Richard Farrant

Thanks for the info.

I'll ask Joel.

I didn't know they where also used by the Air Force. The only thing I know is that these receivers where used in Arillery positions.

The gunners received their coordinates on the BC-728 from HQ.

They where also used as warning recievers in GMC which transported German POW's. There is a picture of a GMC in the book Emile Becker.

They may well have been army anti-aircraft units at the airfield, we will never know that. My information on these sets was that they were to pass warning of enemy aircraft approaching, so USAAF refuellers, etc, may well have been equipped.

Richard

I got a BC-728 Receiver for in my CCKW 352.

Can anyone tell me how the mounting (FT-338) looks like,

and if or where I can get this mounting??

This was not with the receiver when I bought it.

:roll:

Hi Sgt,

Maybe that I have one of these still, will have to check. If so, it has some history. Before D-day, the American air force had P47 Thunderbolts based near here in South Kent and after the initial invasion they moved out to new landing strips in France. For some reason, a lot of kit was buried on the site and a local man had been metal detecting and found a number of these mountings stacked neatly but buried. Some still had readable lettering. I sent one to a mv collector in California as he was fitting one of these sets to his Dodge. The rest have all gone now, but I think one remains, certainly in good order and may have traces of olive drab still on it. The sets were apparantly to warn of enemy aircraft approaching and were fitted to all vehicles on the airfield. As to why they were removed, who knows?

Richard

G'day Jack,

Welcome. You must be the farthest member so far. No doubt you know of some of your fellow mv collecters locally who took part in the Alice Springs runs. I did the original 1995 and again in 2000, the latter one I drove a Jeep along John Williams from Armadale WA in a Ford blitz and a number of others from WA.

Richard

I recently got this tip but I havn't figured out what to take with me in the Dodge.

Whatever you take with you, you will never need. So anything you forget will be the thing you need. In other words, throw the contents of your workshop in the truck and hope for the best !

Richard

Everything! I am over weight (the vehicle that is for AA etc) I am my own most of what I carry has been needed in by many years of breaking down.

 

water

 

 

Clive,

I note you now carry water......good idea, it saves having to play chicken across busy motorways :lol:

Richard

How about the MEGA's, middle eastern green and sand? I know its not that brilliant but it was just one thought up on the spur of the moment,

Don't shoot me for this, it is not meant to be serious :lol: But seeing as though there are some Russian vehicles in your little band, what about this;

Eastern Bloc Heads

You do not have to use it of course

If you look to the right of the red ring, that is the seal that feels loose but it seems to be intact.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

 

Richard,

Loose seal.......I see what you mean now !!! That is a toroidial sealing ring, in other words, an "O" ring. It does very little really, there is a cork ring further inside that is supposed to keep the oil back and the "O" ring is more of a secondary measure and also to keep the muck out. They always weep, especially when hot and the oil is thinned out.

Richard

yes there where a lot of damaged leyland drops aswell.

 

Where did you get to put these back together.

Dougy,

ABRO Ashford, formerly a REME Dist.Wksp.

Richard

Does anyone know where I can buy thick (about 3/4" thick) cork sheet from to cut grease retainer seals out of. Its for the front hub seals on my Scammell SV/2S.

Hello,

I have not bought cork quite as thick as that, but you could see if you have a branch of James Walker in your area. They make all sorts of gasket and packing material. Another one is Sampsons at Rochester, they list up to 12mm and will cut them, probably could bond two sheets together to make 3/4". Website is http://www.sampsons.co.uk

Richard

yeah the oils coming from the boot, but just having a quick look today, it looks like there's a retaining ring holding the boot in place. This is what is loose, it feels that it could easily be pulled off.

 

 

I think that the seal which has gone is no.14. Would this be visible with the boot in place?

The Ferret has been pretty much leak free until now with only the odd little drip. But this one is quite noticeable.

 

 

Richard,

The boot is held in place by a hose clip, slide the boot of the thin metal ring. This ring is held on by a number of 1/4" setscrews, if these are loose, then the bronze ring that the seal is fitted into is obviously loose, that means that the seal is not in good contact with the challis, hence source of leak. Try tightening these screws and monitering the leak. If it still persists, then you will have to delve deeper.

