twolaneblacktop

I've been out of the mob since 96 but it's nice to talk about these guns again.

Hi Wally, that's fantastic, thank you very much for the info. Do you know what the SA Gear does that is marked on your diagram?

Also, how hard do you think it is to take the whole breech block off to service all the parts? Would loads of springs and parts drop out never to be refitted correctly ( this seems to happen to me a lot!).

Regards Bruce

It will come out in one piece but as I said in an earlier post it's a heavy lump, a steady smooth vertical lift and she'll pop out no problem. Saw from an earlier post that I hadn't read that you still have the engine, which a least saves you from the hassle of cupelling up to an auxiliary hydraulic source to raise and lower onto the plate etc. Only ever fired the gun with the spades dug in when on the anti tank range at Lulworth, can't remember the exact charge bag but got a feeling it was number 7 but I'll never forget the violence of the gun when she fired! Those spades really did need to be dug into a hole.

She is a beauty - I need to get a muzzle cover or find a bit of canvas. I don't suppose you know if the breech is held down with any locking mechanism or does the autoloader need to be in a certain position? I'm trying to open the sliding breech so I can have a go at cleaning it inside - but it's jammed somehow - it does not look too rusty.

Hi, try the guys at the Weybourne Military Museum in Norfolk as they have one in their collection but as I remember it as soon as the layer had fired, the breech was pulled open ready for the next shell, so the carrier would have been down. Incidentally in case you didn't know the American ammo we used weighed 96lb and the British ammo 92lb so you can see why we had a tray for the shell! You also called it an auto loader and there was nothing automatic about it, it was pushed up to the breech by hand ready for the shell to be rammed into the rifling. Do you have the Foden gun tractor to pull it? And does your gun still have the self propel VW engine? Along with the crew cab (Wendy house) the gun tractor had an Atlas crane which was an essential piece of kit when pulling out the breech for cleaning as it weighed 308lb, which is also the weight of the muzzle so beware if you ever unscrew that bad boy off the barrell :cool2:

There's a FH70 sitting outside a cafe on the A17 or at least was the last time I went that way and I felt like crying every time I saw it! It sits fully elevated with no muzzle cover and I remember how we'd pull through the barrel so diligently putting a beautiful oily sheen to the rifling. Sheeeze :cry:

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me with a serial number stencilled on to the pillion pad on a TRW and see if the contract number I have points to what regiment it went to from the factory? So here goes, the contract number is 3231, the serial number is 29331 and the stencilled number on the pillion pad is SB/6072/05 although the "B" might be a "R" as it has rubbed away slightly on that spot. It came to my Father in khaki although my Father has it in RAF blue as he rode the TRW's in the Canal Zone in the 50's when he served in the Regiment. Any help would be very much appreciated as I'm now putting the bike back on the road as although the right foot gear change doesn't come naturally to me, it is a gorgeous bike to ride.

Hi, just joined the forum and thought I'd say hello. I was told about the forum by my Brother (steph1960) as he's found the forum extremely helpful with his Triumph 3HW and here I am. I don't own a military bike myself as all my bikes are Japanese classics but I'm the named rider on my Fathers collection and I'm going to be putting back into service a MK3 Triumph TRW. It's in RAF colours, as my Father was in the RAF Regiment and he had these bikes in the MK1 guise when doing a two year tour in Suez but I've got serial and contract numbers plus a number of some description stencilled on the pillion pad so hope to, through the forum, find out what branch of the services it originally went to.