David Herbert

No, it is not a Sherman but (believe it or not !) a 105mm Howitzer, Motor Carriage, M7 (not 3.7). Like the Sherman it was developed from the Tank, M3 (Lee and Grant to the British army) and was, as the name suggests, a self propelled mount for the 105mm howitzer. It had an open top hull but provided some protection from the sides for the gun crew and ammunition. The driver sat in the front left and had the opening armoured visor that is closed in the photo to look through. There was a ring mount for a machine gun in the round enclosure front right. This resembled a pulpit and gave rise to the British name of Priest for those vehicles that were taken into British service. I do not see any sign that this is a British one but it has home made track guards (to reduce the dust) and is obviously well used. The photo is American but I have no idea why it was taken. I suspect that this was an early trials vehicle.. As originally designed these had Continental 9 cylinder radial engines but later ones were built with Ford GAA V8 petrol engines (M7B1). These remained in service with the US Army post war and many were modified with a higher pulpit and main gun mount for high angle fire in the mountains of Korea (M7B2). Some of these have been rescued from ranges in Germany and get presented in WW2 markings which is not really correct. In British service they were replaced by the roughly similar Sexton self propelled gun which mounted the British 25pdr gun that was the standard British field artillery piece. It is easy to tell the difference as the Sexton does not have the pulpit. The redundant Priests then had their guns removed and were used as armoured personnel carriers (Kangaroos) and ammunition supply vehicles. I hope this helps, David

You can have it if you promise to never take it out in public ! David

Hi Dave, I can't help you on QL info but it would be helpful if you put your location, not in a post because people won't remember it in the future, but in the panel under your name on each post. If you go into your profile by clicking on your name there is a box that you can type it in to. Then people who can help will know if you are within range to measure up their vehicle or collect bits. I am sure that someone will be able to help you. Photos of progress so far would be good too if you can work out how to post them (not too difficult !) David

The LVT is an LVT3 not 4. The British army got some post war and operated them until the 1960's. They are easily identified by the cab windows being right at the front unlike the LVT4 where they are about four feet back. They have basically the same power train as a M5 Stuart light tank with two Cadillac V8 engines with Hydromatic transmissions in the sides of the hull roughly amid ships driving forwards to bevel boxes, then into a controlled differential unit that combines the drive and then shafts out to the final drives and sprockets. The track is like Stuart track but with scoops to give propulsion in the water. David

The track link shows no sign of wear so is probably a new spare link fallen off a tank. The piece of plate is of a pattern that was standard in the UK until the late 1960s but was also used in Germany in WW2 and the Eastern European countries until very recently. It has the disadvantage that the diamond shaped recesses fill with water and then the freeze in winter becoming very slippery. David

You couldn't really put the spare wheel on the bonnet ! David

Or a Christmas Reindeer ? The truck is a Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) Ford with what is called a Number 13 cab (the final style). Probably a 3 ton F60L. The British army had them in considerable numbers. David

Jarrod, Thanks for posting, I hadn't seen that before though I did know of the convoy. A great selection of vehicles. David

In the last two photos at least you can clearly see that at the bottom it is ribbed rubber matting that is not properly glued to the armour. David

If you are looking at modern seals you need an 'R23' type as they have a little lip that helps keep dirt away from the actual seal part. Don't worry about the thickness, just the internal and external diameters measured from the case and the rotating part. It is important of course that the surface that runs against the seal is very smooth or it will chew through any seal in no time. The precise diameter is much less critical as the oil seal will accommodate to it within a small tolerance. David

I think that it is inevitable that some splashed oil will get past the rear bearing, simply because there is nothing to stop it. However it will not be under any pressure and if the rear seal is working the cavity between the bearing and the seal will fill up to level with the bottom of the bearing (a little higher than the bottom of the seal surface) and lubricate both the bearing and the seal as soon as the truck moves. It is certainly there both to stop oil getting out and dirt and water getting in so does need to function. There is no reason not to use a modern seal in its place if you can get one that fits but don't disregard leather seals, they work fine given a smooth surface to seal against, and as long as they are not allowed to dry out by not being used for years at a time. The gearbox looks great though, good find. David

Yes. It's an American WW2 petrol can. David

Well that's a good start. A rolling chassis will turn up somewhere having been a farm trailer or similar. Then you need a transmission and diff. The rest is make-able. Easy ! Good luck, David

Referring to the Mack recovering the AEC tipper it is hard to see how the AEC got rolled because the ground looks relatively flat and big trucks in those days didn't exactly go fast. It is amazing though how even the quite crude colouring of the images does bring them to life. I would also add that the air springs on the MH tractor unit were not that uncommon in the late thirties / early forties, mostly on American trucks but also British ones. Thank you B series for posting these photos. It is good to see photos of such a varied selection of vehicles in the normal course of their use and have a commentary about what the background was. David

Referring to the very rare original PASS plate. I think the seven white circles are where the tin of white paint stood while it was being used ! David

I think that is a correct translation except that it is not American but a British Crusader ! As in the background of the photo above it. David

Looking back through this thread I see only four holes in the crank case for valve tappet guides. I am guessing that the inlet valves are opened by suction against a very light valve spring ? David

I think that the tool in the red case is for measuring the output of diesel injector pumps to check that each element is pumping the same quantity of fuel. It may also be possible to measure the leakoff from each injector by conecting the pipes to the leakoff ports on the injectors. No idea what the blue thing is though. David

Jeremy, What an excellent and full account of this subject. Thank you for posting ! David

Ruxy, Quite right ! Sorry for not reading your post properly. Must try harder ! David

An alternative explanation of the reference to Jewels is that in clockwork watches and high quality clocks it was common to use semi precious stone in tiny pieces as bearings for the shafts that moved relatively quickly. As a measure of quality there would be a marking that proudly announced how many jewels were present. It is possible that early speedometers used jeweled bearings for the needle shaft but the practice died out in the fifties as unnecessary complication. The coal pretending to be the glass seal used to be rubber. Luckily materials have moved on since then. I think that the blue inside of the case is to make the night illumination look less yellow and more white than it would otherwise. We forget just how yellow car headlights used to be before halogen ones came in. David

And photos 3, 9 & 11 are all Grants. They have different turrets to Lees as they were built to British orders with provision for British radios and other small differences. Lees have a more upright turret with a tall rotating comander's cupola on top of that. Photo 10 is a Crusader but the truck on the extreme right is I think a 3ton Dodge or Chevrolet. David

In support of Richard, since L and LS refer to carbs for 'heavy commercial models' I suspect that N refers to the application - possibly military ? I wonder what W stands for. Possibly Waterproof ? David

Yes, but you have the casing. I would bet though that the difference is very minor and that all the internals will interchange directly. It would not surprise me if say Universal Carrier boxes weren't basically the same box, along with virtually every Ford V8 truck of the period. This is Ford, everything is standardized. David

I feel that you could reuse those bits if you really had to but they won't last long and will put lots of swarf into the oil as they bed in. It all depends on budget but this was a relatively common gearbox in its day so it must be possible to find another. If you replace only the really bad gears they will be messed up by the old gears that are just fairly bad. A bit of pitting on the teeth won't do any harm but when it exceeds 10% of the contact area I think you have to regard them as scrap. Sorry ! David