ArtistsRifles

Nice sunshine today and Toby our dog was in the vets for IV treatment so I cracked on with the Landie, press ganging the daughter Mk 1 and the boyfriend Mk IV into service. And at the end of the day we achieved 3 things: 1) The brakes are now bled. First I found a leak on the drivers side - one of the unions into the cylinder needed nipping up. But in the end the system was bled as best as possible given the facilities available in a front garden. Pedal is not wonderful but enough to stop her.. So I will get her booked in for an MoT and tell the garage about the brakes - getting them to bleed using their system if necessary. Just need to finalise the adjusters now. 2) She is now sitting on tubeless rims. These still need finishing off with paint in a couple of places and looking at the ones that came off - it seems I have 4 x SWB and 1 x LWB So the question now is this - do I replace the 4 SWB rims with the correct LWB ones Or just accept the SWB ones and merely replace the LWB spare with with a SWB rim?? Decisions, decisions...... 3) I've totally fooked my back up somehow. Moving is agony!!!

Mine just has a handle made from a length of square section steel. At one end is welded another length of square section steel to act as a handle whilst at the other end the square plug to fit into the jack socket is welded on.

Day started out nice so I cracked on with the brakes - this time in re-assembly mode. And as might be expected it wasn't as simple as it should have been. First off none of the part numbers on the cylinders matched up with the ones shown in the ISPL It took 3 attempts at positioning them to get them right.. Then the pre-formed connecting pipe that links the two cylinders was found to be the wrong profile (Britpart - need I say more...) and both sides had to be reworked to clear the bottom of the front suspension/knuckle. Even now I am not sure they aren't going to rub as the bend radius was just not tight enough or close enough to the union. The link from the flexi-hose to the top cylinder was supplied un-formed so it took a little bit of careful hand bending to try to match the profile of the old ones. But in time all the cylinders were in place with the lines connected and bleed nipples fitted. The actual fitting of the shoes was a lot less fraught than anticipated - although I did manage to acquire a chronic back ache from heaving on a long screwdriver to get the fixed ends to slot in against the return springs. Compared to the UAZ they were easy though And the drums slipped back one first time - no need for fine adjusting the shoes with a hammer I'd just got them one when the weather changed and the rain started again - and hasn't stopped since. So right now the Landie is still up on the jacks and needs the brakes bled and adjusted until either the daughter Mk1 or the boyfriend Mk IV is free to help me. On the topic of adjusting them - there is one more problem. The front adjuster on the drivers side has frozen solid. Looks like it has done this in the past as the hex-head is starting to round off - right now it is soaked in 3in1 oil to try and free it up. Finger crossed. Unfortunately the rain put paid to any chance of finishing off painting the new wheels.

Nice sunshine today - total contrast to yesterday so I finished stripping out the wheel cylinders on the passenger side. Both the top rigid lines had to be cut to get a ring spanner on the unions - that got the top cylinder off but the bleed nipple in the bottom was so corroded in place that it actually sheared off rather than undo. Luckily they are all new cylinders going on!!! Cleaned all the crap off the back plate so it is ready for reassembly and squirted the snail cams with WS40 again - although I think some 3 in 1 might work better. Just finished packing all the tools away when a package from Paddocks arrived with the new rigid brake lines in. That is now stored for tomorrow. This afternoon as it was nice and hot I broke out the paint and thinners out and gave the new tubeless rims their first coat of NATO green on the inside faces. SO - if we get the same weather tomorrow (fingers crossed) I will give the rims their second coat on the inner face and first coat on the front face then whilst that is drying out I will re-assemble the front brakes. Progress at last, that will then just leave the fun of trying to bleed them!!

Rain stopped the play today.... I was planning on getting the wheel cylinders out of the passenger side, cleaning both back plates up and making sure the snail cams were all working OK. Instead it rained and rained. I managed in the one break we had to get the replacement wheels out of the back of the RangeRover and transferred through into the back garden for painting. Next dry spell will see them getting a coat of NATO green paint so they can dry thoroughly before being fitted. After the rain started again I was feeling a bit peeved and suddenly remembered I needed to rebuild the heater blower. Readers will recall that on the 5th Feb I posted the pictures of the reworked RHD blower casing so I got that out together with the donor unit - a brand new LHD unit. I drilled out the rivets on the resistor unit and unscrewed the fan and control pack from the LDH one and fitted these into the the RHD, riveting the resistor and cardboard cover back into place as before. This is now ready to be fitted to the vehicle. - spare will have to come off the bonnet and and the bonnet propped up in the vertical to give the access but at long last I will have a heater blower to at least try and demist the screen. :) Assuming of course I am not jinxed and the LHD fan doesn't suck the air out of the cab and blow it out of the wing vent!!

Thanks for the links Iain - they are very useful!! :) And I'd certainly be interested in the ANR boxes - which ones do you have??

