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New Muir Hill A5000 owner


SimonL2

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Hi,

Glad to have found this forum. I've just bought a Muir HIll A5000 & have already used some useful info from this site.

No doubt there will be questions from me - a mechanical novice, but fairly clued up with electrical/electronic issues.

Thanks,

Simon.

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Yes get those brakes working! when I got mine the rear axle pinion bearings had collapsed and the brakes where totally seized. so we took the axle of and split it and re-built the whole thing. before the days of the mobile phone camera, in those days you just did a repair and forgot about it. Shame you have lost the back actor, very useful bit of kit and a dam good counter weight when dragging dead wheeled armour suspend towed under the bucket! 

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21 minutes ago, Ashcollection said:

Yes get those brakes working! when I got mine the rear axle pinion bearings had collapsed and the brakes where totally seized. so we took the axle of and split it and re-built the whole thing. before the days of the mobile phone camera, in those days you just did a repair and forgot about it. Shame you have lost the back actor, very useful bit of kit and a dam good counter weight when dragging dead wheeled armour suspend towed under the bucket! 

Thanks for the info. In the absence of brakes - can you stuff it into reverse & rev to stop? Will this cause any damage? I think I read in the manual that you can shuttle into reverse with no max speed mentioned. The only reference to speed was when shifting from 2nd down into first.

Mine is 2 speed with no crab steer - IDK if that helps to date it?

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you would normally stop then shuttle straight to reverse, I wouldn't use it as a brake, you might break something! drop the forks and let them drag you to a halt if you must. I didn't know they made that model without 4 wheel steer. I thought all the military ones where. The lever is under the seat between your legs for 2 or 4 wheel steering, is it just seized up? or broken off. Personally I'd fix the brakes before you do much with it. On the steering. does it not have the rams still on the axle? 

20200114_102148.jpg

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Mine's as per yours - it's the *crab* steer that I/we don't have. Not sure if the crab steer was there on the early versions & then removed, or if it was introduced as an extra feature in later models. I mentioned it to help date mine - plate is corroded.

As for the brakes - my intention is absolutely to fix them, but I'm keen to understand it as much as possible before loading/driving/towing it home for the repair phase.

 

 

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Ok thats good that your 4 wheel steering works. I don't think these models ever had "crab" steering. if your brakes don't work I defiantly take it home on a plant truck or low-loader. winch it on so you have control! Give Lloyd loaders a call and get a copy of the operators manual. I've just looked up the bit about shifting from forward to reverse under power, yes it says you can, "soft shift transmission" I've never done it, it's an old machine and the last time anyone did any work in the transmission was probably in the 1980's so better safe than sorry, brakes are cheaper to fix than the Allison transmission.

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The early models of the A5000 in army service did have crab steer facility. I did a lot of work on these tractors in REME workshop. I am pretty sure the transmission is a Clark and not Allison. Seem to think I may have a manual on the Clark transmission. Did a course on repairing these at the RE School of Military Engineering around 1980

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Like you, Richard, I'm trying to get the grey cells working, but it has been a good many years. As I recall the Mk1 &2 had the crab steer facility, with a 3 way change valve between the drivers feet. You had to pull the handle up to unlock it then turn to select, push back down to lock. Mk3 only had 2 and 4 steer with the lever change shown in the picture above. Allinson transmission, definitely not Clarke

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4 hours ago, Zero-Five-Two said:

Like you, Richard, I'm trying to get the grey cells working, but it has been a good many years. As I recall the Mk1 &2 had the crab steer facility, with a 3 way change valve between the drivers feet. You had to pull the handle up to unlock it then turn to select, push back down to lock. Mk3 only had 2 and 4 steer with the lever change shown in the picture above. Allinson transmission, definitely not Clarke

That would make mine a Mk 3 seemingly then. Whether that's a good or bad thing I have no idea! But it's nice to build up the knowledge thanks.

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4 hours ago, Zero-Five-Two said:

Like you, Richard, I'm trying to get the grey cells working, but it has been a good many years. As I recall the Mk1 &2 had the crab steer facility, with a 3 way change valve between the drivers feet. You had to pull the handle up to unlock it then turn to select, push back down to lock. Mk3 only had 2 and 4 steer with the lever change shown in the picture above. Allinson transmission, definitely not Clarke

Hi Rob,

I think we are on the same wavelength, Mk1 and 2 with crab steering option and Mk3 without. Regarding the transmission, yes Allison. I think the Clark box I changed was on a Hydra Husky crane which sheared its drive in the box.

I remember having to overhaul two Muir Hills that had just returned from an exercise in Gambia, they had not been cleaned and everything was covered in bright red African soil. One required a replacement hydraulic pump, no easy task to get to it over the engine and down under the boom. Once you were in there it was difficult to get out again!

 

Simon,

Regarding rear ballast they usually operated with either the Massey back-acter or a Boughton,winch and spade, then you had a good counterbalance for working the front end.

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1 hour ago, ploughman said:

I seem to recall a regular task for the fitters, was working on the rubber boots in the wheel hubs.

Too technical for us operators.

We were too busy trying to change the steering into Crab without the new boy noticing.

Yes yes! those damned boots, they were a heavy yellow plastic material and a devil to get on. One of my first jobs on a Muir Hill to renew them.

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Simon I am unsure if the picture that Ash Collection posted is his machine or yours, however, the grey cap in the picture which I have marked and attached looks very familiar to me. It is very similar to one in a vehicle that I am restoring, if it is the same the cap has an enormous needle on the underside and it is for an ether capsule system for cold starting. I have a picture of the capsules and the packaging, somewhere.

muir hill cold start_LI.jpg

ether start system.jpg

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Picture of the 2/4wheel drive was mine. We replaced the boots when we rebuilt the back axle, its quite a task! and had a scare last year, we lost hydraulics, I thought it was a pump problem as it happened all of a sudden. first check was obviously the filter and it has collapsed restricting the flow to about an 1/8" haha. we did the MF back hoe rams the year before, the pic I posted of the arm extended to the rear was taken just after we had finished fitting them. Does anyone know where we can get repair kit for the slew cylinder? 

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