Austin Morris BMC

BMC Carrimore 2.jpg
MGs.jpgI don’t think we have had a topic on the BMC’s, heres a couple to start the ball rolling.

I was unlucky enough to drive one as a young lad. :frowning:

A couple of photos here of a manchester tipper haulier from the 50/60s


Austin FFK 140 , 7 tonner. Reg. no. HEC 84. 5.1 litre diesel engine , 4 speed gearbox , and single speed axle.

This wagon was new in September 1960, and replaced an 18 month-old ■■■ 100 5 tonner, which was as unstable as
a pig on castors. :frowning: :unamused:
HEC gave good service for the 4 years in which my father owned it.

It was replaced in July 1964 by an Austin FHK 140, reg. no. MJM 54.

Cheers, cattle wagon man.

HEC 84.jpg

cattle wagon man:
Austin FFK 140 , 7 tonner. Reg. no. HEC 84. 5.1 litre diesel engine , 4 speed gearbox , and single speed axle.

This wagon was new in September 1960, and replaced an 18 month-old [zb] 100 5 tonner, which was as unstable as
a pig on castors. :frowning: :unamused:
HEC gave good service for the 4 years in which my father owned it.

It was replaced in July 1964 by an Austin FHK 140, reg. no. MJM 54.

Cheers, cattle wagon man.

I always thought that you hay and straw hauliers out 'ot Dales were “nine rounds high” men ■■ Unless this was a “short” load for Lock Bank !!!Dennis.

Hi transporter man, as I have mentioned before on the Transporter thread, I had a brand new BMC FJ with Carrimore 6 car (the coupling position and fore/aft depth of the cab allowed 2 Minx and an Imp on the bottom deck without a well) on Progressive when that cab was first introduced 1964ish, compared to the previous motors I’d had, the cab was roomy and comfortable, a willing engine 5.7 if I remember rightly. The downside was the downtime, man that wagon broke down a lot, mostly fuel pump throttle linkage and injector pipe problems, last straw was a broken halfshaft. Never saw it again,out of warranty I heard they put a Comet 400 in it, I was now the happy driver of a new Leyland Comet with 7car Carrimore and no downtime.
I have quite a few Morris, Austin and BMC pics which I will sort and post.
Oily

Two to be going on with, with permission from G Robertson and a flickr contact.
oily

I spent my early working life including an apprenticeship at a BMC dealer and they were a decent enough truck until the coming of the underfloor engined FJ series that is! :blush: It was brought out to try and rival the D series Ford but lacked development time, it suffered numerous changes to its cooling system over the years to try and correct airlocks but eventually the engine was fitted in the vertical position to become the Boxer and was much improved. The Bathgate built engines were the worst, they were 1/8th" longer than the Birmingham built ones and were hopeless, I fitted three different replacement engines into one Prime Mover and not one of them was any good. They all overheated in the workshop and were returned to the factory without even venturing past the garage doors.
The earlier FFK and FHK series were reliable enough and the FGK’s (30cwt, 2, 3 or 4 tons payloads) proved fine for local delivery work, though a couple of local companies ran them on a trunk service from Reading to Glasgow which stretched the four cylinder engine a little. :open_mouth: I drove them for many miles and they were ok for the time, steering was a little heavy but men were men back then! :laughing:
The 6 cylinder FGK 100 was a better machine with an optional five speed gearbox, two speed axle and optional power steering, they could carry 6 tons and tared at under 3 tons so could be driven on a car license.
The BMC 3.4 and 5.1 diesel engines were developed from Saurer units, hence the fuel pump was on the drivers side, the earlier Morris- Commercial lorries and vans were very well built and many did 20+ years of service, we were still repairing trucks from the early 50’s in the early 1970’s which were owned by the Gas Board amongst others.

Pete.

oiltreader:
Two to be going on with, with permission from G Robertson and a flickr contact.
oily

CJA1:
Hi Oily, found this one, along with some old truck racing piccs It"s an old Morris/van not sure wat model? Cheers Chris.

oiltreader:
Hi transporter man, as I have mentioned before on the Transporter thread, I had a brand new BMC FJ with Carrimore 6 car (the coupling position and fore/aft depth of the cab allowed 2 Minx and an Imp on the bottom deck without a well) on Progressive when that cab was first introduced 1964ish, compared to the previous motors I’d had, the cab was roomy and comfortable, a willing engine 5.7 if I remember rightly. The downside was the downtime, man that wagon broke down a lot, mostly fuel pump throttle linkage and injector pipe problems, last straw was a broken halfshaft. Never saw it again,out of warranty I heard they put a Comet 400 in it, I was now the happy driver of a new Leyland Comet with 7car Carrimore and no downtime.
I have quite a few Morris, Austin and BMC pics which I will sort and post.
Oily

The FJ was the beginning of the end for BMC our first one had 3/4 engines in the first year numerous head gasket problems, if you needed a gasket you had to take the old one down to compare it as there was that many variations in the cylinder layout. the problem been the engine was laid on its side to give a level floor in the cab which resulted in water problems. I collected this truck at Bathgate & delivered down to Finchley the Carrimore man congatulated me on been the first one to arrive with the spare wheel & carrier still intact. I collected the truck at Finchley & only managed about a mile before the trailer brakes came on, travelled home with the air lines turned off. It turns out the air tank capacity wasnt large enough to cover the useage. If you remember they had Air-brakes, wipers, 2 speed & clutch. Not surprised you broke a 1/2 shaft the clutch was embarrassing. They give us another one as a seed vehicle to compensate for our problems.

