David Herbert

Really great to see a colour photo of a FV421 in use (if broken). Seems to be as originaly built with no mods at all. It is not one of the very first ones as it has the front windows with rounded corners vs the bolted in ones with square corners on the first few vehicles. Please Ron, lend Lynn the original transparency so we can get a better look (and any other FV421 ones) and thank you for letting us see them. David

I can imagine that although unconventional, the mono trailer would probably tow well enough as shown above but I am suprised that it was possible to actually load the tank onto the trailer with the mono trailer attached. Those trailers are very high and even with the length of a Centurion the tank really stands on its tail as you climb up the ramps. I loaded a late model Sherman onto one once and could barely see the guy directing me because the tank tipped back so far (though the Sherman is much shorter). On the other hand to take the mono trailers off and re-fit them was a real pain and without the tank they were immoveable without a crane. They were a dreadfull solution to increasing the range and had no redeeming features at all ! David

At first sight that is a simple machining job but drilling the holes through the two ends of the casting so they are in line and central to the barrel shaped pieces is actually not simple at all. Presumably it was done from one end with a very long drill but the scope for it wandering is huge. I am really not sure how I would have tackled it. How did you do it? David

That accounts for four of the three ! :-D David

I think Mikethebike is on the right track. You said earlier that the noise does not change with RPM. If you mean that the noise does not get faster/higher pitched as engine RPM increase, but just louder as you change up each gear, then it can not be inside the mechanism of the gearbox as anything there would change with RPM and not make the 'bolt in a tin can' noise that you describe - certainly not for long! However if there were an object loose in the gearbox (or transfer box as there are parts turning there when in F/R neutral) that object could be catching on something moving and being thrown against the case, taking a fixed time to fall back so not being RPM related. However it is hard to see how this could be gear dependent. Back to the gear linkage outside the box. Good luck, David

They looked at that when Saladins were in service but the Wilson gearbox / fluid flywheel wouldn't take the extra torque. That is why Stalwarts have manual gearboxes. Great shame - would have been great fun! David

This one is much more fun: It is astonishing that anyone thought this was a good idea :wow: David

I suspect that it is the chassis of a large diesel compressor and nothing like as old as it looks at first sight. They were still being made with that style wheels in the '50s. However I have not heard of EWC so will hope to be enlightened. David

Great find ! I agree that it must have been fitted inside the tank somewhere (or inside a locker lid maybe) but definately there was not a similar plate on Centaur or Cromwell or Comet - the later Cruiser tanks - though the user manuals had a paper version tucked into a pouch inside the cover. No idea about Covenanter or anything earlier but it is quite possible that they had similar plates. David

It's a bit fuzzy but I am pretty sure that that is a Churchill engine sitting in the Loyd. No wonder it is sitting a bit low. Lovely photo of the Crusader ARV. David

Regarding the reversed negative problem: if you have a reversed digital image, most photo programs will sort it easily. I open the photo in Microsoft office picture manager, then 'Picture', rotate and flip, flip horizontaly, save. Job done ! David Sean, you beat me to it!

The white cable (actually a clear sheath over a glass fibre braid that looks white) is branded 'Nyvin' (or 'Uninyvin') and took over from Unipren, I think in the sixties. Nyvin usually has 'Nyvin and its total conductor size printed at intervals in very small writing along it. It was primarily developed for aircraft and so had full tracability but it is now made in India with rather less quality control! Unipren was available in a number of colours and sizes but was most often yellow on the 1950s FV range of vehicles though blue was common on Austin Champs. On FV range vehicles circuits were identified by slieves with printed letters on at each end of each wire but they usually become unreadable by the time we want to play with them. The bullet connectors are available new (X-MOD ltd) but are VERY expensive so save any that can be recycled. The connectors that the bullets plug into are relatively easy to find in the UK though. Both Nyvin and Unipren crop up new on Ebay sometimes but I found it easier to canibalise unidentifiable MV harness bought from autojumbles. David

I think that the square thing on the front corner of the cab of the K9 is one of the brackets for the knobs that the air defence machine gun mount attaches to. In the latest photo in the post above you can see the one on the back corner of the cab and the one front centre as well. Nice photo that even with the dust storm in the camera. David

British registration numbers were issued in batches when vehicles were ordered and stayed with the vehicle that got them regardless of rebuilds, conversions, etc. Thus Humber Pigs got the registration of the 1Ton truck that they were converted from and Centurion bridgelayers have the registration of the often very early Cent gun tanks that they were converted from. FVRDE prototypes had civilian series registrations (and often a big P followed by a number) but pre production vehicles had army numbers (like the 00CAxx Fv421s) and often a big W followed by a number. There were exceptions to this but very few. David