Richard

I've noticed that the Oil Seal on the out-put shaft on the rear Inner Tracta joint on the Ferret has started to leak. I've only had a quick look at it but the oil seal is quite loose (the other's are all tight and dry) so not doubt it will need replacing.

Question..What is the correct/easiest way of doing it? An "idiots guide" would be nice, better still, someone local who could help me with it.

Also, how easy is it to get hold of these seals?

Richard,

I have known the mechanicals of Ferrets, intimately for a very long time (32 years), but am a little mystified by you description of your leak. The inner tracta joint is the one in the bevel box, there is a rubber boot protecting the challis (spherical housing that seal bears on). Is the oil coming out of the boot? The inner tacta housing slides in to the bevel box and the action of the suspension means that this housing has to move in and out slightly. The seal arrangement for this is a little archaic in that it is a cork ring fitted in a groove around the tracta housing. They always leak, some worse than others.

I still cannot grasp what you say about the seal being loose?

Richard

Anybody see this programme tonight?

Did you note the dozer working in the background? Could not get a good shot of it, but sounded like it was powered by a GM 3-71 diesel, poss a Allis Chalmers?

Richard

Left it a day, and then applied a second coat.

And thats when the surface crazed......

I'll be stripping the paint off at the weekend and trying again.

 

Rob,

 

OK, I reckon the first coat had not cured. The temp at this time of year is not good for painting unless you had it in a really warm building. Also the first coat may have been heavy (?) and although appeared dry on the skin it was still soft underneath. Personally I would leave it for about 3 days before recoating and then only after it had been in a reasonably warm atmosphere.

 

Richard

Put a coat of paint on the wing yesterday, put another one on today, and now its gone all rippley in patches and resembles crazy paving.

Not impressed with this stuff at all :evil:

Did you spray it? And if so, what did you thin the paint with?

Kewelde

I'm with Kewelde, on this, but hell I just had a pasting on the Gee for daring to say the same.

I just took a look at G503, that guy is a bit of a ****, the original spec was GO which is straight 90. You will find Graham at Jeeparts recommends Straight 90 as well.

As for a flying M series truck, what has that got to do with it? Does he want a medal, or should it be wings??

Richard

I have the Pat Ware book on Hotchkiss 201,s and in the part on maintenance the recommended oil for gearbox and transfer case is hypoid 90ep.

If the vehicle is a licence built MB does this mean that the book is wrong and that I should use sae 90 only. I have some semi synthetic sae 90 gear oil in my garage could I use that.

 

Cent,

The M201 gearbox is no different to the WW2 ones, in that they have synchros. Any EP or Hypoid oils have additives that inhibit any friction and that is what a synchro relies on, friction. It is a brake ring to slow the gear down in order to mesh quickly. The original US manual calls for GO, which is plain 90 gear oil, save the EP90 for the axles and transfer box.

Just shows you cannot rely on what is written in books

Richard

Painting it on wood is optimistic, I painted some of the missile carriers in the Hornet in 1994 and it STILL hasn't dried :roll:

thanks Clive,

I thought there may have been a BS reference, but no problem. It is very similar to a paint I have seen called "silver mist", will try to remember where I've seen it.

Talking about it never drying......when I have been working in old vehicles such as Saracens, etc., which have obviously not been painted for many years, your boots and overalls seemed to pick up a silvery sheen

Richard

Metallic colours like silver & gold don't seem to appear in BS systems. Looking at the 1931 BS381 there is nothing like that. Although I see in next edition of 1948 that Silver Grey 628 makes an appearance only to be deleted in 1964.

Clive,

I do not have Vocab for paint, H1 I think. If you have a post war one, then that interior silver paint must be listed. The type of paint is special in that it does not harden, to stop spalling if fire upon from outside, but the shade is bound to be of a British Standard.

Richard

Brackets of and on armor – OD Green

Brackets of and on sheet metal in the engine bay – silver

The engine its self – seems to be more of a Kelly Green

 

I thought if I could get a British number I could use one of several cross reference charts on the web and have the color made.

