cmpman

David

I have a reasonable bit of experience with the ferrets, which seems to be applicable to the Dingo. The lineage is quite clear. However, you bring up a good point that I'll have to pass on to any volunteers who want to move the vehicle.

I think the Dingo will remain in two wheel drive for the meantime.

Thanks guys. The oil appeared to be engine type oil but with a reddish tinge, so I thought someone may have topped up with dexron at some point. The transmission oil as that tinge to it, and I have not checked the fluid coupling yet.

So what is preferable for the fluid coupling: the 30 weight or the ISO10 hydraulic oil?

Our vehicle has both the front propeller shafts removed. No doubt they will be hiding in a triwall somewhere. Are they important to help divide the load from the rear gear boxes and shafts, or do they cause more wear by providing the full time four wheel drive on the typically hard surfaces the vehicle will be operated on these days?

I work at a local military museum. One of the pieces is a Dingo that a previous volunteer tore apart, and sadly he is now deceased, so the challenge of putting things right again fall on those of us remaining.

He had removed pretty much all of the panels under the engine looking for a leak. However, we found the leak to be coming from the bell housing. Of course, now that we have it running, the leak has stopped. The transmission is showing full, or perhaps even a little overfilled. But just in case the leak was from the fluid coupling, I am going to check it's level and top up if necessary.

What is the modern day correct oil that goes in the fluid coupling and the transmission?

Are the transmission input seal or the fluid coupling seal something special, or just plain seals available at the local jobber?

We also had some issues with the starter, in particular wear on the contacts of the solenoid. Are there any sources of parts for these?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide.

And very nice it looks too Rob, I'm sure those bits will turn up at some point . Did you have any joy with the damaged bits I sent you ?

 

Rob..................rnixartillery.

Thanks for the compliment Rob, it sure looks a lot better than the pile of scrap metal that I started with.

Those parts are on the backburner for now. I have moved on to a couple of other projects, such as this one to tow the C1 to displays. Here I have just installed a cleaned up winch and bumper to the front of the M135. Paint for the rest of the truck will follow this summer.

Anyone own a US Army 105MM M2A1 Howitzer from ww2.

Keith

I don't have an M2A1, but I have a Canadian C1 (M2A2) which I assembled out of scrapyard parts last year. Still looking for a breech ring, and elevation gear train components if anyone comes across any.

I guess I should add that it is about 3 feet long, since the photo doesn't give a good representation of the size.

While sorting through crates of parts stowed away at the local museum, I came across a gun shield that I can't ID. For some reason, it looks familiar, but I can't place it. It has a layer of "axis grey" over the original OD if that is of any help. The shield is fairly thin and stamped, so I am guessing a shield for an anti tank or possibly a machine gun.

Does anyone recognize the application?

Thanks for the info......guess I'll have to pass on the block but at least I can let the seller know what he has.

What I am really after is the block and breech ring for the C1 (M2A2) 105 howitzer. One of these days someone will have what I need.

Here are some shots of another block I am being offered. The owner thinks it may be from a 105mm gun from a centurion L7 gun.

The date of 1978 was right at the tail end of our centurion fleet's lifespan. They were replaced by the Leopard late that year.

So does anyone know for certain what the block is from? The British were (and still are) located in the Canadian prairies, so it may have come from there.

If anyone needs some more detail just ask and I'll see what I can do.

Rob asked for some photos of this gun over on MLU, and I took a dozen or so. I know when I was trying to research this gun a while back there was very little on the net about it, so I am going to post the photos here as well so there is a bit more exposure for anyone else trying to research them. The photos are of an example located here in the Shilo museum. Are there any more examples out there, or have these guns all disappeared?

The M4A1 quadrant is one of the items I am still in need of for my project. Nice score! I already have to M23 for the top of the quadrant....just don't have anything to mount it on.

Thanks for the info Rob. I just got confirmation over on MLU that they are indeed Leopard. The staves thread may be a NATO or industry standard.

I was out to my favorite scrapyard a couple weekends ago and amongst the treasures I came across these unidentified bore brushes. They seem to be 105mm, but they are longer than any that I have seen before. They do match up to the C1 (M2A2) howitzer cleaning rods, but there are no ordnance or NSNs on any part of these brushes. It is possible that they are 106 recoiless or else possibly German Leopard, since both those equipments were operated in this area for quite some time. The single one on the right is the regular 105 howitzer brush. Has anyone seen these longer ones before?

Here are some of the other goodies I came across. I already had the more modern double style towing lights, so I was happy to find the earlier style single M-series lights. As well, I found an extra firing arc (I just needed the bottom stop) and also found a Canadian style telescope stowage case for the front armour.

Here you can see the difference between the regular stowage box and the one found on the Cdn 105s and 155s. I suspect it was a later drawing change to accommodate the controls on the later M12A7 panoramic telescope.

I would have to check a separate set of fiche for the ERNs, to see if it fit something else. I am not even sure if I still have that set. I got the Grizzly application right off the description.

But my hunch says this is only for the grizzly. About the only other thing I can tell you about this NSN is that it was assigned on 6 June 1978.

