Colin,

I am amazed by your skills and determination to restore this rare tank. Hats off and :note: !

Thanks for sharing all the pics & info here on MLU.

Regards,
Hanno

Among the many things this hobby has taught me, apart from never say never as someone will produce a photo to prove you wrong right after, is that if man made it man can fix it.

The level of skill people like you put into these projects leaves the rest of us feeling quite inadequate and at times wishing we had taken up bird watching.

I am filled with hope that maybe the game boy generations might stumble upon our hobby and engage.

You have materials and tools and skills that make it all look so easy, once again, I feel very lacking in my education and skills.

Another thread that I am hooked on. Thank you

Well, all I can say is thankyou but when you look at all the projects that have been completed and shown here, it's amazing. There is so much work and talent behind all of them in so many various ways. I just happen to put up lots of photo's only as a means of possible ideas and reference for others and also for me. I am sure that every one has more ability than they give themselves credit for and worried about the outcome. I'm now old enough :( and ugly enough :eek: to not worry about the outcome if I have given it my best shot. There is a wealth of knowledge here and will also say that EVERYone is just so happy to give their time and their experience to help others and that is what makes this site so good. Not to mention that I am very privileged to have two very rare tanks in my temporary position and they certainly deserve to be preserved. Just to find hand stamped numbers, Words (BOWER BIRD) still visible, that has been hand made is goose bump stuff. You would love to have these machines talk and tell you what they know. By the time I finish these I will be very knowledgeable about the Vickers MKV1a tanks.
Colin. :thup:

This part is the centre of the trans in between the gearbox and the angle drive box. I have made up some aligning tubes of specific length and distance apart.

Obviously the location of the bearing housings are critical and I should be very very close to the original location. I am constantly machining up plugs, spacers and anything else I need to obtain accuracy.

The gear that fits into the housing here must be some kind of support idler, as it has a small gear that runs of the main bottom shaft but does not move and only ever runs on half the idler gear. I assume it served some purpose.

The housing is complete and the gear fits really nice and spins well. I just need to get it to fit into the jigsaw and remain aligned. Matt,, sorry I never answered your question of why I'm using steel. There is a few reasons. First is I have lots of different sized on hand, I find it easier to work with than alloy. It doesn't damage in the lathe chuck and you can give it a hammer with out distorting it. Welding is so mush easier as is shaping and I'm much better at welding steel than aluminium.
Colin.

Colin, it looks to me that the little gear is the oil pump???
Great work sir!

I agree with Lynn, almost certainly to throw oil up onto the rest of the gears when first starting and if the tank is at an extreme angle. This gearbox is going to be a thing of beauty when finnished, I hope the front of the tank can be opened up easily so you can show it off. Oh - sorry - it's Bitish so almost certainly no access at all !

Are you going to have to make another one of these for the other Vickers ?

I continue to be very impressed, great work, David

Just been looking at the earlier photos of the gearbox again. Is this gear not the reverse idler gear? Half meshing with a gear on the output shaft and half with a gear on the layshaft? If not, where is the reverse idler gear as I can only see one provision for a third shaft ?

David

Lynn, I think you hit the nail on the head. There is no other gear that slides onto it, so Dave, it can't be the reverse idler. It is not at the lowest point of the transmission so I would agree Lynn, that it is just there to throw oil around. Dave, yes you are right that there is little to no access and the other Vickers will be all Hydraulic drive. Because I have no drive train at all, I just thought It would make sense to have hydraulic drive like a skid steer and I have a little bit of an idea about that. (Not a lot, but enough) I am very happy the way it is coming along.

This thread is a real inferiority maker for me.

Excelent job, thank you for sharing!

Hi Colin,
The gear in the bottom is the reverse gear, the sliding gear above it on the mainshaft is 1st and Reverse so slides along to engage the reverse gear. See the picture attached.

cheers Richard

Hi Colin.

Since the complete set of gears are at hand for you to inspect, a simple answer might be a close inspection of the small gear in question.

In theory, if it was nothing more than a gear oil splasher, it should bear no signs at all of the physical kind of wear it would receive having spent it's active life with two other gears crashing back and forth into it.

