iannima

Found another one :police:: Polish paratroopers. Notice the NOTEK light on the left wing, also to be seen on some NVA vehicles.

Uh nice :clap: May I ask details of its history? How did it come to the country? Where did you buy it?

Thank you for the tip. I must confess I would not know myself how to do that kind of job, nor do I know anybody who could do it for me. If it were 50 quid, I would give it a go, but for over £100 and given the luck that I have had, so far, I am reluctant to risk it. For the price I have been quoted, I would send the distributor to them, and they will do everything except the actual fitting on the engine. I have not decided yet. The first priority is to get the engine to fire again on another radio screened DDR distributor whose back plate seems in better conditions.

Yes that's where I am going too... but it does come at a price: £295 + VAT = £346 and of course the price of the Russian distributor from Bulgaria which was €120 + postage. In January I had asked for a quote to do a completely new system for the radio screened one and it came to nearly £500. At the time I thought that was too much but it might have been better that way... Still... if that is the price I have to pay for not being stranded at every beck and call, or always returning to the garage in a condition of near-emergency... P.S. Before you suggest it... electronic ignition systems are easily available for the UAZ 469 in Germany for €100, but NONE of those will work on the Gaz and I have asked around and have had confirmation that there are NO ready-made electronic ignition systems for the Gaz on the continent.

Well yes the valves are free. They were ground when we took the head off in September, and reset and everything. And in any case a stuck valve would manifest itself in a number of ways and not intermittently and repeatedly. I took the vehicle out for a short ride on Sunday and I had a very similar problem to yesterday's: it sounds fine for a while then it hits a bump or something and it is not fine any more, as the timing is not what it should be. I get it home, leave for a bit, try a bit of this and that, and then it appears to have sorted itself out but that is only a ruse... I am afraid the MAIN culprit is really the distributor and has nearly ALWAYS been... but my attempts at getting rid of it so far have failed...

You might think that my trying to change the distributor from the radio screened one is all a whim on my part and that I ought to learn the old saying: "if it is not broken, don't fix it"... well, I am afraid that is not the case... Today is my last day of freedom, as the exam scripts will pile up in the hundreds as of tomorrow morning. The sun is shining, so I exploited the opportunity and took the Gaz out this morning. I had a bit more of fiddling yesterday and the day before and initial tests in my own street indicated a better acceleration and a happier engine. I chose to put it to the test on a longish run: Durham to Barnard Castle 42.5 Km. or 26.4 Miles. Pleasant fast-ish road with some roundabouts. I set off around 10 am this morning. I keep a maximum speed of 70-75 Kmh. Very happy all the way there. No problem worth mentioning. At Barnard Castle I refuel at an old fashioned fuelling station with a lovely Land Rover series I in the forecourt. I had always wanted to do that. Obviously I switch the engine off. Having paid, I try and restart. It would not... Try again and again and again it eventually starts. Hot starting is always a problem with these engine but usually you do get your way after a few trials. This was far more recalcitrant than normal. As I make my back towards Durham, I feel the engine not being happy at all: I cannot accelerate in second gear as much as I was able to, in order to reach the dizzy speed of 45 Kmh which enables a smooth-ish transition into so called top gear (third). I decide to play it safe and deviate to Gordon's garage, where I take My Land Rover for everything. (Always use a countryside garage lost in the sticks and used to dealing with farmers' Land Rovers. Gordon has worked on the Gaz before). Unfortunately Gordon is not there at all, probably having taken a vehicle out for MOT. Given that I carry the necessary tools with me, I start fiddling a bit. Trying to increase the advance on the distributor by rotating it a bit, no change. Further fiddling with the carburettor... no change. Engine runs but not smoothly. It is firing on all four but evidently not happy with pops at the exhaust. I switch it off...and then it would NOT restart... :embarrassed: try and try again, it would not restart. I am not very happy. Gordon is not turning up and I have a dead vehicle on my hands. Fortunately I carry most of the tools I would use at home. I decide to open the distributor. I start poking at the back plate which to my mind is far too slack. I pull on the starter motor lever and cannot see any spark: the points do not seem to be opening. I keep pulling on the advance lever until eventually I see a spark. The points are still barely opening but at least there is a spark. I refit the cap. I try again the starter and the engine fires... :yay: It still isn't smooth. I try several things with the carburettor, but I do not think it is the culprit. Basically rotating the distributor changes NOTHING as to my mind the back plate stays where it is regardless of what I do. Eventually after much fiddling I manage to get to the state where I can limp home, as Gordon is obviously not going to turn up any time soon. I cannot reach 45 Kmh in second any more. At most 40. Once on the flat, and in third I do manage to get a reasonable speed of 65 Kmh (everything is relative). With rosary in hand... I drive the 30 odd Km back to Durham, doing the occasional hills at 35-38 Kmh :yawn: On the positive side: I, a hopeless academic, have managed to get a dead engine to restart, and have made it home with my own legs... On the negative side... I don't know where to start...:banghead: This afternoon/evening I am going to try fitting another radio screened DDR distributor to see if I can get any improvement. But this story tells me that my trying to change the distributor is not madness on my part...

