Chris Hall

Exactly, if you don’t have a licence, you can’t legally have the round. But the these controls were implemented to prevent the illegal manufacture of ammunition. They haven’t though, as I said, all the criminals do now is purchase blanks and disassemble them.

So a .303 blank doesn’t have a primer or powder? A 7.62mm blank doesn’t have a primer or powder? A 9mm blank doesn’t have a primer or powder? yes they are assembled in to a blank but take them apart and they are component parts which are normally controlled. I work with live 7.62mm, 9mm, 5.56mm and I also work with the blank versions. They come from the same manufacturer with the same primers and the powder is similar (but not the same). What I’m trying to say is that even though some parts are controlled, it hasn’t really made it more difficult to obtain those parts. If the intent is there, those that wish to commit crime, will.

I can’t quite make out the detail of the battery carrier but it looks like a Lucas battery carrier so you should be able to find a replacement part.

Was it like one of these? Ones a M5, the other a M9 converted for REME forward repair. BA0839A0-0D76-4E3B-A532-6C774482D4E2.webp

But not controlled if purchased as a blank.

I got the wheels fitted on Monday so Today’s task was pretty simple. Move the M16 from A to B. Easy. And it was to a certain degree. I don’t have any fancy lifting tackle or heavy vehicles for pushing so I had to improvise. The space it was going into has 2 vertical I beams either side supporting a big farm building so I used those as anchors. To those I wrapped a 2 ton strop around each and then between them I shackled a 6 meter long 5 ton strop to form a triangle. From there I had another shackle and 2 ratchet straps to the M16 front bumper. I used 2 ratchet straps so that one could take the load while I slackened off the other to adjust for the next pull. This worked a treat and with my son steering it was soon in its spot. I did overshoot a little so had to pull it back using the Range Rover and then straighten up to get it in nice and square.

That’s the issue I had in a few posts up. The shims were of little use and I ended up re-using some old ones and a few of those needed flat sanding to get them correct. Typically, to keep the whole piston and Conrod ass’y centred, I had to sand 2 shims/washers down, one for each side. It’s far from ideal but the crank was either nipped tight or to slack just by taking away or adding one shim/washer. Ideally they would be ground but I don’t have that technology or the funds to have some one do it when I had to use trial fit, adjust. good luck!!

The way I read that Q is, how many of the component parts would need to be possessed to before you could be prosecuted. I handed my Sect 1 in about 16 years ago. I have dummy rounds for my .30, .303, 9mm, .50, .38 etc. Etc. and I have basic reloading kit from the days I had a license. I also have some blank ammunition. So I legally have all the component parts but not necessarily the correct component parts to function with each other and I have no intention of assembling. I know, and anyone who has reloaded knows, you can’t just put any random bits together to make a round. There’s very specific powders, primers, projectiles that are used in combination. Unfortunately I very much doubt the average Joe will understand that.

Thanks Tony B, what I love about these US military vehicles is how easy they are to work on, even at this size. I’m finding that most of the running gear, brakes and ancillary parts such as door handles are commercial parts of the late 30s. This era of civvy trucks is popular in the USA so parts are quite common as original or repro. I was worried about the gas pedal as mine has rotted to pretty much just the rubber pad remains. I then found it’s a Ford truck part from the 30s and exact repros are made and can be found for $10. That’ll do nicely.

I just checked and I spent $47 on front gusset plates and rear x-member rivets. I don’t think I’d have paid any import duties.

I use Brent Mullins fake rivets. They’re a bolt which has a round head and a round nut. The head has serrations on the underside which grip the bore of the hole and the nut has a hex on the end which shears at a predetermined torque. I nipped up the head tight but not enough to shear. Then tapped the head and surrounding metal with a nylon hammer and then tightened the nut again. I repeated this until there was no slack left and the nut wouldn’t tighten any more before the hex sheared off. I think some use loctite as well but I didn’t think there was any need.

I made one of these tools. You tap the races in manually until you have them in the bores a little. Then assemble the cases with the tool fitted between the halves. Then tapping on either end keeps the 2 outer races aligned perfectly with each other. Unfortunately I made my tool from mild steel and never thought to case harden it. It wasn’t long before I distorted the ends which made it a pain to remove

Yeah between centres isn’t the best as you say. I just put turn in the support centre until it’s just touching. You’ll know if you’ve clamped it as you’ll get a deflection on both dials that you struggle to correct. 80 years ago this would have been classed as essential war work and you an essential worker!