If it was just an oil splasher, the edges of the teeth should look very much like the day they were first cut, barring any uniform kind of corrosion that would have developed as the lubricant slowly disappeared over time.

David

Hi David,
see the attached drawing from the MkVIA manual in my previous post, this is not an oil splasher, it is the reverse gear. As the layshaft gears are lower in the oil, they will produce more splash than one little gear.

Richard

Hi Richard.

I don't doubt it in the least.

I do not know how much documentation on these vehicles Colin has at his disposal, and with many parts missing completely, or very badly corroded, trying to interpret what one actually has and can see, in relation to any existing documentation, can be a challenge.

My thinking was to try and come up with a way Colin could inspect what he has and relate that to a gear that was getting physically worked over the years. Don't want him to get a massive headache and stop posting for a while. His great work is way to fascinating! :)

David

Hi David,
The Tank Museum in England have a copy of the manual that covers the MkVIA and will do photocopies of it. I recollect telling Colin about this sometime ago. I needed to see it when reconstructing the electrical system on one of the other Australian MkVIA tanks and it was invaluable.

regards, Richard

I now concur with Richard having seen the pdf,and looking back, Colin gave us a clue when he said the countershaft gear only meshes with half of the little gear (reverse idler) However the trough under the gear is only there for one reason, a consistant lube supply.

Thankyou Richard, you cleared that one up. I'm happy to confess I'm no mechanic. I had a look at it today and I can see where it meshed from one side. That said, I will re install it back in the same way it came out so it still has its lead in. I was in contact with Bovington but I already have all the information they have. I am also in contact with a chap in South Africa who is sending me some wonderful parts drawings on PDF so I can down load and print. I now know exactly what the turret ball race and traverse box looks like as well. So some of the guess work has now been eliminated. But I still have a lot to do.
Thank you all for your input. :teach:
Colin.

Hi Colin,
Good to hear you have the information, there is very little about. When you eventually get to the instruments and electrical system, I have found my notes from about 12 years ago and can give you a bit of guidance in that quarter. I was hoping you might have been at Corowa as I had a CD with me with external photos of the Aussie one in the Duxford museum. Maybe if you are interested, you could PM me your postal address and I will send it to you.

best regards,
Richard

No Mechanic??
 

Crickey!! If you are 'no mechanic' where does that leave the rest of us mere mortals???

Compared to your skills, mine - and I'm willing to bet, many others on this forum - are non-existent! The very fact you are willing to tackle such a project is awe-inspiring.

Great job, following every post with fascination.

Mike

Thanks Mike. I have just done the front main section so I'm just about ready for a bit of a test (ish) sort of fit .

Well it's looking half reasonable and even a bit like the other one. I have made my line up jigs which will be all in place prior to welding but at the moment I'm just using magnets and clamps. At least it gives me a picture of any trouble spots and the area I need to work on next. In fact the next part is to complete the centre section. The more I do, the visually easier it is becoming to see. It's something that as each part is made, I can see what needs to be done to it or the other part to marry them together. More confident after each piece.
Happy Vegemite, or for those of you that hates Vegemite.
Happy Camper. :) :kangaroo
As a point of interest, the most versatile machine I have it my mill. There's not much you can't do with one of these. I had never used one before I got this and it just doesn't take long before it get used nearly every day. It is also my drill as well.

You know what Colin? I was a bit in doubt if this beauty is restorable. I'm not anymore. Your work is amazing! :salute:

Thankyou Petr. Now that I have put my shaft aligners in and the bearing plugs, it all comes together really really well. Basically, if the shafts that I made line everything up and the spacers are correct then there is every chance that this fabricated gear/diff housing will work. If I get a chance over the weekend, I will clean up the gears, shafts and bearings and install them for a look see.

I have now got the main box welded together.

Everything is fitting and aligning well.

Such a pain :( I just ran out of mig gas so I thought I'd start doing the sump.

:note: :note: :note: :salute: Played your guitar lately Colin? :D

I am quite capable with a welder, mill and lathe, but I am still impressed as hell by this. I would have thought distortion while welding would have given you a fair bit of grief and you would have maybe been better machining a finished weldment but you have obviously planned your assembly and managed heat very well. Again, fantastic project.