Richard Farrant

JCH, Check the date on that post, it was about six weeks ago.

theres a joke there, I'm sure :-D

Hi Jam, The TK Bedford, had a double passenger seat, so you could change the single without too much trouble. Only difference in cabs between a TK and a MK/MJ is that a large panel between the seats can be removed to access top of engine, water pump, rad, etc on MK/MJ, not so on a TK, so remember this when fitting a bench seat. As for having a tilt cab.......too much problems to convert, you have steering column, pedals, transfer box control levers, etc., would take a bit more than just fitting hinge pivots. With the aforementioned removable panel, removing a cylinder head is not too bad a job. We managed for years on these Bedfords without tilting cabs :-D

Jack, Is there any truth in the rumour that he is going to be centre spread in Flypast magazine ? :-D :-D

Mark, This was always a problem with Fox throughout its service life, on the first major exercise, a unit who was one of our "dependants", went through a heap of gearboxes, through the driver's slipping the busbar pedal as the engine faltered on pulling away, resulting in major wear of bands in the lower gears.. Mods were initiated, consisting of jet changes and minor things like that. I recall several mods covering this over the years. A Fox's appetite for replacement gearboxes was largely due to this fault. Finally, near the end of service, a redesign of the base of the carb was made and problem was more or less solved.

Canadian CMP........Chevy?

Just looked at the Servicing Schedule for Saracen, and definitely no mention of shared oil, not that I thought there was. Sounds like an error in the manual.

Paul, Where did you get your manual from? Or more to the point, what edition is it. I have seen a lot of British vehicle manuals, and copies, on the market that are early editions and not updated, this means there can be mistakes and changes that have not been entered into them. In the army system, publications were regularly updated and amended. There were a small number of Ferret Gearbox / transfer boxes that shared the same oil ( 30 engine oil ), but from memory they were only identified by some stencilling on them.

Hi Kevin, I was looking at some paint samples last night, from Frank Burbery Paints ( fbpaints@hotmail.co.uk ) and one was Interior Green, looked about right too. A vacuum reservoir on a QLR ? Normally they were only fitted on lorries that were to tow vacuum braked trailers, mostly RAF vehicles. My own QLD does not have reservoir, just got the servo piped straight to the manifold. regards, Richard

Paul, Separate oils, as you have described.

You obviously got someone who knows nothing ! I was wondering what this Pioneer is, because if it is a recovery version, it would normally be operated by REME and bear their flash, red/yellow/blue. Assume it is a ballast tractor and was used for towing plant trailers, they would be operated by RE and carry the blue square......unless someone has swapped mudguards from another one.

This is a question often asked, and no one appears to have found a list of these numbers. It is most probably a civilian contractor under the Ministry of Supply contract repair scheme, sometimes garages or even the original manufacturers. If it had been a Army workshop, it would indicate so quite clearly with an abbreviation of its title.

On the Humber scout car the Bren mounted on a PLM, was remotely fired from inside, a drum mag was used. It was more than likely used to lay fire if attacked, to give them a chance to escape, no accuracy could be attained whilst firing.

It was where all the Guards regiments did their basic training. Based at Pirbright Camp, near Brookwood, Surrey It came within London District.

I also heard a rumour like that, and on Sunday afternoon had the opportunity to ask the guvnor himself, Rex and he said there was no truth in it.

By pure chance I might be able to identify this one. 168 was a familiar one, on a blue background, when I worked on a lot of Royal Engineers vehicles from 1974 onwards. It was the sign for 36 Engineer Regiment RE, then based at Maidstone. Unless numbers had changed over time since 1958-60, then that is best I can come up with.

Hi Simon, Only one way to get to the flywheel, and that is engine out. It is not really possible to pull the gearbox back as that entails disconnecting transferbox, then fueltank is in the way and so on..... A small forklift truck is rather usefull for removing and refitting engines, especially if it has sideshift. Any farmers your way, got one you could borrow? If you use an engine crane, the ground has to be firm and smooth ( tarmac or concrete) otherwise it is difficult to manouvre the crane.

Hi Tyler, LOND/76 denotes it was attached to the Guards Depot, London District.

Tim, I think you are correct, Enots springs to mind. I recollect the bowl part has a very fine thread where it screws on to the upper body.

Tim, It looks remarkably like one I came across on a Morris Commercial C4 once.

A petrol filter?

OK Mark. Would not say that any banging in tracta joints is "normal", no matter whether it is a Fox, Ferret, Saracen, etc. any noise indicates a problem, such as I described, usually stemming from lack of oil. So, always keep levels topped up. Look forward to meeting you.

Right Mark, you should bump into me there, I will be doing a bit of marshalling over the weekend.

You are quite correct about GL4, Montie. The army specified gear oil for Ferret, Fox and Saracen hubs and bevel boxes, OEP-220 had a warning that it may not be suitable in applications containing gears and bearings made of copper alloys, so with this in mind, it must have been a GL5...............meaning that there are no yellow metals in anything where OEP220 is specified.

Hi Mark, Sorry, TTM said you were around, and he was going to check your noise. Did he come to any conclusion? I was often away from our camp wandering, so must have missed each other. are you going to Combined Ops at Headcorn?