attleej

Howard, When you design it, think about where the centre of gravity will be and how much will it change with removal of major components.. You also need to think about how you are going to rotate it and safely hold it in a set position. It could be disaster if it suddenly rotated when not desired. I found that the problem of imbalance to be significant when working on the Meteor engine even though I was using a worm drive gear-box to rotate it. Think about the height that you will be working at. My Meteor stand meant that I was working at an ideal height and this significantly improved productivity and quality. I could rotate the engine around its crank axis which was ideal for a V12. You will find a decent engine stand to be invaluable. John

I read in one of the claims that it will do 60 MPH. Yes, I am sure that is true! Nothing about what engine is proposed. I would have thought by keeping the same hull, you inevitably compromise the design. And yet the hull is not particularly expensive compared to the rest of electronic systems and the driveline. Since the engineering effort will be spread across a very few hull, the unit cost will be very high and this will compromise the design. There is no better example of why this is not a good idea than the Nimrod project where they took an old aircraft and tried to give it new wings, avionics and engines. In effect, they were only keeping the fuselage. It was doomed to failure. John

Dear All, Does anyone have access to a manual for the above crane or can point me in the right direction? Does anyone know how much it weighs from a suitable reference? John

Ian, Get the literature as advised by Sirhc. If you have not got the literature, you are wasting your time. When you have correctly identified the cables, use some form of cable marking system (not luggage labels). You can buy clear heat shrinkable sleeving from RS Components. Write the cable ID on a sticky label with indelible ink. Place labels on the cable at both ends. Pass the sleeving over the cable and label. Shrink the sleeve with a paint stripper hot air gun. Now you will have the cable permanently ID'd. John

Martin, I am not certain but I recall something about it not being OK to have both dipped headlights running when on dipped. If so, that might cause a problem on MOT. You could just disconnect it for the test! I am not sure of the reason why for the rule. It is counter intuitive as surely such an arrangement would reduce the chances of one side of vehicle having no headlight lit. Others may know more about this! John

Martin, I am not certain but I recall something about it not being OK to have both dipped headlights running when on dipped. If so, that might cause a problem on MOT. You could just disconnect it for the test! I am not sure of the reason why for the rule. It is counter intuitive as surely such an arrangement would reduce the chances of one side of vehicle having no headlight lit. Others may know more about this! John

That is a small gas spanner and you forgot the Inch drive air wrench! John

I think that it is all to the FVRDE design and has not changed much since the days of the Conqueror immediately post war. Does anyone know what the threads are? John

I am afraid that Martin is wrong. You can use an exempt vehicle fully loaded. John

My understanding is that whereas the REME would rebuild the packs, they would just change the whole K60 engine without messing about with it if anything was wrong with it internally. Presumably they were rebuilt by Rolls Royce Specialist Engines. John

The ten year rule does NOT apply to a vehicle over 40 years' old PROVIDED it has not been significantly altered AND is not used commercially. If the these conditions are met, it can be used fully loaded. That means that my Scammell Contractor is not caught even if it running at just under 100 tons gross train weight. However, if I fitted a Euro 5 engine into it in order to reduce emissions and fuel consumption it would be caught.! Remember, the regulations are not finalised until the results of the consultation are considered. Unfortunately, because of the 14:1 axle ratio, the Contractor, needs an engine that revs to 2200 RPM and a gear-box with a 0.68 : 1 overdrive ratio so that it can achieve the necessary 30 MPH on the flat. The contemporary engines max revs is often 2000 and less and with a direct top gear-box. John

I had a heart attack with my Contractor when I found that I had left the master switch "ON" for several weeks due to COVID. I was gutted when I found out. Fortunately they did take a charge and now seem to work perfectly well. On the Conqueror ARV have made a timer system so that a Contactor (sic) opens after about 20 minutes being closed and thus isolates the batteries. (Don't ask why I have installed this system!!) Unfortunately, that would not be a safe system for a road going vehicle. John

I think that you are right in your understanding. If it fails because of the front tyre, you should immediately appeal at the testing station. The testing station manager should then check further up his food chain. This action should establish that you are correct. Let us know what happens! John

Are you missing one or is it damaged? Is the pack for an FV430 or is it an interesting item on its own? Andy, was it made by Gallay or something similar? I am not sure that electric fans would be powerful enough in view of the lack of any ram effect that you would see with a truck. With the relatively light and gentle use a preserved vehicle will experience there are three options: 1. Don't have an oil cooler but have a temp gauge and poss thermostat and warning light. 2. Fit an oil cooler radiator in a good position on the pack, again with temp gauge and T stat. 3. Make a new heat exchanger from scratch. If you are not going to use it on road run or continuously cross country, it may be surprising how long you could run on option 1 without the oil getting too hot. I will have a look at a pack tomorrow to remind myself what it looks like.

