turnkeyiand

REME weren't formed until 1942 in North Africa. Prior to that it would possibly have been RASC(?) Ian

The spanner that Ferretfixer mentions was known to me as a cletrack spanner (haven't an igloo if this is anything to do with the tracked vehicle of the same name) and we also used to use it for the locknut on top of the Chieftain handbrake bands. Don't know if it was the manual setting (A-mechs knowledge of the "small stuff" was learned by osmosis) but we used to set the steering tillers to 6 inches from front armour measured at the padding cut-out which pretty much equates to what has been said, Ian

Top piece of kit. Complete with reloadable magazine that fired little grey bullets. Spent hours sniping 1/32 airfix soldiers across the living room with it. Mine also got the assault rifle conversion of shortened barrel via a particularly stubborn door frame as I engaged in CQB and house clearance missions. Ian

Without wanting to teach anyone to suck eggs, I'd check your coolant for traces of oil, as the steering oil goes through a heat exchanger and that may be where the contamination is coming from. I have known drivers use OEP220 (final drive oil) by mistake which doesn't do much for the steering or the exchanger. It doesn't always show immediately and in fact I had to run my Barra for several months with a blown exchanger due to lack of down time to change it. Ian

Can I ask what the actual problem is and when it occurs? Would go along with what Mike advises except not sure about running beyond 15 minutes. Both in "Pack Section" and in the field we used to run them up 'till the hydraulic fans cut in and I'm sure that would be well beyond 15 minutes. One final anomally to be aware of, it's possible to connect the 2x main cables to the starter motor the wrong way round. If you do this, as soon as the master switch is turned on the starter will engage. Ian

Point taken on the IR shadow, and to be honest, it is not my area of expertise. As for the painting regs, I think the picture attached to the original post clearly indicates the unit level adherance (or not) to said regs, Ian D

Apparently I stand corrected. I was always under the impression that IRR paint absorbed the IR to prevent it being reflected back to the sight. In the units in which I served, never did we paint wheels or bogies black nor did I ever come across vehicles painted as such for the reasons I mentioned. If there was a mod document relevant at the time it was never adhered to, to my knowledge. On the last point I was thinking more in terms of heat sensing rather than IR sighting in which case, as far as my limited knowledge goes, IRR paint would be quite useless as the tyres/tracks/engine etc would stand out sufficiently to make the super structure irrelevant The link to the dstan document was quite interesting but my experiences were from twenty years previously and I would guess that the various specs quoted go out of the window as soon as the paint was thinned for spraying by the average squaddie at unit level. My comments were made from my observations/experiences as a front end user to add to information supplied to the original question, Ian D

Apart from the other things mentioned with regards cam, the hessian covering the lower parts of the vehicle (running gear) gets rid of the shadow that would otherwise form under the vehicle, therefore giving its position away. It should be noted that, in line with this, vehicles (tracked or wheeled) don't have black paint applied to road wheels as again this shows up as an unnaturally dark shadow. All vehicle paint should be infra red repellant (IRR) or more correctly absorbant but this pretty well became accademic with the introduction of thermal imaging. Ian D

Is the ram not returning at all? Due to the lack of weight of the outer arm, they always were very slow to retract unless loaded with a power pack. I seem to remember that we used to get our "third man" to hang on the hook to speed up the process when first deploying the crane on arrival at a veh cas rep. In terms of head gear, my experience was similar to that already described by AlienFTM. Beret and clansman headset in the CVRT Samson and 434 (only the Wedge's wore bonedomes) and later a headset that press-studded into a helmet (similar to the Rapier missile operators). Berets were the prefered type. The kevlar helmets were also designed to fit over clansman headsets and it was not unknown for veh commanders to use this set-up. Ian