Further away from the contacts. The position I have marked in red is basically where the points start opening. Clockwise is for the Gaz69, Anticlockwise is for the UAZ 469. They look very similar (aside from the shaft) but they are actually very different. I think a UAZ469 distributor would not fit a GAZ engine and I only know of clockwise rotating distributor on tthe GAZ. We have done that already and we are way out of what might be considered reasonable.

A picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words... so let's see if I make myself clearer: this is a diagram that I have found on the Russian technical manual. It shows the position of the contacts on the distributor cap leading to the spark plugs. These are all marked with Roman numerals: I; II; III and IV. You will see outlined the shape of the rotor arm that is in the position of firing the first spark plug. At this stage the points should be open to create the spark. I have drawn OVER this a line in red that shows the position of the rotor arm in my distributor when the points are open. As you can see, it is nowhere near where it should be to send a spark to the first spark plug. A similar problem is repeated for all the other three firing positions. This is visible without having the distributor fitted to the engine, and I cannot see how fitting to the engine would make any difference.

Sorry, perhaps I need to rephrase what I think the problem is. If by a timing problem, we mean a matching between the position of each piston and the spark coming from the distributor, then this is probably not the issue. Indeed this problem would only be seen when the distributor is mounted on the engine. The issue I see is instead ENTIRELY internal to the distributor and has nothing to do with the position of the engine and I can see it with the distributor off the engine. Let's call it an ALIGNMENT problem. To my understanding there needs to be an alignment, or matching, inside the distributor so that when the camshaft rotates and opens the points, creating the spark, the segment on the cap with each HT lead is above the rotor arm. I believe this is not the case in my new distributor. When the camshaft opens the points, the rotor arm finger is nowhere near where the segment on the cap is. And the distance is such that the spark cannot jump. For my sins I have studied long and hard how production was organised in a Socialist Command Economy. In those days, meeting the LETTER of the plan was all that counted. Therefore assembling defective distributors is perfectly conceivable as they would count towards meeting the production quota, and their being unusable was irrelevant. I have a feeling I have bought myself an expensive example of such practices. In artillery terms, it would be called a "dud"... The question is what can be done to put it right. Any number of things can be wrong, the easiest one I can think of being that the shaping of the top of the camshaft that allows the rotor arm to be fitted only one way, was done at the wrong angle. The other question I have is... suppose I abandon the idea of making it work as it is, can I at least use the casing and rotor arm to convert it to electronic ignition?

Sorry, done all that already to no avail.

Happily sparking away, but the engine does not fire. To my mind it is DEFINITELY a timing issue, i.e. the spark happens at the wrong time.

