Hi Justin, I will be making every attempt to take the carrier to corowa next year. That will give me plenty of time to iron out all the bugs I hope.
regards
Colin.

Excellent, I can have a look at it in the flesh then :D

Good stuff Colin,it would be nice to see it.
I dont think i would have any chance of having mine there though!.

I finished my tailshaft last night and put it in position. It is an old ford truck tailshaft. I machined an adapter plate with a centre hole to take the female spline and welded it in. (transmission end). I also machined a big plate with a 6mm recess so the original 8 bolt plate sits in (for centralization). That plate is welded to the other end of the tailshaft. Also the engine is in as well.
Colin.

Strewth, Col, this project just get's Sexier by the minute! I like how you've used a C4 auto, because there are adapter kits to mate a Sidevalve to the C4, although you may need to re-fabricate mounts for the Flatty. (Nothing sounds as good as a Sidevalve!)

Nice piece of work...
 

Col..being a mechanic/welder/electrician/gas fitter/and general wrench,I know good work when I see it..The only improvement I could comment on would to be offsetting your motormounts to reduce the drive angle on your drive shaft..
At 200MPH that old drive shaft will be under quite an axis load..
Reminds me of my youth,trying to come up with a transmission that would stand up to my 361 CI 1959 Edsel V-8..normal Ford transmissions would clean the cluster gears off like butter..Finally mated it up with a '54 Mercury truck transmission..four speed..
Taking off in second gear or even third gear in a cloud of smoke was normal...Had the .'54 yoke on one end of the driveshaft and a '59 Ford rear end matching yoke on the other end....so anything is possible..
Keep at 'er..I'm following your thread with great interest..

Hey Alex. Just thought you might like this. www.arvimotors.com

Hi and thanks Tony, as much as it would be nice to have a wonderful underpowered great sounding side valve, a couple of extra horses would be really handy. I'm a bit excited cause its gettin' close to trials but I'm busier than a one legged arse kicker at the moment. If I had full dedicated time on it, I reckon I would be driving it within a week but work comes first. Also I don't mind the sound of a well tuned, tuned length exhaust, good old 351ci. But I know where you're comin' from.
Colin.


G'day Alex, I did look at offsetting the engine and trans, but its only 9deg and there's been a few friday nights that i've been on greater angles that that and still operated without breakin' my uni joints:blink: :yappy: so I have great confidence it will be o.k. There's not much room in the engine bay either, but hell it's great fun achieving something like this and thanks for your comments
Colin. :thup:

Love your work Colin, if you manage to get her to Corowa next year I hope to get a good look over.
Your decision not to angle the power pack was wise, because 9 deg is bugger all, as long as the crank/output shaft are on the same linear "plane' as the diff pinion shaft. To angle the engine/gearbox toward the diff to reduce the shaft angle would only have introduced a nasty shake through the hull at speed because the tailshaft would have been "out of phase". Crank bolt & output shaft centres should be equal-distant from the hull side. You probably have already done this, but make sure the crank centre bolt & centre of your output shaft are equal-distant from the hull floor for the same reason. The carrier pinion shaft enters the hull level with the floor & hull side..

I see you have solved some of the engineering problems I was scratching my head about on my replica Vickers, such as how to re-attach track guards etc.. but I am wondering, have you, in the past, mounted the engine mounts direct on the floor before? I was considering it, but was worried about torque flexing the floor plate, and had decided to install the engine/gearbox in a cradle, attached to the floor and hull sides. Is this how a 2pdr engine mounts are normally mounted?

Rob

Edsels..
 

Ty..
Love your work...I am an Edsel fan since they hit the street in '58...The only model I ever built was a '58 Edsel convertible..
The 361 Edsel engine I had came out of a burned out American '59 station wagon..
We put it in a 1958 Ford four door sedan,an old taxi(Got it cheep) pink and white..
Nothing to indicate what it had in it for a mill but talk about power..The original six Ford engine was replaced but the 6 transmission hooked right up to the Edsel bell housing..
That transmission lasted about a week..chewed the cluster round on one burn...but we then tried a v8 Ford transmission..a little better ..lasted two weeks..Then the '54 Mercury truck four speed transmission was the only thing we could keep in it..
Had to change the rear end to a V8 one from the six 'cause we chewed that up too..