With the engine OFF, engage the PTO with lever "A". Its a dog type gear so you may need to flick the engine over on the starter to get it in fully. You'll feel when it's in and hear an appropriate noise if its not! When dis-engaging, again stop the engine first. If you intend lifting anything with the crane, you'll need the "lock-outs" in. With the engine running and the PTO engaged, uncage the red lever on the end of the valve block. Moving it one way charges the lock-outs, the other dis-charges them (try it to see which way it goes - too long for me to remember). You should get a pressure reading on the guage on the valve block, move it smartly back to the centre and re-cage. If you go too far, it will dump the pressure, in which case just try again. Dump before stopping the engine with the PTO still engaged. If it fails to dump (it sometimes does), leave the lever in the dis-charge position, the normal action of the suspension whilst driving will dis-charge the units (dis-engage the PTO before driving off, though) Ian

Hi Phil, One very important point, you noticed that the fuel cut-off was disconnected. The pedal that this attaches to is called the "dead man's" pedal for good reason. As you will already be aware, the steering and main brakes are one and the same. If the steering box goes u/s this is the only means of stopping! Approx 1984 a 432 used for driver training buried itself in a house in Whitehill on test drive, alledgely after split pins had not been fitted to the stering box connecting pins. A friend also buried his 434 in a german farm house after a steering box failure. In the latter case it was considered that if the deadman's pedal hadn't operated, then the crew would probably be dead. re: the lever marked "B" in the photo. It is indeed the disconnect for the g/box (operating thru the transfer box). As for its use, I would agree with the cold start example, though I personally never used it for that, even in the depths of winter on the north german plains. I have used it to check out a none start problem which turned out to be a trashed g/box not allowing the engine to turn over. When tow starting a 43x series, it is necessary it leave the g/box connected otherwise the tracks won't drive the engine. I suppose it could be disconnected when being towed as a dead vehicle, but the steering box and g/box would still be being driven and therefore would not be any particular advantage. The normal routine for towing is to dis-connect the muff couplings and remove the "dumb bells" to prevent damage to the steering and gear boxes. Without wanting to state the obvious, when you come to lift the Pack, the PTO needs removing from the t/box as there is no room to manipulate it in the engine bay and it has been kown for this to be forgotten about resulting in endless "yellow handbags" being purchased to maitain the silence! Ian

The oil in the air filter should be bog standard engine oil as already mentioned. It's there to collect the dirt in air the same way a paper element type does. Removal of the air filter will cause it to run lean not rich. As previous suggestions, check choke is opening fully (disconect the cable and operate by hand to make sure) and check the float level. If my memory serves me correctly, the carb on this vehicle is an up-draught type and if the float bowl floods it can pool in the throat of the carb. The other option is that someone has either "fiddled" with the jetting or tried cleaning them with a "needle" rather than an air line. This obviously wouldn't cause the sudden stoppage and future start problems but then the prblems aren't necessarily connected, hope this helps Ian

Here's my tupen'th. As mentioned previously, powerpack and steering box is identical to 432. The PTO for the crane is attached via a blanking plate on the transferbox on the back of the pack. Approx mid way along the t/box is a telltale hole which will indicate the condition of the t/box seals. The left hand rear pack mounting bolt will probably be diffy and should be left as such ( total b@st@rd to remove). Occaisionally the lockout rams seize under pressure. This can be rectified by driving with the acctuating lever deflected rather than caged in it's "at rest" position. I didn't have a deal to do with them (other than as a packrat in BATUS) but the MK1 allegedly had a habit of bursting into flames. Braking on the tillers is fine once you get used to it even if they are badly adjusted or worn. I was post '82 and the number on the side means nothing to me. The other point is that on the right side of teh vehicle it would have been covered by the gun planks. Ian

When I was crewing on a 434, we made up a walking lead for the commanders headset which was long enough for him to stand at the tow hitch on the back. It made hooking-up the 'bones a doddle with no risk of sloppy hand signals getting mixed up. We even used it when loading onto flat beds.

dragging the depths of my memory but this sounds like a problem we used to get called to on one of our troopies Spartans. In the fuel system is a valve mounted under the roof to stop fuel spillage if the vehicle turns turtle. The problem was traced back to thhis valve which was mounted in the rear left hand quarter of the vehicle above the stowage area. Removal of this valve resulted in immediate and total cure. I know it may sound a bit far fetched but we figured that either the valve was sticking or was aggravating heat induced fuel cavatation, Ian