Gordon_M

I'd be inclined to use E-Bay for most things like this, in fact I can get new brake hose sets for my VC Dodges on there, but made outside the country. That said, if I was replacing any brake part on a GMC I'd just spend the extra money and get exactly the right thing from Rex. There are variations too, since hose lengths and fittings were changed a bit for wire-protectors and the like.

... that you got that spare impeller. I won't try to describe the amount of pattern equipment you need to reproduce one of those, but it wouldn't be simple. That said, if the impeller was the challenge, I'm sure you could find a modern one and just bore it to fit. I have reproduced the Pioneer compass mounting bracket for DUKW and Weasel. I had to get a wooden master pattern made, then an aluminium working pattern, but all the people who did that for me are long gone to the big pattern shop in the sky now. I'm impressed by the range of facilities you have either cobbled together ( you know what I mean ... ) or co-opted. Pattern making in cast iron and bronze, tyre press for changing solid tyres, the correct nuts, bolts, and washers, regardless of difficulty in obtaining, even carting an engine halfway round the world :shocked:

Many of those bits are humble cast iron, and while many of them could be used as patterns, it is generally so much simpler to make new patterns. The contraction on that stuff is 1/8" per foot, so a casting that has to end up a foot across starts off as 12 1/8" at least Simple blocks, mouldings, and things that are 'easy' tend to work as patterns, anything complex, thin section, or with tricky radii tends not to. As an example, and I know there is one in stock, it would be impossible to use the broken impeller as a pattern, and difficult to use the broken housing. That new laser-scan and 3-D copier process would be ideal for this stuff - either making the item itself or making patterns. It would be easy to laser scan that housing, replace the broken section in software, add a contraction allowance, and produce a pattern that would work for making a casting. Bit expensive though. Gordon

I'm sure the WC 53 Carryall did, at least. that's $5000 to $7000 in that condition, which is why it is neatly up against the wall waiting for a new owner rather than waiting to be cut up. The WC54 ambulance is a lot more common, but still looks to be salvageable, though those Wayne Works bodies often have more rust in them than the simpler Carryall shells.

A new condenser, clean of the plugs, and so on wouldn't hurt. Be aware that original Dodge fuel hoses are well past their sell-by date, and so are the fuel pump diaphragms. At the very least I'd drain your main fuel filter ans see what came out, maybe buy some new hoses and a fuel pump kit, or new pump. It is just as likely to be fuel as electrical.

Looking at those shots, I can't help feeling if they are not uncommon down your way you should buy a hulk or two to strip for bits. I'll bet panels that have been in Australia all these years will be better than some of those.... Gordon

I'm sure the government had some input into the design / specification of the blue plastic AC ones, so contingent liability. Owners were all moved to Motability scheme I'm sure, and most of the vehicles became blue plastic landfill. I'm all for historic vehicle preservation, but I think in this case just one, in a museum somewhere, would be about right :cool2: Of course in a hundred years they'll probably be valuable. ( Later - WIKI says produced '60s and '70s, last removed from road in 2003 which tallies with roughly what I remember )

I think I'm with Mike on this - basically the widest fixed points that are incapable of being removed for travel or adjustment. I can see why you might use something other than the edge of the track for a tracked vehicle though, since many tracked vehicles can be fitted with tracks of varying width. You may well have a narrow road track which keeps the overall width under the limit, but when switched to wide cross-country tracks it would exceed it.

I'm reasonably sure your little steel tube was connected to the packing gland, and was a means of injecting extra packing as required. There would be what looked like a grease cap with a threaded top, and every day you would run the engine, and just screw the cap down ( injecting packing ) until water stopped leaking up the shaft

There's a lot of good stuff on that, isn't there? I suspect you will be looking for more bits, and will probably end up with more than one halftrack. Gordon

It is too nice to leave it sitting there Rolf. It might be a case of buying it and taking it to Beltring, or putting it on MILWEB. It certainly deserves a new home. Gordon

I always expect the cork to be treated with a coat of fuel-resistant varnish. Without that it will eventually saturate ( petrol being that much more searching that water - something to do with molecule sizes and surface tensions I expect ) Probably easier to put a plastic float on it than to find fuel-resistant varnish these days

It should be marginally easier to find the 'impossible' parts with the power of the 'net and HMVF at your elbow Might be worth listing, in order of impossible-ness, the primary bits that you need - do I remember you need a rear diff from an earlier page? List of bits, and the exact model of the truck please, so all us far-flung types can put the word out, though since the engine is from NZ it has travelled far already. Gordon

Might be worth checking out the ATHS page; http://www.aths.org/ The folks there would know where you could get bits for it, I'm sure. Gordon

I would absolutely NOT sell that till you were sure it was later than the slat, if there is any chance at all it was factory.

It not 100% sure, but I think that is the OY X-Ray truck I helped rebuild in the late 1980's. It's looking neater now, but I think the giveaway is that the cab has been replaced with an OX cab, which we had to do as the original cab was toast. The truck had been fitted with a huge roof rack and used to tour India and the middle east in the 60's / 70's, after which it stood in Edinburgh painted white for many years. We had to re-sheet a lot of the body, easy enough, push the roof back up, replace the engine ( original had been left with the head off ) and the cab. The distinctive thing about the OX cab is that the underpanel is cut back both sides to clear the fuel tanks, which were further forward on the OX cab, though when we got the OX cab is was mounted on an MW chassis. It is possible it is an identical truck where a similar OX cab was fitted, I suppose.

