sirhc

Was the prop shaft fitted to the Pig when you drove it/bought it? It sounds like the axle was u/s so the prop shaft was removed to hide it. I don't know what you can do about it now, it was sold as seen with no warranty some time ago. Best of luck with finding the parts to repair it. Chris

I think you need to join the Austin Champ owners club and/or the Yahoo forum. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AustinChamp/

Rick, We did this job, it is possible to disconnect the top joint, swing the hub out the way, replace the gaiter and then reconnect it, but we found it much easier to take it all to bits in the logical order and then put it back in reverse. Start at the front, undo everything in order and you can't go too far wrong. We did have a problem getting the brakes to bleed after doing this so you might want to replace the cylinders etc while you've got it all to bits. You can use Series 3 LWB (I think) front cylinders but you have to modify them slightly by grinding a lug off. Chris

Does it say 1965 or 1985?

I can't see why you are making such a big issue out of this. All I did was state which book they had been published in. I never made a comment about theft, copyright or anything else. I didn't contact anyone asking for them to be removed. You seem to have a bee in your bonnet for some reason and I seem to be the target of your aggression. From the way you have reacted it's as if I have spoilt the illusion that they were your photos!

This is like saying if you steal a car that's ok as long as nobody knows where it came from and nobody misses it.

Howard, Andy is here: http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/member.php?u=488 Ramco is here: http://www.ramco.co.uk Chris

Howard, Andy who is on this forum has a restored Mk 6 in Derby, which isn't too far away. There's also one at Ramco in Skegness. Chris

Yep, we have a way to go yet before you've posted all the pics from Land Rovers in the Gulf by Bob Morrison!

Hi Mark, The photos weren't taken by me, they were taking for me by someone working out there. They managed to get one of the Scorpions running! It's in a tank park with loads of stuff, Chieftains, T55s etc. The US Army are planning on destroying it all, which is a shame. I have some more, I'll post them when I get home. Chris

Those Iranian Scorpions are still in Iraq, in the desert. Photos taken near Basra airport last year. Chris

Lee is right, you can't beat the paper copy. You have to remember when pricing up manuals that most of these CVRT manuals are very thick, I have some parts lists that are well over 500 pages. It takes a lot of time to sit and copy 500 pages when there's an A3 fold out every couple of sheets. How much would it cost you to do that at a local photocopying place? Quite a lot at 10p a sheet. On top of this, you have to way up the costs of not having the manuals. What's the cost of putting the wrong oil in the brakes? Lee knows how much it costs to sort that on a Fox! What about if you had an accident, and ran someone over? £125 seems cheap then! Chris

Rick, Champs were BE, starting at 00BE01 for WN1-0001 up to WN1-10000 when they changed to BF. Chris

Sounds like it's 60BE61.

Rick, What does it say on the V5, or is it not registered? It should say WN1-xxxx, if you take the xxxx and put BE (or BF) in the middle of the 4 numbers you'll have the army reg. Chris

During my travels locating CVRT parts I came accross several people breaking them for spares. The left over bare hulls were always a problem. I know one guy who sold one to a scrap dealer who tried to crush it. The machine was pretty much wrecked but the hull survived. They ended up buying a massive generator and using a plasma cutter. Another scrap dealer who had CVRTs was cutting them up with a gas axe, which was fairly quick, however the weeks of work stripping everything else off first is what cost the money. At least with a Sherman it's a well known shape, if one did turn up in a scrap yard I think the chances are fairly high that it would be put up for sale for a stuipd ammount of money rather than being cut up. Chris

That was me, and I've ran out of beer now :-D Chris

I'm having this problem sometimes, it's due to the pictures timing out. If you press refresh, or F5, then they should load. If you're getting the little box with the red cross, you can right click on it and select show picture.

Vince, It looks like the sprockets and idlers are the early pattern ones. These rear idlers are a bad idea, as if the rubber fails the track can come off. The early sprockets are also a problem because the mud can't escape. Chris

Stefano, It's a red W on a light green and dark green background, so it sounds like you're right? Chris

In the mean time we had measured Rippo's truck and got an idea of what wood we needed. Just before Christmas this was delivered, so we could get started over the holiday. The repro tray was removed from the 'good' truck and we began work constructing the hardwood framework. Once the metal work was blasted we used the old wooden planks as templates and drilled through all the holes. Yesterday afternoon we began reassembling the new sides. The edges were all primed beforehand to help protect the wood. We have also made new corner pieces, including the metal angle brackets. The wheel arches are also all cut and drilled, once we get some sheet steel these can be assmbled and added to the done pile. That's it so far! Chris

I haven't updated this in a while, so I thought I'd put up some photos. The second MW was collected in November and I towed it off the transporter into Andys field. First of all we photographed everything, this truck went straight to the scrap yard from Ruddington, so everything was very original. We decided to replace all the wood, using what we could for patterns. We took it to bits over Christmas. The sides and front of the body were photographed before all the metal work was removed. We cut some batons out of wood and nailed it all together before doing this, so we knew what went where. All the metal work was then blasted and primed. Does anyone recognise the markings on the tailgate?

Lee, The Jordanians are good at re-engineering stuff, have a look here... http://www.kaddb.com/static/project9.shtm Chris

Yes, they were swapped to 4 pot ones a long time ago.

It's a Jordanian Scorpion, with a new gun. These were bought from Belgium. Chris