Did you lift it out and spin it 180’ so the shafts are now the opposite way around? When I thought I’d got it as close as I could, I would turn it around and see if the figures remained the same.....sometimes they weren’t......doh.

An NSN is a NATO Stock Number or National Stock Number. This was an adaption of the FSN or Federal Stock Number which dates back to the 1930s. Lots of equipment from the 40s have NSNs because the kit was still in use in the 70s and 80s. The US may have stopped using some of the kit but other countries continued to use it and the US would provide spares under contract. The Mexicans and I think Argentinians still use Halftracks and some spare parts are still provided by the US. They themselves aren’t in NATO but as the US is, the parts have an NSN. Another good example is France and Greece, they used the Willys MB for decades after the US had replaced their stock and the large amount of spares in the US system were codified for sales/foreign aid. Bren .303 LMGs were codified even though the UK replaced them in the 60s. All because many nations still used them (Republic or Ireland, India, Greece etc), even Australian made Brens were given a British NSN because the design was from Enfield. There’s much more to it and I’m no expert. I only have a basic knowledge from using NSNs daily but the historical detail is something I’ve only picked up in civvy street.

That number almost looks like an NSN which were introduced in 1974 I think. However 05 hasn’t been used and is reserved for the USA and also there’s a number missing if it were. So it must be some sort of FSN but 8070 doesn’t exist (it must have done in the past though).

Got the bumper off the Diamond T today and fitted it to the M16. That will give me something to pull on when I pull it into it’s space. Also got the axel fitted to the M16 so just need to push the Diamond T frame out of the way, take the wheels off, fit them to the M16 and then I’m ready for the move. Then I start again stripping this one down. With the bumper and other bits removed from the frame, the balance is much better and I think I can push it by hand.

The magnetic Dial Test Indicators (clock) are brilliant bits of kit for doing this and will make it much easier to understand what’s going on. If one is high and one is low, the shafts are out of plane. If both are high or low, they are out of alignment and just need prying or squeezing. Good luck, enjoy the challenge and above all, report back on how close you get it.

Not my comment but I found the below on another site. MarkEasty 3y I think that's on the Eriboll estate that was once owned by Alan Clark MP who served in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet. He was a bit of a military buff (wrote various books including "The Donkeys" about WW1 British army leadership and a book on operation Barbarossa) and was really into motor vehicles. He inherited a fortune including the estate from his father. He had a huge car collection so I guess it was something he bought and had transported there. Edit; just found this article, it mentions the t34 and two Saracen armoured cars; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/3291953/A-chip-off-the-old-engine-block.html The estate is now owned by a Danish billionaire.

It’s good to have a go, I found an article on the net which was really helpful in not being led down the garden path so to speak. Using 2 DTIs helped prevent misunderstandings of what was going on. I also had a marker pen to mark high and low points to aid in exactly where to place the hammer blows (I used a nylon hammer). I also placed a mallet opposite the blow (on the opposite fly wheel) to counteract the force (Newton and all that). Oh and another good tip I read was to smooth out the bores of the flywheels for the crank pin and put a little oil in there to help seat the pin. I didn’t use a wedge to open up the wheels as by pushing the wedge in, you’re pushing in the opposite direction. I used two pri bars (aka, hefty bars of steel I had laying around) opposing each other which transferred the pressure to the two centre of the lathe.

Sorry, it was the American vehicles section

Health and safety! We get these labels on all food served remote from the place of preparation. Especially if there’s no cook to monitor the food state.

I did mine between centres on the lathe. It’s amazing how easily the trueness can be knocked out. Even tightening the nuts on the big end can knock it out. I found I had to true it with the nuts firm. Tighten, re-true, tighten, re-true and then check again. My biggest issue at the time of the build was finding the right sized shims for the shafts and a few hours were spent on sand paper, not ideal but it needed to be done.

I really don’t know, I just found the same item on the G. Theres a link to it on the weapons thread.

For comparison.