teletech

I'm sorry I don't have Scorpion-specific information, but here's a couple pages for the Sabre (might be the same plate?). I'm hoping we get a nice spot to upload a library of manuals.

Being in the US and with a Canadian Ferret in the motorpool as well, it was tempting to go with the US kit, but the Clansman system just seems to make more sense and have fewer different cables and connectors to sort out. Have you considered fitting radios as well?

Discussion of the 2 with mention at the end of the 3 upgrade program. Interesting the bit about how 14 is a noticeable percentage of available units.

I found the nice center and sides I made sucked out too much heat and didn't allow the contaminants in the cast aluminum enough egress, so clamped it back up with just the 12.5mm center pin in place, knowing I'd have to dress the weldment a lot more. The part looked a bit snotty after welding as I kept depositing a little more here and there to make sure I'd have enough material to remove. I did go ahead and weld one side below the bore, I don't think it was needed and it won't add much strength, but I was right there. I ran TIG with a lot of argon, 90-125A on top and 125-175A on the side, arc balanced to do a LOT of cleaning. Sat on it a while up top to boil out the contaminants from the metal. 5556 alloy is what I'd bought as the most compatible with the hull material. I couldn't find my TIG rod so used some spool wire I'd bought. The hatch works much better with the equilibrator installed and better than it did when it was cracked and opening up. I'm happy to send the fixturing I made and some filler to anyone who needs them to do a similar repair for the cost of postage, with the provision you offer it up to the next person should it be needed.

It would be lovely to have a spot on the forum to upload manuals for our vehicles.

It's interesting that the Belgian units seem to have been fitted with US spec. intercoms, or at least the ones I'm aware of that came from Terry were fitted with some bits reflecting that.

Indeed I am.

No, my ears were still intact, they had just split at the seams and separated about 1/8". There was a thin bit of material in the seam, I don't know if it was some epoxy that was used to try to patch things up or a contaminated boundary-layer of material (guessing the latter). I threw that out and ground a bit of a V for my root-pass with the welder. If the brackets had separated from the hull, it would have been a lot more work and I'd have wanted a larger TIG welder or to set up my MiG wirefeed with spoolgun.

I suspect you got what you needed, but in case you didn't of other do a search looking for the same... The Sultan will be slightly different and you didn't specify gas or diesel, but here's a few to get started: Spartan_wiring_diagram.pdf cupola_schematics.pdf Spartan_wiring-diag.pdf radio_distribution_box.pdf

It's a fun and glassy coffee-table book. I know it's silly of me, but I wish they had included at least *some* actual 'workshop' information. It would have been cheap copy to include a couple chapters of daily service and checks to give one a better feel for the hands-on of the thing.

Lovely Spartan you have got there, that must have been just before they started shipping them in bulk to Ukraine. Yours got the Bowman comms "upgrade". It's unlikely they will release the Bowman parts any time soon and even less likely you would be able to make the system work should you find the bits, so if you want a project that would make life more comfortable for commander and crew, it might be worth pulling some of the BOWMAN bits and remounting the original Clansman system for intercoms and such.

It's very interesting the way these fail.Those are very clean breaks right on what look like they could be casting lines. it looks as if there is a defect in the way that they were cast and the two mold halves get jostled as they cool or something. It the case of this one, you can see it had been cracked for so long there was paint in the crack. Mine is cracked in just the same spot and has been for quite a while, but I'm inclined to repair it before it fails outright. Welding cast iron is problematic but cast aluminum is usually not too bad. I made myself a little jig of copper and clamps to close up the gap. Welding will have to wait a few days I fear as work beckons.

Of course, the universe seems to have a sense of humour... some days after I finally have a BV cable that should work fine, I was digging through my piles of CVR(T) CES and found a lovely FV605190/1, which is obviously perfect in fit and function for the Spartan BV setup. I still don't know about the other connectors on the junction box, but the BV situation is well and truly sorted!

After fussing around with the end to get the connector rotated, I discovered the threaded locknut was too small to fit over the unthreaded BV port. I fired up the lathe and basically made a simplified duplicate of the part on the other end of the cable. It now fits great and should work fine.

Seems unlikely as the BV cable on that side doesn't provide power and clearly the junction box is supposed to do something with the connected cable. It's on the schematics for the vehicle and both of the Spartans I've played with have it, so it's at least not a one-off.

