David Herbert

Thanks, Grasshopper, That's probably much the same distance from me that Maidstone is, about 1000 miles round trip! If the new owner sees this, please make contact. Same applies to any other 434 owners, there must be more of you out there. David

Thanks Dougy, Yes I did know about Metroman but he seems not to have been on HMVF since 2011 when he sold his 436. There was no mention of him selling the 434 but the last reference to it was in 2009 at about the time that he got the 436. You are right that it had its radio table in it, there is a photo fairly early in the thread. I suspected that the photo I pinched from you was at Withams - well done for having the foresight to record what at the time you didn't need and then making it available to the rest of us. Thanks David

I have now got my 434 home and have a much better idea of what needs doing. With the help of a number of kind people on the forum I have aquired quite a pleasing pile of the parts that were missing, and I keep getting calls from the guy that I bought it from saying that he has found another bit of it if I want it. As he is not an enthusiast but a purely commercial business I must say that I am very gratefull - most people wouldn't bother. Great bloke! It starts and drives beautifully but has enough issues that I can make my mark usefully and of course it has lost most of its removable bits but the shopping list is getting shorter. The biggest problem I have hit is that in the conversion to Bowman radio system (which I am reversing), the Clansman radio shelf has been removed. Does anyone know of a 434 that still has its Clansman radio shelf in place that I could measure up, or of course a spare shelf would be good too! This shelf is not very similar to a 432 one as it hangs from the roof and only has room for one radio plus the commander's IC box. Dougy put the following photo on the 432 forum but I don't know whose 434 it is. The photo is taken looking down through the commander's hatch and you can see the slew ram of the crane below the radio shelf (with writing on it). I can't believe that there are no Clansman 434s left - please can someone point me towards one. Another 'want' is that some kind person has pinched the engine oil filler cap which is a fairly small brass flip top device with "engine oil" engraved on the top and a female screw thread on the bottom to fit the top of the filler pipe (about 2"). If anyone has one that they could part with it would be a great help. If anyone can help please PM me. Thanks, David

Sounds like you fixed it! Don't forget that electric pumps have all the same problems a mechanical ones plus dirty contacts and coils that decide not to conduct electricity. Also usually not so repairable. Well done David

If the pump is off the vehicle you could try trying to blow through it the wrong way. The valves should stop you so if there is any air getting through with lung pressure you need to change both valves. I assume they are like most 'western' ones and can not be dismantled to get at the actual sealing faces. This will only show up if both valves are dodgy but is so simple to do that you might as well. Similarly you could remove the valves and try blowing through them individually. Just remember which way up they fit! Reading your post again I suspect that the outlet valve is not doing its job and when you put your finger over the outlet it is your finger that is acting as the valve. The valve may just have a bit of muck in it stopping it seating, it is amazing how small a bit of rubbish will cause a problem. Try removing the valve and blasting air through it, you might even be able to see the seat to some extent. Good luck David

British WD style recovery hooks on the front spring hangers ? David

Mike, You were really bored! I'm impressed. :-D David

Not as surprised as I would have been. I was born in Essex and I thought Stow Maries was in New Zealand. No idea where I got that from... David

Ditto from me. David

Ignoring the law, it is quite possible to drive a carrier flat out on a publc road. It is very exciting and look great. The only problem is that if someone pulls out in front of you, you will find that you are piloting a four ton sledge whith absolutely no directional control and very little slowing down happening. If you touch a curb it will spin and if you run into something, be it a hedge, a car, a house or a person, it will go straight through. The resulting mess is not good. The level of grip once it is loose is like driving a car with bald tyres on ice. Driving on an unmade road or off road is much safer as the tracks can get a grip and then you can almost stand it on its nose by braking hard. This is what they were designed for and they are great fun. Personally I prefer T16s because of the controlled differential steering but there are plenty of people who like the track warping/braked differential system. David