Working from memory - I was thinking a mounting board supported by brackets that are held by the bolts that hold the two cab halves together - mounted centrally on the rear wall and either hanging down and held off at the bottom by rubber feet or above the union and with another pair of brackets bolted through the cab wall. Board would be big enough to hold the IB3, ICB2 and perhaps an isolator switch. Obviously a more detailed plan can be drawn up once I have the old girl in its store and have the time to look and measure. Looking on eBay right now - there is not a lot going in the ANR range although one seller is knocking out installation sets for £90 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLANSMAN-MILITARY-Vehicle-ANR-INTERCOM-HARNESS-SYSTEM-IB3-main-unit-and-2-x-CB-2-/311376195145?hash=item487f77ae49:m:mbDsdKHD_iFf8D1pYaZwEig Says it is for a two user set-up - but has 2 x ICB3 boxes? No headsets or PTT switches - there is another seller who has the green PPT switches but there is a lack of ANR headsets currently.

And the work goes on.... Had to shoot out this morning to pick up 5 Defender rims (tubeless) with nearly new tyres on to get around the puncture situation + a replacement tyre for the one that got fooked on the motorway coming home from the NEC. So I didn't get to start work till got 13:30. Anyway - got the front jacked up again and the drivers side wheel off then started to remove the hub. First two screws came out fine - screw #3 would not budge - must have spent nearly an hour trying to shift it Tried an impact driver but that didn't work. Tried the screw driver in the slot and giving the handle an almighty whack. That didn't work, Tried punching it around. That didn't work at which point due to a lack of sleep and other factors the fuse blew and I lost my rag.... Grabbed a drill and some bits and started drilling the screw out thinking I could suffer the loss of 1 out of 3 screws,. I had just worked up to a 6.5mm when the drill stuck, As I twisted the check in reverse to free it I noticed the screw move too - so out came the screw driver again and the screw came out easy as anything. I can only assume the heat and vibration of the drills had done the trick. New screw on order - screw itself £0.16, Postage £5.00. Go figure.... This is the way the screw ended up: With the drum off the shoes cam off fairly quickly although as yet I am not sure how the hell I am going to put the return springs back on when I reassemble the system. All the cylinder retaining nuts came off fairly easily as did two of the three rigid line connectors. Third would not budge with an open jaw spanner so I cut the line as I have new ones on order and slipped a ring spanner over - that freed it that so in a short space of time the cylinders were out too. I just need to clean up the back plates and make sure the snail cams are free to move and the drivers side is ready to reassemble. I also replaced the flexi hose so that is ready to be connected to the rigid lines when they arrive.

Started stripping the passenger side front brake down today. Got the shoes off and the cylinder retaining nuts loosened, one of the three rigid line connectors undone and the new flexi-pipe fitted. Unfortunately the remaining two rigid line connectors and the bleed nipple have been so badly rounded in the past they cannot be undone. So I have ordered new rigid lines from Paddocks - their web site indicates a 1.2 rday lead time on these items so probably the middle of the week before I can finish the job. I also cleaned the inside of the drum with WD 40 and then brake cleaners so it is ready to go back on. If the weather is good tomorrow then after I get back from picking up the tubeless rims and tyres I will strip the drivers side down so that too is ready for the new rigid lines, I am guessing if one side is bad the other will be too. Interestingly on mine the cylinders are in the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions - but in the parts manuals - Civilian and Military - they are shown at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions - which actually seems to make more sense as on mine the lower rigid union of the connecting line is virtually hard up against the bottom of the front knuckle and cannot be removed with the cylinder in position. Any one else happen know how their wheel cylinders are aligned???

I was looking on eBay last night David - the ANR boxes and headsets that I found were between 1.5 and 2x the price of normal one. Cost will be a big factor for me - and I also want to investigate a rear view camera set-up as I know from experience reversing one of these old girls is not a solo job. Interesting you did that Andy - did you feel the back-gound noise was too much on normal boxes?? Good work on the 352 - is that a TUAAM box in the middle now?? How is the old girl running these days?? I hope she is behaving herself

Kind of what I was thinking... Back in the day (early Seventies) we used to wear industrial ear defenders linked by a motorbike intercom because as a transport unit access to Clansman gear of any sort was virtually impossible. As was conversation in the cab inc. map directions from the co-driver The Stollys could be rigged as FFR so there was a 28v take off point beside the commanders seat on little Maud which was used to power the intercom on her. Obviously the Militant won't have such a pre-wired take off point and I'd be loath to take a power supply direct from the batteries - if nothing else it means the intercom would be permanently live so any issues would result in dead batteries - and bump starting a knocker is, literally, a non-starter :shocked: So my thoughts were to have a detailed look at a wiring diagram to see where I could take a switched power supply from. At first glance it might be possible to use the inspection lamp socket on the distribution box to feed the intercom system - all one needs to do is pull the plug on leaving the vehicle - no flat battery!! Failing that - rigging a master isolating switch in the feed circuit of the batteries might be an answer. I think the standard IB3 + ICB2 set up would suffice - no need for the ANR version.

