johann morris

Have you tried simply bearings. The first bearing 30 x 62 but 24 wide is £ 35.00 and the second one but 23mm wide not 25mm is £20, shipping is free and usually, if you order by 5.30, they are here in the next days post. Jon

Morning All, Somewhere in this thread, I said that I didn't want to have too many engine electrics in this project, just hold that thought. I have been plodding along manufacturing the cooling unit, although I had made the bearing housing the other components needed to be manufactured. The fan shaft. Then there were a couple of spacers for the shaft. The original unit appears to have had a fly screen, for want of a more descriptive word, in front of the radiator. Not wanting to restrict the air flow, the one that I have made has a bigger mesh size and in reality is there more to stop the radiator from getting damaged by the movable cover in front of it. The other items that I have been trying to finish are the air ducts in the main cooling unit, so far I have only finished the rear one. I have been dealing with a company called Alders Classics in Norfolk for the engine and transmission, I think they were a bit surprised to find out what I wanted the components for but they have been really helpful and the electrics...….. Anyone good at jigsaws! Jon

Inlet 0.004" Exhaust 0.018" Hope that helps. Jon

Evening All, Thanks for your continued support and I am glad that I am not the only one that is enjoying the process. Thanks Rolling thunder and yes i have seen the site. A lot of the information is contained in the Panzer tracts 2-1 book which has been a most useful source of information but please, if you come across any information or pictures don't feel shy, post them. I am always surprised how much information can be gleaned from seemingly ordinary pictures, especially if the vehicle has been blown up. A few more pictures from todays playtime, all self explanatory but if you have any questions then fire away. Once the warm air is blown out of the rear of the cooling unit, it is blown up this channel and out through a vent in the hull roof. There's still a lot of missing pieces to add to the jigsaw in this area but I have it all planned. Jon

Morning BRDM, As usual I have no real information to go on only this drawing. I will follow it as far as I can but I have and will make some modifications to suit my own constraints. Interestingly, well to me anyway, I assembled the cooling unit into the hull, I then took some scaled dimensions from this drawing and compared them to my version and they were almost spot on. Jon

Evening, I have been working on the radiator / fan assembly and it's become quite interesting, if that's the word. I am making it as one unit, so that it can be removed as one unit, once the coolant has been drained, leaving the oil coolers in place. There's lots of parts, so lots of pictures. The first pictures are of the fan outer bearing housing This is then welded into the fabricated fan housing. The fan isn't attached I just placed it there so that you can see where it will go. The actual fan bearing housing, which gets bolted into the outer housing. It's made using the same sequence of processes as the outer housing but is machined all over. As a complete unit it has a bearing and oil seal in each end. The beginnings of the cooling unit. The oil coolers will sit under the radiator. I can't do much more until the fan pulley turns up, when that appears I can make the fan assembly shaft and the get the position of the fan pulley in line with the engine pulley, then I can finish the main unit. Other than that, there are a myriad of holes to be drilled for the coolant pipes etc. and of course, all the air ducting covers. I think I need a drink now. Jon

Thanks for response, it's nice to know that I am not typing to myself and I am glad that my project it interests you. Jon

I am sure that I read somewhere that he plans to build a dedicated museum for his military vehicle collection. Jon

Evening, I have been working on the engine and radiator bay surrounding walls, if that's what they are called. I have had to make a modification to the area of the fire wall where the gearbox protrudes into the crew compartment, originally the gearbox was a separate unit situated next to the driver. In order to be able to remove the engine and gearbox, I have had to put a removable section in this area of the wall. I don't think that it will be noticeable once the interior details are added. These pictures show a little hinged door, behind which sits the radiator. The door can be folded to change the air flow in to the radiator. Also, in the engine deck above this area, is a hatch for the radio operator that has adjustable baffles incorporated into it so that the amount of cool air can be regulated. Sorry for the amount of pictures but hopefully they explain what I can't. Jon

Evening All, I have at last finished drilling the springs and I now have 10 complete springs and loads of spring steel left over, so if I need to increase the number of leaves I can. The last 4 springs that I assembled, I used 14 leaves instead of the 13 in the other 6 springs. The engine and gearbox are in place and the mountings all welded in. The exhaust manifold outlets had to be cut off, turned 180degrees, the angle adjusted and welded bock into place. Sorry but I forgot to take any before pictures. They need a little bit of tidying but I will do that once I have made the exhausts. I have been putting off adding some of the strengthening for the radius arm mountings, no particular reason, there just always seemed something more important to do but I have at last added these today. Lastly I have made and fixed in place, some covers over the maintenance holes in the base of the chassis. These holes line up with the engine oil drain plug and such like. This week, if all goes well, I would like to get the engine fire wall, exhaust and the fan assembly fabricated. Some hope. Jon

You are always welcome to visit if you are ever over this way. Jon

If I had known that you were at Malvern I would have come and said hello. Jon

Lets see some pictures then Eddie.

