trophy160

Richard Farrant has pointed out that mine being up armoured and with the large wheels will not be able to tackle hills in higher gears. What I’m not clear about is just how fast Saracens whizzed up hills, after all they’re pretty heavy and by modern standards don’t have that much power. Richard has also suggested advancing the ignition a bit so I’ll give that a go. 

Having reinstated my Saracen’s reverse flow cooling and replaced a worn out carb that caused plugs to foul I now have a Saracen that completes the relatively short journeys I ask of it (5-10 miles). However, when faced with a steep hill I need to drop it down to third and even then it it not brimming with power. On the flat I only drive it at around 30 mph as I’m generally on country roads, but even on the flat if I do give it more throttle it just feels down on power. My question is, is what I have described normal or should it have a bit more get up and go?

Nic

Thanks Clive, I had clearly missed that post 

Nic

Did NI Saracens have hull shock coils similar to those on the Ferret? I was under my Mk6 today greasing it up and saw a bracket holding an insulator with a wire coming from it that clearly went through a hole in the floor above and a chain that when untangled dropped down to ground level. 

Hi Ted,

I bought mine 4 years ago, so far no big problems and have really enjoyed owning it,  I’m sure you will have great fun with it 

Nic 

48 minutes ago, dgrev said:

Nic

 

The site does work. But for some bizarre reason the link has been shortened by the software of this forum and actually tries to direct to a site "ningtanks.com".

So I will try again <www.owningtanks.com>. 

If that doesn't work, type          owningtanks.com       directly into your browser address bar,

Regards

Doug

Thanks Doug 

On 13/10/2017 at 8:56 AM, dgrev said:

I did an article years ago about this very thing, look on my website for the Ferret articles 

 www.owningtanks.com

 

Regards

Doug

Hi, this link does not seem to work.

Nic 

Just a comment on ultrasonic cleaners. I have a very small unit and it is pretty useless. This year I bought a good secondhand carb for the Saracen from Richard Banister, but on inspection it was still pretty gummed up inside. I sent it for professional ultrasonic cleaning, it came back looking absolutely new. However, that chap who di it said it had 8 hours in the ultrasonic bath, so I guess this form of cleaning whilst being good does take some time.

Nic

Hi Terry, can you describe what you have done on the Saracen

Nic

Thanks both, most helpful and the idea of the piece of wood especially so as it becomes a one man job.

Nic

Can anyone advise me on the procedure for bleeding Saracen brakes, i presume there is an order for bleeding. Also, is it the case that with the engine running you would just depress the brake pedal prior to opening a bleed nipple, i.e. No need to pump the brakes?

thanks

Nic

Anyone got one for sale?

OK, so 10/30 it is. Having googled the detergent/non detergent issue I read that an engine which has been run on non detergent oil and then changed to detergent oil may be asking for trouble. The issue being that all the 'crud' that has been bound to engine parts is released into circulation and may then cause trouble. I'm sure for top up purposes, due to the dilution factor using a detergent oil is OK, but it sounds like it might be prudent to use a low detergent oil. I wondered about this stuff for longer term use https://www.ryeoil.co.uk/shop/universal-tractor-oil/ they are just down the road from me.

My Saracen needs a top up of engine oil prior to a run at the weekend. I only have some OMD 80X inherited with the vehicle. I understand this to be 10/30 high detergent engine oil. Assuming the engine currently has OMD 75 (SAE 30) oil is there any reason why I should not top up with this? It's the high detergent bit I'm not sure about.

Thanks Clive, I was unable to obtain its history pre 70's so most of its history relates to NI and hence related markings for that period seem the most pertinent to use. It's use by the two regiments above were early/mid seventies, from your comments it perhaps would have had minimal markings then?

Nic

Really, no one knows anything about vehicle markings? Perhaps I'm on the wrong forum!

My Saracen is all ready for its outings to various shows this year, I've added various pieces of external kit appropriate to the vehicle but what it lacks are any sort of vehicle markings, because I don't know what they should be!

I can see from its service record that whilst in NI my Saracen was used at different times by the the 9/12 Lancers and the 15/19 Hussars. It would be nice to reflect one or other of these on the vehicle, what would be appropriate?

Me again, have you conducted the functional checks on the swopped out unit? Pecs for 353's are relatively easy to obtain if you can isolate the problem and fairly straight forward to repair. Again, don't bin the set.

 

Regards

Bob

Hi Bob, no I've not had a chance to look at it yet as I only swapped it out late afternoon. I certainly won't bin it until I have a go at fixing it.

Nic

i've a spare starting handle if you still want one

pm sent

Problem resolved with the 353 problem, having checked and re-checked everything several times I concluded it must be the 353. Swapped it out and problem solved. So there must be some internal problem on the microphone line on the harness socket.

Sorry to state the obvious but start with the PDB fuse and check your power cable for output to the DMU, it may just be a bad connection. There is no internal fuse.

 

Regards

Bob

Hi Bob, yes I have power at the power cable so it looks like the unit is a gonner. Pity as I had BID simulator which looked quite good when all lit up (from a display point of view)

Have you:

 

(a) tried the 353 on a different input to the IB3?

(b) checked the continuity of the cable between the 353 and IB3?

 

(and I hope you're not transmitting without a licence!)

 

Andy

Hi Andy, yes I tried a different input on the IB3. I will re-check the cable as I had to join two to gain the length I needed. I did do a pin/pin continuity check when I altered the cable and all was OK, but have to agree it's an obvious culprit

Hi Dale,

It could be useful to have a pic of the CB2 box (settings) and the 353 settings when you're in transmit/ receive mode. Does that make sense?

Nic

The set up on my Saracen is a VRC353, IB3 two CB2. Each CB2 has two headsets connected to them.

The itntercom works fine. The VRC353 with a headset connected directly to audio transmits and receives fine against a PRC349

When I set the VRC353 to remote, I am able to hear a transmission from the 349 via headsets connected to the CB2

However if I try to transmit from the 353 by pressing the pressel switch on a headset connected a CB2 I find that the transmitter light comes on, the 349 goes silent, but no audio is transmitted ............ so what have I done wrong?

Aside to this problem and nothing to do with it, I also have a DMU which used to light up when switched on but no longer does so. The 3 amp fuse adjacent to the on off switch is OK, is there another fuse inside the unit or are there any other obvious reason why it is now dead?

Front vision block in good condition wanted and I'm also after a starting handle