Caddy

Cheers for that, actually can't use the socket as it was just dangling in the drivers compartment in our Cent AVRE. It is apparently FV167319/1 another number underneath that one 819319/1 RWC. It's connected into the Fighting Compartment Junction Box CB1A and CB1B. I have no idea what it's for......

Thank you Clive, I knew I saw it somewhere. Have tried to unscrew it, but it ain't 'alf tight!

I saw a how to in another thread, but cannot for the life of me remember how. Any help would be much appreciated.

What? Do you mean "how much plastic explosive does it take to clean a cement mixer?" Yep, that was a good one.

How can you stand that much excitement in one person?

Wonder what's going to happen to the IOW's Conqueror?...... (Is there more than one over there, can never remember)

$200k for a Conqueror? Someone better tell the IWM!

Have a lovely day a Duxford tomorrow.

What are these places without their volunteers? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25916048

If they are printed I should be able to scan and save them as searchable PDF (as long as they are loose bound)

What have you got for Chieftain? Anything on Centurion?

Hey Lauren, You know what the IWM are like, by rights we should be putting back what we took out, but finding about 100 metres of UNIPREN 12 is going to be very difficult. Also any NOS is going to be pretty ancient so how good are its insulation qualities? This then means that we have to fit the next closest thing: TC12. It isn't a direct replacement, but the closest to UNIPREN. With regards to a thicker cable I'm not too sure there will be the room for it, it's a blummin tight squeeze at the moment. There are other ways we can ensure that the cables don't get wet.....

Got a few hours on her today and we need some cable.... We can't get any UNIPREN 12(amp), so a quick search on this site brought up TC12 as an endorsed replacement. So have asked for a couple of reels of TC12 (17amp). This stuff, although of a higher amperage, I recon is the most suited replacement as it is roughly the same overall thickness and has a lower resistance value. It's black, but such is life..... Have started removing the nuts holding the exhaust manifold on B bank so we can remove the oil and fuel tanks and that'll give room to get to the exhaust magneto. Oh, if anyone has a electrical wiring diagram for a Mk5/2 165 AVRE I would be most grateful. TTFN

When you say it's circular does that mean that the apex of the stones is a the centre of the structure, or is it a ring (doughnut)? Do you pour oil or something similar into the trench so when attacked it can be ignited to provide a defensive measure?

I think that this might be a litmus test of some sort.......

Yep, still there. Not too sure if I'll be there on the 9th as I think I got the folks over. Nothing wrong with petrol, if it's new

Glad to see that she's going to get used. Still I will miss seeing her on my drive to work, not a lot else to see on the M11

Is that the APC that's in a field in Gurnon Bushes, just the other side of the M11 from North Wield?

Cup holders :-D

Today was quite a perplexing day, we wanted to check the primary circuit for the booster coil. We had got the booster coil working by running a new cable from the main box to the coil. This worked beautifully, so that left a bit of an issue with the original wiring. We megger'd the line and found an earth leak. We then removed to cover to the conduit and found a slight problem: Not a pretty sight. There are 24 UNIPREN cables in that mess and after testing 8 of them and all failing we recon we are in a mess. What is slightly confusing is that when we checked the loom for physical damage we couldn't find any (after we picked the rust off), but the cables did feel damp so I was wondering if the loom was left in this very damp environment whether the insulation might take on water thus reducing the effectiveness of itself? It would go some way to explain why the readings we got were all around the 95ohm mark. Any ideas? The other job tackled was to start removing the air filter, oil tank and fuel tank from the off side of the engine. We need to get to the exhaust magneto so that we can examine it and then test the HT leads. We are still in discussion whether we do the inlet mag as we'd have to remove the Aux Gen as well.......

Side valve engine, sort of looks a bit like a Morris 11hp (pre minor engine). Recon there were a lot of engines that looked like that though

The one on our Chieftain ARRV is steel - two man lift for each section. I think the one on our Militant is steel as well.

Time for a bit of an update. I think the last we got to was Aux Gen was running and charging and that was about it.... There has been a slight change of plan from the management; the deadline to get it started came and went so she should have been loaded up on to a trailer and transported to the north side of Duxford for storage. It didn't happen. We have new orders: To get her running properly - no shortcuts! All on the team are much happier with this, we have no time constraints, and we can ask for what spares are needed. So time for a new plan. First thing was to move her round to outside the workshops - first day back and we get to play with the ARRV! A very happy and muddy day. If anyone was at Duxford on Sunday you would've seen Phil and Martin pushing AVRE through a very tight gap (using Chieftain ARRV), glad they were doing it and not me. We have now got AVRE outside the workshop so we can now connect her to our power set (big black box with BAE written on the side), so we can charge the batteries and turn the engine over on that as well. So where next? I guess the beginning. Electricity in, check spark, and then fuelling. Pretty sure the floats are stuck in the carbs as fuel seems to pour through. Oh, the other good thing about being next to the workshop - bountiful supplies of tea!

Our main tank driver at Duxford said that the best way to stop a Chieftain when he was driving them of Her Majesty was to use the gears, the brakes never lasted long. I've certainly heard that from other drivers as well. They are quite 'interesting' to work on (saying that a damn sight easier than a Centurion in a lot of respects). Oh by the way, if you ever need to replace the aux hydraulic pump on the GUE (the one that powers the cooling fan), it's from a David Brown tractor and available for £80.

Not any more - they repainted it in desert colours.........