oily

the fuel pump is also accessible if you remove the o/s aircleaner, but only at arms length, when laid flat on the o/s wing,... or is it that I just have very long arms?

toughened, armoured glass, if I'm correct?... to withstand this sort of thing, but only in an emergency situation............

...-Thanks Bazz, he sounds like one of those 'jobsworth' types. apparently I'm led to believe it IS illegal to dress as a modern-day member or the Police/Ambulance/Fire and Rescue Brigades, or a member of a current Army Regiment, unless for Film and T.V. work, or for re-enactor work (where relevant permission is usually granted freely). It is quite acceptable to where any uniform from a defunct regiment, for private use, as long as no medals are worn on the left, (unless legitamately earned), nor should any badges of rank be worn, officially, anyways.... So I think I'll be safe, -besides in 2012, the Police will be having a lot more important things to be concerned about!

pah!..... you beat me to it Clive!:readbook:........-although the diagram may not be 100% accurate, as I've found when tackling my flywheel repair..... my Mk 5 Saracen has an alternator, with 3 matched drive belts, like a late Ferret, and not the two-speed generator that most of them had...

I bought a 9x9 just recently, and had to repair a couple of small holes. I have used brand new, old stock 2-man bivvy canvas,.... and if I may say so, I did a grand job, a friend 'in the know', was convinced they'd been professionally repaired. I could repair it for you,.... but you'd have to get it to me, I'm in Hythe, near Southampton.:-\

My father was in the 3rd The Kings Own Hussars, and later the Queens Own Hussars, and he'll be turning up at my wedding, obviously, so it'll be a nice suprise for him, and a little touch of respect for him, by way of saying thanks for getting me into all this military vehicle stuff in the 1st place..... Don't worry, NOBODY will be spoiling my wedding, as only the invited guests know where and when it is.....

...so all of us who 'dress in uniform when portraying living history displays and our vehicles' are breaking the law? and how about re-enactors?.:undecided: I'm on about a regiment that no longer exists!, and hasn't since 1995!:readbook:, also I won't be wearing any rank badges, just a No.1 Dress Uniform, as fancy-dress, at a PRIVATE function..... Pretty sure that I'll be ok, and no jobs-worth copper will be troubling us:nut:

1/2 way through the fluid flywheel job now, just need to disconnect fuel pump, then it's engine out!, I'm gonna put all new belts and hoses in, with stainless jubilee clips:goodidea:. The engine bay and engine will get repainted while it's all apart too, :whentitsdone:, it'll look better than new! I have posted a few pics of progress in most recent of my posts, don't worry, I will put up a detailed report of the whole process, when I'm finished, -hopefully by 26th May 2011, hell! :shocking:that's next Thursday!, gotta go!:saluting:

Hi all, I am on the lookout for British Army, No.1 Dress Tunic/Jacket Cavalry style cut, (or better still a complete uniform, jacket and trousers). I am proposing to get married whilst wearing the uniform of my fathers old regiment(s), 3rd the Kings Own Hussars/The Queens Own Hussars.:-) I have managed to track down a pair of the correct trousers, with the twin yellow stripes on the legs, and I have either bulled-up Ammo boots, or patent George Boots. i have both cap badges. I'm currently watching a No.1 Dress cap, in eBay, which i believe is correct, (all red, except for peak). I'm finding it hard to find out the colour of the collar facings of the jacket, nort a lot of info on the internet, about such details.... any one point me in the right direction? Kind regards, Oily, (or Matt;))

? My local branch of BSL, say they can't get any of them, except maybe the triple alternator belts that mine has.... Banister has them all, new and delivered for ,£52.00

Thanks Richard.....

These are apparently an 'odd' size, in that normal manufacturers make the same cross-section belts, i.e 22x14 mm, (or 'C' Section, as they are known, in the trade), but they don't make them small enough dia. The fan drive ones are 835mm, and the hydraulic ones are 1010mm. Two local bearing/belt suppliers suggested that the 'link-belt' type product can be used, and will out last any normal belt, but this would cost in region of £250-odd.... Surely someone has some the correct size?

Here is my mate Tom's Unimog, hitched up to my Saracen.... I had to turn it round in order to remove the engine.... heavy going with no petrol, and dead batteries!:drive:

and they are so nice to drive when driven correctly, lovely smooth, almost seamless gearchanges......:angel:

... I'm assuming lack of much movement would mean little or no slack to be taken up, due to not much wear and tear, ...yet?:undecided:

Thanks for that, mate. I had an idea it was something to do with thread-length on part of the mechanism, just not certain whether it was the odd square-pyramid shaped bolts, or the tubes with slots on the top, as you say the ferret box is very, very similar, but a bit smaller. So far the dismantling is going fairly well, I've only had two small bolts snap off due to corrosion, and they are in the main floor plate, which is removeable, so easily drilled out and re-tapped. I do have a spare N.O.S. gearbox, that I could fit, if necessary, but that looks like a big job to take out too,.... I lost drive in all gears, but only when in busy, stop-start traffic,.... when the flywheel got a little warm, and started leaking its contents out through the centre seal. I'm wondering if there is a more modern, grippier, but slower wearing, friction material that can be used to re-face these brake bands, as that would improve longevity!... on another point, I suspect the grade of oil in my box may be wrong, as it is very thin, when i got it, I assumed it was correct, as it was clean and the level has never changed, but now it smells like old, hot cutting oil, even when cold. So when it's all back together, I'll treat it to some fresh new SAE 30... that, I'm sure will help a lot too....