Thinking out loud a moment - a dangerous occupation I know - have any other Militant owners considered fitting a Clansman intercom in the cab?? As I recall cab noise was like, or worse, than that in a Stolly whilst driving making normal conversations with the co-driver borderline impossible. The Militant is 24v so should be OK electrically. If you have done it - how did you go about it - i.e where did you spur off the power supply. If not - is there any reason why not?? As I will be stripping things down for repairs etc it seems a good time to think about doing such a thing. :-)

Finally got around to fitting the new speed n a dry spell a few days agao. Usual nightmare job trying to access the nuts holding the speedo retaining bracket in place - obviously the Russians had never heard of thumb wheels but finally got the seized unit out. Went to refit the new one and found a major problem. The fittings for the panel light and high beam warning light were different sizes to the old one. Damn!!! Now I have to try and get hold of the right size bulb holders..... :cry: Old speedo head New speedo head

Finally the rain shows signs of going away and the front garden has dried out enough to take the weight of a jack so the other day I had the front up A casual glance showed signs of fluid staining on the N/S/F wheel so that one came off first and I hit the jackpot. Piston seals have gone and the whole thing was smothered in brake fluid. The last of the parts arrived today - consensus over on EMRLA was to change the flexi-hoses as the same times as they are an unknown quantity age-wise I cant help thinking though the Craddocks packing was a bit OTT! :shocked: If the weather holds over the weekend I will be replacing the brakes on Saturday and then on Sunday picking up a set of 5 tubeless rims with tyres to stop this problem of recurring tube failures.

Finally the rain shows signs of going away and the front garden has dried out enough to take the weight of a jack so the other day I had the front up A casual glance showed signs of fluid staining on the N/S/F wheel so that one came off first and I hit the jackpot. Piston seals have gone and the whole thing was smothered in brake fluid. The last of the parts arrived today - consensus over on EMRLA was to change the flexi-hoses as the same times as they are an unknown quantity age-wise I cant help thinking though the Craddocks packing was a bit OTT! :shocked: If the weather holds over the weekend I will be replacing the brakes on Saturday and then on Sunday picking up a set of 5 tubeless rims with tyres to stop this problem of recurring tube failures.

Any headset really!! Which then raises the question of how to wire military headsets - normal or ANR - into a civvie radio too

I am struggling with the concept of listening to a radio inside an FFR Landie travelling at any speed!! :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:

Many thanks - got the 1200mm one @ £30 saved on watch on evilbay :-) 25 days to run so should be OK

I used it a couple of years back on one of my Landrovers fuel tanks. I bought it off e-bay and when it was filled it turned out that at around the half tank mark it leaked like a sieve. Make sure the tank is thoroughly dried after washing and cleaning - I had mine in the kitchen in the warm to dry it out for two complete days before plugging all the external holes (remove drain plug too) and using the dealing liquid. Touch wood it is still dry as a bone.

Oh - the biceps I remember from the 1970's - and the sore hand from knocking the handbrake off - and the aching leg from standing on the throttle pedal. Haven't got the luxury of the hand throttle our tippers used to have! Do get the bonus of 6x6 and low ratio though :-) :-)

Many thanks :-) Could be a worth while upgrade!! Found this site whilst looking for 24v LED bulbs - seems to be quite good: http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/24V-LED-Truck-Bulbs/ Goof progress - and I am still 4 weeks away from picking the old girl up :) Definitely getting itchy fingers right now......

The LED bulbs are good idea - esp,. for the rear lights! I am guessing that they are the same bulb on the Militant as the RL. Probably good for the front too. Think I will consider this as an option too. For night times - anyone got any thoughts on improving the light output from the head lamps? I seem to remember they were not too great - light output was barely adequate even at 30.

Managed to hang on the ones I was issued for 9 years Just a well because the QMS asked for them back when I got hit with the P8 discharge :-)

Do you mean NATO hitches as fitted to British equipment - or across the board of all NATO countries?? If just British then Clive's answer is spot on (as usual ) - 3 types differed by load rating. If across the board that is a whole big can of worms as each country had different types. The hitch on the front of my Landie is a US one - looks like a D-B one, as on the rear, but has no swivel capability. US forces had two types for each load rating - fixed or swivel as I understand it. And of course - all the other NATO countries would have their own standards which would look passingly like a D-B, function defining form after all, but in reality totally different.

The Mk 1 tops out at about 30 to 32 mph Iain. Very slow by modern standards and it takes a while to get there too. So anything that reduces the risk of being rear-ended by someone who thinks it will pick up speed faster and generally go faster has to be a good thing. Modern drivers aren't - it seems - taught to make allowances for this type of vehicle. I saw what happens when cars argue with Militants back in the Seventies - the car always loses and only the other year we had the case where a slow moving MV - a Scammell I think - was rear ended by an artic whilst enroute home from a show. So anything that reduces the risk of either type of collision has to be good - I'd rather go the extra mile in the warnings dept and have the peace of mind of knowing I've done all I possibly can to avoid rear end collisions.