Sean N

Might be a daft question, but are there no pipe and tube benders locally? We have a couple here who are normally quite happy to do small jobs at sensible prices. Appreciate the desire to DIY, but it'd be done and dusted and let you get on with other jobs...

I'll agree with Duncan's post about the Avons, they wipe the floor with Trak Grips and bargrips. I think it must be as much the compound as the tread. Avon have gone through a few changes and the tyre business is now owned by Cooper, so chances of them having such obsolete moulds must be pretty minimal.

Yes i would say in this instance the camo was applied after a quick wash down, for gulf wars 1 & 2 at least we gave stuff a quick scour with schotchbright pad before blasing the pink or light stone on 1

TED

I'll bet that wasn't universal; I can recall vehicles coming through sales post-GW1 that had obviously had lights, mirrors, glass, the works sprayed over, and clearly had barely seen a wash for prep, certainly no scotch or any other keying!

Actually yesterday - mobile crane 37 KM 37 travelling west on the M27 near Hamble, and Lancaster travelling north at low altitude just east of Cadnam, presumably on the way back from Jersey.

That is what I was suggesting, a lot of commonality in those days and the Austin S3 multifuel was a short production run. The number was cast on the outer face of flange, from earlier photos.

The axle type was used in series 2 and 3 trucks (and series 1?) and all the Austin based BMC and smaller Leyland trucks e.g. WE, WF, FE, FF etc. I didn't want to say too much as there will have been variations so it doesn't follow that every one of those trucks will have an identical half shaft. It seems to me if the number was cast in the flange it might not be the proper part number for the shaft though.

I don't think it would come to that. I may be wrong, but the same type of axle was used in at least some of the Series 3 trucks, which later became the BMC and Leyland range, so I'd have thought it quite likely that several of those used the same shafts.

Where on the shaft is 11K 7895 marked?

Bu**er. Sorry to hear that, Justin. Richard Banister?

It's estimated at 15k Euros

Howard, I'm willing to bet knowing GM they're the same as a lot of other GM / Chevrolet stuff; tried the Stovebolt forums and parts suppliers?

Very tidy G plate Lightweight in Shillingstone this afternoon.

Commercial Motor thinks it's an Ecomat 6HP900

Mailed fist (3 and 8) is Royal Armoured Corps, isn't it?

Without wishing to temp providence, my Photobucket images seem to be displaying OK...

I have noticed this issue recently on other VBulletin forums so it's probable it's something to do with the forum software or the way it's set up.

Justin, you can buy square drive tools as sets for removing sump plugs - they're available in varieties of makes and sizes and not expensive.

Otherwise a bit of scrap or square bar ground to size.

A Detroit might sound amazing but I can't help feeling would be completely the wrong engine in a Martian. It seems to me the issue with the B81 is not the power per se - after all, most contemporary large truck diesels were around that power output - but the comparative lack of torque. I'd have thought the Detroit would suffer a similar issue in that although more torque is there, my experience is that it's in a fairly narrow band and you have to rev the thing to keep it pulling.

With a vehicle like a Martian I'd have thought you'd want something with a wide, high torque curve which will pull well from very low revs. That might give you a gearing problem given that sort of engine tends to be fairly low maximum governed speed but there are other ways around that - a gearbox with a very long overdriven top gear(s), for example.

If the Cummins is a C series IIRC they're around 190 - 280 bhp, 600 - 800+ lb ft torque and about a 2500 - 2700 rpm governed speed depending on spec - that doesn't seem too shabby to me and certainly better than 220 bhp and 335 lb ft for a B81 though the peak rpm is low.

I'm with Wally, I thought it was Millboard rather than Masonite.

You can buy a modern version of Millboard from some of the vintage car suppliers.

If it's just the shafts (drive from the PTO) I don't think there's anything special about them - any propshaft reconditioners should be able to make them up.

Given Lacre's propensity for specials, could it be a PTO for a (near) vertical chain drive to, say, a tipping body or specialist equipment?

Back when I was frequenting Aston Down and other dispersal sales, it became a running joke that all vehicles seemed to have a mysterious piece of tooling that appeared to have no obvious or even possible function. I suspect your brackets are where the mysterious piece of MoD metal is stowed on a Militant tanker.

Richard, my eyes are probably no better than yours and I can't get the photo to blow up any larger (do you have a higher res version?) - but the pedals look LAC?? to me - is it possibly a Lacre? The radiator is roughly the right shape.

At a basic level, if you've got a good spark, compression, fuel and it's all happening at the right time then it's difficult to see what might be wrong. The logic of that is check through the various systems methodically, but I'm not quite sure I see the point in doing so when you have a known major issue with one cylinder; particularly since if your assessment of broken rings is right, the more you run it the more damage you risk doing. If your assessment is wrong, and for example it's just stuck rings where it's been sitting, by continuing you risk breaking them and again causing more damage.

The blue one at Rudders is our old one and although a different colour and with one or two minor improvements over standard it was pretty much original when we had it. I can't say what might have been done to it since. I suspect the RE Museum may be more amenable though.

I will PM you my phone number.

Steve,

Unfortunately we have sold ours so can't help directly, but still have a lot of documentation, photos and knowledge if that helps.

There was a large scale model available (https://accurate-armour.com/our-products/135th-kits/k114d); and there's also a 1/72 (or possibly 1/76) kit which isn't bad.

There are several surviving in the UK but not sure of the whereabouts of most now. The RE Museum at Chatham has one, as do Rudders Boatyard at Milford Haven. RE Museum might be your best bet.

I created a 'special' expandable photo just for you so blow your photo up and you'll see what I mean.

I did, but I still couldn't quite see.