restoration Loyd Carrier

[ajmac]

Freed up the axle on the trailer for removal later by the farmer.

Set about the remainder of the chassis repairs and removal of the front x-tube from the second Loyd, what a game! It must have taken 1 hour just to remove the bogie retaining collar, I had to cut out chunks of it as an impact had jammed it in place. The bogie will not move at all, so next visit it will get a soaking with plusgas, I was hoping to pull the bogie before x-tube removal with the forklift, but it looks like it will have to go to the workshop as one unit.

 

[Scammell4199]

The chassis is coming along although I have no photos, I have just been diving into the work and putting the MIG welder through more work than it has ever known! However this post has little to do with the chassis, as on the drive into the farm buildings I always pass the bonfire pile, it builds up then is burnt down every few months....during last week I popped into the farm to complete the left hand chassis rail and passed an old trailer on top of the bonfire pile, the axle looked familiar and it turned out to be a wartime ford truck axle of the type fitted to loyd carriers! I took 12 hours to contact the farmer to ask what he was doing with it only to find that over night he had lit the fire and burnt off the tyres so that he could weigh it in at the scrap yard this week! I don't need to tell you that once pointed out he allowed me to take the axle before he scraps the trailer :-) (he is a very nice chap, but I think he reckons I am mad) The fire wasn't too fierce as the aluminium brake adjusters are fine and the diff still has OD paint on it.... and a diff and halfshafts inside.

Apparently the trailer has been sitting in a farm hedge for 15 years and was only removed to scrap as he was worrying about it attracting travellers to pinch it!

When I took these two photos the trailer had been moved off to the side of the track on it's bare rims, I popped a halfshaft and the diff still turns the input shaft on the torque tube, lucky me.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]47932[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47933[/ATTACH]

 

Wow! that is incredible luck.

 

Richard

[ajmac]

Project on hold.

Gone to Belgium.

[ajmac]

I took the opertunity to pop to the Royal Army Museum in Belgium this week, a huge collection with a stunning WW1 collection, all the tanks have gone now* but WW2 is given good floor space in the new gallery at the back of the museum. Pity about the lack of English on everything but the overview display boards. Luckly having both French and Dutch gives double the chance of me understanding what they were on about.

 

My main reason for visiting was to see the CATI, I couldn't tell you naything about it as there was no info board, but the photos are below. You can see that the only remaining Loyd parts are the chassis, axles, bogies, track and rear fittings, the drivers floor, all internals, entire body have been replaced during conversion to a CATI. Nice to see such a rare vehicle and get such a detailed inspection. Beer is spot on here

 

* Got a contact to call, the entire armour collection has moved to Bastogne, I think it put quite a few people out from the info the Brussels museum gave me today!

[eddy8men]

jagdloyd, i like it :cool2:

 

rick

[AndyFowler]

Not sure if this is the same type but sure sounded lovely !

[HWade]

That was a very nice loyd carrier I had just delivered the Bofors Gun to them at War and Piece, the restoration job on there Loyd carrier was very good, and it sounded great.

 

Howard

[eddy8men]

that was paul visser's loyd, it was a very thorough restoration, i had a good look round it at beltring and a chat to the fella's that rebuilt it and they really went to town on the detail so much so that i felt a little guilty for the bodges i'd used on my carrier, maybe next year i'll have time to get it a little better.

 

rick

[RattlesnakeBob]

Interesting to hear that the one you found had been 'converted' for ploughing...

...many years ago there was a small yard just outside of Gloucester that had a lot of good kit still lying about when the old boy that owned it passed away.Vehicles I recall included 2 very rough Jeeps , quite a few Austin Champs in various states, a Canadian Chevrolet or two and a few other ex British lorries...think they may have been Morris's??? and ......the scant remains of a number of what I vaguely recognised as being 'bren gun carriers' of some sort......

Anyways.....They eventually had a sale to clear the yard a year or so later (bout 1985 ish?) and I got chatting with the owners son and he said that in the after war years his father had made a name for himself in Gloucestershire for converting 'Bren gun carriers' of various types into very handy little tractors.These were quite in demand across the locality by farmers and particularly timber contractors...I guess this must have been quite a common fate through the 50s/60s for many of these great little machines?..

...One had been sold apparantly to the large private timber and farm estate just down the road from me in the mid 1950s but despite me hot footing it onto the trail.....she had sadly long gone.....then again!!!!!