Yet the same engine fitted in the earlier FH series was pretty reliable, due mostly to having a vertical radiator which gave a good head of water above the cylinder head. A nightmare to work on though, removing the nearside wheel to get at the rocker cover and then having to remove every stud from the cylinder head before you could squeeze it out between the cab base and the chassis rail! And dont even mention the three piece sump! :blush: We serviced a ‘chinese six’ FH coal tipper which had a Primrose second axle, the master cylinder was seperate to the second axle and was always going out of adjustment so the brakes wouldn’t work but engine wise it had no real problems. It gave aid during the Aberfan disaster as it collected coal from those pits back to the yard in Reading.

Pete.

windrush:
Yet the same engine fitted in the earlier FH series was pretty reliable, due mostly to having a vertical radiator which gave a good head of water above the cylinder head. A nightmare to work on though, removing the nearside wheel to get at the rocker cover and then having to remove every stud from the cylinder head before you could squeeze it out between the cab base and the chassis rail! And dont even mention the three piece sump! :blush: We serviced a ‘chinese six’ FH coal tipper which had a Primrose second axle, the master cylinder was seperate to the second axle and was always going out of adjustment so the brakes wouldn’t work but engine wise it had no real problems. It gave aid during the Aberfan disaster as it collected coal from those pits back to the yard in Reading.

Pete.

The FJs were the only tilted engines we had in the fleet the rest were all upright, we bought them from Buist’s who were our biggest customer on the transporter side so we felt obliged to use them. Fortunately they took over the ERF dealer & we started our long relationship with them.

The truck in front…britishpathe.com/video/the-t … /morris+fj

I drove a 1964 FHK 140 with the 5.7 litre under-slung engine which pulled like a train.It was a shame when it was down plated to 11.5 ton gross from 14 ton when the plating law came in.The lorry had a 5 speed gearbox and a 2 speed axle with power steering and a good heater.
Cheers Dave.

In July 1964 , this Austin FHK 140 , reg. no. MJM 54 , replaced the earlier FFK 140.
With the 5.7 litre engine underfloor , there was much more interior cab space , plus there was warm air on the passenger side of the cab. :smiley: I spent nearly all of my school holidays travelling to farms and livestock markets with my dad, so this cab holds special memories to me.
I first drove MJM when I was 12 years old , - and it was a couple of years later before I drove a car for the first time.
I thought cars were too small , and I hadn`t the same interest.

MJM was fitted with a 5 speed gearbox , and single-speed rear axle. The platform and livestock body were transfered from HEC , with no alterations needed as the chassis and cab`s measurements were identical.

MJM gave reasonable service , although the first engine blew-up only a couple of days AFTER the warranty expired !! :cry:
The replacement engine lasted similar time before major repairs were needed. The wagon lasted until July 1971 , when it was retired , replaced by a new Leyland Boxer , - with the 5.7 litre engine reverted to its original upright design build .

Cheers , cattle wagon man.

P,S. The photograph was taken outside Kendal Aucxtion Mart , in January 1968.
For fellow-■■■■■■■■■ , the Commer shown in the background belonged to Stan Stewardson of Hawkshead.
Incidently , Stan owned both a FHK and a FJK , I think they were both 8 tonners.

Bewick:

cattle wagon man:
Austin FFK 140 , 7 tonner. Reg. no. HEC 84. 5.1 litre diesel engine , 4 speed gearbox , and single speed axle.

This wagon was new in September 1960, and replaced an 18 month-old [zb] 100 5 tonner, which was as unstable as
a pig on castors. :frowning: :unamused:
HEC gave good service for the 4 years in which my father owned it.

It was replaced in July 1964 by an Austin FHK 140, reg. no. MJM 54.

Cheers, cattle wagon man.

I always thought that you hay and straw hauliers out 'ot Dales were “nine rounds high” men ■■ Unless this was a “short” load for Lock Bank !!!Dennis.

Hi Dennis,
We never loaded 9 high of hay, due to weight. Those who did , often ended up with an ungracious lean. :blush:
This load was probably straight off the field , as there appears to be leaves on the trees in the background.

The photograph was taken close to the ( old ) Westmorland side of Middleton Bridge , the boundary of West Riding of
Yorkshire and Westmorland, on the A 683.

As for Lockbank delivery, I can only remember taking1 or 2 loads in all our years .

Cheers, cattle wagon man.

Any idea of the location of this Roger Kenney picture

retriever:

Any idea of the location of this Roger Kenney picture

Sorry that I cannot help with the location but these were a decent enough truck for that time in the cheaper end of the market. Named the 701 in seven ton form they had a Willenhall manufactured cab and the 5.1 diesel engine with a four speed box and two speed axle, power steering was an option as well which a lot of more expensive trucks didn’t have. They also produced them in 3, 4 and 5 ton form with an optional 4 litre petrol engine as used in the Austin Princess or a 3.4 litre diesel in the lighter models. All had the constant mesh gearbox whereas Bedford etc used synchromesh. I worked on many of them, also my father drove one for Bootys Transport of Oxford and broke down in Trafalgar Square when the two speed axle stuck in neutral. A passing copper got underneath, took the sideplate off of the actuator and wedged it in gear with a piece of wood so that dad could get mobile again, not many Policemen would do that today!

Pete.

hI ,Folks , We ran many BMC ,5/1 AND 5 /7 ,Upright the done what it said on the tin ,90 to 120 thousand miles ,a gold seal engine £350 , cant moan about them ,4 speed box single speed axle, some eaton 2 speeds ,plus 5 speed and 2 speed axles ,good on fuel,brakes on the early ones not so good ,later ones with tandem hydrovack alot better , Throtle cables and shackle pins and bushes were a bit weak ,BUT they were abused by us carring 10 tons pay load at 14 tons gvw ,they were cheap to run ,then came the Black death to BMC The FJ S 5/7 on its side ,in the ffk not a bad motor , fj the down fall of the company ,A little bit of useless info ,Cheers Barry