.... to be informed by the results of my errors.

I don't suppose that anyone noticed that the top wheel shown in an earlier post, was bolted to the frame of the English Wheel the wrong way round? I also got in a bit of a muddle thinking out how best to arrange the assembly for the anvil adjustment. Aside from having to cut 1/2" of the lower arm of the frame (the anvil and wheel weren't properly aligned - my troublesome guessing stick again) I wanted to make sure that the whole shebang was able to be stripped for maintenance.

Part of a 16 valve Corsa camshaft lifts and lowers the anvil to and from the wheel and avoids losing fine adjustment if you're just repositioning the panel.

I hunted around for a suitable lever to activate the lift mechanism and tripped over the perfect solution, complete with knob. I woke up the following morning realising that I had cut up a customer's gearlever! I found another (belonging to me) that was left over from my Model A days.

For a welcome break from the difficulties of setting up the workings of the wheel, I completed the mixing tank with the bigger and better motor which could accommodate a more robust 10mm shaft down to the mixing blade. I had hoped to be able to avoid welding the sight-gauge elbows to the tank just in case the bin twisted out of shape. I drilled the holes as near to the corners as practicable and, fortunately, all went well. The leak test (a bit nerve-wracking) showed up a tiny pinhole in one corner; swiftly corrected.

As previously reported, Counsel and I were drafted in to The Great Collector's Emporium, to tackle a recalcitrant Humber gearchange. We narrowed the problem down to something inside the cone not behaving as advertised and duly set about its removal. 'Remove the connecting yoke as described on page 55', the 'Overhaul Instructions' announced blithely. Of course, pages 52-56 were nowhere to be seen, but it all looked pretty straightforward in any case - until, with all the bolts undone except the ones retaining the fabric coupling to the cone, it was impossible to get the yoke past the various fixings which appeared to be swaged into the rear coupling. Anyway, Counsel advised cautious application of the knock-meter which did the trick and after a further 10 minutes of struggle, the yoke came out.

After removing the clutch with the aid of studding (that's a big and powerful spring) the culprit was all too apparent. The end of the spring that engaged with the cone had spread and was dragging on the studs that secure the fabric coupling, thus preventing the cone from freeing itself from the flywheel (there's a cup and bearing that separates the spring from the cone and allows the flywheel to revolve independently of the cone when the clutch pedal is depressed). A new spring, either made or found, is the answer, as the old spring may have lost its temper.

Last week, Awkward had dismantled one of his Mini engines and was struggling with a nut in the gearbox. I turned up and, putting our heads together, we devised this daring scheme for the nut's removal. The nut surrendered, but so did a couple of teeth on the gears - that learnt us.