Another cause of problems with B series engines is that the diaphrams in the carbs can split resulting in a vacuum leak and the valve it works not doing anything. Replacement diaphrams are quite easy to find and fairly cheap so almost worth changing anyway. I have found that the official static ignition timing is much more retarded than is necessary for modern petrol and that you can run about 6 degrees in advance of the book setting without any 'pinking' (pre-ignition). It will then run much better, cleaner and with less fuel consumption (but get the carbs sorted first). I think that you will find that once you start to drive the 432 there will be no problem with plugs fouling as the engine works quite hard and will burn off any deposits itself. I agree about the electronic ignition conversion. On a B40 or B60 the contact breakers cope reasionably well but with an eight cylinder engine they are expected to do a lot and need disproportionately more attention. As access is not ideal with the Fv432 I would seriously consider going electronic. Dont forget that you can run the pack outside the vehicle just by setting it down in front of the vehicle and reconnecting all the cables and pipes. If you have over advanced the ignition you will hear it pinking when you blip the throttle so just back it off a degree at a time untill the pinking stops and see where you are on the timing marks so that you can put it back there again. Apart from the cost of fuel these are great engines with a lovely sound to them, enjoy! David

Yes it is indeed. To be fair he had put the link to the videos in his advert so I knew about the car crushing. When questioned he couldn't really see that it actually reduced the value to me and that replacing both front mudguards & braces, sidelights, indicators and one headlight guard was a completely unnecessary expence. The rear mudguards are both repairable I think, but need new braces both sides. Simple but so unnecessary. He had bought it direct from Withams in 2011 to recover burned out stolen cars from the moors as part of a police contract. I should be gratefull that that contract turned out to be more trouble than it was worth so the 434 had very little use. After playing with it a bit he put it on Ebay and then I bought it. The crane is complete and works but the seccond (smaller) ram needs the rod replacing as the chrome has got quite bad. Has anyone got a nice shinny one that they don't need before I get my ram re-rodded? Thanks for the interest David

I think they might be recovering from taking the Dennis on the London to Brighton run. It's not quite like doing it in a Dodge! David

I have just purchaced this vehicle but not got it home yet. Does anyone have a photo of it in service ? It had been upgraded to Bowman but not used and was disposed of via Withams in early 2011 - did anyone see it there? I am intending to put it back to its condition around 2002 with Clansman and the white interior which I think came in about then. I need the instalation manual for the Clansman fit in Fv434 (not 432) if anyone can show/lend/sell/scan etc. me one please. David

Is the engine Packard's own design or bought in? The reasion for asking is that it looks very like a modernised version of the Continental engine that Dan has just got for his Halley project. Single cylinder block vs dual, more aluminium castings but rather similar features. Nice starting point though, what style of body are you going to put on it? David

Actually all the people who post an introduction are newbies! You just keep posting and then you will be an oldie. There is someone here to answer almost any question and there is certainly something that you know that others don't so welcome in. David

Marcel Ok, so the oil level is just below the inspection holes in the sump and the bottom of the crank is rotating away from that side of the sump. The dippers on the big ends are flicking the oil away from the hole but I would have expected loads of oil to be thrown out with the engine running, even at the low revs that you were running at. Obviously not! I have just completely re-read the whole thread to satisfy myself that I had not missed something obvious and I must say that it is really good to see real engineering skills being applied to mend an engine that has sat for a very long time because no one could see beyond the fact that it was broken and there were no spares. I think the water pump with no impeller was amazing; what were they thinking ? Great job David

It's such a great feeling when you do that much work on something and it comes back to life, well done. But is there supposed to be a big hole in the side of the sump - where does the oil live? I don't believe you started it with no oil in it but what am I missing? David

What a superb job and a great tribute to Jack. David

Think of the 9/16 socket as resting untill you pull the pack. It will probably have made friends with all the other tools that are waiting for you in the gunge under the engine. I am very jealous of your pallet of new track pads. My 434 had its nice new tracks swapped by Withams for ones with nackered pads before it was sold so those are the biggest thing on my wants list now. David

