teletech

Well, now you know which side the shaft drifts toward when not peened.  So, if you peen the non-worn side a bit and reinstall the pin in it's previous orientation, it should pull as before but be constrained against further wear.

Of course, I'm sure plenty of folks have replacement pins.

On 9/11/2023 at 8:03 AM, AlienFTM said:

You'll be lucky. As a member of Command Troop I ran the 15/19H regimental Signals store between about 78-80, during which time we converted from Larkspur to Clansman. We got all this Gucci kit. And, for a whole Recce regiment, a handful of respirator mikes and plastic adaptors.

Two of them managed to find themselves onto my rebroadcast Ferret and follow me when I left Command Troop.

We spent a lot of time exercising in full NBC kit. My messages were never muffled.

Unless somebody found a warehouse somewhere jam packed with some blanket stacker's empire, you'll be hard pushed.

While not a warehouse full, the lads out in Poland seem to have found a large handful and stuck them up on Epay.  I went ahead and bought a few because... well I thought I had a reason at the time. 🙂

3 hours ago, markyw999 said:

Hi James…this may or may not help but let me know if you can figure it out / if it’s of interest (hopefully the link works…)

 

Yes, if he needs the extending base then yours would be a good start.  Then just the seat on top.

Be aware there are at least two generations of driver-seat that use different backs, frames, and bottoms.

I think I got a NOS new-style driver-seat bottom from XMOD a while back.

Sadly, the gun on my Scorpion met with a torch as part of bringing it across the ocean, but I'd love for it to at least look correct and function well enough to form the basis for a t-shirt cannon, and so I need some dimensions.

I guess the first place to start is does anyone have a set of prints for the breech assembly?  Failing that, knowing how long it is from front to back to a reasonable precision, say .010" would be enough to give me a running start.

Thanks,

So, is there any list of which guns fought where?  For instance, a list of LRDG guns by serial No. or which guns went to the Spanish Federalists.  There were few enough made, and certainly few enough survive that they deserve to have their own history if it's findable.

I'm trying to decide between a 37MM Bofors (converted to 50DTC for legal reasons) or a Lahti L/39 (same).  The Bofors has a bigger wow factor, but is kinda silly in such a tiny chambering where the Lahti is at least sort-of manageable and might even cycle in 50.

7 hours ago, andym said:

The final drive incident seems to have happened around 2017, causing the MOD to stop onroad use and get Ricardo to remanufacture and replace CVR(T) final drives.  I'm assuming that a final drive failed during onroad use, resulting in loss of control - it's described as "a serious accident".

There's a Ricardo press release here: https://www.ricardo.com/en/news-and-insights/press-releases/2019/ricardo-makes-first-deliveries-of-cvr-t-vehicle-drivelines-to-uk-mod

MOD's concern is that there may be an unknown number of CVR(T)s in private hands that do not have the updated final drives, especially if they were sold off before 2019, and that the owners aren't aware of the issue.

Andy

I guess if the MOD wants to send me a set of upgraded final drives for safety's sake, I would be willing to change mine out.

10 hours ago, draganm said:

not really, they call it " printing" but it's laser-sintering in a bed of AL oxide powder. The machines are well over a million dollars, it's expensive to do, and the example we got (after a student just HAD to have one), was rather poor. Very grainy/porous texture, prone to oxidation after you machine a clean face, brittle, and you can't weld on it due to the very high oxide content.

     Can't comment on other metals, but the AL was not good IMO. This was 5+ years ago, so not sure if it they improved it?

A competent shop that does a lot of 3D profiling on a CNC mill could probably make that part in 10 to 12 hours and probably wouldn't even require 5-axis mill

SLS has improved miles in the last few years.  At this point they are making flyable commercial aircraft parts, surgical implants, and a host of other end-use parts and I think you can have a decent machine for a hundred grand.  The hundred grand might only get you a bound-powder-fusion machine that prints metal parts you then bake to final form (remember shrinky-dink toys?).

You wouldn't need even a 4-axis CNC, just cut the cavity, flip it over and cut the exterior.  Aluminum should be about 3 hours machine-time with setup if you don't need the contour lines to be too perfect.

