johann morris

Oh believe me they do, although personally I would never sink to that level and it's not seen as bribery as the official involved handles it outside of his official role as a planning officer. He or she is paid as a consultant but I can never understand how they are not roasted for a conflict of interests. Jon

And thereby hangs the real problem, the greed of the money men.

He probably wants you to cross his palm with some notes, it's not unusual with planning departments.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/jaguar-land-rover-turning-fuel-102000547.html?

I don't fear the future it fascinates me. There are so many fantastic ideas but no real explanations about how and at what cost. I live in an area that they would ideally like to cover in wind turbines, the farmers love the idea, subsidies, but the rest of the locals are less than convinced. I only have to look out to the horizon on many days of the year to see the majority of them still for one reason or another, not enough wind or too much. How can the companies who erect them make money, subsidies and they admit it. When they wanted to erect several hundred on moors above us the locals arranged a protest group, at the first meeting the company responsible sent a representative who, at first, was very helpful but soon gave over to couldn't care less what we thought. When I asked how they made their money he said not out of generating electricity but from the subsidies. A report was published recently that listed all the large generating proposals currently being considered, the large proportion would increase the electricity cost per unit by 5 times the current cost. If it ever does become reality it's going to be expensive so like the bloke with a Tesla buy a generator now.

I don't know where you are in the world but here in Wales every petrol station still sells liquid fuel and I can't think of one that has stopped in the 30 years that I have lived here. One of my wife's friends lectures at uni on such issues and when I have conversations with her, she is totally unable to explain how, it really frustrates her that unlike her students I will not accept the " it's something that they will have to work out" answer. What car dose she drive, a diesel and why, because the distance that she has to travel an ev would not be appropriate. There are so many questions that have to be answered, so many problems that have to be solved and the easiest of those is who is going to pay, bend over we are just about to be shafted.

I wish someone could explain the logistics of electric cars for me, someone that actually lives in the real world and has thought of and solved the huge problems ahead. The real answer is hydrogen but why no one will admit it is beyond me.

Is this more acceptable, more Germanic?

By jove Niels, I think that you have hit the nail on the head. It's a much simpler design and would match in perfectly. Thanks, Jon

Looking forward a bit I need to start thinking about casting the polyurethane tyres on the return rollers and the road wheels. This process is new to me so I have done a lot of research, talked to those who should know and I think that I have a plan that should work. I am going to start with the return rollers and have decided that a mould that forms the outside diameter and the front angled face to finished dimensions would give the best results and reduce the amount of post casting machining. I don't have any material of the required size so being a skin flint I have welded four 8mm thick plates together two and two the turned the joints at 90 degrees to each other and puddle welded the plates together. This is the kit of parts for the mould. The plates were then bored and turned so that they run true and the angle for the front face turned in. A centre shaft turned to locate and bolted in the base plate. The hub is the placed over the centre shaft and a spacer sits on top of the hub. This spacer seals the top of the hub and forms an air gap. A top plate is placed on top of the spacer, this has pouring holes cut in it and is turned to the same diameter as the base plate, which is the finished diameter of the roller. A tin outer cover is then wrapped around the outside thus forming the finished outside diameter. Jubilees clips, top and bottom of the mould hold the outer sheet in place and finally the whole assembly is bolted together. The polyurethane, release agent and vacuum chamber are all currently in bound, all I have to do before commencing the casting is to shot blast the hubs and add some extra bands around the outside of the hubs to increase the surface area so that the tyres have a bigger area to bond to. Confused join the que. Jon

The driveshaft cover from the gearbox to the steering box. It can't be an exact replica of the original, because the end of gearbox protrudes into the crew compartment in my version. Eventually the dummy gearbox will cover the remainder of the driveshaft. The storage plan for a panzer ll shows a fire extinguisher attached to the driveshaft cover, personally I think that is an excellent idea, especially as I will be driving the tank and the thought of a fire concerns me. It would be nice to get an original appliance but I would rather have one that works. I have made the bracket to suit a modern vehicle extinguisher and will tart it up to look the part later. I spent a couple of hours tarting up the fire extinguisher, it would never pass as a genuine item but I think it looks quite convincing.

I have been putting off making the final drive covers because...…….Now that I think about It I don't actually know why but I have. Anyway the time came when I had to get a grip and make a start. It took a lot of welding and fiddling to get it right and then a good few hours grinding but in the end they didn't look too bad. The original cover was a one piece casting, unfortunately to get mine to fit around the final drives mine had to be cut in two. This is however to my benefit, as now to fill or drain the final drives, all I have to do is remove the front half of the cover which reveals the filler and drain plugs of the final drive units.

Evening All, I have been trying to move swiftly on but life keeps getting in the way. My mothers deteriorating condition means that any plans for the future have to be put on hold and it's only thanks to my wife that I get any time on the tank, but at this point in time, mum must come first. I have managed to make adapter plate from the steering box to the drive shaft and the drive shaft. The drive shaft has been made using two old shafts that I had in store spliced together to make one good one.I had to turn up an adapter to mate the two shafts together so hopefully they will be somewhere near balanced. The steering box with the drive shaft adapter fitted. As the steering box is from a 430 series AFV I needed to add a plug to the front of the hull so that I could top it up with oil, I am really unsure as to whether the cover looks Germanic enough or does it look too modern.

The yards still there, I made a visit there last year 2019 and I have to say the owners are really nice people but I couldn't get them to part with a really rotten CMP. The yard is unbelievable but a lot of stuff is rotting into the ground which is a real shame. I still live in hope that I can rescue the remains of that CMP. Jon

Those are a real work of art. Jon

Thanks for the input everybody, I think I heave all the information that I require. David, I have put an oil cooler in for the steering box but because of it's position it will probably be of little use. I couldn't fit it under the radiator with the others, so If it is actually required, I intend to fit the dust extraction / cooling ducts, that were on original PZll's. These ducts ran from behind the radiator, where the fan caused suction, to the steering brakes. My plan would be to fabricate a housing around the oil cooler and connect a duct to this housing, of course how efficient it would be is open to debate and testing. You can see the duct in the picture below. Jon

It's hard to imagine that the steering box holds 26.7 ltrs of oil but that is what is states. Jon

Excellent, thanks Andy

Done

Thanks Andy, It's for my panzer 2 replica so I didn't think that buying a manual was worth while. I saw a video on you tube which showed the dip stick but my unit hasn't got an integral dip stick so I assume that the 430 series has a reservoir for the steering box oil which is where the dip stick is situated. Jon

Can anyone tell me what grade of oil to use in a 430 series steering box and how much should I put in. Thanks in advance, Jon

yes.

Thanks Steve and Steve, Detent, latch, both describe the "thingy", at the time I had a complete mind blank. That's what happens being male and having to multi task. Jon

Evening All, The gear shift lever is now attached to the chassis and connected to the gearbox, it all seems to operate smoothly. The next question was what to do with the shift lever knob either the original Jaguar sports look, a furry bunnies head or something more Germanic, obviously the bunnies head won, not really. Two images from surviving tanks , the knob on the right hand image is not, as far as I can ascertain, original. I think the knob would have been Bakelite but I haven't got one so I decided to make from steel. Under the knob there is a thing ( I don't know what to call it) that you lift in order to release the shift lever, enabling you to change gear. I forgot to take any pictures of it as I made it. The completed shift lever assembly. Jon

Thanks for all the comments, as I have already bought a clansman system I have ordered a throat mike, head set which hopefully I can rearrange to look like a ww2 panzer set. Jon