..... .as this thread proves .....'barn finds' do still crop up so you never know ..

..somewhere in Gloucestershire there still may be one of those 'converted' carriers?????????????

[eddy8men]

carriers could still be useful for many tasks after the war ended, there was a major morrell of the reme who settled in yorkshire after the war and ran a garage, when the surplus carriers came up for disposal he bought a 1000 with the intention of stripping them and selling the parts but he also used a few on other tasks like the salvage of 3000 tons of iron ore from a ship wreck that was only accessable at high tide. it just goes to show how versitile these little machines were.

if the name major morrell rings a bell with some of you it's because he's the same fella that designed the churchill na75.

 

rick

[ajmac]

Not sure if this is the same type but sure sounded lovely

Sure is the same, his exhausts were cast from one of those recovered from my range wrecks.... small world. Thanks for posting the video, if it wasn't for work I'd have been driving Pauls Loyd :cry:

Edited July 31, 2011 by ajmac

[Niels v]

Here are two more pictures of danish Loyds

[ajmac]

Firstly, thanks for those photos Niels, it is always interesting to see new Loyd shots.

 

Back from Belgium I had a couple of hours on Monday evening to rebuild the gearbox selector unit once I had machined a Loyd spec 4mm slot down the centre line of the gearstick as the original stick had been smashed off on the range wreck. The remote gear selector rod drops into the 4mm slot in the top of the original gearbox stick, the remote selector is also missing, however I have an original to borrow as a pattern.

 

In the photos below you can see the fork locking screws, dust caps and springs with balls used to lock the rods into the neutral location. It is all back together now, but I didn't take a final photo, I am just waiting to get my locking wire pliers back from a friend so I can complete and bolt to back onto the box.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2011 by ajmac

[ajmac]

Weather is good isn't it? As such I had some of the afternoon off and made some progress on the project, lots of grinding on the chassis and some mods required on the replacement gearbox crossmember. I removed the RHS front axle bracket from the damaged forward chassis leg, sadly none of the bolts were salvagable. Finally I moved onto the second Loyd, wow is it rotton! Once the farmer had lifted the front x-tube and bogies from the chassis we turned it over to access the diff bolts to remove the front axle, we nearly freed it off but the splined shaft refused to part company with the torque tube! Amazingly the six bolts holding the torque tube and diff together all came free easly, once I had dug them out of the belgian baked mud. All I need from this wreck is the front axle hubs, 1/2 shafts, LHS axle bracket, LHS Brake cable anker and the front x-tube, the rest will be scrapped :-( Oh, the farmer had moved the axle I brought from him in a previous post to the yard next to my workshop too.

Shot blasting at another farm down the road is booked in in two weeks time so should have a good looking chassis by the start of November.

 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2011 by ajmac

[ajmac]

Gearbox painted (ford USA dark green this time), waiting for a fill plug to come back from the platers and a new rear rubber mount... if I can find one:-\ Note the dink in the side cover plate, that is from the range target, as are the drain / fill plugs and the clutch shaft, control arm rear bearing retainer and UJ (not shown).

 

 

[eddy8men]

think i've got 2 rear rubber mounts for the gearbox, put up a pic of what you want and i'll see if it's the right one for you, if it is then you can have it.

 

rick

[ajmac]

Thanks Rick, but I spent a further four hours today and welded a repair to the original rubber mount frame so that I can reuse it when I have siliconed the rubber mount back inside it. I set up the engine guard rails on the chassis and they look pretty good only a few dents, getting them unbent tomorrow along with the rear chassis outriggers which are in a hell of a state.... Whatever you do, don't restore a range target, it could break your will:nut: everything is #ucking bent, twister or otherwise damaged, ahhhhh

 

 

Repair on top left of gearbox mount.

Chassis upturned, engine guard fitted to check from distortion, note gearbox crossmember has been unbolted for repair work on the bench.

Edited September 28, 2011 by ajmac

[the_shadock]

Whatever you do, don't restore a range target, it could break your will:nut: everything is #ucking bent, twister or otherwise damaged, ahhhhh

 

Whatever you do, in few years range targets will be all what you will be able to buy and restore, because other vehicles in better condition will be already restored..