All that said, printing a pattern and having one (or several and help others out) cast from that pattern would be the most authentic way to do it and still likely the cheapest... IF you can find someone to pour you some metal without making a big production out of it.  I've had luck getting an artist who works in cast metal make small parts.

48 minutes ago, Obitwo said:

A small film with the cvrts: 

I notice the CVR(T) are so naturally stealthy that one has started to camouflage itself with small bits of tree even with such a short jaunt. 🙂

I also notice somebody has their engine decks partly off.  Improves cooling and access for maintenance I'm sure.

That's a loooong document to say what it actually said, which is basically:

The bins and particularly the larger bins of the later models represent a hazard to the driver when head-out.

Not running the side bins doesn't quite completely eliminate the hazard,  but it looks close.

Training is lacking and if you snag a barrel of a turreted CVR(T) on something while the driver is head-out, it could be almost instantly fatal.

Your intercom should be working and the commander and/or gunner should let the driver know of any potential barrel obstacle.

Dangerous things are dangerous.

There is an issue with the final drives where the MOD isn't comfortable with CVR(T) on the roads these days unless they have had upgraded final drives.  Also there are many of these vehicles in private hands on the roads with the final drives the MOD is concerned about and perhaps that should be more widely addressed.

This last detail is almost a throw-away blurb but might be the most significant to those owning post-release vehicles.  It seems anything not retrofitted to the 2019 standard of final drive could be a hazard.  What wasn't clear was if that applies only to repowered units (due to the increased torque of the diesel engine) and old petrol-power units are fine or if it's a universal risk.  It might also be that the risk is to vehicles that have been up-armored and weigh a lot more than original, or perhaps you need both more weight AND a repower to be a hazard.  More information would be helpful.  It also suggests that if someone in power sees this, it might end the sale of complete old-spec CVR(T) to the public.  I can't imagine there will be any left once stocks are donated to Ukraine anyway.

I know the forum population is predominately made up of folks who can't have live semiauto rifles, folks who can have originally select-fire rifles once modified to semi-auto, and some folks who can have the real-deal, but for the slice of the members who are in the USA (or similar?), I have a question:

DSA has bought and/or made receivers in inch-pattern, metric, hybrid, forged, and cast of varying quality.  Specifically I'm wondering about one marked L1A1 with the DSA markings inside the magwell and a serial number A-xxxx.  Any details folks might have would be very welcome.

Thanks for the confirmation of my suspicions!

Any chance you could photograph the cable and cable routing so I could duplicat-ish it?

A lead acid battery is sustaining damage any time it's under about 80% charge, that damage accelerates as the charge nears zero, so you've lost some capacity and remaining service life, but the odds are good that it will recover enough to be serviceable in it's application.

If you have a battery desulfator or desulfating charger that will help bring it back and if you charge it and discharge it a few times that will help it's capacity recover as well.

"Oh, so we can't have nice things."  Sigh.

My M35 was actually a REO and a gasser to boot.  That old continental motor was extremely quiet but got about 3MPG.  Loaded sand trucks would pass me uphill.

It's pretty easy to see and smell the change as you go from water to fuel, plus you want to drain into a pan anyway so if you do drain some petrol you can just pour it off the top.

I do recommend adding a tap so you can drain it slowly rather than having to remove a plug and then put it back in while things are draining.

Obviously it's more convenient and safer to do the separation before even adding the fuel to the vehicle, then you can either drain out the water at the bottom or use an electric pump or siphon to pull the de-watered fuel off the top of the separation vessel.

It is worth remembering of course that the alcohol is an octane booster, so removing it will hurt your octane rating, but if you are using the resulting petrol in a military vehicle with a compressing ratio of ~7:1, it's not going to matter.

OK, since someone thought $44K USD wasn't silly, how about a less complete one with a lot less rare CES for $70K USD!?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235135574876

9 minutes ago, LarryH57 said:

And what stabalizer do you recommend for the E5 petrol it uses?

