Screamin’ Jimmies

The reference to t wo-stroke diesels in issue 397 took me back to an incident that occurred a number of years ago. A bus I was on f itted with a Screaming Jimmy (GM t wo-stroke) got stuck in some bush. As the driver attempted to get t he t hing unstuck, t he engine sta lled and when he went to restart it, huge clouds of white smoke came out of the back. No one present at the time knew what was happening but I later found out t he engine had started running back wards. It was later hauled out of the bush by a f ire t r uck. It sta r ted quite happily and drove of f.

Meantime, I’ve attached a photo of my HQ ute I ca ll Elmo (the` B’ and `NT’ were broken off the badge at some stage). I’ve had it for over 20 years but it has only been garaged in t he past f ive or so. As a result it wears a bit of r ust. I don’t ta ke it out if it’s raining now as t he water runs down the windscreen, over t he electrica ls, my feet and t hrough t he holes I’ve dril led in t he f loor. She’s a work horse, but I treat her wit h t he respect she deser ves. It has t he orig inal 173 motor, t hree on t he tree, but I have changed t he dif f. The bonnet mascot’s off a FC-FE. There was one on it when I bought her, but the old guy kept it as it was of f t he f irst car he ever owned. It looked so good (and t here were holes in t he bonnet) I sourced another one from a wrecker. Probably worth more than the whole car now!

The wood she’s carr y ing is for an aeroplane I’m building. It uses an A Model Ford motor which I’ve recent ly had reconditioned.

Replaced the babbit bearings wit h inserts, new pistons, rods etc, etc. David Boarder, Email