question Ferret Engine Bay support tube

[robin craig]

Does anyone have any measurement of this tube from centre to centre of the bolt hole please?

 

We are trying to sort a problem out with a Ferret engine bay and support tube and need to understand if the tube has been bent out of dimension.

 

The vehicle is undergoing restoration and the folks dont want to use theirs of it warps the hull

 

All answers greatly appreciated

 

Robin

[griff66]

they all get bent eventually! mine certainly was and others that have been in restoration best thing do is fit crossmember then fit engine deck lid if deck sits square on engine bay compartment and not excessively pinched at attachment points of cross member its ok and check that engine deck is not resting on cross brace , if there is a problem either obtain a less bent one!, or heat and straighten carefully!. fitting the cross brace itself can be tricky if and most likely holes do not line up one option is to jack underneath engine bay might flex hull a bit, or my hole were still out after doing this so i fitted one end bolt then put a taper on other end bolt knocked it thru then used thread file to restore threads to get nut started hope this helps.

[robin craig]

Griff,

 

thank you for your insight, we are gathering information to help Chris Preston and his museum's Ferret in British Columbia, Canada.

 

Robin

[DINGODOUG]

I would endorse the bit about jacking up the hull in line with the rear suspension mounts. The s.pension does force the rear hull plates together which makes it impossible to line up the holes otherwise. Its a while since Ive done one but I seem to remember a slight lead-in to the shoulder on the bolts which also helps however it sometimes works to drive in a short podger from the front which lines up the holes the you can drive the bolt through quickly..

If you think the Ferret is bad you should try the Daimler armoured car which is similar but much , much worse.....

Doug

[sexton]

We used a pry bar between the end of the cross member and the hull plate. It didn't take much effort to line up the bolt holes on our case and they were half a hole out. It made me realize how important that cross member is for supporting the rear suspension loads as the unsupported hull plates are quite flexible.

 

The bolts on the one I am working on installed vertically. I noticed on the other Ferret in the shop they install horizontally.

[Richard Farrant]

The bolts on the one I am working on installed vertically. I noticed on the other Ferret in the shop they install horizontally.

 

The bars with bolts installed vertically are the original ones. These still allowed the hull to flex and thus cracks occurred. Ask the Australian Army, they cured it by welding plates alongside the outside of the engine bay, the British ones were changed to the cross tube with shouldered bolt fitting horizontally which cured the flexing. I have also worked on ex-French Ferrets and they were unmodified, but no evidence of cracking strangely.

 

Having worked on Ferrets many years for the British army, I have never come across or heard of these bars bending, it is a question of relaxing the suspension to get it all to align.

 

regards, Richard

Edited May 2, 2015 by Richard Farrant