Well, this fellow did some testing and the results didn't look encouraging at all.   Better than nothing in some cases.  Using water to saturate the alcohol and cause it to settle out, then drain out the bottom would be better practice.

43 minutes ago, robin craig said:

The price of Ferrets has risen steadily and will continue to do so. They are the smallest street legal family garage storeable and wholly supportable vehicles around

It only takes one  monied person to buy it.

Having seen the price of M274 mules basically double in about the past five years, I'm sure Ferrets will command higher prices at some point.  I'm honestly surprised at how cheap they often are even now.

I do feel this one was on the high side for it's condition compared to the one that sold from Withams recently, but then again, lots of CES, spares, and turn-key has real value to someone with more money than time.  At the start price of $35K USD I was ready to reach for my wallet with the idea of selling the Ferret I now own to defray some of the cost and basically buy-out of having a project.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285418695722

Having all the bits to work as a Mk1 and Mk2 is really nice and some of the annoying jobs are done, but still far from a prefect specimen.

Sold for just under $44K USD.  With inflation the last couple years, I have no comment on if it's a fair price, but at least a couple people thin it is.

8 hours ago, LarryH57 said:

Guys, thanks for all the info on laying up a vehicle. To be honest it seems quite involved, and so I have made a concious effort to 'escape all other commitments' and use the Lwt more often. Amazingly it fired up first time and I drove it on the road again, since February.  Luckily it is classed as Historic, so is ULEZ exempt and has lasted longer than ALL the cars, I have ever owned.

Well, you said long-term storage and I'm afraid we sort of went for it.  As long as you run it every few months you really don't need to worry about anything but bais-ply tyres and add some fuel stabilizer.

Here's a link to a MOD study on storing CVR(T) that showed a lot of efficacy in VpCI materials at inhibiting rust and degradation.

https://www.cortecvci.com/Publications/Papers/MoD-cleared-trial-report.pdf

Otherwise, the general advice so for looks very good.  It's worth noting that lead-acid batteries self-discharge at a rate of 4-8%/month and any significant discharge will cause sulfation of the plates, so a battery tending charger is very helpful in preventing this.  It can be mains-based or solar.

6 hours ago, Chris Suslowicz said:

Half a century is well beyond any Government specification for a headset cable, since the headsets were introduced in the 1970s (I think). It certainly outperforms the commercial Jabra rubbish on my work laptop - in worse condition than any of my Clansman headsets after a mere 5 years.

PTS Norfolk were selling "Refurb Kits" for various headsets - mainly the Infantry Lightweight in the early days of Clansman disposal, and they were almost the same cost as an unissued headset. Sadly they are all gone now. You might be able to disconnect the cable at the headset end and slide heat-shrink sleeving over it, but the result would probably be much too stiff for comfortable use.   

I'm not in any way suggesting the public didn't get their money's-worth out of the headsets, but it is interesting to notice that units of virtually identical age have *very* different cable integrity.  I assume that is as a result of cleaning or decontamination chemicals or perhaps storage conditions.  All the wire made of soy-based insulation we are seeing today seems very tasty to rodents and between that and the removal of BPA from plastics, I surely don't expect the subsequent generations of electronics to show the same endurance.

I used a pair of Odyssey PC925 mounted in just one of the side bins with a block of lumber to make up the extra space.  Battery energy density has improved greatly over the years and the Ferret has very minimal requirements (so long as you aren't sitting stationary for many hours running a Larkspur setup).  The lack of free acid is nice in terms of not rotting out the metalwork.

I found the pair of PC925 would crank the motor easily long enough to deal with a carburetor totally empty of fuel even in winter and with a leaky tank selector valve... so several minutes in 30-second intervals.

That said, if I were to do it again, I'd use some of the tricky lithium batteries they have now for the reduced self-drain.

Welcome from yet another Ferret owner.

I see in your other post it's a 2/7.

I had one where the Bendix assembly had gotten stuck from rust and issues, it just needed a couple whacks and wiggles on said assembly to get it to work occasionally and just using the starter has made it progressively more reliable.

I had intended to pull it off and go through it when I got a chance, but now it's so reliable there hardly seems a point.