which had been re-insulated and newly skinned on the outside with stainless steel (rather than reuse the burnt galvanized sheet as used before),and the newly refurbished / repaired  burner were ready to be installed.

                                              Spare Wheel Carrier and Siphon Hose

A new design of siphon hose carrier was installed to tidy up that area. We also installed a mirror on the frame work to allow the driver to view the water level indicator for the water tank.

Above as it was.

New design of siphon hose carrier plus a rear view mirror was added to the new frame to allow the driver to view the water tank level in the indicator tube.