David Herbert

Vehicles that are originally equiped for BVs have a big relay in the box that the BV is powered from. This is controlled via the extra pins and they are shorter than the actual power pins. This means that if you pull out the plug it cuts the power before the power pins disconnect, preventing damage to the plug and socket. I have an idea that this only applies to one end of the lead, and there are instructions that that end must always be unplugged first. David

That's a very good, thorough job you are doing, congratulations !! I couldn't help noticing the Comet in the background of some photos - please tell us about it. If you can do the same quality work on that it will be wonderful. David

I assume that you are in the US and the 212 degrees is Fahrenheit. I would have thought that hydraulic oil often goes above that temperature but more importantly can often be at 2500 psi. The engine oil hoses will never have to take 1/30 of that pressure so can afford to be a bit nearer the edge of their performance. You do have an oil pressure warning light and I would hope that any leakage would be noticed way before it mattered as a Ferret has quite a large oil tank and the hoses are not going to fail catastrophicly anyway. The originals are just ordinary hydraulic hose of 60 years ago so are not made of anything exotic. I would use ordinary modern hydraulic hose. David

Yes, behind the RH rear wheel. David

The only way the solenoid should be able to energise is if there is a circuit through its coil, i.e. through its small terminal, through the coil and then through the big terminal to earth. If you have a wire attached to the small terminal i would disconnect it and put a meter on it with the engine running. I suspect that it either is not the one from the starter switch on the dash or that switch is stuck in the on position. I know that it is not always convenient but it is better to put the cut out switch between the battery and everything else. That way you isolate the battery from all possibility of being flattened by leaving things on or defects and thieves can't start it so easily. It makes no difference which battery terminal you put the cut out to, if it's disconnected on either one, nothing will work. David

Looks spot welded to me. If it is you will still see the edge of the main plate on the outside of the joint. If you can't see that edge or the spot welds and it all looks like one piece of metal from the outside, then it has been seem welded from the outside, probably with gas in those days, Now you would Tig it or Mig it and clean it up with a flap wheel in an angle grinder to make it look the same. David

Zintec is mild steel with zinc electroplated onto it (and lovely stuff to work with). Hot dip galvanized steel is still available and is used in the manufacture of industrial ventilation ducting for example. You can tell it is hot dipped because it has pretty patterns in it. Any zinc coating needs suitable primer or it will just peal off, unless you don't want the paint on it of course ! David

Thanks Topdog but I did get an oil filler cap from another forum member some time ago. Sorry but I should have updated the thread. I was able to measure up someone elses radio table but have not made a replica yet so would still be interested in a real one if anyone has a spare. It is quite different from a fv432 one and hangs from the roof rather than bolting down to the sponson plate. I am also trying to collect up a set of 180 new track pads. I have some but need lots more if anyone has a little pile in a corner. Dale, sorry, today got rather silly but I will get a photo of my beacon mount for you. I will call in next time I can but always seem to be very pushed for time when I am passing your part of the world so it might be a while. David

I am very suprised that the badge drawing is mostly dimensioned in mm. Was that normal for AEC ? It is interesting too that several dimensions have been left off the drawing (like the width of the border) and the badge is to be "slightly dished". Presumably they came off the press slightly dished and the drawing is just stating that that is ok. It is hard to see why it would be actually intended. David

No, the Lada Niva is an obvious fake ! Horses look real though. David

It certainly looks good but seems to have access to the transmission via a hinged (not missing) glassis plate. The real one has a very substantial piece of armour welded in instead. I suspect that like the second 'white tiger' one (which I thought was very professional) it is based on MT-LB parts with the engine moved to the back and either a new or heavily modified lower hull to fit in all the extra suspension units for the overlapping wheels. Someone must know about it ! David

Those back plates look great ! I wonder if it would be worth running some soft solder between the brass beading and the plate, partly to reinforce the joint and partly to prevent water getting in and rusting the steel in a place that will be almost impossible to seal completely. David

Is there any reasion for cutting slots 1mm wide ? I would have thought that just a single width cut piercing at one end and stopping at the other would have been simpler and been more like the original which would gave been cut by the louvre tool. Also you could try a smear of grease on only the male tool to reduce the metal that is pulled from the flat that is between adjacent louvres. You were right to put a small radius on the female part as there is a real risk of the material tearing there and it looks better in my view. They certainly look good though. David