It seems we were allways changing something or other to get the correct spline configuration..
Changed the jets in the four barrel....it had 73's in the,primary and 69's in the secondary...(I think...it's been 45 years)..
Really liked the smoke show on the web site..Took me back a long time..Thanks.

:cheers: :drunk: :salute::remember :support

But it was a smoker..Used to go through those cheep Canadian tire two plys in about a week..
But those were the days..for ever under the hood or changing rear ends or transmissions..Knew every scrap yard on the east coast..

Thats how a guy learns how to use wrenches.

Hi all, a few pics of the gear change mech required for the 2 pound tank attack carrier and the Australian pattern mortar carrier. They are very fiddley and time consuming to make
Colin.

Tack welded into position to make sure all functions correctly. Still have to make the gear change handle and the bottom plate.
Just can't seem to find enough time at the moment.
Colin.

Wow, nice piece of work, but you sure went for the more difficult option in radius turning on that shaft. A well-known way (as described in Model Engineer and other places) for producing ball handles is to ....take a large ball bearing. Red heat to soften, drill through. Silver solder to shaft. Done!

Steve.

Hi Steve, yes that is another way, but the hardest part of that, is finding a ball bearing with a diameter of 44mm. Even if you found one bigger it would be so hard to reduce the dia, but thanks for your comments.
Colin. :thup:

Nearly finished the gear change mech. I would have to say, if you never had access to an original mech, it would be really difficult to make a replica from pictures.
Colin.

Colin
 

Thats a work of art,.. But..... please explain how it works with an auto?

Hi Lynn, accually it not for me , I have made for someone else. I have made one for my mortar whichfrom the drivers compartment it looks the same but the connections are totally different. I will post pics later. Good to see someone is observant.
Colin

mortar carrier gear change
 

For those of you who know what the original gear change mech looks like which is the previous pics I put on, this is the modified mech I have made up to accomodate the C4 transmission. A very simple system of rods and pins. It does change very easy and positive.
Just fuel, electrical and cosmetics left.
Colin.

gear change
 

A few more pics.
Colin.

Shifter
 

Very nice work Colin. I don't want to sound picky but don't forget about the movement in the engine mounts. Wouldn't want you to floor it and have it shift gears on you. Or break the shifter at the tranny. :)

Hi Ledsel, point taken. I'm hoping that I've got enought pin length to allow for 3 to 4mm lateral movement either way. I have also allowed 20mm under the mech for a rubber block to the floor. I need this for shimming to get the correct alighnment. If there is still a problem I guess I could always mount it direct to the transmission. The way I designed what I have, seemed to be the easiest way for a positive connection. I am still open to any help or suggestions. Thats why we put pics on MLU, to get help from experienced people all over the world.
Thanks Ledsel
Colin. :teach: :thup2:

Hello all, I made a new fuel tank and mounted it in the side mortar storage area. It made it very easy to mount and it will be easy to fuel up as well. The originals were under the floor but to my knowledge there is no record exactly where and what shape they were. I mounted the remote oil filter for ease of removal. Onto the exhaust system next.
Colin.

Fuel System
 

Hi Colin - now if you had bought a photocopy of this manual you would have had this information.

:teach: Salesman Bob

Hi Bob, I do have a copy of that manual but as I said to my knowledge there is no record of the exact location and size. I know they are under the floor and they are rectangle, so I did the next best thing. No where near the floor and a totally different size. :thup:
Colin.

Please excuse the mess, I fitted the alternator, cooling system and exhaust. All fitting well but I still need to remove the engine once more for painting the engine bay and engine parts before putting back for the final time. I managed to find some time this week to work on it and I think (decided) to make thursday and friday M.C. days as well.;). friday just might be the day bring it to life :thup2:
Colin.

Colin
 

A bit off topic here, but whats the go with the insulation in your shed?

insulation
 

Hi Lynn, here in Adelaide we get such a variation in temperature, from below zero in winter to low 40's in summer. When you get a day of 44 deg it is so hat you cant work in the shed without insulation. The foil you see has a layer of rockwool 50mm thick behind. It makes a massive difference for comfort. Also good for reflecting light. I'm also getting softer in my older age. :)
Colin.

Hello everyone, I've been a bit crook lately, so not much progress has been made on the mortar. But getting back on track. here's the latest update.
regards
Colin.

By the way, I had a couple of mean looking pirates at home.
Angry Alex and not so Angry Andrew.
(thet do brighten up my days)
Colin.