Richard Farrant

Hi Allan, It is primarilly a Bridging crane used by Royal Engineers. We knew them as the Mk.5, the earlier one had similar cab and running gear as Militant Mk1 but with beams instead of springs on rear bogie. The Mk5 engine is much bigger than the earlier one, being the AV760, of 215 bhp against the old 11.3 litre, 150 bhp Militant. When working in REME workshops, I spent some time repairing and testing cranes, these and the earlier Militant, also the rather dated RAF ones which still used the Matador engine but with a later cab. They lift a max. of 7 tons on wheels and 10 tons on blocked......that is over the rear at shortest radius. Going by the census number on yours, "EY", I would think it is an early one as a lot were in the "FU" range. All up weight was 26 tons. Richard

Sorry Jerry, I missed this message last night.............you can only test the syncro of the two sets of points (or as I call it, phasing), with the distributor removed from the engine, you also require the test jig as shown in the EMER. A battery and test lamp can be used, obviously bulb same voltage as battery, easy as that! It may be better for you to back track to see what you have done to cause this to happen. Best of luck. Richard

Jerry, OK, something to work on now. Assume you have done everything correctly. Now this bang on over run may not be due to a leak in exhaust, but weak mixture on idle settings. Might pay to richen the two needles, not forgetting to move them equally as per the EMER. Richard

Jerry, You headed this thread "misfire", is it actually misfiring or only banging on the over run? I have to ask, have you had this Ferret running before? So many questions, but this is my job you see :-) On Ferret exhausts the two tubes which link the manifold elbow to the hull elbow, are intentionally slack, because the engine has slight movement in its mountings. After a time the tubes rattle in the elbows and also scale them selves, resulting in a looser fit. Now on over run, any leak in the exhaust system is going to result in backfires. What you have to determine, is whether the performance is down or whether it is just banging on over run, due to leak in exhaust system. Richard

Damn.......I missed it as well.

Jack, Now I am no expert on GMC trucks, but would these nuts happen to be on the drivers side?? If so , they may well be LEFT hand thread...........you may be tightening them :lol: Richard

and sometimes a bowler hat........with a Bedford radiator badge on it :-D Richard

Also Norman Aish of Bygone Bedford Bits in Poole, Dorset. Good for mechanical parts, no bodywork parts for the MW though. I also have good results from Pete Gaine, who has a knack of unearthing ex-WD parts for Bedfords, and John Morter is another good source. I have used them all for various Bedfords, MW, QL and OX. Richard

Lee, Just missed you, I left at 1145. Have you got the exact spot as last year? Should take a GPS reading of the corners of the pitch, then you might find the stake holes from last year! Richard

Lee, I was up there on Saturday morning, did not see you :? Richard

Cripp, On a closer read, the booklet is fitting instructions for the various tanks, with only a few details on starting and running plus description and data. No strip down info. If you are still interested....... Richard

Cripp and Arthur, I can photocopy a manual for you, around 22 pages for the cost of copying and post. It will have to wait until after Beltring week though......I am sure it is not that urgent :-) The Tiny Tim was designed to replace the Delco aux gen sets in the tanks listed in previous message. The manual consists of; description and specification complete list of part numbers for installation kit installation instructions for the three tanks Richard

Jack, Unless of course, that the handbrake was not fully released :oops: Richard

Hi Jack, You did not mention the fronts smoking so probably disregard servo as that would make all brakes bind. Jack the back wheels up to see if it is all of them or just the odd one, my guess it could be a siezed wheel cylinder. Richard

Hi Cripp, You have a Tiny Tim auxillary charging set, as used in certain Churchill, Challenger and Cromwell tanks of the late war period. It is 12 volt, 300 watt output. If you want to know any more let me know. Richard

Sounds like we should get a good supply of Coke at the show then ? :-D Richard

Hi Pete, I meant to give you a call. A friend went up to Rush Green Motors a few months ago, looking at a Pioneer, he also came across a Gantry, cab was well rotted, but body may well be salvageable as it is all heavy metal. Richard

hi guys, Just testing your powers of recognition regarding WW2 British vehicles. It is an Austin K6 gantry. The QL is mine and the MW I restored for a customer. The K6 belonged, until recently, to a friend and I did quite a bit of work on that also. The QL will be at Beltring, so you can look out for it. Richard

What is that truck in the background on the right of the QL?