Sorry Matt, I've been updating several discussions and didn't get back to you on that. Let's see now; winch is a Braden M2, basically same as the MU2 on the 3/4 ton Dodge series, but not underslung, so no 'U' in the designation. Differential and final drive part numbers are all CLE Cletrac numbers, except for the sprockets and chains, but the CLE numbers are only cross-referenced to the G231 part codes, so although the diff is reputed to be Cletrac MG type, it would have been a special build. Steering levers and brakes are quite different to yours, though I'd guess a lot of internals would be identical; Differential ratio is 2.42 to 1, if that helps with a comparison? Comparing your images with mine, it does look like it could be the same diff, with the G231 version having the levers cranked inwards to leave room for throttle and clutch pedal access. G

Still tinkering with the Fireman, and a couple of things have turned up. Dennis Spence at Portrayal has provided an ORD-8 Parts List, and Clell Ballard has let me have a copy of an article he did when he discovered another one some years back, in poor condition, which is now with Gil Mangle's Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. Clell also suggested that Studebaker had the original dibs on the T-36, from February to July 1943, when it was handed over to Iron Fireman for development. The first four Iron Fireman production, with the cab offset way back; as visible in this Camp Hale image during the Mountain and Winter Warfare Board tests; ... were tested and deemed "unsatisfactory" by May 1944, resulting in a July '44 redesign with cab further forward, tracks further apart, and different track drive details. Clell thinks it is possible that Studebaker produced the batch of 36 for Iron Fireman. It appears that even the redesigned T-36 units didn't do that well in tests against the Weasel and the Allis-Chalmers M7, in large part because it was a ton heavier than either of them, so the existing 36 production units were assigned to rescue duty along the land air corridor of the aircraft ferry routes, after the cabs were painted bright red for visibility purposes. Other snippets; It should be equipped with a Weasel windscreen wiper motor, and Weasel type signal / trouble light plus pistol grip, and it has provision for the Allis Chalmers M7 type of engine heater furnace and flue. Other items that I thought non-original, like the electric sender for the oil pressure, turns out to be factory, as most of the gauges ( oil, water, speedo ) were taken from G-104 Sherman stuff rather than G-502 Dodge 3/4 ton. Even the rather silly little gear knob that I was going to remove and replace with a standard Dodge one, turns out to be identical to the one on the second machine, so undoubtedly factory. Gordon

Well, you notice there was no fluid in the radiator, no brakes, and other trivia, but neatly done, regardless.

Matt pointed me at this one on E-Bay; http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260801640412&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMESINDXX%3AIT 1939, Bureau of Indian affairs, so US Government but not military. If I had room for a Diamond T this is the one I'd have.

Never was any use at bikes. It does look like someone has at least seen the Cushman Airborn, doesn't it? Truck in the background is a Canadian-built Dodge D60S tipper.

Sounds like they have loaded more and more on either the local exchange or the twisted pair connections to the exchange, and your signal quality has gone right down the tubes. Any new building near you ? another small estate maybe that has been hooked to your local cross connection cabinet, typically within about half a mile of your place? Unfortunately there is very little that can be done, but you should start now and find a good speed test site, then do regular weekly tests at the same time of day to see where your connection speed is going. This will prove your connection quality ( or lack of it ) over time, even to the most reluctant of suppliers. It sounds like something directly associated with your twisted pair connection to the local exchange, and as such it is a BT problem, whether they like it or not. My house connection is a Virgin Broadband Cable connection, and just flies along, but no consolation if you are outside a cabled area. Gordon

Cushman Airborne Scooter, maybe with a bit of altering.? Gordon

Noted, thanks Matt. Dennis tells me the Parts List is on its way, so I'll probably wait till I know exactly what model / part number it is before I go posting ther, but I'll have a look round. Thanks again. Gordon

It is quite a standard drivetrain. I've roughed out a blurb for an upcoming Army Motors, basically to try and uncover more info / owners / survivors. 1944 Dodge T214 radiator, engine and transmission, drives straight into a Cletrac diff which has two sprockets on the end, those sprockets chain-drive the two rear rollers. There are screw adjusters on each back roller which allow each chain drive to be adjusted, after which the track tension can be taken up or down by similar screw adjusters on each front roller. Front rollers have a small spring mount too for forward impacts. The PTO and winch drive is a little unusual. The PTO comes off the passengers side of the transmission, and drives another chain down to a layshaft which runs back and then up to a winch mounted directly under the drivers seat. The original Crismon write up in US Military Tracked Vehicles mentioned a chain drive between the transmission and the Cletrac diff, which it doesn't have, and it also stated that it had no suspension, which it does have, although the front suspension and track frame articulation is a little limited it does exist. The track frames articulate from one of the fixed side points near the Cletrac-end sprockets, about 2/3rds of the way along the vehicle, and about 1/3rd of the way along, under the radiator-ish, there is a transverse leaf spring which allows track frame articulation and suspension by floating two bolts in slots about 4" long. Mechanically it is quite a piece of work, and not nearly as crude a design as I first thought, but I'm sure the conveyor-belt tracks were a weak point. There's no way this thing would match a Sno-Cat on articulation or traction over snow.