Ford 5000

essexpete

Member
Location
Essex
Unusual Ford.jpg
Slightly different, i'll have some of you guessing as to the purpose!
 
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timff

Member
Interesting. An Essex plate so possibly direct from Basildon works. No gear sticks so either SOS or a different system? Great shot though!
 

MickW

Member
Location
South West
No gear leavers but has a clutch pedal?
Select a Speeds had an inching pedal not a clutch pedal as far as I recall.
Was it driving a pump at a sewerage works? or as a drainage pump.
 

essexpete

Member
Location
Essex
It was a standard gear box, have a look at what it is connected to you can just make it out through the guard. The same set up on the other side. The small tower behind is for cooling water.
 

timff

Member
See above Google Earth image. The compound is at the base of the pin below the yellow marker. I walked over it a few years ago when DP World were buying the adjacent land. Shame it's not there now - could do with some nice 7.50/16 Firestones....
 

essexpete

Member
Location
Essex
From the horses mouth as it were. The photo belongs to elderly friend of mine who worked as an engineer testing oils and fuels at the Essex Mobil refinery.
The 5000, a second drive train and a host of brake spares were supplied from Ford just up the road at Basildon.
This was the testing ground for oil suitable for oil immersed disc brakes. Initially oils had been used sourced from sperm whales and a ban on hunting these animals was overdue.
The problem was developing a hydrocarbon oil that would serve the different transmission and hydraulic functions and more importantly wet brakes. Apparently brake chatter or squawk was seen as a problem to the driver and particularly as the new legislation for safety cabs was in the offing.
The main tractor had the rear wheels removed and the rear set on to a sliding frame. Sprockets from a conveyor were bolted to the rear hubs. The skid only, without an engine, was bolted to a fixed frame. Identical sprockets were fitted to the skid and the chains were connected between the two machines on each side. The chains were tensioned by manually pumped hydraulic rams on each side.
The input shaft of the skid was attached to a Heenan Froude water brake (cooled by the tower in the back ground). The brake pedals of the main unit were removed and air rams fitted to the brake linkage that could be controlled by valves using variable pressures. Second gear was selected on the skid and the main tractor was clutched in with the same gear. The water brake was then set to load the system.
The main tractor was then braked with independent brakes under load to observe brake chatter with different oil and additive formulations.
I hope I have recounted that accurately. Cutting edge in 1960s Essex!
 
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Mursal

Member
Would that be an old dyno, connected to the wheels rather than the PTO?
Most older kits used a water pump and the output was measured by the pull on the gauge (pump was allowed to twist) seen at the top of the rig in the image.

Lovely to see the old kit, not many cameras those days ........
 

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