Evening All, Talk about high's and lows, this last week has been full of them, it's strange how stressed I can get over my baby. I now have 6 springs cut and drilled and assembled. I was waiting for the other 4 to be delivered, which wasn't due until Monday, today, so I decided to get on with other things and blow me they appeared on Thursday evening. By then I was in the middle of getting 4 suspension arms and wheels on so they will have to wait. The springs have to have 3 drilling operations on each leaf, that's 390 holes, if I only have 13 leaves per spring and the steel is spring steel, so it's tough. Slow speed and loads of coolant. Each spring has a keeper plate with an M8 tapped hole in and a 22mm clearance hole for the main M20 fixing bolt. Then, for each spring set of 13 leaves, each arm requires 4off 80mm x 10mm flat steel packing plates and 3off 3mm x 80mmpacking plates, all drilled with a 22mm clearance hole. As you can tell I have been drilling a lot of holes. Packing plates Keeper plate Land Rover series 2/3 front 13 leaf spring On Friday and Saturday I managed to get 4 swing arms in place and I put 4 wheels on so that we could manoeuvre the chassis under the overhead gantry. I have to say that although there's a lot of weight yet to be added, I was please with how it all sat. The reason for moving it under the gantry, was so that I could fit the steering box and start on the drive train and here's the low point. We tried the steering box, which I knew would be a tight fit but on Saturday I was convinced I was going to have to explore another option. If there was the slightest chance of using the box the front left swinging arm housing was going to need re-engineering. It's funny when you are tired, things seem so insurmountable. By this morning I had the answer and out came the plasma cutter. After all my worrying, I have still got some room to play with, when I have slept on it and decided what to do. All I have to do now, is rebuild the swinging arm inner bearing housing. And what difference did the extra 400kg make to the suspension...….. Very little. The southern comforts now taking effect so Night night, Jon

That's the bloke that I was referring to, I can never remember his name, far easier than Lehar. Jon

Fantastic thanks. I have got some of the pictures but the interior ones from the Tank Museum are perfect. I was told that the Tank Museums Panzer II was an empty shell, so to see these fills me with inspiration. Have you got or seen the German tank interior cd's, they are a real asset to have, full of detail, although you have to be careful as some details are post war adaptions. Thanks again, Jon

I have bought quite a lot from Lehar but I found him a very strange cookie to deal with, where as popsky or what the site is is straight forward no hassle. Jon

Thanks for your advise folks, it is really appreciated. I have ordered the ANR system and a couple of headsets with mikes attached. All I will need is some extensions for the cabling but that can wait. Jon

Which one of these would you recommend https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clansman-MILITARY-Vehicle-IB3-INTERCOM-HARNESS-SYSTEM-Grade-A-NON-ANR/312333635504 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLANSMAN-MILITARY-Vehicle-ANR-INTERCOM-HARNESS-SYSTEM-used-tested-working/152909368028 The one with ANR doesn't have the IB3 box. Jon

The original picture was really just a starting point as the throat mike attracted me. I was going to get the standard headsets but could a throat mike be rigged to work with these, it's just that the Germans used a throat mike. If not then standard headsets it is. Can the cabling be extended so that I could hide the boxes as they would have been down with the radio operator? Jon

We all have our strengths and weaknesses, yours is probably model building mine is.....I don't know but this is just model on a larger scale. You should let us see your models if theirs a home for them on HMVF. As for the finished weight, I wouldn't want to start working it out as I have a lot more immediate details to deal with but as a guess, I would think around 6 tons, the original being around 9 tons. Evening David, I think that you are correct regarding the springs being replaced. I have pictures of other individual axle stations, on other surviving Panzer II's, most of them are not good enough to count the leaves but those that are good enough show some variations compared to the Tank Museums. However, depending on the model the weight did vary, so this may account for the variation. One point that is clear on all the pictures, is that the number of leaves does vary, depending on the position of the axle. The leaf thickness doesn't seem to vary although I wouldn't take that as gospel. As I said I will make them all 13 leaves to start with and go from there. Jon

Mine should be as near to an early ausf C as I can get but I know there are some areas that won't be quite right, I have to accept that. Jon

I take it it's a dragon 1/6, I keep meaning to get one and then buy some steel instead. According to the ausf F in the tank museum: number 1 - 12 leaves number 2 - 16 leaves number 3 - 19 leaves number 4 - 11 leaves number 5 - 15 leaves. I suppose number 3 is the centre of the tank so has the most weight to contend with. Jon

I have been playing with my nuts, so to speak. I made the thread on the end of the idler shaft to fit the nuts from a Land Rover stub axle, using a genuine land Rover nut, thinking that it would save me some time. I then ordered four nuts from a british parts supplier and only one would fit. So I ordered another ten, my thinking was that I would have the four that I needed and some spare for my land Rovers, these things are always worth having about. Only one of the ten would fit, either the original stub axle or my shaft. It's not worth sending them back, so I decided to clean the threads out. Trying to centralise the nuts in the four jaw chuck using a DTI on the thread is a no go, so I put the nut in the four jaw, threaded the shaft in as far as it would go, about 1 1/2 threads and then, with a centre in the other end of the shaft, I clocked the shaft. Lining the threads up with the threading tip was a bit of a fiddly job but the result is fourteen nuts that I can use. The other item that I have been doing is making the springs. Reconstituted Land Rover series springs, cut and drilled, it's been like giving birth but I have assembled one for a trial fitting. I will add some detail to the proceedings when I make the other nine. I didn't take note, when I visited the tank museum, of the number of leaves in each spring, so DRDM driver very kindly made a visit to the museum and took some pictures for me. I have to say a big thank you to him for very kindly helping me out. What those pictures revealed, was that each spring has a different number of leaves. At present I am going to make each spring with thirteen leaves and then when the tank is at it's full weight I can adjust the number as necessary. Jon

Thanks to BRDM Driver's encouragement, now available on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wXN0oTvDTs