Sorry, no photos of sand coloured 421s but here is the photo of 00CA24 as built in DBG and carrying what I guess is a full load of amunition: David

The original design of Fv421s had the front of the 'cab' in one continuous slope, no window in the only cab door which was on the left side and was hinged on its rear edge. There were no hatches in the cab roof proper but provision for an AA gunner/observer just behind on the centreline of the vehicle. They also had the track idlers very close to the rearmost road wheel. Later they were modified and possibly some built new with the more vertical windscreen, roof hatches in the two sloping sections of roof directly above driver and co driver, a window in the now front hinged door. Seperately the idler was moved back about 9" to the position shown in the photo in the post above and mounted on a much stronger adjusting mechanism with its pivot below the wheel centre instead of above. Another change saw the main radiator moved from the very back of the vehicle to the front of the engine in the air intake stack and a very much bigger air exhaust duct that enclosed the two exhaust pipes and mufflers which had been to the right of the duct before. I have a photo of 00CA24 in the original configuration so that one was definately rebuilt at least once. Note that they never got a door on the driver's side of the cab because the fuel filler is there together with all sorts of bits on the inside of the cab side. Does anyone have a copy of the later user handbook (W.O.Code 18396) that they might sell/lend for scanning/or scan and email to me? David

Colchester sold their lathes into the US badged as Clausing and the model was the swing and between centres dimensions instead of a model name and max speed (like Master 2500) in the UK. The 17" lathe in the UK was the Mascot 1600. For a short time they were also sold as Harrison M450 before Harrison developed their own design which was a M400 with a raised centre height like a M500 but less so. However they all came out of the same factory in the UK. All the Colchester lathes of that period are very popular in the UK but of course the commercial market now is for CNC as manual lathes are regarded as out of the stone age. David

Thanks for posting. I bet it was a challenge to get the first end of a wedge ring out. So are the wheel rims coned to match the wedge ring or are the metal part of the tyres machined to match ? That would have the benifit of better retention but make the tyres non standard. All the FWDs that I have seen have had ordinary press on tyres fitted and I had been wondering about the 12 bolt holes that were doing nothing. Now I know - thanks. I doubt that the wedge rings need to be hardened so you would be ok to use heat to straighten the mangled one. David

Chassis number is by the passenger side step brackets. David

Sorry, not me, I have never owned a pair of gloves that colour but have probably stood in that exact spot. The M44 is nothing like as good as it looks, we had quite a job to find anything worth unscrewing. It had been well smashed up and although not burned it was very rusty. David H

The reasion that DEpleated uranium is to be avoided is not that it is radioactive (that is why it is called depleated - most of the radioactivity has gone) but that it is a 'heavy metal' like cadmium, mercury and lead and as such is very poisonous. The human body has no mechanism for removing these metals once they have been absorbed and bad things happen. Gunrunner, very sorry to hear about you and your mates illnesses. When I used to get onto Kirkudbright scavenging tank parts (with full permissions) they would never let us near the DU targets so they were taking it seriously by then. David

They run in order on FV430 series too (built by GKN) David

It is a water/oil trap / filter for the tyre inflation compressor. Connect the air line to the fitting at the top. The compressor is on the side of the main gearbox (on most vehicles). Most British WW2 vehicles of 15cwt and above had this system, the filter was usually mounted somewhere near the LH cab door on the chassis or on a handy bracket as on a Bedford MW where it was bolted to the step bracket. The 1950s FV range usually had a much more involved device with a gauge and a raise/lower the pressure control. David

First find your boffin :-D David

I have no experience with these engines but if the 'seal' is part of / retained by a housing that bolts onto the back of the block behind the flywheel, is it possible that the oil is not getting past the seal but is getting between the housing and the block or even past the threads of the bolts that hold it on ? I had a leak from a Bedford gearbox once which was oil getting past the threads of properly tightened bolts. A good clean and some Hylomar stopped it. As Sean said there must be a drain hole between the main bearing and the 'seal' to return oil that comes out of the rear edge of the main bearing (quite a lot) back into the sump. Even a partial blockage of that will result in oil in the bell housing. These laberinth seals usually give no trouble at all as long as the main bearings are in reasionable condition. I would definately not try to 'modernise' it as it is a perfectly good design but there is another problem. David