About twenty five years ago a MVT member moved house and then dug up a Humber Light Reconisance Car (the front engine one, not the Scout) in his new garden. I don't remember the details but it was covered in Windscreen or Wheels and Tracks at the time. It was not exactly new but I believe it was restored. I know that Pete Gray ran his M10 on some new rubber track that someone had dug up. It was in remarkably good condition, includung the steel bits. I know of someone who after the war worked for a company that dismantled Cromwells and sold the wheels for yard cranes. The site was previously a small brick works and there were tank size holes all round the edge. A Cromwell fell into one of these holes and finished up stood on its nose. He said that if you stood on the rear of it, ground level was about waist hight. No one could work out how to get it out so they removed the radiators as scrap and filled in the hole. There is no reasion to think that it has ever been recovered. Please don't all ask for its location, several people have made a serious effort to get permission to recover it and met with a wall of negativity. Someone recovered a large pile of mangled pieces of WW2 American bombers not too long ago from a hole. I think I remember that it was the scrap pile from a US Airforce base or similar. But these examples are very different to the stories of mass burials of whole vehicles (some in crates). David

The engine in this thread is a Continental R975 either C1 or C4 (can't see from the photos) out of a M18. If it was from a Sherman it would have a big diamond shape frame bolted to the back (the magneto) end instead of the tubular frame that it mounts in a M18 with. The easy way to tell if it a C1 or C4 is to look at the cooling fins on the cylinders. C1 has very fine fins which are made of steel and about 5mm centres. C4 has bigger aluminium fins at about 12mm centres. There are many other differences including more provision for scavenging oil and a different supercharger on a C4. Continental built these engines under licence from Wright who concentrated on the aircraft versions but the design gradually diverged as they were developed for AFV use. David

You say that the joint in question is "very loose". This is not in keeping with the totally over engineered nature of these engines and I can not see any virtue in it. If there is suposed to be an O ring there it becomes, in effect, part of the bearing which is certainly not right and would not last very long at all. So even if there is another problem, I would want to fix this one. If you have the engineering facilities, you could ream out the hole in the oil pump cover very slightly bigger and as deep as possible, to give a longer bearing, and make a new spigot to match to fit in the swiveling elbow. It looks to just be pressed in so the old one should pull out with a bit of effort. Failing that I would be wanting to find replacement parts that are not so loose fitting. Presumably the purpose of the swiveling was to provide for pickup at extreme angles of cross tilt of the vehicle. If it is not the sort of vehicle to go on rough terrain (eg fire engine) you could as a last resort simply glue the pivot in its mid position with a suitable high temperature glue ! You would still need to refit the pin though in case it does move again. David

Sorry Steve, no I don't remember ! I was working my grandfather's lathe when I was 7 (bloody dangerous, wouldn't let my kids do that) so knew how to work a chuck. Maybe I was trying to change it and it wouldn't come off. Anyway, welcome to HMVF. Anything you want to know, there is someone here who knows about it - they found my old Austin Champ which really amazed me. PM sent David

Jim, Actually the later heads are vastly better than the originals and most people don't see the difference. The earlier heads are almost impossible to find to the extent that when I got mine there were quite a lot of take out engines sitting around with the rear head missing (which seems to go first) and no other fault. The other common fault with TD18 engines is that the (wet) liners corrode through from the water side because in those days it was relatively unusual to use anti-freeze so there was no corrosion inhibitor to stop it. The result looks like wood worm. As for the headlamp guards and Bucyrus Erie plates; I have been keeping an eye open for both for the best part of 20 years without any luck. If you find either I would be interested. The guards are easy enough to make but I never even found a pattern. Your tractor must have lead a very sheltered life to still have the set of plates on the RH dozer frame. Usually the rust gets behind them and breaks the corners out of the brass plates. Do you want the correct type of Le Tourneau scraper box to pull behind it ? David