[Darrin Wright]

This was a cold but productive weekend, with cold wet weather blowing in for the weekend and the family off on a scout trip gave me about 6 hours on Saturday and 2-3 hours on Sunday.

The drivers floor plate has been bolted in.

The 1/2" rods from the steering column to the steering cam plate are now in. Had trouble with these rods as I had about 10mm too much thread sticking through the long clevis yokes at the steering cam plate. this resulted in the front pointy bits (tech term) hitting on the protruding thread section. Removed this offending thread and the adjustment will be made at the front clevis yokes, that will make adjustment later much easier. The steering wheel now moves the tube axle from side to side, which will warp the tracks. Gravity is not my friend right now, due to the design and position of the tube axle rollers.

Bought a new tap & die set from the local tool shop, this has allowed me to thread my steering linkage rods (before I had a generous friend who cut the threads for me). I have made the linkage rod in front of the gunners feet and installed the clevis yokes and painted it in undercoat. This rod is 28" from pin to pin.
Recovered and primed the special purpose pin for the accelerator linkage in the front of the hull/drivers compartment.
Have attached a pic of the 2 special pins for the clutch and accelerator linkages in the front of the hull. These 2 pins take the return spring. Accelerator pin is 1/4" and the clutch pin is 7/16" dia.

Modified (shortened the rod from the original parts book listed length) and installed the clutch rod and have commenced adjusting the rods to achieve some sort of clutch pedal. Will have to run the engine to complete adjustments. Installed the NOS spring to the pedal.

Installed the RH guard and installed the elec conduit. This has been wired up from the dash to the headlight mount. The guard is not perfect, it still retains some damage from being in service as this is the period (1942 to 43 in Darwin) that I am restoring the vehicle back too.

Finished tightening the mounting bolts for the exhaust system, this is now finished.

My wife came down to check on me, so taught her how to install a road wheel. This was fitted to the RHR suspension station unit and she fitted and tightened the wheel pin nut. I had to jack up the hull and hammer in the pin.
The hull now sits on the ground on its rear wheels with the front of the hull on jack stands.

There are a few items I am yet to turn my attention too, these are the strip down and rebuild of the bogie suspension units and the panel beating of the left front guard. The wheels are all blasted and painted ready. Also have to wire the vehicle up, but still trying to figure out how they installed the wiring conduit through the centre baulkhead, from engine to dash.