Finally separated the trailing-arms from the torsion rods and drained the bearings. Some of my rods are rustier than I'd like and I don't know the best treatment (short of replacement but the spares I bought didn't make it to me, so that will have to wait.) to mitigate the surface damage from rust. Almost half of the roadwheel-axle assemblies still had an amount of grease I list as "willing to drive a medium distance", one had the merest coating of oil, and one... well it looked like this:

Over a year since the last batch of updates and I haven't much to show on this vehicle for the time: A second coat of primer and more recently I got the axle pivots sanblasted, cleaned, and primed (PPG DPLF epoxy). Then just yesterday I got them bolted on. I used CA 1000 Mastinox non-chromate corrosion inhibitive jointing compound from PPG Aerospace (Boeing surplus) as an available replacement for the chromate-based stuff I'd have rather used. Careful squeegee on the mating surface of the pivot, then in the bore and all the tapped holes as well as the male threads of the bolts (as pictured) used a full 6oz tube of the stuff. I have a second tube, most of which I expect to use getting the turret-ring bedded-down. Hopefully since the FAA approves of it for dissimilar metals joining, it works at least reasonably well. Today I went over the installed fasteners with the same epoxy primer since there was no plating left on the heads and I also wanted the topcoat to have something to stick to. I didn't find a torque-spec for those bolts in any of my many manuals, so went with 60Ft/Lb based on what I could find in generic torque data charts for bolts in Al. What were these painted with originally? I could use CARC if that was the right thing to do, but am also fine using something less annoying to buy and spray. I know Marcus Glenn and others have paint, but international shipping of hazmat being what it is, I'd much rather use PPG, S-W, or something else I can get stateside. OK, now it's time to go refinish a bunch of torsion bars. I'm not sure if I should refrain from media-blasting them, but once I have the tape off I'll know how well that protected them from rust-pitting and such.

I was mostly thinking it would be nice to have a central library of manuals like Steelsoldiers has for U.S. TMs.

Speaking of manuals, do we have a place on the forum we can host complete manuals such as this should they get scanned?

I would have been happy to pass on the receiver at least since there wasn't much left after it got torch-cut so it could be imported. The barrel is pretty cool, but that I actually had to pay to demill... twice! Once to US spec and once to UK spec. Sadly the broker didn't plan ahead or it could have been a lot less disfigured and a bit cheaper while meeting both criterion.

It's odd, I've seen the wire over just the intake, just the exhaust, both the intake and exhaust, and neither. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. It could be particular to the theatre of operations or unit and then over time parts get shuffled... I guess I won't worry too much about "correct" on this one. Mine has the wire over both intake and exhaust, but it's so rusted and bent I'm planning to cut it off, knowing I'm trading better cooling and ease of restoration for risking more leaves, twigs, and whatnot getting in. Good to have the reassurance on the turret bits. Mine has been hanging suspended for far too long, so I'll get the fighting compartment paint finished up (enough) to reinstall the ring and then I can set it back on. It won't be as convenient to work, but I'll rest more easily at night! I do wish mine were a Sabre for the reduced weight and better driver visibility. There weren't that many FOX made and I always wonder where people keep coming up with the turrets! I guess at this point even if I found one, shipping just a turret to the states would cost a packet. Speaking of turrets, in the picture of when yours and mine were parked adjacent in Terry's pile, I notice yours had a gun and mine didn't. Interesting that, since I wound up with a gun in my turret (now sadly deact.).

A couple questions about the work you have done and the vehicle you started with: Did the engine hatches have heavy welded wire fitted over the louvers when you got it? Did you you use high-heat or intumescent paint on the interior and if so, who made it? when you replaced the torsion bar, how worn was the axle support bracket? I ask the last because my vehicle was another of the Belgian set from Terry and several of the brackets are badly worn. Also, just to confirm, were you able to get all the turret-basket parts out and back in with the turret fitted? It looks as though you could put the parts in through the rear loading/access hatch and top hatches, but I just wanted to confirm this was the case before doing anything rash like reinstalling my turret!

So many questions I'm afraid. My axle support brackets have varying amounts of wear and I've also got some spares, so I'm planning to go through them all and pick the ten best, but what's "best"? Some have heavy scoring that looks like it would be hard on the bearings, but could just distribute grease and be fine, while other are smoother but show more wear. Should I be more concerned about wear to the outer or inner bearing surface? What is the wear limit? Then for the actual installation, how much antioxidant paste do I use between the bracket and hull, how much goes on the bolts holding the brackets on, and is there a preferred application tool. Also, what to torque the bolts to? I have at least one torn-out set of threads, can I use a normal heli-coil set and just smear the spring with the same anti-oxidant compound? Finally, is it safe to prime the axle stub bracket on the back side? I notice at least some of the British brackets seem painted between the hull and bracket, but the Belgian ones appear to be bare metal with the addition of the antioxidant paste. The Belgian bolts and holes are well and truly full of antioxidant compound but the British seem to be much more sparingly coated.

That would actually be pretty cool to have if the electrics would support it, but no. One connector has an unthreaded body to go with the push-on BV cable, the other is a normal threaded connector. I've attached pictures of the inside of the box as well so you can see that there are just two small wires passing through on the 5-pin-to-4-pin side.

The photo I posted at the top shows the BV cable adjacent to it's electrically-matched connector. The connector on the right is one of the two undocumented connectors,