I had to go onto my old microfiche to ID it. Some day the light bulb in that old machine is going to burn out and I won't be able to look this stuff up anymore.

The NSN is 2590-21-879-2204. The microfiche says it is for the grizzly turret. We have a grizzly here in the Shilo museum, but sadly the turret mechanism is missing. If you get tired of tripping on it, send it on out.

The NCAGE of 10237 is for Caddilac Gage Textron, however the part number 32974 does not show in the US logistics query tool.

I think the tape bit you are referring to looks like it lines up with the clamp bracket on the gun trail I think the clamp might have been a little loose on the metal shaft of the hand spike and so they wrapped some tape round it to grip it better.

 

If you find some cleaning rod ends for yourself could you have a look and see if you could get me a set only need the ends can get the dowel here :red: cheers.

I had a look at it again and it looks like you are partly right re the tape. It is actually situated between the trail bracket and socket, and would prevent the spike from working loose and falling off and getting lost. Those clever herbies.

I see there has been a run of the M21A1 mounts on ebay this last week or so. I picked one up myself. They appear to be brand new other than they are missing the cross levelling mechanisms on them. The first one sold for a nice low price of under $300. I was off to Cuba on holidays and missed that one, but I talked to the seller and he put another on with a buy it now price which I jumped at. The seller still has at least one more, possibly a couple, but has listed it at a much higher price now. If anyone finds they have a spare cross levelling assembly please give me a shout.

As well, I see someone has listed some of the artillery level vials, although there are no part numbers to confirm what the first one might fit. Maybe you could use some of these to restore your damaged ones.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Replacement-Level-Glass-Vials-1-5-x-410-US-Military-Howitzer-Type-L1-/200704776326?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebaefd886

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOWITZER-VIAL-LEVEL-TYPE-L-US-MILITARY-FREE-SHIPPING-/250788179028?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6423ec54

The hand spike is all steel, and has the ordnance number on the end cap. In the photo you can see a wad of black tape 3/4 of the way up the handle.....it is an add on so the gunners don't let the spike slip through their hands would be my guess.

I'll PM you those dimensions, but it will have to wait a week. I am just getting ready to head off to Cuba and escape these frigid -24 temperatures that have shown up in the last few days.

Note that the ends of the cleaning rod are cast bronze. I am hoping to find one more female end so I can make up the longer cleaning rod that i am missing.

Here is a link to a place in the US that has the newest version of the M101 cleaning rods for sale reasonably priced:http://stores.homestead.com/hstrial-Serspeniuk/Detail.bok?no=63 . According to the last US checklist for the M101A1, the howitzer would be issued 3 of these. They will not fit into the clamps on the trail mind you. I was talking with an artillery WO the other day, and he mentioned that they would not use the storage brackets on the trails anyway, because it just resulted in lost kit.

Rob,

 

I swear all the chairs in your house have horse shoes embedded in them!

 

R

That would explain my coccydynia (sore tailbone) that I have been nursing since I got back from Kandahar.

Wanted pics of the 105mm howitzer hand spike, what the end is like, and what the shaft is made of.

If you still need measurements on the handspike, I lucked into one (along with a few other 105 goodies) the other day. I can take whatever measurements you need.

In the CF, modifications and installation instructions were a hodge-podge of need to have,nice to have, and not in a million years. There were actually modification sections within the units/base maintenances trying to keep up with them. About a decade or so back, Ottawa finally came to the realization that so many of the modifications were never performed so they turned many of them into unreportable "information only" bulletins and only tracked the A priority ones. Many of the installation CFTOs required approval from command or NDHQ to perform, so as a result they never did get done. An example of this is the heater installation for the old 3/4 ton trucks. A decade after they were gone, and the drivers had gone all those years in the cold, it was discovered there were hundreds of the heater kits in supply. So a modification/installation instruction was sent out on how to modify them into the old duece and a half. Of course, this was about 2 years before we got rid of those trucks too.

One would be hard pressed to find any two vehicles from that era with the same modifications.

You were asking about the heater used by the CF in the ferrets. The CFTO was to install the standard heater similar to that found in the M38A1Cdn2 or 3, or the old duece/newer MLVW. I have the CFTO around here somewhere. The heater ended up being mounted to the right rear of the driver if I recall. Only problem with installing a heater in a ferret is that the engine draws it's air from the crew compartment so as fast as the heat would be pumped into the ferret, even faster the radiator would draw the heat out. I guess it might have kept the crew commander's feet warm. More often you would see the ground sheets set up to send the radiator air back to the crew compartment.

I have driven the Canadian ferret out here in Shilo in mid December, and there is no substitue for a winter AFV suit.

Your generator modification is also detailed in a CFTO. I preferred the US made alternator myself, and did this mod to both my ferret and to my FV432. It sure was an improvement over the British setup, and freed up the areas where the regulators were.

The same myth applies to the Boys Anti tank rifle. While it gives a better punch than the average rifle, it is by no means crippling. I find the adrenaline compensates for any extra hardship the rifle hands out.

I believe it might have been me that sold you that PTRS. I never shot it myself but it must be a showstopper at the range.