Jesse,

I'm sure it doesn't seem quick to you, but from my perspective it looks like you're at a sprint! I can't believe how far you've come with the Sexton. Great work!

Here are two photos i had of the sexton in use with the british army in Egypt.
Great work you are doing :note:

Sexton SP
 

Jesse,

The Sexton looks great, great work ! Very Exciting to see it coming together !

Bryan

Its always inspiring to see people restoring vehicles to this extent ! i thought i had it bad with my carrier, would would never have the Brass Cahoonies to try a radial rebuild.

i have been watching this thread with great interest, keep up the good work cant wait to see this thing finished.....

ps please get some footage of the lump running for the first time (when the time comes of course)

Richie

More pictures.

Pictures updated

Great works of art..
 

Jesse..

Great works of art are done by great artists...
You shine..!!
Keep up the great pictorial log..
:note: :cheers: :drunk::remember :support

Very true Alex !!! I'm sitting here in awe...great work Jesse !

23rd Field Regiment R.C.A
 

I would like to say chapter one in regards to the 23rd Field Regiment's contribution in the Normandy Campaign is finished. Lots of live footage of Sexton S.P's along with other footage during the Battle of Normandy.

Hope you enjoy it,

Here's the link !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa0SU3Pq0l0

Bryan Naylor

Bryan; Very nice. Jesse.

Just about ready for the engine. Unfortunately, the engine is not ready. We should get the remainder of the parts for the engine on Monday. Jesse.

Well Done
 

Jesse

Looking good .

Anthony

May be running this week. There is still one bad cylinder. It was dropped somewhere along the way, and needs to be welded. Jesse.

Major League
 

Jesse,

We're in awe here of your work, even if we are down under.

I was wondering if you could post a pic with you standing next to the engine just to get some appreciation of the scale & size of the stuff you're working on.

Enjoying the thread mate - mind blowing resto job :thup2:

As one the other fellah's said earlier.....cant wait to here it fire up. Smoke, flames, should be awesome!!!!

R975-c4
 

The -C4 cylinders sure look different to the -EC2 and -C1's that were in many of the Lee's/Grant's.

Also back in an earlier post I see the suspension gudgeon's drop down once the caps have been removed in that style of suspension bogie - a significant improvement regarding serviceablility compared to the early US M3 Medium tank bogies.

Great work Jesse!

Regards

Alex

translation please

Suspension stations
 

Terry,

Early in this thread is a RHS pic of Jesse's Sexton. It shows track and roadwheels off and suspension units dismantled but with the core suspension housings or stations still bolted to the hull. They appear to have been based on roughly mid-production Sherman design - or maybe they weren't. But on the underside of the stations are caps that retain the suspension arm gudgeon pins to the station housing. So these caps can be undone and levered downward off the bottom (after the volute springs have been compressed first!) presumably allowing the gudgeons still through the suspension arms to be knocked downward and out, followed by the springs and spring base. Maybe Jesse needs to verify or correct what I've written about that.

Whereas on the M3 Medium tanks instead of being capped on the underside of the station, they had a cotter bolt that ran through a fore-and-aft hole. Maybe in service there wasn't a huge difference if they were looked after but 60 years later there is considerable difficulty getting the old units apart. The whole unit has to be placed in a hydraulic press of around 100ton capacity. Maybe Jesse only had to place the suspension arms with pin in a press. I may be wrong :ergh:

The Australian Army seemed to have replaced many if not all of the original suspension units with something similar to this later style, on the twin diesel M3 Mediums that they retained in service postwar.

Regards

Alex

Makes sense to me. I'm not familier with the early M-3. The bogies came apart easily, except for having the arm gudgeons pressed out. No electric, no air tools. 20 ton jacks, big blocks, bigger hammer, lots of elbow grease. Jesse.

The early, M3 type suspension is harder to dismantle because the gudgeon pins have to be withdrawn through the casting unlike the later M4 type which as has been said have caps retaining the pins to allow removal of the innards en masse.

The later M3 tanks had M4 type suspension and many of the Australian M3s are of this type. They were built with them though it is possible to change from one to the other, the bolt pattern being identical.

Sexton actually had it's own bogie design, seemingly the same as Sherman but with limited suspension travel presumably to limit bouncing under high angle fire. They can be identified by the ribs on the outer face getting wider towards the top of the bogie, standard sherman bogies having parallel ribs.

23rd Field Regiment RCA, Sexton Tank Regiment
 

Part three and four of the history of the 23rd Field Regiment RCA, Normandy Campaign is finished.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KSjjsBbAYk

Hope you enjoy it !

*Great work Jesse, sorry to hear about the crack in the cylinder ! It must be frustrating at this point !

Cheers,

Bryan

Start her up..!!
 

Jesse..
I'm visiting my daughter and son in law a few miles north of Indianapolis..I would have loved to stop in for a peek but didn't have time..coming down..but I'm going to hang outside when you start her up..I'm sure the Brickyard will have nothing on the sound in your back yard..beautiful work..If I can find it I will look when I get back for some info from a radial engine mechanic about his years of working on those engines during the war..I let all that info go with the rest of my manual collection when I sold It but may be able to find it..It told how to set up the different magnetos and tuning it up..a real interesting piece of work..
I know where your town is and I head east through Detroit..but a swing north west may be a possibility ..IF I can get my wife to sleep long enough when we take off for home..

Anyway I have been following and will check out the info I had on the Radials..
Alex

Firing it up Monday morning.

congratulations
 

Love your work :salute:
Hats off to your team .Huge undertaking
Looking great :cheers:

Dont forget to record it and youtube it for us, what a fantastic job truelly AWESOME !

Starting proceedure
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkcX0KGIBwk

Jesse..
Make sure you crank it over at least 20-30 revolutions by hand to clear the oil from the cylinders(Or you may break a rod or at least bend a push rod and wreck some valves and pistons..)..it will be in the lowest level cylinders that the oil collects..and migrates to.. and make sure the engine oil is pre heated before attempting to fire..
Good luck..

Ready to rumble;

Right nice..!!
 

Jesse..That is beautiful...
I'm heading north this morning and will have the windows open from Fort Wayne on..If the wind is from the west I should be able to hear that beauty running..No time to visit this trip but would love to stop in next trip July..may have that radial info by then..
Strap a strip heater to that oil tank and pre heat your oil before starting...
Beautiful control panel..you obviously know something about radial engines with the right starter and mag switches..
Can't wait for the you tube feature presentation....
The Scintilla and Bendix mags are timed different...Although Bendix bought out Scintilla in 1929 they made many different magnetos..The Scintilla is different from any other type...Scintilla Magneto
This magneto is different than other magnetos. It
has a rotating magnet instead of a rotating coil.

You can do the Scintilla Shuffle or have your helper do it..Here is how....
Doing the Scintilla Shuffle, take a good Scintilla magneto, hold
one of the high tension leads in one hand and with the other hand quickly spin the rotor. The
dance or shuffle created by the high voltage will tell you in general terms that the magneto is
working, and the dance it created is called the Scintilla Shuffle. Caution: do not try this at home
if your nerves are frayed or if you are subject to seizures, heart trouble or diarrhea.
Keep up the excellent work..
:remember :drunk:

Didn't happen today. Magneto wiring trouble. It has been corrected, and another attempt will be made tomorrow. Jesse.

Oil pressure problems today. Had to pull the oil pump to correct the problem. We will try again tomorrow.

It started right up today. Runs great. The video is actually the 4th or 5th start. To many things to do than take pictures. Jesse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTNiTY6jLVA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC2drhHLp3U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT0GTXUS6Yk