All marks of Antar have worm rear axles (combined with an epicyclic gear train). When you down hill, the load will push you faster and the revs will increase just the same as any other axle, as Andy Pugh says. In some situations, if you are not careful, you can serious over rev the engine. The revs can go through the roof very quickly because of the 14:1 reduction. The ratio of the worm drive in an axle is always arranged so that the vehicle can speed up when going down hill on the over-run. If this was not the case either the axle and the wheels would lock up and cause a terrible skid or something would break. John

They look like 'take outs' to me! Do we know how the Warsaw Pact Armies handled the spare engine and main assemblies? We expect to see a Meteor in full preservation in a bespoke crate. Even then, one can get caught out if not careful and experienced. John

Dear Chris, Thank you so much. On order within 26 hours. What a forum! I have a few other tasks on the J60 winch engine. It was never very good at cold starting and the 'choke' seemed to do nothing. (not having a standard oil bath filter cannot help). A previous thread covered this and I will replace some diaphragms and see if that secures an improvement. There was something 'not quite right' with the distributor drive where I have replaced the civvy dizzy with a J60 electronic ign one. It was a purely a potential mechanical reliability problem. A little problem with the exhaust manifold connection to the down pipe will be easily solved. The most interesting problem with the winch engine concerns the oil sump pan of the auto gear box. Whilst in storage I knew I had an oil leak but did not understand from where it came. I found that all the sump pan screws were loose! So far as I can see, the gasket material has decomposed as it just gets squeezed out as I tighten the screws. I will replace the gasket and see how that works. Like the Meteor, I will run it up on the bench before fitting it back into the tank. It is so nice to be able be able to complete some work on an engine in about two weeks rather than the two years that the Meteor engine took.

Dear All, The REME Museum's Conqueror ARV is fitted with an engine that looks like a Jaguar J60. In fact it is a car engine with an automatic gear-box! We had no PTO for the tank and the engine allows the winch to work at all. One of the front rubber engine mountings is broken. Unfortunately, I do not know if it is from the car or it is a proper Jaguar J60 part. Photos of the part are below. Any help would be much appreciated. John

Dear All, I think that the date code can be on the inside of a front wheel. It is not a problem during an inspection because the wheel has to be rotated as part of the inspection process. I don't think that the rule will be made to apply to twin rear wheels. The reasons is this: It is very unusual to find a ten year old tyre in commercial use. They simply do not last that long. If the rule was made to apply to twins, it would be necessary to assemble the tyres on the wheels so that the date code is shown. That would be huge burden to place on commercial operators when they do not use old tyres anyway. It might not be too difficult to ensure that replacement tyres are put on the 'right' way (although mistakes will be made) but there will be a very large number that are currently assembled the 'wrong' way.. How are members getting on with DROPS vehicles and what are the costs involved. John

Rob, Clever job but surely at least one of us has got the correct moulded plug and cable. I will have a look to see if I have got one. John

I don't think that it is an octane test. I think that is done with a special engine that compares the ability of the petrol being tested to resist detonation (pre-ignition). If the petrol is as good as Octane it is 100 octane petrol. All of this I think!. It could be a test to see how well the petrol would evaporate. On the other hand it does rather look as if the civilian gentleman has a pipe in his mouth! John

I am afraid that John Wardle is wrong about living vans and the new regulations. An answer to a recent parliamentary question on this point, amongst others said: "The vehicles operated by the Ministry of Defence are within the scope of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020. Vehicles that were originally built as heavy goods vehicles but have been converted to be a living van (under the C&U regulations definition) are within the scope of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020. Vehicles of historical interest, as defined in the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, will be exempt from these regulations irrespective of the load. However, if such a vehicle is being used commercially, it is not exempted from these regulations, as it is important to balance the granting of any exemptions with the safety of all road users. Date and time of answer: 11 Jan 2021 at 12:15." John

I would imagine that it would be much easier to get some on/off road 1200 R 20s. They would normally be used overseas rather than in UK but the big tyre dealers would stock them for export. An example is Barum NB27 if they are still available. John

Rob, I am curious about the crow bar. I thought that I used to keep the jack handle in the position that you are using for the crow bar. Was the crow bar part of the CES? Perhaps it was, in order to lift any big inspection plates on the ground iot access pipeline connections. I can't wait to see the vehicle in the flesh! John

I think that I will stick to tanks because they are not so expensive! John