[Big D]

Hi all,

While I am waiting for the hull to come back, I've been planning the fabrication and installation of the various hydraulic and fuel lines. I have no old lines to work from so will be working from a clean slate and will have to fabricate each line.

According to the manual, I need 142” of ½” line, 260” of 3/8” line, 923” of ¼” line, and 275” of 5/16” line!

I have a range of pictures and diagrams of the hydraulic and fuel line layout and am curious about the different line sizes used. I see there is ½” for the clutch lines; 3/8” for the accelerator lines; 5/16” for some of the brake lines, 1/4” for the other brake lines. Was the variation in line sizes simply to allow for greater hydraulic fluid for the different applications?

I have read a number of suggestions about fitting in extender lines so that I can bleed from various places. I’ve attached a couple of pictures of one setup. I can’t remember where I got this, so hopefully the owner doesn’t mind me using the photos. This setup seems like a good option to me.

Is there anywhere else I need to consider extender lines?

I am also going to progress the 37mm gun in readiness for getting the turret back. I’m not sure whether it is clear from the photos but the barrel I have is a little bent. I’m guessing that it must have had a fairly hefty weight on it at some point to put a curve in the barrel. It is not going to be a live firing gun but I would like it straight ‘to the eye’ and I would like to have it so that it can fire blanks.

Straightening it is beyond my expertise and the tools I have so I have the Action Engineering guys working on this. We need to get the old sleigh off the tube first and then we can straighten the tube. Hopefully some pressure from a large press and perhaps a bit of heat will do the job.

The breech end of the tube has been plugged which we should be able to clear quite easily. I have the correct sleigh and also have a NOS breech block coming for it.

I also need to get the recoil system off the mantlet so that I can get that stripped and functioning again. The screws holding it to the mantlet are pretty rough but hopefully we can get a rattle gun on them. Otherwise I might have to resort to welding a couple of studs onto them so that I can get a spanner on them to shift them.

I have some repro data plates for the gun side plate. Can anyone advise the size font for the stamp for these plates?