[Big D]

Hi all,

The rear axle is now complete with hub, internal axles and drums and is ready to roll under the hull. I do need a breather for the axle so will have to see if I can find one of those.

The intermediate axle is awaiting the brake Tee connections which are on the way (thanks Mathijs). Apart from that it is also ready to roll under the hull.

I’ve now completed the hydraulic plumbing for the brakes, throttle and most of the clutch. The clutch is complete up to the engine bay area and I’ll finalise that once I get the engine and gearbox in. So far I’ve worked my way through about 45 metres (nearly 50 yards) of steel tube for the brakes, throttle, clutch and fuel lines. I’ll still need another couple of metres of ¼” tube to finish the fuel lines.

I was having a few issues finding a suitable connector for the 3/8” tubing to go to the throttle slave cylinder. The parts manual lists the fitting as: 11/16-20NF-2 x 5/8-18NPT which I’d never seen before. I thought I might have been stuck finding that but it sounds like I have located one and it is hopefully on the way. I also have the correct adaptors for the hydrovac ordered and on the way.

I fabricated a couple of mounts for the hydrovac. This allowed me to get that in place and finalise the lengths of all the remaining brake lines. I fabricated a couple of small brackets for the flexible hose connections for the front and rear axles. Both of these brackets were missing off the hull. Hopefully where I routed the front line won't interfere with the protective cover that goes over the transfer case.

On the subject of hydrovacs, I have only just realised my hydrovac is a single input and single output unit. I’m not sure how I formed the impression that it had two inputs and two outputs and what I thought was an input port on one side was actually a plug! The hydrovac does appear to be a second series Bendix but looks like it is for one of the models of halftrack.

As a result, I won’t actually need the second (¼”) line I made up to go from the master cylinder to the hydrovac. That was waste of a couple of hours of my life making that. Haha. This actually simplifies things a lot for me though. What I’ve done is to adjust the plumbing a little for the lines to the axles. I have put an extra Tee connection on the hydrovac output so that all axles are connected to that one output. The 5/16” line running from the master cylinder is now to routed to the input on the hydrovac. My plan is to temporarily connect the 5/16” line direct to the ¼” line going to the axles so I can bleed and test the brake system. That will at least tell me that aspect of it is working alright before I get the hydrovac completed and connected.

I may do some painting with some of the paint stencils next week before I get the hull up on its wheels. The hull is at a nice height to work with as it is.

I am still looking for a nut for the steering gear sector shaft if anyone can help. This is 1 1/8-16NF-3. The wheel nuts are 1 1/8-16NF-2 and the thread is very close, but not quite right. What are the differences between NF-2 and NF-3?

That is all for this week.