 

P-O

[ajmac]

Still good weather for September, but I collected the oxygen and propane this afternoon to keep the workshop warm over the winter months oh, and the remove numerous dents in the various chassis parts and low hull.

[Amphibi boy]

Hi matey,

 

She's coming along well, your doing some great work.

 

Cheers

Shaun

[ajmac]

I'll be honest, I don't get a lot of time to work on my project, what with work in the office, events and work overseas I am lucky to get five hours a month on average. However this last few weeks I have managed a bit more than normal, Jenni took the little one to a fun park with the toddler group today so I managed a few hours at the farm.

 

Looking at all the repair work required on everything I pickup, I have put back the shot blasting on the chassis for a while, it is better to do a full chassi and axle build up - a dry run - before sending all the major parts off for blasting.

 

I finished the front cross member today, the old one had two inches missing from the left side and two big holes torn through it. I transfered the holes for the steering arms and fitted them to check allignment, I also plated a hole that is not required on the Loyd, I patched it with steel cut from the 7V chassis so the steel is all of the same wartime vintage.

 

The oxy was used to straighten the rear of the right hand chassis rail and the engine guard which I bolted in place and then heated to bring into shape. However there is nothing I can do about it.... I need an anvil, anyone got one lying around nr Lincoln?

 

Last of all I removed the rear axle upper clamps from the original chassis rails (lots of work), cleaned them up and marked out there place on the chassis just behind the engine cross member, just at the moment I can't get the bolts out from the clamps, I will see if the workshop at work can pop them on the press next week and help me out.

 

 

The 7V rear axle in the middle is forsale as I have no need for it, to the right is the front x-tube, the left is the Loyd Drive axle I am using and at the back the rear axle that may or may not be used, it is rather damaged... the one from my second Loyd is in better condition.

 

Edited October 15, 2011 by ajmac

[ajmac]

In between lots of none MV related jobs I managed to rust kill, prime and paint the gearbox rear mount then two days later put a bead of silicone into the rubber mount and re-install it inside the steel support, I fitted the rear bearing retainer which also clamps the rubber mount in place and holds the UJ cover retaining bolts in place, I did this right away to extrude the silicone and hold the rubber to the mount as securely as possible. Yes the retaining nuts are NyLocs, but that was just to stop them falling out when I but it all together and all I had to hand.

Wire locking tonight, I ran out of time yesterday.

 

 

 

Update: Just had rear axle brackets returned to me at work, siezed bolts removed, thanks guys!

 

 

Edited October 20, 2011 by ajmac

[ajmac]

Rigging up to fit the drivers floor, it all hinges around the torque tube, so I installed it un restored, apart from the ball joint casing which has already been acid cleaned and primed. Tomorrow I have to fit the front lower armour as it fits in front of the driver floor before being bolted to the flange of the torque tube thus giving the final location of the as yet undrilled floor plate. The fab shop cut and folded the basic plate and cut the notches that give clearance for the front axle brackets. Today I took a pattern from the original and ground the curved relief for the torque tube to sit in at the very front of the plate. At the back of the plate I drilled four 20mm holes to make space for the heads of the hot rivets from the front x-member. On an MB Wild Carrier I have seen the corners of the floor plate were cut away to clear these rivets, but my original was drilled, so I did the same.

 

Izzie helped out today too!

 

 

Edited October 22, 2011 by ajmac

[fesm_ndt]

All good progress :tup::

[ajmac]

How can six bolts take 2 hours? When they are on a Loyd Carrier!

The drivers floor only has six bolts attaching it to the chassis rails, ten more when the x-tube is installed and the floor braces, but only six that are there just to hold the floor plate. I installed the torque tube, floor and front plate, clamped it all together then centralised it to the chassis rails which were also checked for being parallel before the holes were drilled. As I had to drill the holes from about 30 degrees from vertical due to the upper part of the chassis rails being in the way, I drilled a 3mm pilot through the plate and rails the offset another pilot hole inboard of the original hole by approx 5mm before taking out to 12mm. It all then bolted together perfectly with the correct BSF fasteners, 3/4" long for the front two and 1" long for the rear four. Finally fitted the RHS front axle bracket backing plate which also doubles as a support for the drivers floor and front lower hull plate.

Next week....rear trailing arms.

 

NB: on the top photo the mangled steel on the left is the original drivers floor plate!

 

 

Edited October 23, 2011 by ajmac