However... I cannot manage to get it to work and I am rather annoyed at having wasted €120. I tried with a friend who is very knowledgeable about Gaz side-valve engines, on Saturday last and again yesterday but with no joy. I consulted another friend on the German forum and he suggested removing the back plate and flip the cam shaft by 180 degrees, in the belief that it might have been trying to fire cylinder 4 when it had to fire cylinder 1. I did that, before the refitting yesterday, but again no joy. Having consulted friends again there are now two theories: As the DDR distributor was not originally intended for the Gaz, the cogs to which the spindle connects might have been adjusted to fit the DDR distributor. To put this right, the oil pump would have to be removed. I am MOST reluctant to go down this route, as the vehicle at least works with the DDR distributor, and I fear getting into a situation when it does not work with BOTH distributors; the other theory is that there is something deeply wrong in the assembly of the new distributor. It has been suggested to me to check the position of the rotor arm, when the points are open, relative to the segments on the distributor cap. Now the segments are in position 7 o'clock; 10 o'clock; 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock, in firing sequence. Keeping the body of the distributor fixed and rotating the shaft, I can see the points opening instead at: 8 o'clock (perhaps even later than that but not yet 9 o'clock, call it 8:30 and similarly for the other three positions); 11 o'clock; 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock. That is the points open when the rotor arm must be definitely way past the segment. I have tried several things, but it seems to me that it will always do that. What can I do?

I ordered from Bulgaria a new old stock distributor, which is the one originally fitted to the Gaz: This is a more traditionally shaped one with a bakelite cap and an external condenser. It looks very nice :-)...

This progressive sub-section of the HMVF has been allocated the task of generating more technical questions ... So here is one My Gaz came fitted with a Radio Screened DDR produced distributor: These are an absolute pain to reset, and are also prone to short circuits as refitting the cover is easy to pinch one or two wires. I have as many as four of these in various states of decay. Two are serviceable and one is fitted to the engine. Much as it now works, and aside from the fiddly nuisance that it is, I intended to replace it as it seems rather worn with some unsprung movement in the backplate that cannot be any good.

Would this help? I believe you need the second line.

In that case the Hamburg one might be just the thing for you, as it is a single one and not the full set of four. It is a touch more expensive than Todor but there it is. Unless you can find it in the UK or Poland that is. All the best of luck!

As a useless point of information, the amphibious Jeep is not what it looks like, i.e. a Ford GPA. it is instead a VERY rare Gaz 46. Only fifteen are known to exist in private hands, another one of which in Lancashire with my friends . I had heard of this one, which I understand has been recently acquired from Poland, but until this weekend I had not seen it yet. My friends' Gaz 46 instead was at Elvington last year. I just hope they are going to get rid of the pink camo canvas and seats. Mechanically it is identical to my own Gaz 69A ... except of course for the propeller shaft etc.

Do you only need one? http://www.ural-hamburg.de/kolben-8800mm-gaz69-p-1911.html same as it was? Or are you re-boring the cylinders? Oversized pistons did exist. They go in 0.5 mm. steps: 88.5; 89 and 89.5. Best option is as always to ask Todor in Bulgaria: http://www.russianspares.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=26_32&products_id=378

One of my sources describes it as the ONLY vehicle to have been used by BOTH West and East German armed forces, undoubtedly only in the early stages.

And another one emerging from purifying ablutions :laugh:

Just found: a KMT-5 in use

This for me is all second-hand if not third-hand information but here goes: The T64-T72 is an odd case of COMPETITION between factories in a socialist command economy. A competition that was apparently renewed with their successors T80-T90. It is undeniably true that the T64 was the top Soviet tank when it was introduced, but in later years, the T72 was ALSO used by the Soviet themselves and not just intended for export. One of its main advantages was that it was apparently cheaper to produce in big numbers, and Soviet strategy relied heavily in massive numerical superiority. So the T72 probably bridged the gap, whilst the T64 had issues to be resolved which led to the T80. The story that the breech of the T72 "ate" arms is described by all the veterans whose comments I have read, as apocryphal and with no factual basis. I think we must bear in mind that part and parcel of the cold war was spreading malicious rumours about the equipment of the opponents and overstating the quality of one's own. The NVA -by an large- only received used Soviet tanks in its early days of the late 1950s. In practice this means the T34/76 and T34/85 of WW2 vintage. By the time the T55s came into service these were produced under license in Poland and Czeckosklovakia and it is largely from these that the NVA stock is drawn, according to all the German sources at my disposal. So there was not much of a chance of the T62s being handed down to the NVA. Much as a lot was made in propaganda terms, of the fraternal feelings between the NVA and the CA, veterans' recollections seem to indicate more a markedly separate existence, with no sharing of equipment. As the DDR was the frontier with the Western world, the NVA was considered a front line army, and had theoretically better equipment, but it is also true that during the 1970s, and more so in the 1980s, the country could simply not afford the most modern equipment, and the Soviet had repeatedly managed to stifle local production in favour of their own. In any case the East German were never trusted to produce armour. A classical example of the bankruptcy of the DDR/NVA is the fact that only 24 BMP2s are known to have been in service with the NVA, as the country could simply not afford to buy more. Same goes for the T80.

