andyroo

my Saracen and Saladin would like some new ones as well

Why use a VOSA test center? There are others that MOT heavy vhiecals. I take my Ferret to Derby Trent bus servicing center, have spoken to them regarding MOT on the Saracen and Saladin IF the need arrises. They are aware that it will create some problems for them. It dose help though that the chap that MOTs the Ferret has an interest in historic cars of all types.

PM sent Andy

I've just been to the scap yard and got:- EN24T turnings, uncontaminated £345 / ton Ally turnings and some solids, contaminted £512 / ton Castiron/steel mix £185 ton Bronze turnings uncontaminted £1680 / ton

Banisters should be able to help. See thread http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?18951-Banisters http://www.milweb.net/go/banister/

Hi montie, At least your tracta joint dosen't look like mine did on the Saladin. Photo not very good, but it gives you an idea of the damage. The BANG judder judder grrrrrr was quite scary....

£87 to fill the Ferret, that not including reserve Not looking forward to filling up the Saracen, Saladin or Striker. Come to think of it I've neaver filled the Striker up full. £100 dosn't fill the bottom tank!!

Monty, All the important working parts are the same. I advice stripping down anyway and replacing all seals with new. Reason being I have replaced several Ferret wheel stations and 1 Saladin wheel station with NOS only to have to strip them down a few months later and replace the seals anyway. Mildly embarrassing discovering a large pool of oil around the front wheel of the Saladin on the parade gound....

Very nice but that wheel station is for a Saladin. Note the two hydrolic cylinders. These work a disc brake, Saracen had drums. You realy dont want a Saladin disc brake on anything, including Saladin!!!

Where abouts in Derbyshire? I'm only 3 miles from Derby. Unfortuatly I dont have any spare saladin anything at moment but could photo copy parts for you if you get stuck.

My personal veiw is check it out. Its an hour to dismantle and arround 3 to but back together. I was lucky in that I'd only pulled of the drive when somthing didn't feel right. That planet gear holds your wheel on!!!!! You realy dont want it to come off at any speed. It would also be worth checking the other 3 wheel stations as well. Two others of mine were going the same way, checking them saved me a few hundred pounds all for the sake of 3 pounds worth of tab washers.

Thats my Ferret video and your almost right Richard. There were no tab washers holding the dowels in. I have the old stile plannet carrier. The dowels had come out of the holes and got eaten by the plannet gears. The new stile planet carrier is able to retain the dowel in the hole without a tab washer. Though a tab washer is recomended to stop the bolts undoing.

Its exceedingly diffecult to change the belts without removing the front armour, rad and fans. The space to work in is tight and when you have your arms in the way your unable to see. It can be done though but its quicker to remove said parts and change them from the front. Read the manual carfully regarding the belt tensions!! Too thight and the 5 little bolts that hold the generator pully on stretch and snap. I would not recomend linked belts having tried them. I use some to try and get us home once but still ended up on a low loader. They just dont have the friction to drive the the fans. Thouse two fans need a lot of energy to keep the air flow up. Buy NEW belts, not NOS ones. BSL Ltd stock the right size. Reason for not useing NOS is the rubber is past its best with age and new matched belts are no more expensive but will last a lot longer. I strongly recomend doing the hydrolic pump belt at the same time. Have fun

I have the following vehicles, with notes regarding my own personal experiences with the MOT system:- Ferret Mk 1/2 - Weight bridge cert shows 3617 Kgs. Width is 6 foot 3” (1.905 metres) Well under width. Year - 1965 This I have MOT’d every year as my interpretation of the regulations makes it not exempt. MOT class 4 The MOT is not a problem. There is not much that can be tested. The list is short. Wheel nuts, tyers, visual emissions, lights, horn, any visible pipes outside of the vehicle, steering free play, wheel bearing wobble, head light alignment, brake test and casual look around to check nothing is falling off or a danger to other road users. I have encounterd two problems when having the MOT done. First was a new, know-it-all examiner who insisted it went on the rolling road. After a few minutes of trying to explain why it shouldn’t I relented and drove onto said road. The following happened:- Him – but your handbrake on. Me – I put on handbrake. Him – starts rollers, they don’t move. He accuses me of having my foot on the brake. Me - I assure him I don’t and explain that the hand brake works on all 4 wheels. Him - tells me to release the handbrake and starts the rollers. Ferret moves forwards and off the rolls. He refuses to do a tapperly test as he dose not want to get in the Ferret and issues me with an MOT. Next year I find out he was sacked. He’d been giving MOT certs to a lot of vehicles that should have failed. Second problem was electrical. Wire came out in the rats nest that lives by the steering wheel. Took 2 hours to find it and put it back. Test resumed and passed. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Saracen Mk 6 - Weigh bridge certs shows 9764 Kgs. Width is 8 foot 3” (2.514 meters) Just under width. Year - 1972 I used to have this MOTd. It was done a class 4. As Ferret there is not much to test. HOWEVER, the following could not be tested:- steering free play, wheel bearing wobble, handbrake test. To test steering freeplay you need to be able to lift the front 4 wheels off the floor. (Its 4 wheel steering) The hydraulic jacks that are used in the pit do not have sufficient travel to lift the vehicle. Ground clearance is 16” plus suspension movement of around 10”. The hydraulic jacks cannot be moved sufficiently width wise to lift on the bottom suspension arms. To test wheel bearing wobble, agine the vehicle has to be lifted to just be touching the wobble plate. The handbrake test consisted of driving up a slope, applying the handbrake and the vehicle not moving. The test centre that I used at the time could not conduct this test because the slope had failed a H & S test. The HGV test centre I used near Derby eventually refused to perform a test because the equipment they have is not suitable for the type of vehicle being tested (see below for reason) ------------------------------------------------------------ Saladin Mk 2 – weight unknown but somewhere between 9500 and 12000 Kgs. Width is 8 foot 4” (2.538 meters) Just under width Year - 1958 MOT was as Saracen above. However the last time it was MOT’d they broke one of the hydraulic jacks in the pit. Refuse now to conduct a test. ------------------------------------------------------------ CVR(T) Striker. Tracked and therefore MOT exempt. Hope the above information that is helpfull.