Well today was a good day!,..... in order for me to continue with the task ahead, my good mate Tom turned up to the yard, with his Unimog, and between us we managed to turn my Saracen round, so it faces outwards from it's parking space. This will allow me to tackle things from the engine bay end. I'd forgotten how heavy on the steering things are with no assistance:shocked: from the engine driven hydraulics system.(batteries dead, need replacing, also no fuel...:nut:) I feel like Charles flippin' Atlas now..., I'll post up some more pics very soon.

...it doesn't look as if it'll be ready by 26th of May, and our fabulous Military Vehicle Show, -'Overlord 2011', at Denmead, near Portsmouth, Hampshire....it'll be a shame if it's not ready:-(

here's the other pics, close-up, and from a slightly different angle.... i hope someone can make sense of it all. (from what I can make out, they all seem to be at a similar amount of thread/adjustment, except for 5th, but I may be wrong....:undecided:)

:cool2:Today I managed to get a start on the replacement of my leaky flywheel. Whil I was under the floor, ( not literally!, I'm not that bloody skinny! lol!), I decided to take a quick peek inside the top of the gearbox,.... as you can see it looks very nice, clean and shiny,... almost like new! I am aware some of you out there are far more knowledgable on how these boxes work, and can give me an idea on how worn the brake bands may be by looking at the adjusters, with each gear selected. Everthing seems to move as I understand it should, when each gear is selected, making nice smooth mechanical-sounding noises. A couple of time I got a false neutral, but pushing on the GCP when not sat on a seat was likely the cause of this, I suspect, since it almost never happened whilst driving, and the only occaisional fault was loss of all drive, which now seems to have been a leaking flywheel.... hence the need for this time consuming task.... So, from the pics, can anyone deduce the likely condition of my brake bands? Any constructive comments greatfully accepted.... I've attached two views of each adjuster, one with the gear selected, and one with the box in neutral, as I'm not sure when the assessment is best made... 2nd set of pics follows shortly.... (For some odd reason, they wouldn't load in order, but 1st gear is on the right, in each picture, here)

Ok, finally, I have made a start on fixing the leaky Fluid Flywheel on my Saracen.... what a lot of nuts and bolts to undo! I will be making a step, by step photo-blog of how I've gone about this lengthy task, but for now here's how far I got in one afternoon: Drivers' seat. Drivers' footwell plates. Handbrake Lever and ratchet mechanism. Transfer Lever. Bellhousing cover/floor plate. Drivers' seat floor plate. -all this and only two snapped bolts!, both in the floor plate, so they are easy to remove and re-tap.... I was on a roll at this point, and decided to take a peek inside the gearbox, by opening the top cover,..... what a site to behold!... it was like looking inside a factory-fresh, new gearbox!..... fresh clean looking components, no stains or rust, and the oil looked quite clean too, but it was an odd smell, not like engine, or gear oil,.... possibly the wrong type was put in by a previous keeper?... it smelled a bit like hot cutting oil, even though it was stone cold.....? I managed to loosen the top 8 bellhousing nuts/bolts too!:cool2:.... watch this space for updates, hers a few pictures so far....:-\

thanks Jon!..... I'll go and buy a big bucket of Hylomar, now then aswell!:undecided:

oh bugger!..... I guess I'll have to try and source one of the seals locally, from a bearing/seal supplier then... I can't seem to find Bannisters' details.... they don't appear on milweb, or in my google listing....:-|

-does anyone have any of these to hand? or is it just normal gasket paper... how thick should it be?..... which 'seal' are you referring to? the one on the gearbox side of the coupling, around the splined part of the coupling?

.... well I have heard that the 2 halves (bowls with vanes in) can distort due to excessive heat, and have been known to 'friction-weld' themselves together... but I read this in a post on here, so how reliable it was I don't know,..... as there are some VERY knowledgable people on here, but there are also some people that think they know everything!... and evidently they don't... thankfully they seem to be few and far between.... I have come across similar situations where close-running metal components have 'friction-welded' themselves together, once I had the misfortune to be riding my old Kawasaki GPz, when the o/s rear wheel bearing catasrophically failed and completely collapsed, causing the outer edge of the (rotating) brake drum to 'weld' itself to the (stationary) cast alloy brake back-plate.....it happened on a straight bit of road, and only showed up when I'd stopped, and then trid to pull away again.... it was like the rear brake had jammed on, and on closer inspection the drum and back-plate had fused into one smoking piece of alloy, with the red paint all burnt off!!... lucky it didn't happen on a bend!:shocked: