David Herbert

That kingpin cover looks awfully like the one that the Goslings need for their Thornycroft..... David

In the 1940s high quality cars like Humbers had built in hydraulic jacks permanantly bolted to the axles (though not good for unsprung weight). The jacks were very similar to those pictured and there was a little pump under the bonnet with a valve to select front or rear axle. The little pump was also used in Humber armoured cars to jack up the engine decks to allow rearward vision when driving in reverse using the steering wheel at the back of the fighting compartment. I know this sounds unlikely but it is true! David Ha! Wally beat me to it !

I found some period video (called film then!) including Martian artillery tractors pulling 5.5" guns from abour 3mins in. David

I totally agree with posts 12 & 13. It is great fun driving a large tracked armoured vehicle off road or on a closed road, but driving fast in traffic is I think inviting a major problem. This may well not be of your making but everyone driving a large historic vehicle will tell stories of other vehicles doing stupid things in front of them. If you are in a tank / APC etc. you will get onto the news when you clip one of these idiots, but if you squash a car full of kids it will take over your life for at minimum five years even if you were doing nothing wrong. There have been plenty of accidents with steam rollers and they don't go much above 5mph. The army at Bovington were squashing about one civilian car a year (with people in them) untill they built a closed road course to drive on where there were no cars. Sorry to be boring David

So the Bi metal strip on the manifold aided by the spring behind the vacuum diaphram puts the choke on. As the engine starts the vacuum reduces the amount of choke by pulling the diaphram against the spring and as the engine warms up the Bi metal strip uncoils and pulls the choke right off. Basicly the same set up was used on the American cars that I played with years ago. When I got them they had always been messed with by people who didn't understand how they worked but they could always be reset and if done right you hardly knew that you had a cold engine. David

Not only will manifold depression not be enough, there won't be any ! That engine has a turbo, its job is to presurise the manifold to get as much air as possible into the cylinders. The reasion petrol engines have vacuum in the manifold is because the speed is controlled by limiting how much air/fuel mix is sucked into the engine by a throttle valve in the carb. The engine is always trying to suck more so you get a vacuum. The speed of a diesel is controlled by limiting the amount of fuel injected, so the air can be as unrestricted as possible, or better still boosted by a turbo. Result no vacuum. Very nice piece of engineering though ! David

My goodness! I was ferreting around in that yard 42 years ago and it seems not to have changed. The dodge ambulances (three or four of them) were in a clump and were regarded as too rusty even then. They would have needed almost complete re-skining. There were many military Bedfords but only one OS, which was actually quite intact. Several Morris 4x4 C9 Bofors were in fairly rusty condition. The Albion bridging trucks were relatively intact and at least one was extracted and is now being restored for the second time by a member of HMVF. He tried and failed to buy the front end in the photo above but it had gained a rather high asking price so he had to give up on that. At that time I didn't think to take photos so thanks to Tim for reminding me. David

I agree, plus if you use 'closed cell' foam it will not absorb moisture anyway. Closed cell foam is no good for seating but would be fine in this application and is widely available in different thicknesses. On my 434 they have taken the covering round the edges of the foam but not onto the back, with the result that it has lifted in many places. I will wrap mine onto the back by at least an inch which should help to hold it in place. AndyM sugested that a hot air gun was the tool to make the covering more willing to bend as you want it, which seems a good idea to me. David

What - there are more Lauren Childs ? :shocked:

In Fv430 series vehicles, and I thought most other British AFVs from the sixties on, Trakmark was the standard covering for the padding that was used as soundproofing/ insulation/ padding. Dunlop seem to have stopped making it in the late '90s as vehicles being refurbished started to be done in a similar beige but with a very fine pattern embossed in it that makes it look almost matt untill you look realy closely. This could be what is in the top photos of this thread. This late material degrades very badly, goes all sorts of brown/beige colours and some of mine is actively sticky which seems to be the glue reacting to it. I need to replace all mine (in a Fv434) but don't even know what this late material is called. Grasshopper I have PM'd you in the hope of picking your brains. There was also a really horrible looking pale green material that seems to have been supplied ready glued to the foam so the edges of the foam are exposed after instalation. This seems to have been a quick fix when nothing else was available. David

Since most modern tanks have solid tyres made of polyurethane and can reach speeds of 50 MPH with quite high wheel loadings I think you should be ok. Mind you there are lots of different grades of polyurethane..... David

I knew that - honest ! I just forgot it as I was writing my post.... David

To locate the two pieces while silver soldering them ? David

The ones used under bailey bridges were a British version of an American bogie manufactured by Athey. The Athey ones were very popular in the twenties and thirties for logging trailers and big dump trailers pulled by big crawler tractors. The British ones were made under the name of 'Orolo' which was a reference to the fact that each one had three big interleaved and overlapping wheels. The centre one being very slightly bigger than the end ones so that the track was not dead flat at the bottom to make steering easier. They were made in a variety of sizes, often as a sort of truck with a drawbar and a load platform that was about square and entirely between the tracks. Post war they were used on lifeboat trailers that launched the boats off beaches. I remember Great Yarmouth had one with a Case tractor fully wadeproofed like a mini BARV to pull it. They were also used for moveing crashed aircraft. David

Certainly similar but the windscreens are different in construction and height which I doubt would have been easily changed so I think they are different vehicles. David

There aren't too many off road camper fire engines these days ! David

That's it, you have got the bug now, no saving you ! David

There is a photo of W18 when it was new in the Tankograd Fv432 book ! David

The number reprisents the viscosity - the bigger the number the thicker is the oil. The safe bet is to use the same viscosity as was originaly recomended. It is quite easy to find the translation from the WD designation to SAE viscosities. Most gearboxes used 30 or 50 viscosity oil. Whatever you do DO NOT use an oil with EP in its description anywhere that does not specificaly require it. The EP additives WILL quite quickly break down the surface of any yellow metal (brass or bronze) parts which will wear at an unbelievable rate. Older gearboxes often have bronze selector forks and thrust washers which will be ruined. Other than this you are unlikely to do much harm using a slightly wrong grade of oil because modern oils are much more stable and just generally better lubricants than WW2 ones. David PS: SAE is the American Society of Automotive Engineers

Fascinating ! It looks to me as if the steering is by master cylinders and ordinary hydraulic brakes - I doubt that it would need to be boosted, even most Chieftains don't have power steering (very late ones do) so there would be no need on a 13 ton vehicle. I think that the two inner steering levers work a controlled differential (cletrac) similar to a normal 432 but the outer ones work the stopping brakes individually so that it can do pivot turns. M113s were the same for most of their service lives. This also gives better turning in water as there is more difference in the speed of the tracks. It would be great to see this fully restored as it really is a 'missing link' but it will be a really horrible job cleaning the crap out of the inside. I know someone that had a Sherman that had been used for Molotov Cocktail training and was half full of broken glass and black slime. After each session it took him an hour to clean himself. David

I am now 60 which I find very hard to believe because in my head I am about 30. I expect to find that I've grown up one day but it hasn't happened yet. My first MV was a Bedford MWR which I bought from a local garage when I was 16. I paid £25 for it and got a friend to drive it home. I now have a FV434 which is considerably older than the Bedford was when I got it but doesn't seem anything like as historic, possibly because I remember them coming into service ! I think that there are plenty of young people with the gene that makes them want to do things like restore military vehicles, it is just that they do different vehicles than we do. 'Historic' to them may well be the first or even seccond Gulf war, where as I think of my 1969 434 as 'modern' - just rather fun to play with and find the bits for. I think that the much more regulated world we now live in and the impossibility of DIY on modern cars does make it harder for youngsters to learn the skills nowadays but individuality will always win through - just not always in the way we did it. There are now more traction engines in preservation than ever, but there are almost no owners that drove them commercially and the younger generation have taken over. Admitedly in that field you need to be reasionably well off so there are not too many owners younger than 30 but there are lots of youngsters involved in their care and operation. I think our hobby is safe as long as we don't just sit in pubs and reminiss about the good old days. David

Tim, If you get the chance, could you also look to see if there is a hull number. On a production 432 it is rather lightly stamped in quite small numbers on a thin plate about an inch square that is welded to the rear of the vehicle just above the LH towing eye. I have never had a chance to look at one on a pre production vehicle - it might have a 'P' or 'W' in front of a single digit possibly. The vehicle registration should be on a builders plate just to the left of the driver, or low down just behind him on the left if it has stowage for the infra red perisciope. David

Are the front towing hooks that pivot on the spring shackle pin not a British feature, where as the Americans used pig tail type hooks bolted direct to the chassis rail ? They could easily have been added of course. Given that there are people on this forum actually making the majority of their restored WW1 trucks it is amazing to see something unrestored but so complete, and it does save an enormous amount of time and effort. It shows that they are still out there. David

Yes David

PM sent Yes it was that bad ! Thinking about it some more it may have been a 6V71 but definately not turbo or 6V53. David