Grasshopper

I know the former owner of the truck, and was riding in the cab in 1987 while he was dragging felled trees around Cobham bus museum with it. I was tempted to try and take it off his hands in the early 2000s but was a bit busy with my own 2 Matadors. Glad its gone to a good home.

178's injectors were a dream yesterday, didn't even need to look out of the cab to check it. Picked up first time, every time :-)

If I had the space.....

Ah Will, breaking cover! The advantage with the steam engines we play with is they're not our problem to fix if they break!

Vince

All good here thanks Ewan; a couple of Ward LaFrances (Mike now has a yellow one) and children later we also have a Dodge WC51 in the collection.

Hi Ewan, we (Ward LaFrance crew) miss the water fights we used to have with you in France on the Bethune convoys!

Regards,

Vince

Having recently watched the "Monster moves" program about the Larkhill gun, I noticed that one axle was seized. That jogged a memory of a story about its extraction from a siding in Shoeburyness. I found a link to pthe story, probably the last rail movement the 18" rail gun, and it was by an army Austerity steam locomotive http://www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk/the-railway/locomotives/73.html

I once saw the USS George W Bush at anchor in the Solent; the aircraft on deck and the passing container ships really gave a good sense of scale on just how big it was. The ferry I was on was tiny by comparison!

Cent AVRE is my favourite AFV. Just so much presence, especially with the dozer blade fitted. I'm lucky enough to play with CVRTs so that has to suffice but maybe one day...

A fair few years ago we had the pleasure of Nick Meads Cent AVRE FOSGENE (of Channel 4 salvage squad fame) on our display at W&P.Having heard the tail of it, the TV team itself (unsurprisingly) had little to do with the restoration and had to make up a few jobs to do on it.

Its been a while since I've worked on a Gardener but the fuel racks can rust up if not used for a while. Somewhere near the top of each "half" of the fuel injection pump is a small screw you remove and squirt some lub oil in. This could also be the cause of the hunting (or not).

That's the 2nd Sherman recovery that truck has done (Adrians' at A&E and now Jims), well done! Has the clutch air cylinder been fitted to the gear box yet?

Vince (former occasional co-driver of your Ward LaFrance under TootallMikes custodianship)

I witnessed a similar issue to that with a Gardner engined double deck bus- it was fitted with various new lift pumps, fuel lines, injectors, fuel tanks, and would still suffer fuel starvation to the point that the vehicle could only be trusted on a short local run. As a last resort one of the fitters cut a hole in the fuel tank only to find bits of newspaper in there which would on occasion block the fuel pipe. It transpired (with the help of garage forecourt CCTV) that the driver who took it on local runs used to dip the fuel tank with a rolled up newspaper.

Winch missing on that one.

Its not usual to find two different wheel nut sizes on a vehicle like this but as long as the threads are the same it is not a problem.

Make sure to thoroughly clean or replace the gauze/wire mesh filters in the foot valve as they will impede the air supply to the foot valve.

I had a foot valve fail on a Matador I once had while shunting in a yard, good idea to rebuild them on these old timers.

We made up 3 lifting rings which fit in the 3 lifting points for lifting the decks off, makes life far easier! (They even live with the relevant lifting strops in the front tool locker of one of our CVRTs). Of course only any good if you have access to a crane/wrecker/tractor.

Having looked at some pics on line my first Matador was ex Alder valley and the second was ex Aldershot & Distict/Alder valley.

Hi Danny,

PM sent.

Having spent a while searching on-line for clues on the whereabouts/current state of my old Matador wrecker (which I regretfully had to sell due to redundancy/loss of storage) I'm getting a bit emotional about it :embarrassed:

I found a couple of pics of my old Matador here:

It was in Green livery when I had it and had been sat for while. I had to replace the engine which had a crack the length of the block and had also "run away" when we tried to see if it would start. APart form a new cab pillar she was pretty sound. Hope she's still around, seemed to disappear after I sold her on.

I had a similar incident in my old Matador while shunting; brakes failed and it rolled backwards into a fire engine that had just been sold.... fortunately the damage wasn't too bad on either vehicle.

To replace the shaft seals you need to remove the final drive itself.

"Simply" remove track, front sprocket and main brake caliper. Disconnect quill shaft from gearbox output (near the centre of the gear box steering disc there is a spring loaded locating dowel- with the track removed move this to the the top, push it down and withdraw the drive shaft from the outside. The small top-hat cover in the middle of the hub needs to be removed first. The internal thread of the drive shaft is the same as the track pins if you want to make a puller for this task). The shaft will only move a small way to disengage.

Remove final drive bolts and using suitable lifting device/lifting platform/blocks of wood, remove final drive. When replacing the final drive securing bolts use a suitable dis-similar metals primer to prevent reaction between the steel bolts and the aluminium hull.

Alternatively if you only want to replace the outer hub seals, remove the track and sprocket and strip like a normal vehicle hub.

I have removed, disassembled, renewed bearings and seals and refitted final drives, its not as difficult as it seems; just heavy!

Is the oil leak internal or external? Internal would be the shaft seals leaking, external would be the hub seal leaking.

It is an RT, can't say I know the number of it. There is normally an RF parked in front (NLE 600?) but that had cleared out of the way for the day.

After a period of inactivity (and becoming a parent), this last weekend we moved the Scorpion out of its shed to a farm where all our other vehicles are stored. It is our intention to build a shed over the vehicle in the coming autumn where progress can continue. It is novel having all our vehicles in one place now!

We winched it out of its shed using a Tirfor and it was quite tight negotiating one of the support pillars! Thanks to the help of friends the whole move went without a hitch. It never ceases to amaze me how much more space a vehicle in pieces takes up than a complete one.... our stores container has now reached bursting point! The amount of stuff in there will quickly diminish as the Scorpion is re-assembled, and in the period of inactivity more parts have been acquired for it.

Just seen this thread and would dearly love to get our hands on the turret from one of the (former) Spartan MCTs or any interior fittings if anyone has a contact? Our one is ex BATUS and has the roof extension but the turret was missing and the hole blanked off (I assume as an OPFOR vehicle).