New Ferret Questions

[panzerwillie]

Hello everybody from Florida USA i got my self a MK1 being taking apart and will be cleaning it and replacing many things in it, does anybody have information pictures ect on how they repower then with diesel engine , read some stuff on it but not any solid info or pictures like how they use the Automatic on it any help will be great

thx willie

[griff66]

why why? just keep the great rolls royce b series engine.

[Marmite!!]

why why? just keep the great rolls royce b series engine.

 

Agree!!

[griff66]

even more so when u see his location!!!!

[ferrettkitt]

Hello everybody from Florida USA i got my self a MK1 being taking apart and will be cleaning it and replacing many things in it, does anybody have information pictures ect on how they repower then with diesel engine , read some stuff on it but not any solid info or pictures like how they use the Automatic on it any help will be great

thx willie[ATTACH=CONFIG]71634[/ATTACH]

 

Why would you want to change it? The B60 has the same characteristics as a diesel engine plus it looks to be an early MK1 Ferret with early wings and two rear aerial mounts. Canadian or Australian maybe? If you change the engine and modify the rear engine decks, transmission and lengthen the vehicle you will only devalue the vehicle.

 

Jordan was the last country to modify Ferrets by adding a diesel engine they had to modify the vehicle with the modifications as above. If you think fuel is expensive in the US then you have to realise that it costs £1.39 a litre here and most of that is tax!!

 

Good luck with the Ferret it looks to be a good one :-D

 

Its you're vehicle so really its up to you what you do

Edited January 6, 2013 by ferrettkitt

[robin craig]

I deeply suspect that this may possibly be one of the original 124 Canadian Ferrets, for a number of reasons:-

 

1 it has square side hatches, some but not all did

 

2 it has no turret

 

3 his location, as most of them ended up south of the border in the US

 

As far as re-power there is a company called GKL that did one kit and the other is the KADDB in Jordan which did another.

 

Neither company lets on any trade specific info and from memory a Chrysler automatic was used.

 

I tend to agree that the B60 is a good engine if set up well and fully supportable.

 

I guess my question is what is lacking that causes you to want to change it.

 

If you do change it there is a market for the old engine, I will put my hand up for that.

 

R

[ferrettkitt]

I deeply suspect that this may possibly be one of the original 124 Canadian Ferrets, for a number of reasons:-

 

1 it has square side hatches, some but not all did

 

2 it has no turret

 

3 his location, as most of them ended up south of the border in the US

 

As far as re-power there is a company called GKL that did one kit and the other is the KADDB in Jordan which did another.

 

Neither company lets on any trade specific info and from memory a Chrysler automatic was used.

 

I tend to agree that the B60 is a good engine if set up well and fully supportable.

 

I guess my question is what is lacking that causes you to want to change it.

 

If you do change it there is a market for the old engine, I will put my hand up for that.

 

R

 

I've seen a Ferret from Jordan in the UK its on the owners page on my website

[griff66]

half the fun is hearing that engine running whilst drivers goes thru gears , a diesel fitted in its place nope nope nope!

[monty2]

I am wonder too why diesel??

 

Till now I was told the fuel was cheap in the USA, we pay something like 7,0 euro for a US gallon of 3,8 liters and we not even consider to change it's.

 

Next to that if you ever want to sell not much interest from Europe I think.

 

One other thing, there is nothing like a dingo or ferret idling on fuel so beautiful running and quite

 

Peter Hommes

Dingo owner for over 18 years

http://www.milmarket.org

[tokarev]

Panzerwillie - I am located in FL also. No plans on a diesel conversion but I might be interested in your take off parts.

[Lynx22B]

Pretty sure it's Canadian. Any other pics? Did you have a name and Call sign before priming? If so, can pretty much pinpoint it's original Regiment. If it's LdSH, can possibly find pictures in our archives. U.S. turn signals and U.S. alternator are an easy identifier.

[robin craig]

Thanks for suspecting the same as I did Lynx 22B.

 

I have one of yours here, we should talk off line about it.

 

And I did say "I put my hand up for that" meaning I will buy your take off bits.

 

R

[AlienFTM]

I deeply suspect that this may possibly be one of the original 124 Canadian Ferrets, for a number of reasons:-

 

1 it has square side hatches, some but not all did

 

I can believe it's ex-Canadian but only because of the location.

 

I commanded 33BA81 in BAOR around 1980, as far as I could tell the oldest A vehicle in Paderborn Garrison and one of the first tranche of Ferrets, with the square driver's side hatches as shown in the pics. Actually I have a feeling it now belongs to someone on this forum, in the USA and converted to a Mark 2 and that I have exchanged PMs. So on that basis, it doesn't even need to be ex-Canadian because of location.

[AlienFTM]

... any solid info or pictures like how they use the Automatic on it any help will be great

thx willie

 

Are you saying it is fitted with an automatic gearbox or are you referring to the standard Ferret semi-automatic gearbox?