Snippets of information that I have gathered from another book: apparently the KMT-5 was VERY heavy and put a lot of strain on the transmission of the tank. Therefore it was not carried around all the time but fitted as and when, a procedure that apparently took some 50 minutes. Otherwise the entire contraption was ferried around by a lorry. May be this shows one such instance: Probably the KMT-6 was meant to save all this faffing... and I do have references showing it in use with the T72 too

Having consulted my references (W. Spielberger et al. Die Kampfpanzer der NVA Motorbuchverlag 1996) I have found out that the mine clearing device on the tank posted earlier by me is a KMT-5. The one in the museum in Holland is described as KMT-6 and there is a similar photograph showing it in "Marschlage". I presume that it would be extended forward whilst in operation but have no photograph of this. Your initial guess is any case certainly confirmed.

The traditionally German style of the NVA uniforms was a deliberate attempt at presenting itself as the army of the "true" Germany at a time when the West German Bundeswehr had adopted American styled uniforms. In doing so, the DDR leadership had been explicitly encouraged by the Soviet who knew that the Russian style uniforms of the predecessor of the NVA, the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, just reminded people of the invading Red Army and of the repression of the 17th of June 1953 uprising. It was a way of desperately trying to present themselves as not just a Soviet puppet state. All the more a desperate attempt given that that was -by and large- the truth... For those who know German uniforms, the similarities are much more with the Imperial and Reichswehr uniforms than with the Wehrmacht. The colour in the first instance. The NVA colour is described as Steingrau and it is the same shade of greenish grey adopted by the Imperial army in 1910. The Wehrmacht one is instead Feldgrau which translates into a greyish shade of green. Put side by the side the difference is striking, much as there are many similarities in cut and style. Having collected NVA uniforms for so long, I now find the parallel with WH ones more misleading than anything else. It is however true that precisely because of the Germanic style of the uniforms, the Soviet high command had second thoughts in 1968, and despite having mobilised various NVA divisions on the border with Czeckoslovakia, in the end, these units DID NOT take part in the repression of the Prague Spring. At the time various press stories said that they did, but it is now established beyond doubt, given the open access to DDR archives that in fact they did not. The DDR helmet known as M56 is a direct derivation of the experimental M44 helmet which was NOT adopted by the WH (although there are various rumours that it was used in the last stages of the war by the Döberitz infantry school in the last defence). Apparently Hitler did not like it because it ruined the "iconic silhouette of the German soldier. The fact that it was apparently better at protecting the soldier's head was of no consequence to him... I cannot honestly see any real similarity between the M56 helmet and the WH one, other than they are both steel helmets. There are many helmets (e.g. Bulgarian one) that are closer to the to the WH one than the M56. That the Czech refugees were justifiably upset about what had happened to their country is beyond dispute, but one must discriminate between the needs of sympathy for the oppressed and those of historical accuracy. Perhaps it is difficult to convey without the direct experience of it. What we, NVA collectors/reenactors, find very annoying is the number of WH/SS reenactors who simply see the NVA as a cheaper version of the same thing, and presume that WW2 practices can be easily transferred and replicated, with countless appeals to "field modifications" that simply do not make sense in a peacetime army.