I had my Saracen up and running in 1995. When I was getting it registered for the road I also made a few enquires regarding driving licence. DVLA at the time would not comment or advise, although they were happy to register it and at the time take the tax. I drive mine on a car licence. Its not a HGV. Its no harder to drive than driving a van towing a caravan. I’ve driven several thousand miles on my own, you just have to think ahead earlier when approaching obstacles/junctions. If you have someone with you as an acting commander, you the driver are still responsible for your actions no matter what your commander instructed you to do. Despite how it looks from the outside, I find the view though the front hatch very good, but then I am not driving with scopes or the using the small hatch. Some extra large rear view mirrors are a real big help. The only time I like someone to watch over me as I drive is on the showground’s. As your fairly high up but with a bonnet of 6 feet or so is not so easy to see the MG or whatever that has just pulled in front of you!!!! The radio aerial dose give you a clue though!!! (providing they have one). Its much easier to drive than a Saladin…

01 EC 29 would interset me.

I take my Ferret to the local bus depot which do the MOT as class 4 small. Most garage ramps only take a waight up to 3.5 tonns so you will need a garage with a pit. The only problem is the brake test for mine. I don't have a servo fitted, so several attemps are needed to get the 30 % on the footbrake and 25% with the handbrake.

Or this?? Its whats on my Saladin barrell.

A few years ago I droped my oxy gauge and damaged it. So off to get it repaired/replaced. The bloke on the counter at Energas gave me a 5 minute lecture as why you should neaver use PTFE tape. Its oil based, somthing that I never even considerd.

That sounds bad. The quill shaft should come out by arround 2" BUT..... The shaft is in two parts and is joined in the middle with a joiner and two rather small roll pins. If one of these has broken then the part of the shaft that connects to the gear box will stay with the gearbox. As already stated, you will need to depress a small plunger and pull the quill shaft with that plunger depressed. Looking at the photo, ignoring the fact that the shaft is fubard you can see the split partway along the splins. Look closer and you'll see two dark circles between the splins. These are the roll pins only arround 3/16 diamiter. Have fun, I know did......

In a very simple word..... No. Dorset this year has been rather expensive to say the least. We lost hydraulic pressure to the steering. You may have noticed a wet line along the road for half a mile or so before the pull-in. Not sure what’s up yet but it must be quite major to lose around two gallons in such a short distance. Fortunately the brakes were still working OK but they would have failed sometime soon as they use the same oil and pump. The only company that could come out were Wessex Recovery. Now £1180.00 down Not happy. Arrived home just after 5 this morning, woke the neighbours up off-loading with the clanking of chains, so now they are not happy.....

My mate Carl is going with his two kids and "my" Saladin !!!!!!! I'm going but will be working..... Something not quite right me thinks?

A bit of 1/2" hex bar in a 1/2" hex socket on the end of an extention. Thats what I used on mine.

Hi, I have just measured my Saracen sump plug. The spanner is a tapperd square from 0.700" A/F to 0.760 A/F. The square hole in the plug is 3/4". So the easyest thing to do is a bit os 3/4 square steel bar and use a 3/4 openended spanner on one end and the other end in the sump plug.

Just buy it, then let her discover that you've got it. Thats what I'd do anyway. Mmmmmm, maybe thats why I'm single...........