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Gordon_M

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Posts posted by Gordon_M

  1. Don't recognise it at all. Doesn't look like early Dodge or GMC, but can't be sure.

     

    Should be easy enough to find out though. If it is an American wheel it will have manufacturers ID and date code on the wheel surface somewhere around the bolt circle. Just clean it down and see what you find.

  2. I'm not brave enough to be a Land Rover person, but I'd be thinking maybe flywheel come loose on the crank, or pressure plate cover come loose on the flywheel.

     

    If it has a lower flywheel cover you can remove, I'd be having a look in there for something that wasn't as tight as it should be, and check the gearbox mounts while you are there.

  3. Before you get carried away, find someone with CCKW spares and compare. The back axle in my 1.5 ton chev used the same shafts as the CCKW, and I wouldn't be surprised to find the C8 interchanged with something, even a contemporary car.

     

    Ask on Maple Leaf Up first

  4. There are Build Cards on file either side of that chassis number here;

     

    http://www.command-car.com/technik/technikbuildcards.html

     

    ... which place it to the last few days of August 1942, but getting the exact Build Card would be the thing.

     

    One wrinkle though is that the Build Card date is the date it was built, NOT necessarily the Date of Delivery that would have been stamped on the plate. Trucks started off built in batches and then being inspected / accepted by Quartermaster Corps inspectors, then later on Ordnance inspectors were on the line and inspected them during production. In August 1942 I would have expected the D/O/D to be not much more than a day or so after the Build Card date though.

  5. That has come up before on here in the Thorny thread, where I mentioned Castingite in Glasgow;

     

    http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?13514-WW1-Thornycroft-restoration&p=317479&highlight=castingite+glasgow#post317479

     

    They did resin impregnation of castings under pressure to prevent porosity being a problem over time. I recall ( red? ) Glyptal paint being used for acid-resist on some American stuff too, like the battery trays on the DUKWs.

  6. The air start system works really well, the Americans use it on trucks with a small compressor for black starts. Hydraulic start is fine too - as long as you aren't the one pumping.

     

    The Zone 2 mounted equipment is a significant cost, probably a decent percentage of the power pack total, but if you keep the Zone 2 certification up you can use in on refinery, mine and processing sites where internal combustion engines are not normally allowed.

  7. Ah, Zone 2 diesels, my favourite. Air-operated starter, flame trap, spark arrestor, Chalwyn valve air-velocity overspeed cutout, plus exhaust and oil pressure sensors that were pilot trips, and if there were any electrics they are EXd rated.

     

    I used to do a load of mobilisation inspections, and investigate failures returned by hirers. Nearly every time we had one returned it was because they had just run them till the flame traps blocked up and they stalled.

  8. Soviet made arctic cab, and very nice too. I'd guess on an early WC 52 chassis ( it looks like it has the symmetrical headlight guards ) but could be on a WC57 or even a WC 63.

     

    As fas as I know, the WC 59, 60, and 61 trucks, which had longer wheelbases, didn't come with winches, but could be wrong.

  9. Gordon,

    The Corporal Missile which was carried on these launchers was tested at the RA Ranges Hebrides. Rhu port was an old wartime seaplane base and was later used as the transport hub for the Range, utilising Mk 8 LCT's run by RAOC, later RCT. You could hardly send this sort of kit on a McBrayne's ferry! The information is no longer classified - extract from Wikipedia below.

     

    Regards - David

     

    Live-fire training for Germany- based US Forces took place at Fort Bliss but later the British Royal Artillery Guided Weapons Range on the Scottish island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides. Missiles were fired toward designated target coordinates in the Atlantic Ocean. Radar on St. Kilda scored successful (on-target) firings. Frequently, Soviet "fishing trawlers" would intrude into the target area.

     

    Thanks for that. It would have been after 1970 when I saw them, but before 1980 - couldn't pin it down more than that. They were parked outside quite in the open, and since every Dinky toy owner of the day would know exactly what they were it was hardly very secretive. I expect they were freighted in ( and out again ? ) via the US facility at the Holy Loch just up the road.

     

    On further digging the timing looks odd. Wiki says the UK didn't use them after 1966, but I wouldn't have been driving past there before the early 1970's at the earliest.

  10. Rhu Hangars Helensburgh

     

    Oh, that takes me back. in the 1970's I saw two LeTourneau 666 Missile launchers parked up there when driving into Rhu.

     

    Unmistakeable shapes ( the Dinky toy version made them famous ) though they didn't have the launch stand trailers with them. Apparently that was the land side dock for the landing craft to the Benbecula range, so they must have been going to or from there.

  11. Ian,

    in your photo of the petrol tap, it is shown with lever vertical, this I think is the Off postion, make sure the lever is horizontal to run.

     

    Sorry Richard but I think that is wrong. There is a long-standing convention in the valve industry ( I'm a valve expert, for my various sins ... ) that the handle is in line with the hole through the ball, or the plug, or the cone, or whatever, so when the lever is inline with the hose, the valve should be fully open.

  12. I have seen ads on that well known auction site for these, and I know people were looking at using them in 6 volt positive ground applications ( WW2 dodge )

     

    The e-bay ad for the 6v units specifically states the same bulb will run positive OR negative ground. I know LEDs are quite voltage tolerant, but polarity intolerant without a rectifier - wonder how they can use the same bulb for both polarities?

  13. You're right. It is a 56. I just realised the A is a star covered by the rope.

     

    Army official photographers were usually Signal Corps so - right again

     

    Thanks for your excellent response.

     

    You are right about the star, should have spotted that. I think D-Day to Berlin could be the right time period too. I wonder if that truck was following the controversial General for news purposes? That would fit too, and explain the WC56 rather than something more humble.

     

    3rd Army 166th Signals maybe?

     

    http://www.combatcamera.be/combat-photography-units/166th-signal-photographic-company/

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