Straight gear oils are not EP or Hypoid grades. A Straight 90 for instance, would be used where the extreme pressure additives are not required, nor welcome, such as a synchromesh gearbox. The 80w/90 grade is a multigrade suitable for use in varying temperatures, same as multigrade engine oils are specified for. They are basically an alternative. My 1963 copy of military lubricant standards, lists OEP220 as EP90 but a more up to date edition has it as EP80w/90, just a modern alternative. Richard

Neil, If that was Classic Castrol, probably lucky you did draw a blank. They are very expensive oil, you pay for the nostalgic Castrol containers! Best call that number they gave you for Castrol themselves. I once had a phonecall form Classic Castrol, someone must have given them my number, they wanted to decipher an Army oil grade for a customer with an ex-WD Matchless. My preference is Morris Lubricants, the area distribution depot used to be in the same premises as my workshop, so got to know what their range was. Richard Richard

Lee, To put the equally worn tyres on one side may be worth doing. As it stands now, the difference front to back is going to give "wind up" and possible tracta joint problems. If there was a slight difference in circumference side to side, then the diff should compensate. In the ideal world, you would just renew the tyres or swap them with another Fox to get a matching set, which is what we might have done in Workshops, although fitting new would be the normal procedure. These Michelin tyres are not a special AFV tyre. They are normal truck tyres with a Hutchinson runflat insert, therefore the "regroovable" wording on the walls refers to their normal application. The problem with regrooving is that it does not alter the circumference, so you are back to the same problem. Richard

That Matador has only just been bought by the museum. It came from a collector in Kent, I did some work on the air system a little while back. It would appear that the museum is buying up exhibits for a collection, I know of a Bedford QLB and Bofors which they also bought from England in the last couple of years. Richard

Neil, just to add a little to all the good advice given here, The Stalwart gears oil is given as OEP-220, that is Oil, Extreme Pressure, thus it is an EP90, or EP80w/90. In the DEFSTAN specification book on lubricants, as I already quoted, this oil is not suitable where copper alloy bearings are used. If copper alloys were in the gear boxes, then 220 would not b specified. So to draw a conclusion, that it is a GL4 oil, but you could use GL5 if need be. Just as an aside, as Karoshi brought it up, re. SAE90 and EP90, in a jeep gearbox there are bronze bushes and thrusts, so EP90 should not be used, also the extreme pressure qualities of EP90 affect the correct operation of the synchro cones leading to crunchy gear changes. Morris oils do a Straight SAE90 gear oil that works well in jeep boxes. Richard

Neil, OEP 220 is specified by military as 80w/90EP or 90EP, no reference to the GL number in the Defence Standards that I have. Think in a Stalwart there is no problem with yellow metals, so a standard 90EP should be OK. DEFSTAN states that 220 is not suitable for use in systems with copper alloy bearings, so as it is the specified oil, should be no problem there. OMD 75 is not a straight SAE30 oil, it was specified as a 10w/30 diesel oil, later superceded by OMD80, which is to API performance classification CD/SE. It is often stated on a certain forum relating to these vehicles that they must have SAE30 in them, because RR said so. Well I was working on vehicles with these engines in REME workshops for many years, and only these multigrades were used and specified. The confusion often comes from old manuals, that have not been amended with the later lubricants. Originally it was OMD110 (superceded in the very early 1970's by OMD75) in the engine, a SAE30, as RR recommended at the time, but they did not bother to amend there spec. when multigrades were introduced, unlike other engine manufacturers. Most RR B range engines in use today would have spent there life on multigrades, so to revert now, to a monograde would be of little benefit. You may find a surplus dealer who has some OX320, it was often supplied in 1 pint cans, we knew it as Achesons Colloidal Graphite. I remember reading a report of a trial using this mix in the hubs of Alvis FV600 series and both Alvis and MVEE decided it was of little advantage as tracta joints were still siezing with or without it, so we stopped using it. It is entirelly your choice to use it of course. Hope this all makes sense! Richard