robin craig

Any chance you can throw up some pictures. Depending on what they are yes I may be interested R

Looking grand mate, what kind of quid do you pay for them in the UK now? How is the drivers floor area looking now? R

Well, I didn't get the info off the data plate but managed to get the bearings and we have re used the seal as it was quite good when cleaned up. We did the bearing pre-load by the Mk 1 mechanics "feel" and relocked the nuts on the lock tabs. We have released all the brakes and made them glide on now with ease, what a wonderful system those brakes are, now everything if free again. The lights all work, of a fashion, one light having a minor grounding issue that persists, main cause is tons of paint. We freed up the rear jacking legs and have a few lanyards and pieces too fettle, but it is all legal for the road and safe, paint can wait for another day me thinks. A licence plate will be sourced after registration with the Ministry of Transportation in the next day or so. Here is a tacky cell phone picture for your perusal. It was quite disconcerting driving it in the dark tonight that the forward facing white lights on the trailer really blind you of any view of the trailer rear lights on the ground to reverse in the dark, so we kept onwards in a forward direction until we found a spot in a farmers field to pull a U turn and rejoin the road. The 101 pulling it having also been fettled tonight was pulling like a freight train and one didn't feel the unladen trailer except when slowing down. Brilliant, another piece of kit in the collection serviceable and useful. R

Tonight was our usual four hour stint at MV maintenance. After messing about with the wide track trailer we got into sorting a few issues with our 101 GS. We had, if you remember had a visitation this spring by racoons. We put the rough running down to a plug wire, perhaps it had gotten chewed on a bit. Anyhow, Gerry our trusted mechanic played around with some acetylene but to no avail. So he whipped out our shop pyrometer and soon found one cylinder that was quite cold. After grinding down our plug socket to get onto the offending cylinder we yanked out the plug which looked like it was well fouled. Up into my office and fired up the laptop and looked in the Excel file and low and behold plugs in stock on shelf C3C. So out in the all terrain golf cart to the sea can and pull some plugs out. Fitting the new plug and tightening the exhaust system u bolt clamps and it was transformed into a sweet running machine. All the fluids and dampers in the carbs were checked the other week so its a good to roll vehicle for this weekends outing. Great use of technology a pyrometer eh?!! R

Well, I am the person who brokered the deal between Al and MkV Sten who sold the vehicle. I am not an expert as others are but merely and enthusiastic amateur. By Al's description of how the Ferret dies i was suspicious of fuel being the issue and have told him such. I feel there may be more than one problem at play. I have sent him by overnight courier, a NOS set of plug wires, which he will fit shortly. I have been thinking about the fuel system and wonder if the fuel pump is on the way out, adding to the melee. I will be interested to hear what the plug wires do to clean up things. R

Oh Andy, Andy, Andy, over 9 minutes of video, your really out doing yourself, you wont be able to go back now! Grand mate. R

Please see the link to the picture and words on the page following the link. Can anyone shed any more light on the exact role of the vehicle? I know that in Canada there was a modified M113 for EOD work with a high powered weapon to detonate UXBs, is this the same intent? http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=80&Itemid=116 R

those of us in the colonies cant view it, its blocked. wah wah waaahh R

As always Clive, a text book response. As usual, thank you sir. R

Dear all, We are getting ready to go to an MV event this coming weekend. We would like to add some "bling" to our Bedford cargo that has a van body dropped on it, hence we call it a gin palace. We know where and what it should have for it's registration markings. The Union flag has a couple of places that are common front and rear. The marking that is the issue is a bridge classification. Our vehicle is in the overall matt green scheme and we would like to add a grey circle on the front with a weight number in it. I have done some internet picture searches and found that so many of these vehicles did not carry anything, there just isnt anything for me to reference as to placement of what number should go in the circle. As is quite often the case, i'm confused! I had thought that it was a de-rigeur marking but am being proven horribly wrong so far by the evidence to hand. It appears far more common are hazmat placards and the occassional tac sign on a door or a loading weight template in the black rectangle. Some one must have some gen? Robin

nice, thanks Andy R

Bah Humbug, I don't do Facebook, it will likely take an AEC Matador or a Foden to drag me onto that electronic web of . . . .... R

Cosrec, BATUS is British Army Training Unit Suffield Suffiled is in Alberta Canada. There is a large training area out here and the vehicles get sent by sea from Marchwood, yours went through Montreal, Quebec and then would have been put on a train for the trip out west. Every year there is a train loaded out at Suffield and sent to a port full of vehicles, A + B types that are to go back to the UK. Usually the new vehicles arrive on a ship and they are used to drag / push / pull the vehicles on the train off and load them to the ship. The new vehicles then get loaded onto the train and sent out to Suffield. The workshops at Suffield does a massive winter rework of vehicles in quite some depth. It is only the kit that is beyond repair or CAST but are not to be sold in Canada locally that go on the train. It is quite the sight to behold. Robin

