Richard Farrant

A blast from the past............I can remember Brooke Bond Tea used deliver with these Trojans.

I am sure that is the same copper who was on the train at Tenterden last weekend, he checked my ID card, must have a good bike, to get around like that :-D

This year, the MVT tour started from the Beaulieu show. Next weekend there will be a lot of IMPS vehicles, and about another 50 more MVT ones going to Normandy on their respective tours, through Portsmouth on the Monday. The Horndean show could have picked up more entries if it had been the following weekend. A missed opportunity.

I knew someone who used to metal detect over the site of an Advanced Landing Ground. It was used up to June '44 by the USAAF for P-47 Thunderbolts, once the landings had taken place, they moved to France. Legend had it that things were buried, this chap was around in those days so knew the layout. One day he came in with some small metal casings, they were found stacked together in a filled in trench. I eventually identified them as the mounting adaptor for a radio system fitted to vehicles, to give advance warning of an air attack. The stencil lettering and paint was still in reasonable order. In identifying this I was in contact with a MV collector in the USA, who wanted one so he could mount the same set on his Dodge, I think. Sadly nothing more interesting turned up.

I think that is more likely to be a Humber armoured car. The White 666, "Mighty White", is, I think, the one that used to belong to Phil Bashall.

Have a good flight, Rick. Look forward to meeting up with you and Jill.

Neil, There is a distinct possibility that there could be one or more seals in either the master cylinder or Airpak, that are not compatable with mineral oil, ie. for normal brake fluids. As the seals for the master cylinder are no different in design to a normal fluid type, also, I know of some applications where Airpaks are used, which work with brake fluid. ( seals used with wrong fluid can swell ). Another common fault that will lock a brake on, is a sticking piston valve in the Airpak. My guess is your "REME guys" at the fort, might not have experience of Stalwarts, hence why they are reluctant :-D.

As there were 80,000 M113 vehicles produced and used in many forces around the world and the FV432 production was about 3,000, it must have been good at its job and is still in use. The FV432 was due to have been replaced by now, but an upgrade is surely only a stop gap, or money saving move?

Hi Rippo, Hope you have more than one headlamp if you are driving at night :shake: Should catch up with you on second week.

Mark, The period I was talking about was about 1995, a mod kit came out, as I mentioned, seem to think it was not a full cure, might be wrong. There were questions in the House over it, as the papers picked up on all these new trucks standing out of use. Take a read of this link; http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1995/feb/09/rb44-army-light-vehicles

Mark, I recollect them coming in to service, when I was working for the army, we did not see many in workshops for some time as very soon in to their service the braking fault showed up and they were put off the road. Memory says that periodic exercise had to be done within confines of camps, etc, but not to be driven on the road. I think it could have been something like 18 months before a solution was reached. Personally, I was not involved with this modification, but some were done at the workshop, my feeling was that it was basically the same old problem as the Willys jeep had, whereby on braking the axle moved back and pulled the steering. How these faults are never found on evaluation trials beats me

The armed forces trailers have their own numbers and the tractor number is never displayed on them.

The rear propshaft looks short, so it looks like it has been shortened between the transfer box and rear axle, also chassis has been cropped off behind rear spring hangers.

Having another look, I am now sure the chassis is QL as well, recognise the rear spring hangers.

It has QL axles, possibly the rest of the chassis is as well.

Hi Tim, Welcome to the forum, from another who joined IMPS at the founding meeting all those years ago at Maidstone TA Centre. Hope you enjoy all the banter on here

Dynamo sometimes needs repolarising, Lucas used to supply replacements polarised for +Pos earth systems, if the vehicle was -Neg earth then it needed repolarising. This is the procedure; With wiring disconnected from the dynamo, connect a length of cable to the insulated battery terminal (live) and flick the other end several times to the "F" terminal of the dynamo. Remove cable and reconnect wiring to dynamo. A test to see if you are getting any charge to the battery, with engine stopped, check batery voltage with a meter, then start up and measure again with engine running fast, a higher voltage indicates a charge. It may not be enough to put out the warning light though.

Great, hope all is well once you have done that. :thumbsup:

:-D:-D:-D:-D :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Simon, I would think yours being a gun tractor, it would have been disposed of before this mod instruction came out. At a rough guess I would think late 1970's, when we had a large number coming in for refurb, (mostly GS cargo versions). The cloth filter would have been reasonably acceptable at the time, but with refuelling by jerricans, a lot of dirt gets into the system over a time, and diesel left in for long periods can deteriorate and gel. So cleaning a tank out and filtering / straining the diesel before refilling would be a good idea.

That is good news, Nick :thumbsup:

Jules, One of the official EMER mods was changing the old cotton bag type of filter to the CAV renewable canister type as you have, which was a good move as the originals were next door to useless in filtering.

Jules, Back when I started at the Command Workshop, we always had a large number of Militant Mk1 in for repairs and overhauls. I do recollect there being a shoe profiling rig that was used on the vehicle. I can only presume it was set up on the hub so that the shoes were concentric with the drum once profiled. Never used it myself, it could have been on trial at that time.

Check the valve clearance on No2 cylinder, most probably the exhaust valve clearance has tightened up. It may improve by readjusting, but might now have burning on the face and seat, and require attention.

Simon, Great stuff..........now you are getting more confident about it :thumbsup: I know it is quite hilly around that area, so a fair test.