 

 

Ratchit,

The OD green may be from its latter end of service, not knowing its history.

From the British Standard colour chart BS381c, shade 298 Olive Drab is one used by British Army from 1944 on. The engine colour is probably 216 Eau-de-nil. The silver you could no doubt source, it is not shiny like aluminium paint, more like that used on truck wheels, etc. Maybe Clive has a BS reference for it?

Take a look at this colour chart;

http://www.indfinspec.demon.co.uk/bs_381c_colour_chart.htm

Do not use these charts for colour matching because they are far from accurate for that purpose. If no one can match to these numbers in the US, I have the above two colours and could do a match card for you.

Richard

Just wanted you all to know that as of next month I will be writing for Classic Military Vehicle every month with a two page spread..........yeah I know that I know bugger all about MV's but that is why I will be writing for them.

 

I will be writing about the restoration of my GMC from a 'newbie' point of view - from someone who knows nothing about MV's, the suppliers and the tools that are needed. As an 'outsider' I could see that there are entry vehicles into the MV world, but no entry knowledge.

 

 

Jack,

This is something that the mv magazines are lacking, in comparison to other fields, (ie tractor, car, motorcycle mags), practical restoration articles.

Best of luck and well done for putting yourself forward on this. If you need any advice from someone in the restoration business, please PM me.

Richard

Good question

 

But like Centurion, I would be interested to hear if anyone else has used one.

About 20 years ago I bought a Bosch electric spray gun to paint a MV, purely for practical reasons. There was no mains electric available and to use a compressor, a large generator would have been needed. So we used the electric gun with a small gen set. You will not get as good a finish as an air gun as there is not so much control on it, although saying this, there may be more sophisticated guns available nowadays. But for a military vehicle with semi matt paint it was fine.

I have to say, if you have a compressor, some of the really cheap spray guns that come in the kits (paraffin gun, blow gun, tyre inflator, etc.) for around £25 are not too bad at all. It is a question of practice and getting the mix of paint and thinners right.

Richard

Unfortunately none of these colours tie up with the 31 colours in the 1931 BS381 colour standard. But I expect Richard Farrant will be able to give some ideas but he's probably not up yet :wink:

Thanks Clive, I'm up now

hi Ratchet,

I see Clive has given you some paint references for early wartime. The often refered to, style of camouflage pattern called Mickey Mouse was not normally used on armoured vehicles although there is bound to be an exception. It all depends on the particular period of wartime that you wish to depict. A lot of the armoured vehicles that I restore are in 1944 onward paint schemes, there is British Standard colour references for these, but paint suppliers in the US will not recognise them.

As for the inside, do you have any traces of original paint, ie. under brackets, etc.? The normal inside colour would be silver, not like aluminium paint, more like a semi matt, so that it did not shine. In some cases, a shade of white was used, there is comment on this, that is was changed to white due to a shortage of pigment for the silver.

If you can come back on the actual period, and theatre of operation, I can narrow it down to a particular colour and if it is one I am using, even send you a colour card that your local paint supplier could match.

Richard

yes there where a lot of damaged leyland drops aswell.

Dougy,

Most that we were doing were worse than those!

Richard

Does anyone remember the Aldershot Garrison sign/Badge that was on all vehicles in the 70's and early 80's

 

this was a red and yellow tigers head (i am trying to get a picture to re-create the badge)

 

Ian,

The tigers head was not Aldershot Garrison, it was South East District, which covered right down to Kent and Sussex. I think HQ was at Aldershot.

There was an Aldershot Garrison sign, which was a shield with I think a torch and crossed searchlight beams.

I have a presentation shield here with the SE Dist transfer on it, could scan it to you on an email. I best try it first to see if it will come out, or failing that, take a picture of it.

Richard

we bought some straight sae 90 from a company that specialised in lubricants for historic vehicles, cant recall their name but you'll find one in a classic car magazine. boy just told me its called millers lubricants-clever blighter!

Mick,

Another good source of oils for historic vehicles is Morris Lubricants. They even make oil for steam engines.

Richard