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CVRT break downs


Norbo

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Thought this could be a good topic . 
What have you broken down from in the past ? How did you fix it ? and did you get stranded ,how did you get it back or did you fix it and carry on . 

Edited by Norbo
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Only had 5 breakdowns in 30+ years of cvrt road use;

toothed fan belt broke; slipped spare one which is always kept lockwired in place, on at side of road-1/2 hour and a spanner.

road wheel shed its rubber-middle one so not crucial-other one on axle good, so carried on.

brake pad friction material fell off metal back  plate-fitted new one at side of road

Diesel filter unscrewed itself-screw it back on

lift pump stopped-gave it a clout!

 

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I've only had a few issues in 15 years or so of ownership.

The first Spartan broke down the first time out because the fuel tank was full of water and debris. Got home by rigging up some clean petrol into the carb. A few years later at Beltring in 2007 in the mud we lost steering in one direction, resolved by cleaning the cylinders and bleeding again.

My Sabre broke down at Beltring in 2011 due to a dodgy coil. Worked fine when it had cooled down, but embarrassing when doing a convoy round the site. I replaced the coil with one bought in the stalls.

The diesel Spartan was delivered at the farm and ran perfectly fine when thrashed around the fields etc. When I drove it home it died in about the same spot as the petrol Spartan, water and debris in the fuel tank. Got it home and on the drive with the help of an RB44. It also broke down in Hythe on a road run when the nut holding the ball joint for the throttle cable on came loose and bounced around the engine bay. We towed it back to the camp site with the Striker.

Scimitar drove into its first show in a smoke screen, resolved by backing off the handbrake bands a bit. 

I've also been called out to rescue a Striker when the final drive locked up on a roundabout. We removed the track on that side and towed it home. 

Loss of rubber on the wheels is also a common problem, I always take a spare anywhere we go, along with a recovery A frame.

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Had an engine expire due to low oil pressure, but on that occasion we took the precaution of having it followed with a recovery truck due to it being a first proper road run. Then discovered the low oil warning lamp had been removed from the vehicle dash...

Also had a coolant hose split, fortunately not far from a show site. Cooled down, repaired filled and bled up the system. Also had brake pad, handbrake, brake cylinder, coil and road wheel issues but on show sites. Also had an HT lead ceramic end crack. 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 months later...

 A fuel pump  on a Fox CVRT burnt the wiring  at the motor museum coming out of the arena   soldered a new wire on the stub  and got home I considered a gravity  system if this was not successful . When I went to see this vehicle it blew its engine on the road test as it went over a fast  duel carriageway junction I bought the vehicle  at a reduced price and replaced the engine with a nos from Marcus Glenn

Apart from these events I have never had any of my vehicles break down  and have had 7 ferrets  2 champs  1 Fox CVRW  

Ac cobra  &  E type jaguar

The Fox was a great  vehicle and sadly I sold it

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  • 2 years later...

Diesel fan belt failure.

Had the live feed wire come loose from the ballast resistor in the ignition junction box in my Sabre, resulting in no spark - took a while to track that one down.

Variety of fuel supply problems in Spartans due to dirt and water in fuel tanks.

Shed a few road wheel rubbers but never to the point where it’s stopped the job.

Couple of steering mc failures but usually after standing for a long time..

Did have one complete engine failure which I never figured out what it was - but at the time I had a load of spare engines so it was easier just to put a new one in (those were the days!)

Fuel supply is the only thing that’s ever stopped me mid journey…on one occasion for about 20 mins in the middle of a busy crossroads until I could nurse it out of the way!

I don’t tend to go very far on the road - maybe 7 or 8 miles to a country pub, but I always try to have at least a rough plan in case things go wrong - even if it’s just a local breakdown number..

 

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

Summer of 76. 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars had just completed an 18 month tour in Omagh, Co Tyrone and, having left Fallingbostel and Chieftain for Omagh, were now converting to CVR(T). I had done Scorpion Gunnery and Larkspur Radio Operator before catching the last few months of the tour. The Chieftain Driver Mechs left Omagh early to convert. Apart from two gunnery camps at Lulworth and everyone doing the necessary outstanding courses (which got me a Group H licence, thank you), then everyone doing a Ferret course at the end of the summer because UNFICYP demanded that everyone, regardless of licence, be signed off on a FSC driver course, the summer was spent on Salisbury Plain exercising our new toys.

