eddy8men

while still serving I picked up a ser 3 landrover from another unit and drove it 80 miles back to my unit. it had been inspected by the wksp and was declared roadworthy. although the steering felt vague I wasn't overly worried (it's a landrover) it wasn't until travelling downhill at speed to a roundabout under heavy braking that a slight fault showed itself. one side of the track rod was not connected so the right wheel was free to do it's own thing :-D which was go right on full lock I put full left lock on and it came to a halt with a bit of a squeal and the smell of burning rubber with both wheels pointing in different directions. no harm was done just a large skid mark left on the road and another one in my boxers. I cracked on at a slightly more sedate pace using engine braking and got back to the unit without anymore dramas still with the track rod disconnected.

pete without your help on the project we would not have made it to the show, I owe you a beer or two. it's been a real slog but we got there in the end. cheers rick

nice one shaun, I don't think we'll have time to get the markings on. I've not even decided what to name the tank or what unit it should be. any suggestions ?

alastair the hole is to enable the main gun to be removed without having to take the turret off. sorry to anyone that I don't reply too please don't think i'm being ignorant, i'm just ridiculously busy trying to get it ready to go to w&p but whatever it looks like it's getting loaded and going down on Monday :nut:

not updated for a while as I've been too busy but we are finally getting there, today was a good day the turret was fitted and the main gun put into position although the cradle has not been fitted yet, that will be tomorrows job. roll on w&p

really looking forward to getting down there with the Cromwell :thumbsup:

amazing work

nice pic Adrian and thanks for posting up the info on the cowl.

cheers kev i appreciate the support and i have to agree, if you want a piece of tracked ww2 armour it represents a good investment, so good infact that it is now sold i'd love to drive it one day but that's up to the new owner. rick

your not slow alastair, it's just the rest of us are faster to be honest the t16 is quite an easy restoration due to parts availability whereas the loyd carrier is a little rarer (actually it's a lot rarer).

the t16 is finally ready for sale and will be going on milweb tonight. the engine will require a rebuild but it could be done in time for w&p :cool2:

hi tobin thanks for the offer of the 24 stud, I'm always interested in getting hold of another, although to be honest I had planned on selling the carrier with a project engine that will require rebuild but if you have a decent(ish) flathead that could be made to run without any serious work then that would make more sense. let me know what you want for it. cheers rick

thanks for the info on the sumps. keep your eye open for my t16 thread as i'll get some pics up of the t16 next week.

looking good mate but I have a question for you, I noticed the sump you have is different to a carrier one, I only noticed as I fitted my 24 stud to the t16 on Friday and it also had the same sump and I had to change it before I could mount the gearbox. is it specific to loyds ?

hi paul the first pic shows the lower hull number which is stamped on the horizontal angle iron that runs across the engine bulkhead behind the commander or at least it was on mine. my hull number is just like the one you've shown but is a little earlier (CB 874). the data plate on the early carriers was made from brass and mounted on the rhf mudguard the later carriers had it stamped on the top of the drivers armour and I've also heard of it being on the angle iron that runs across the back between the lhr mudguard and the vertical armour plate but I can't say for sure as vI've not seen it there myself. from what I've seen it looks right. good luck with the deal.

hey mike if it was easy we'd all have acmat's good luck with the resto rick

looks like a nice job mate

i've got the right size rivets and gun mate, you should have said you needed them when you came over today. rick

we had a gearbox oil leak that showed itself once we had run the engine up a few times. i had hoped it would go away but if anything it seemed to get worse so the decision was made to pull the box and change the input seal. the box came out without too much trouble yesterday but on inspection the leak was not down to the input seal but had come thru 3 drillings on the input flange ,these bypassed the seal which was a little perplexing as why have an oil seal if the oil is free to flow passed it, after a bit of head scratching we looked at the clutch shaft and found the answer. the holes are there to allow a small amount of oil to pass thru and lubricate the bearings that support the splined shaft coupling and it was infact the seal at the rear of the coupling which is buried deep in the clutch which had failed. the new seal will be fitted on monday and the box can go back in. the first pic shows the gearbox lying on it's back with the input flange shown, you can see the 3 bypass holes. the second pic shows the clutch shaft with 3 holes to accept the oil. the third pic shows the other end of the clutch shaft with the offending leather oil seal removed. the fourth pic shows the the clutch shaft, the splned shaft coupling fits over this shaft. the other pics show the brake drum and muff coupling

kevin i'd be happy with a deac main gun never mind a live one but at this rate if i don't come up with something soon i'll end up with a bloody lamp post sticking out the mantlet. chris thanks for the offer of help, i need the 7.92mm besa cheers rick

john it wasn't too bad as i cut off the blanking plate myself with a stihl saw, the only expense was a couple of cutting discs and a couple of hours of graft. it was interesting to note that the weld hadn't penetrated/fused very well. once i got a cut big enough for a chisel i could peel the weld off although i did use a sledge hammer and a bit more general grinding and mauling. alastair the besa's are a rare beast and quite expensive, the last one i saw on milweb was £2k although i have seen them for £800 before now. i would like a couple of originals but i'll have to settle for a repro barrel so it will at least look right externally. rick

i too look forward to seeing your cromwell, if the level of interest and attention to detail you have shown so far is anything to go by then it will be something special. rick

not sure if you already know or not but the swing arms on the cavalier were shorter than on the cromwell/centaur. alastair the turret is coming along nicely and will be ready soon but i'm in no rush to fit it as it will only make life harder when it comes to getting in and out of the tank. i have a couple of leads on the main gun but nothing i can lay my hands on yet. rick

the tent is actually in the background and not on the tank but the pic does make it look like a REME ARV complete with penthouse. it takes me back to my days on the barrow (434). when the grunts were roughing it in trenches we had bunk beds, cooker, stereo, heater, quality porn stash. (living the dream) :-D andy thanks for posting up the footage. rick

got a call from andy (ferretkit) to let me know he was at bob's yard and the cromwell was driving around, so if andy or pete took any pics/video could you post them up for us to have a look at. cheers rick