 

The gearbox on Ferret is beautiful. I seem to recall it was designed by the David Brown stable, intended for a pre-war Bentley or Aston Martin (the Aston Martin DB series are named for David Brown) and ended up gear-changing the seminal Routemaster bus.

 

There are plenty of posts in this forum and elsewhere on how to use this gearbox so I shan't go into that. I for one would never dream of replacing it.

[Richard Farrant]

Are you saying it is fitted with an automatic gearbox or are you referring to the standard Ferret semi-automatic gearbox?

 

The gearbox on Ferret is beautiful. I seem to recall it was designed by the David Brown stable, intended for a pre-war Bentley or Aston Martin (the Aston Martin DB series are named for David Brown) and ended up gear-changing the seminal Routemaster bus.

 

There are plenty of posts in this forum and elsewhere on how to use this gearbox so I shan't go into that. I for one would never dream of replacing it.

 

Actually, the Wilson pre-selector gearbox was designed by a man called Wilson. He formed a company called Improved Gears, to produce them and they were used in a variety of cars prewar, some for racing like the ERA. The company changed its name to Self-Changing Gears Ltd at some point. David Brown did make tank gearboxes, and I think the CVR(T) box is their manufacure, but I am pretty certain they had no input on the Ferret's Wilson box.

[Diana and Jackie]

Quite correct Richard:

 

http://vorwahlgetriebe.de/english/pages/home.php AND http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Walter_Gordon_Wilson

 

D&J

 

 

 

Actually, the Wilson pre-selector gearbox was designed by a man called Wilson. He formed a company called Improved Gears, to produce them and they were used in a variety of cars prewar, some for racing like the ERA. The company changed its name to Self-Changing Gears Ltd at some point. David Brown did make tank gearboxes, and I think the CVR(T) box is their manufacure, but I am pretty certain they had no input on the Ferret's Wilson box.

Edited January 15, 2013 by Diana and Jackie

[Caddy]

Actually, the Wilson pre-selector gearbox was designed by a man called Wilson. He formed a company called Improved Gears, to produce them and they were used in a variety of cars prewar, some for racing like the ERA. The company changed its name to Self-Changing Gears Ltd at some point. David Brown did make tank gearboxes, and I think the CVR(T) box is their manufacure, but I am pretty certain they had no input on the Ferret's Wilson box.

 

SLightly off topic, but both the Centurion and Conqueror have David Brown boxes.....

 

David Brown did make hateful tractors though........

[Toolman]

SLightly off topic, but both the Centurion and Conqueror have David Brown boxes.....

 

David Brown did make hateful tractors though........

 

Hey, I've got a 1970 David brown tractor and I love it! Your offending a huddersfield man! (could be a touch biased)

[monty2]

As Aston martin collector and Dingo freak I am sure that this is not true. Aston Martin never had any semi automatic boxes only borgwarner autoboxes first used in the late DB5-s as option. Dingos used wilson preselect gearboxes and as fare as I know this a just a better version of it. Great gear boxes and when well used they last long.

 

Peter

http://www.milmarket.org

 

Are you saying it is fitted with an automatic gearbox or are you referring to the standard Ferret semi-automatic gearbox?

 

The gearbox on Ferret is beautiful. I seem to recall it was designed by the David Brown stable, intended for a pre-war Bentley or Aston Martin (the Aston Martin DB series are named for David Brown) and ended up gear-changing the seminal Routemaster bus.

 

There are plenty of posts in this forum and elsewhere on how to use this gearbox so I shan't go into that. I for one would never dream of replacing it.

[Caddy]

Hey, I've got a 1970 David brown tractor and I love it! Your offending a huddersfield man! (could be a touch biased)

 

I think either you must be a lucky huddersfield man or I was an unlucky Essex boy!

I still hated having to use it; it used to get stuck everywhere, could never do more than power a hay zip. It was not a small thing either, and only the basic controls would work. Give me a John Deere any day! (Hell I might even take a New Holland)

[Catch 22 LBDR]

Well lots of support for the B60 engine on hear. I think the people on this forum are very dedicated to preserving military history, witch is good to see. I too cringe at the thought of such an old and rare ferret being butchered to fit a diesel power pack in.

 

Having restored a ferret from the ground up I can say you start to form a relationship with your vehicle. The vehicle I wanted was different to the vehicle I got. I think everyone wants to own a vehicle that war hopped from combat zone to combat zone, I got a Royal Engineers Ferret that never left Germany. But, as I found out more and more about my Ferret I found I was trying to perverse as much of it as I could. Soon the word "Genuine" became very over used.

 

It's your vehicle to do with as you please, my advise would be; Don't change anything that can't be reversed easily, and keep all the parts you remove, because some day you will want to put them back.