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Send me a reminder before Beltring and I'll try and remember to bring you a copy. Chris

Andy, EMER V627 Mod Instruction No. 79 states: Sub Title: Mounting M.G. L37A1 1. Introduction In order to standardise weapons in certain infantry batallions, the mounting 7.62mm, GPMG, No. 6 Mk 1 wll replace the existing mounting .30 Browining, No. 4, Mk. 2 4. Vehicles affected: Only vehicles selected under GS(OR)17 authority are to be modified. After modification the vehicle mark is to be annotated GPMG eg Mk 2/3 (GPMG) The mod instruction is 8 pages long, I have issue 2 dated Sep 70. Chris

Monty, 96BA67 is the UK MoD registration number. I suggest you get in touch with the Tank Museum Library (http://www.tankmuseum.org/) and get hold of the history card. This will show when it was sold off, and who to. I would guess it would have been sold to the conversion company, so should tie up some loose ends! Chris

That's this one, which was owned by Gordon Wilson. Who now owns 12KK33? Chris

Having had a think about this, it may have something to do with the Scorpions Marcus Glenn had too...

Robin, This is interesting. The UK 'Operational and Technical Support Centre' is 1.3 miles from my office! I agree, the photos look like Jacksons. Chris

Lewis, I'm glad to hear it's running better now. Will you be bringing it to Beltring? If you do, don't leave it parked anywhere near Vince, he's very keen on taking Spartans apart at that particular show! Chris

Hi Monty, That's Andy's Saladin, and Andy's leak! We were down in London doing the Household Cavalry Pagent at the time. Chris

Lewis, The J60 will struggle to run nicely untill it's warm, getting in a cvrt when it's cold and expecting to pull away like in a car won't happen. You need to warm the engine up first, there should be a wing nut on the throttle linkage so you can set the revs with the pedal and lock it off. A couple of minutes at around 1500rpm should do the trick. The idle should be around 600rpm as Vince said, the cluch kicks in at around 850rpm. I do have a manual somewhere which has the tuning instructions, but it's the same as a Ferret. From memory... you need to do it with a warm engine, screw in both mixture screws and screw them out 1.5 turns and then screw them in untill engine speed increases. You need to make sure you adjust both mixture screws by exactly the same ammount. I tuned up the Spartan as it was running a bit rich, it now idles at 600rpm and you can hear the generator louder than the engine. The engine in the Sabre is exactly as it came out of the crate, it was a factory re-con and ran perfectly straight out of the box. I hope this helps, Chris

:cool2:

I think you should try and find the proper track kit, each one of the items has a use. Green Machine Surplus have some of the bits. I find it easiest to split the track between the first wheel and the sprocket. When you put it back together, clamp it up with the track clamp over 2 links. Insert the long drift from the rear (not a pin) and then use the crow bar to align the bushes. If they are not lined up you'll spend all day trying to hammer the pin in. I put the nut on the outside of the pin and then drive it home with a dead blow hammer so as not to damage the threads. See attached image for details of lining up the bushes. Chris

Lewis, Send a PM to 84KB11 and cross your fingers.... http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/member.php?722-84KB11 Have you got your track split? There is a nack to getting it back together... Chris

There's going to be a whole load more soon. I believe Withams have between 200 and 400 to get rid of.

Marty, One of these manuals should have the answer! http://www.pedros.cz/m38.php Chris

Mike, When an old engine has been running on leaded fuel for a long time, there will be sufficient lead deposited on the valve seats for it to continue to work without any problems untill the lead wears away. The lead protects the valve seats from wearing away, and once it's gone you lose the protection. Some engines, such as the B series in the Ferret were designed to run on poor quality fuel, so harder valve seats were fitted as standard. If you don't know the history of an old engine, I would recommend that you use a lead addative. I use Castrol Valvemaster. One thing to remember is that the different addatives can react with each other, once you start using one you must keep using it. That's why I chose the Castrol one, I am fairly confident they are going to keep making it. Other addatives from smaller compaines may not be as easy to find in 20 years time. If you hadn't realised by now, these catalysts do not work. They do nothing to the fuel, they don't make it last longer, they don't add lead and they don't improve fuel economy. The only thing they do is take money out of your wallet and put it in the pocket of a con man. Please see the extract below from Wikipedia for more details on why lead was added to fuel: Chris

afvnut, are you missing the traverse gearbox? I may be able to help. Chris

I think thats says it all really! There are cheaper ways to put some lumps of scrap in your fuel tank, I am looking at some scrap right now you can have for free!

http://fuelcatisascam.selfip.com/fuelcat.html

I haven't seen any around for a while, if you're desperate try the AFV society or Marcus Glenn.

These are standard items, you'll find 2 of them in most CVR(T)s (except the ones with turrets) FV432s etc. Chris

You should be able to get a Series 3 109 FFR for that, check ebay regularly. This place in Leeds have loads of them if you fancy a project... http://halfwayelv.co.uk/ Chris

Hi Mark, The easiest way to remove the Fox gearbox is to lift the turret out the way. Not having a crane big enough, we had to do it the hard way. This involves removing everything from the fighting compartment by taking it to bits and passing it out the front hatch. This is a nightmare job, so don't do it unless you have to. The Fox flywheel tool is similar to the Ferret one, but longer. Marcus Glenn did have them, it would be worth asking him first. If you can't find one there are several Fox owners down your end of the country, perhaps one of them will lend you the correct tool. You need to remove the panel on the floor at the rear of the fighting compartment to reveal the flywheel. If the engine needs moving to line up the plug with the hole you can turn it slowly with a screwdriver on the flywheel. It's possiible that the fluid level is a bit low, so you need a lot of revs to get it to start moving, but once it's rolling you are not noticing the slipping quite to much. It should pull of quickly in second gear, I can usually beat people off the lights in a Fox! If the flywheel oil level is ok I suggest you pump the gear change pedal 30 times in the gears which are causing you a problem. If you still have no joy, then you need to start removing floor plates under the turret basket to get to the gearbox and remove the top cover for a look. You'll need to park the vehicle somewhere where you can spin the turret before doing any of this, because you'll probably want to move it backwards and forwards and round and round several times to try and get best access to the bits you need to see, the inside of a Fox is very crampt when you're trying to look at anything under the panels! Chris

Robin, 9ACR = FV432 Chris

A Ferret with a diesel in just wouldn't sound right either.

Hi Monty, Just like your Saracen, this is just a hobby for us. I get bored easily and I need something to do at the weekends! After we put all the time and effort into restoring something it becomes difficult to sell it, hence why we ended up with a bit of a collection. The Bedford was a challenge, but when we couldn't find what we wanted we had no choice but to build it. I'm looking forward to seeing some video of your Saracen when you get it up and running. Cheers, Chris