Certainly cutting the slot first (easy with a lazer) makes it easy to position each louvre and gives it nice clean edges. The downside is that they have to be far enough from each other that each one doesn't pull the surrounding metal away from the louvre next to it. I think Ben has about the best compromise on that that he could get. Louvre tools usually cut the metal for the opening as part of the pressing operation which leaves a rather sharp edge and requires a great deal of force as it has to cut it all the way across at once instead of starting at one end as a guillotine does. Obviously the tool must be fully hard. However this means that if you work in the direction that Ben tried initially, the previous louvre is not affected by each subsequent one and the cut edges stay straight regardless of how close they are. I would guess that the little nick in the middle of the edge of each of Ben's louvres is the piercing hole made by the lazer before it actually cuts the slot. This would normally be in the waste part of say a hole being cut out but surely could have just been at one end of the cut that was wanted. It must be possible to program it out - assuming that it is not ment to be there ! David

I suspect that with a bit of practice you could learn to drive it as it is. It would be a really effective way to stop anyone stealing it but would make for an interesting court apearence if you did have an accident. I am sure that others have got this wrong before. David

I would think that running your Dingo without the front prop shafts will possibly make the rear drive line last longer as being a museum vehicle it probably spends more time manoevering than running in a straight line. The extra loads caused by wind up are absent and you are doing a tiny mileage anyway. Don't forget to check the oil in the bevel boxes and tracta joint housings at both front and rear as they are all still going round even without the front prop shafts. I can't remember what grade oils but others will. I'm sure you already know but the gear change pedal must not be used as a clutch as the brake bands in the gearbox are designed to be either gripping or not. Letting them slip will wear them very quickly. David

I expect that the uniforms for thinner people all got used up leaving the ones for bigger people for posterity. There may be other explanations of course... David

Duxford restored a gun tank and swapped it to the Russians for the JS2. Both were good runners then. When Duxford got the above one as a range wreck they also got a seccond wreck but I can't remember what happened to it - anyone know ? The Belgian army museum had a gun tank, as did Sinsheim but I don't think either were runners though they were painted up on the outside. The Budge gun tank was a runner - did it go to the Littlefield collection ? Then where ? The IOW museum had a ARV - not a runner. Somewhere there is the Cernarvon (Conc. hull with dummy turret) that was at Duxford. I think it was a runner. David

How about 3D printing it in wax and then lost wax casting from that ? David

A very tempting concept: make a plastic / wood version of the finished casting but in two pieces and use it both as the main pattern and the core box. The difficulty is that where the core prints project through the holes in the finished casting, they need to fit exactly into their registers in the main mould. There is then no space for the part of the pattern / core box that generates those shapes (that are outside the actual casting). I think that for a simpler casting it would be practical to do as you suggest and use removeable bits to change the function from pattern to core box but I think it would get a bit complicated here. Would it not be easier to build the pattern up from bits of MDF / plywood / low density UPVC since it is mostly flat surfaces that will have to be at slight angles to provide draw. Also both the pattern and core box need to be robust enough that they don't flex when the sand is rammed into them. David

Another way to make the core is to fill each half of the core box with CO2 sand, rammed in and suitably reinforced with wire etc. have the sand just proud of the joint surface of the box but with no sand at all on the surfaces of the box that will touch. Clamp the two halves together and squirt the CO2 in through a small hole. Leave for a few hours to make sure that the resin has gone off and open. With luck the joint will need minimal fettling but can be filled if needed with purpose made fillers. Not relavent to this job but it is quite possible to modify the core to create undercuts or details that would not justify the effort of a more complicated core box. It would be interesting to see the patterns and castings that you finnish up with. David

Just to be clear, I trust that by "sponson plate" you mean the horisontal plate that runs the full length of the hull directly above the track, between the upper hull side and lower hull side. If so they all have a round cover plate about 3" (maybe less) diameter to provide access to the fuel tank drain. I am not aware of any variants that don't have them, certainly Grants and Rams do too. As for the question of the plate being made in two pieces. I have not seen this but some factories might well have done as it was not too critical. The join would have needed to be under the engine / fighting compartment bulkhead for strength. David

The small round cover is the access to the fuel tank drain. David

Whatever you do do not put Hawker batteries on a big old fashioned charger and try to pump lots of charge into them. You will fry them. It is one of the few ways to kill them. As advised above, get a pulse charger and leave them to cycle for several days each, they may well come back to life. There are several threads about this in this section. I don't know about Shielders but all the FV430 family have the firewire fire detection system live all the time - not fed through the master switch. It will empty a pair of good batteries in about ten days unless you pull the circuit breakers or physicly disconnect the batteries. David

There were several crane makers called Smith, one of which was at Rodley, Leeds. Their products usually had "Smith Rodley" on the counterweight leading many people to refer to them as Smith & Rodley but the Rodley is just their location. Sorry but I can't remember their exact trading name or that of the other Smith crane makers. David Nice SUGA [ATTACH=CONFIG]108188[/ATTACH]