Adrian Barrell

Thanks Jack! We'll drink to our health next weekend!

My Iron Fairy has it on the decking, the parts list calls it Safety Walk. Two sizes are listed, 2" S23/7 and 4" S23/6.

Paint them OD, everything else was......:-)

Reverse Flow Cooling I suspect.

There is nobody more anti-smoking than an ex-smoker!

Out of interest Mike, did you consider running your Antar and pulling two trailers a necessity?

Yes, 0.003 endgap, but if your rings are not touching anything, you need new rings!

:-D

That's the Madsen Mike, Stableboy was referring to the Marsden.......

Hi John, was just talking to your dad this morning. It was our traditional pre-Beltring 'have you got.....?' conversation! The stabilizer consists of a pump driven from the traverse motor, a gyro box and a hydraulic ram to move the gun. The pump is different on the Oilgear and Westinghouse systems because they run at different speeds. A pump is not too hard, the ram also but finding a useable gyro box is harder. There are several versions, 12v for Stuart tanks, 24v for mediums and it evolved over time from two gyros to a single one. By their nature, gyroscopes are delicate so you would need to find a nice one and not a range find like mine..... In all honesty, I did not attempt to make mine work, the gyro box was damaged and they were not used in service much as shooting on the move in a Sherman is not really an option! If you can find the bits, it should not be too hard to get working though.

I would disagree, the far one is not even touching the tyre.

Yes. They may merely have been lifted from the deck and placed there in readiness for use after loading. I understood the later M20 had external winch controls and were fitted with an air valve that operated the clutch from the winch position. This chap certainly looks like he has his foot on the clutch though! The earlier vehicles had all the winch controls in the cab.

He does but you can never have too many radial engines......:-D

Whilst Clives top tip could get you out of a muddle, it's not really a long term fix....! As you say, it is most probably the contacts of the cut out. There are three units in the regulator, all have contacts that would benefit from a clean.

I'd be more interested in how he knows a particular GMC 'served' on Omaha beach. Ah, I've just remembered, every other GMC, Dodge and Jeep landed on Omaha beach, usually with the 101st Airbourne....:rolleyes:

Out of interest, does anybody know of this being a problem in service?

The fact that it is an early one should be a consolation!

R-975 radial. Do you have a spare one? :-D

I'm not sure tbh, I don't think there was a lot done to the insides other than removing all irrelevant stowage. Hanno probably knows more.

Norman, all good questions! The plates are flame cut and pre-cutting the holes is not really an option as they have to be drilled to fit on assembly. The rivet holes need to be close tolerance on diameter otherwise the rivets will not set correctly. We use MIG when we are going to disguise the weld, i.e sectioning a plate in but where welds will be left visible, we generally use stick. Contrary to popular opinion, some of the larger weld runs on Shermans were done with MIG or at least a wire fed weld, in the factory. I have seen pictures of the M4A4 production line that shows this and there was bits of wire sticking out of one of the welds in my Sherman. I have had some sucess in getting MIG to look like stick but generally we use the original methods. The problem with using an old plate to replace damage is the welds. It is possible to distress them to look like the plate, indeed we rebuilt a Sherman turret that needed a whiole new bustle built. This was originally a casting obviously and we made it up from plate and tube sections. A lot od welding, sculpting with a grinder and then finishing with a die grinder and needle gun left it nicely textured and contoured. A lot of work though! Frankly, unless the plate is very pitted, when blasted and with a few coats of paint, new looks much like old. You cannot see the join in my Shermans side where there is a three foot section of new plate.

All this assumes that UK tarmac is the same as Euro tarmac.......

I don't think they were used until Holland.

Ken, what is the serial number?

Is that a D4 fuel tank fitted on the rear?

I was aware what octane rating meant but believed that modern unleaded burnt slower than older, lower octane fuel. It may well do but it seems that is nothing to do with the fact it is higher octane but purely to do with the hydrocarbon makeup. So, advancing the ignition a little does improve things but is dependant on the chemical makeup of the fuel and a bit hit and miss!