Tonight we tackled the last remaining problem in getting a safety (MOT for you UK folks) done prior to the new owner taking delivery of 02DA45. In our province, Ontario, when a vehicle is purchased, prior to it gaining a registration, a safety check is required to be performed and signed off on by a mechanic who holds papers in this province. I feel it is a good rule, the vehicles being held to the standards of the time of manufacture not present day. Anyhow, i'm loosing the plot a bit. With the right steering relay unit loosing oil at a reasonable rate, it was a fail for the safety, so it had to be dealt with. I consulted with a number of people while preparing to tackle it, I would like to thank, Dan Sicotte and Bill Mullholland for their learned advice. The splined shaft that connects to Pitman arm is where the leak was coming from. When we took the arm off the splines fluid poured out and the perished remains of an o ring came off. We approached the problem by tackling two fronts. First, after Bill told us about the retrofit lip seals some of them have which this one did not have, we went the O ring path. After looking at the width of the washers and the width of the bushing surface from which a leak could come from we decided to use two o rings, a smaller one snug to the splines and a larger one outside of that, two circles one inside the other. Then because of how we had seen oil coming out from the splines themselves, we used pipe dope in the splines. The washers were cleaned and a couple replaced and back on with the arm and the castellated nut and a new split pin and then back together at the tie rod below. After at least half an hour there was no sign of oil and the vehicle was rolled back onto some dry floor for a visual in the morning. Quite a simple fix really, not rocket science. Hope this helps someone R

From my scale modeling days, I used what we know this side of the pond as Easy Off lemon scented NON heat activated oven cleaner. Spraying that on any dry plastic with paint on it would remove paint, in layers if required and not affect the plastic in any way, coloured or clear plastic. If left for about half an hour and then rinsed with a tooth brush, then repeat once plastic is dry. Hope you can find a similar product in the UK. R

Run away, quickly, I can hear the sucking vortex of the cash machine dolling out money constantly . . don't, please, something British at least Andy. Wonder if it will run for more than 3 minutes:nut:????? R

Just to cap it off on this thread, yes this vehicle is in our collection, in case you had not connected the dots. R

If you revisit the first post in the thread you will know that I was not the nut behind the bolt. I would suggest that hard turns in pure loose sand are a bad thing and the mess I had to deal with would be the proof. I am being told by the powers that be " well how does the army run theirs in the desert" to which my reply was " with a darn sight more care", that retort had all the aerodynamics of a lead filled balloon as might be expected. I guess time will tell if the lesson is learned, likely we will be visiting the scene of the crime again in the future with another tracked vehicle, at least that is the bet I have in my shop with my lads. There seems to be a direct relationship between lessons learned and skinned knuckles. Others dont get their knuckles skinned so maybe that is the problem? "A nod is as good as a wink to a blind man" R

I have to tell you that the track was as near as welded in that position. We then elected to split the idler wheel and then few love taps an the track dropped back into its proper position. We then broke track or split the track which ever is your parlance. The usual gearbox shaft trickery was performed and the vehicle was A bar towed back to our shop for evaluation of the idler and it's true running, that will happen in the next few days. Here is the underside of the sponson showing the point of contact between the rubber and the hull R

Not so bad you might say, but closer examination showed this, the link was jammed solid between the sponson and the idler wheel with the rubber in the pad being considerably compressed. R

So, here is what we were dealing with, or what we thought, a track that was about to throw itself off on the right side. A few pieces of hardwood and a sledge is what we thought is all it would take to slide the track across the metal idler and drop the guide horns back into place and voila. A few generous encouraging taps with a sledge proved that while the track would move sideways it would only go so far. So we pulled the track shroud off and found this. R

Just got indoors tonight. way too much fun for the two of us involved. Remember, I was not the driver at the time nor was I anywhere near it, i'm just the civvy "REME LAD" for the collection I manage. At times I feel that those that screw up should put the sweat equity in at the fixing end so that they might learn a lesson or two Vehicle is back in the shop, doors closed, minus one track which languishes outside. Full survey of damage too follow tuesday. Full blow by blow account and pictures to support said wordage after I have had my tea which my lady has just gone out shopping for, macaroni and cheese tonight, mmmm. At this time I would like to say a big thank you to Sirhc aka Chris and Reccymech and Marcus Glenn and all the others who have chimed in. Just let it be said that it was more complex than anyone had envisaged and the biggest problem we faced has not been mentioned by anyone. I'm headed to the shower and then my carpet slippers and some comfy clean clothes! Robin

After some email exchanges with a few of you and some other sage souls I have resolved as follows:- - relieve track tension and slap track so that horns drop into idler - split track - A bar vehicle back to shop. Reasons:- - no wish to split and short track in the field, just a pile of grunt work I don't need. - road wheels can support vehicle 2 kilometres back to shop over good ground - no wish to cause any more damage to rear idler spindle as we may get away with new bearings and seals - heavy kit available to effect recovery The only question that remains - should we pull the drive shaft out of the left drive sprocket given we will be going 5 kmh or less to the shop - fear is gearbox damage if not removed Robin

You do know that some of the Rapier AD units had US ties? That might make for some interesting peculiar kit carried by them. R

Do you have the Dowty water jets to go back in? I will never forget swimming a Stolly out here in Canada, truly something to say one has done for the bucket list in my book. I feel I can say that as I near a significant age . . . R