Lagondaforum

Subject: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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The Meadows number near the oil filler is very clear but I can't find the Lagonda number on the bellhousing? area. Any ideas? The Meadows number is M45/17

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Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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That looks like a Lagonda number to me.

Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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Barry
The number mentioned in your posting, next to the oil filler on offside of the timing case is the Lagonda number, ie the M45/xxx.

The Meadows number is on the offside of the flywheel housing (next to engine mount on mine) and mine is a 4 digit.

Do you want me to post a photograph of mine?

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Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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Barry

just one more thing - in Arnold Davey's book at page 42 you will see a detailed explanation of the engine numbering "system". This explains why there is a car number, an ID plate engine number, an M45/xxx number and a separate Meadows number. As only 345 of these cars were manufactured, this is a pleasingly complex numbering mess!

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Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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I think the reason for this is that if an M45 developed a fault during the guarantee period, they would take it back to the Works, whip out the engine and put another one in straight away so the customer got his car back pretty quickly.

The cost of repairing the faulty engine could then be argued over by Lagonda and Meadows at their leisure.

To make sure they were talking about the same engine they would doubtless use the Meadows number to decouple it from a particular car.

Colin

Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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Thank you gentlemen, very interesting, I have 2 Brough motorbikes, one of which the frame was swapped at the factory and another had a refurbished used engine installed at the factory . Both were sold as new! Must have been the economic times rather than skullduggery although from what I gather George Brough was a bit if a rogue . I still can not find a Meadows number near the flywheel area so would appreciate a photo as I may be looking at the wrong area. It appears the aluminum has remnants of some sort of silver paint. As the number M45/17 does not match the engine number on the bulkhead plate can I assume my engine was changed ? The gearbox numbers are very easy to see. Are there any surviving factory records of all this or did the blitz take care of that ? The Brough club is fortunate in having most of the works record cards and just about every component on each bike was stamped.

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Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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Morning Barry,

Not all M45s or LG45s had a "Meadows" number but if they did it was on the right rear engine mounting lug on the side of the flywheel bell housing, many engines we see do not have this number, and some have had numbers polished off when someone at some time has had the engine polished during a restoration etc. don't worry, there is and was nothing ever "standard" on a Lagonda as you tend to find out by working on enough of them ;o) even supposedly original unmolested cars come up with the most weird and wonderful fittings and fixtures and many accompanied by period photos proving that they were factory fitted.
In short, just like most pre-war manufacturers, Lagonda would supply anything the customer wanted if he was happy to pay! and remembering that as they were almost always strapped for cash, they often supplied many strange little "tweaks" that the customer did not order also )

When you look at the factory record sheets that some people are lucky enough to have you will be amazed at the amount of engines and gearboxes etc that were changed by the factory in the first few years, just as Collin has said. Sometimes several engines and boxes on the same car in one year!

Funny things Lagondas!

Julian

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Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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Thanks for the info Julian. All of what you have said makes the car even more appealing to me as this "matching number " thing seems to be an obsession with some. Vintage motorbike legend Titch Allen once commented that a mismatched number bike often had a more interesting history! That said I'll look for the number anyway out of curiosity! Cheers, Barry
PS I am looking forward to visiting LMB

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Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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Ha! Julian says here..
"In short, just like most pre-war manufacturers, Lagonda would supply anything the customer wanted if he was happy to pay! "
and on the other discussion about modifications to engines he says almost the same about LMB,
"we as a company are led by our customers / fellow enthusiasts, we do not create things that nobody wants, we do as we are asked! and when asked by enough people we undertake projects like this one".
so the blood line of Lagonda obviously runs through Julian!

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Subject: Re: Can't Find The Engine Number On An M45

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Sort of Alistair you have to keep my comments in context though
We make sure that we don't do anything that could or would not have been done in period.
We will do whatever asked "providing" I considered it "in the spirit of the car in question" and not spoiling a car that was very complete etc. We are careful here and try not to be hypocritical to our "restoration" philosophy. I think Lagonda and most other pre-war manufacturers did the same when they originally made the cars.

I would love to think that the blood line of Lagonda ran through me and we certainly have the passion for the marque but I think it may be a too heavy accolade to hold just yet!

Best regards,
Julian

Barry, you are very welcome and I look forward to a chat over a nice coffee. I like old bikes too so we'll have some more to talk about! ;o)

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