Ordu in Shepperton
I arranged with Molly for her to deliver Ordu to Shepperton in January 2006. Once she was there I’d look for a gearbox and then get Linden Lewis to fit it. Since Ordu didn’t have a functioning gearbox it was necessary to get her towed to Shepperton from Thames Ditton, and Molly arranged for one of her ‘boating’ friends to make the delivery. Ordu arrived a day later than arranged, sparking a considerable degree of panic from me, but at last she was there. Of course, I went to Shepperton as fast as the train could carry me and I tracked her down, only to find that Molly’s friend had not only delivered her but had decided to use her as a floating rubbish dump. It looked like he had literally emptied his dustbin onto her rear deck. I had to remove 6 full bin liners of assorted household junk (including several unwrapped, used, nappies – thank you so much Molly’s friend). Once I had – literally – cleared the crap away I had time to gaze on her proudly, which is when I noticed that ‘friend’ had managed to bend the pullpit out of shape during her passage from Thames Ditton.
Whatever, she was ours now. The next thing to do was find a gearbox and get LL to fit it. Simple, right? I’m guessing that you have some idea by now of where I might be going with this? Molly had told me that the engine was a Ford 4D, pre 1955, and that the gearbox was a Paragon with a 2:1 ratio. The gearbox information was correct and the engine is a Ford 4D, but not pre 1955 (more details about the engine will appear in future posts). I’m a mechanical engineer by training, but I haven’t had a car for many years and being trained as a mechanical engineer is very different from being a mechanic. I had some idea of what I was looking for, but with the boat 25 miles away it was pretty difficult to easily check up on details. Besides which, at this point I wasn’t sure which details I was supposed to be checking.
My new Parsons gearbox
The first place to look was boats and outboards and it didn’t let me down. Someone near Southampton was selling a Parson’s gearbox with a bell housing that fitted a Ford engine. This gearbox had a 2:1 ratio and was available immediately for collection for £600. I was pretty much shooting in the dark, but the point of getting Ordu in the first place was to learn so I went for it. Selena and I travelled down to pick up the gearbox on Saturday morning and drove back to meet friends at Shepperton who helped me unload it in the afternoon (it weighed a ridiculous amount).
With the help of my friends we transferred the gearbox to a trolley and left it there for the engineers at Linden Lewis to fit. I met with their new customer service manager who, for the sake of this story, I’ll call Nigel. Nigel had just joined LL and was very helpful and courteous (which is nice, as I spent a lot of time communicating with Nigel over the next six months). Now, as I’ve already said, I’m not a mechanic. If I were, I wouldn’t have made Mistake #4 and bought the wrong gearbox.