Jock, my driver, was a Driver Mech. I was troop sergeant's gunner/operator. Jock quickly got fed up of driving back and forth across the Plain. Early one morning, "You have'nae seen me do this, right?" as he loosened the J60 cooling fan mounting bolts. He started up the Scorpion. It ran awfully. "Ah dinnae ken," he informed the commander. The other two cars (car, a term to differentiate a recce vehicle from a MBT — think armoured car; we ran three-car troops because we'd needed six sabre troops in Omagh, and would again in Nicosia, so we ran five times three-car Scorpion troops and a Ferret GW troop) had to play without us. Jock cooked breakfast. I called up callsign 28 (the LAD) outlined the symptoms and requested Bluebell (REME) assistance, then put on a brew.

VM eventually did a good job, and we set up to catch up with the troop. Jock considered it a good day's work.

So he did it again the next day. This time, Tiffy himself did the fix and commented how bad it could have got had the fan broken loose under load, chopped through the firewall and then the driver's legs, then probably through the gap between driver's seat and commander's legs... You see where this is going? Tiffy would have a word with his VM. Jock wouldn't pull the stunt again.

But we weren't done yet. Having thrown a track on a downhill track as we set off, luckily before Tiffy had left, it was dark when eventually we caught up with the squadron. And the SSM decided than since Jock and I had done the square root of naff all for two days, we were to carry out a foot recce behind A Squadron lines, locate their FHQ and report back by A41 manpack so that a fire mission could be brought down. In- and exfiltration were carried out on the back of the SSM's Ferret, 29C.

So Jock got his two days off, but it didn't really see us rested.

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  • 5 months later...

Having recently had a steering master cylinder fail and subsequently looked at several of them, they ranged from almost frozen to irreparable.  They lurk deep in the bilges and are right under the driver's boots, so have plenty of opportunity to marinade in oil, dirt, and muck.  At this point I'd consider any vehicle where I didn't know the MCs had been gone through in recent memory just asking for a failure at the worst moment.  I'm sure many hobbyists have gone through them and they are great, but the ones from a Withams release were awful, hence the assume bad until proven good mentality.

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  • 8 months later...

Summer of 1981. Surveillance Troop Spartans didn't go on this particular exercise. Chalky (troop corporal) had his Scorpion final drives die. His wagon was scheduled to go away on Op Scorpole major refit immediately the exercise finished. There were dire shortages of major assemblies in BAOR, the final drives would be replaced on Scorpole anyway, so his wagon was towed away, never to be seen (by us) again.

His replacement was already in camp but hadn't been prepared, so the Squadron Leader phoned home and had a Surveillance Troop Spartan sent out to pretend to be a Scorpion.

Then Chalky took ill and was medevaced. As Troop Leader's operator, I took over Chalky's Spartan and his operator took over as Troop Leader's operator. Which meant we were only a 2-man crew. Okay for day to day cabbying around the uloo, but evenings, putting in 2-car section OPs was hard work when drivers had to sleep and there were only two commanders and an operator to do back to back stags through the night, all night, every night.

It was midsummer, somewhere west of Bielefeld. One afternoon, through the matchsticks holding my eyes open, I became aware of a line of thick, black cloud on the horizon. In seconds, it was upon us, and it hoyed down.

Suddenly there was a bang and a strange wailing I'd never heard before and we rolled to a halt. I ducked inside the cupola and found the engine fire alarm blaring. I operated the remote extinguisher. Swanny (RIP) turned off the engine electrics and I called home for Bluebell (REME) assistance and sent grid in code. Then we got out and waited in the rain.

Bluebell arrived and we were towed into the squadron leaguer, where the Light Aid Detachment had a look and found nothing wrong. Wtf? As this point, the section commander's operator walked over. As per SOP, on a road move he'd been looking backwards ensuring we were still there. Until we weren't.

He told me that for the second time in my life I'd been struck by lightning. Sufficient whammo to trigger the engine alarm but no damage to anyone or anything.

If my driving had been more than "holds a Group H licence" I might have opened the engine decks and seen no sign of a fire, but I'd spent the last three years in Command Troop for my radio skills.

Edited by AlienFTM
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  • 3 months later...

Interesting topic.

As a private owner, I haven't driven 1000's of miles. In that time i have had :- 

an Petrol engine replaced, only had 5 cylinders one had no compression at all, but the engine kept going.

Starter motor seize solid due to the wrong type of glue on the bendix (apparently a batch of reconditioned starters all had the same issue)

Couple of rubbers off the roadwheels - didn't notice any difference but swapped at my earliest convenience

On a first parade discovered a track pin nut had come off - replaced the pin and nuts with a spare I carried there and then

All my other issues have been due to my lack of knowledge and corrected after a it was explained to me.

I did recover my friend and his Striker after the engine "died". We could restart it but it didn't run for very long. After a few choice words a person who knows what they were talking about was called in and the petrol pump was replaced, The second one in 2 years.

 

 

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