T-16 S/N 5399 T.D. 97377 Restoration

[horsa]

Been busy with the day job and tinkering on the jeep during spare time for a WWII vehicle rally we attended last week here in Texas. I could hear the carrier crying for attention and noticed the tracks were looking pretty slack on both sides so decided to address that problem so it would be good to go next time I was able to get it out for a run.

I've had 172 links on the driver side and 173 on the gunner side for the past year and a half. Wanted to have a matching link count on both sides though to make it easier to remember and to see if the vehicle would drive straighter on long flat paths. Old discussions on a Weasel forum always indicated an uneven count would cause a vehicle to need constant adjustment with one tiller bar and that would eventually lead to more wear on brake related parts on the opposite side compared due to steering corrections. Not sure if this is really true but figured it would still be best if I could even them up since both sides needed to be tensioned anyway.

I was able to take up the slack on the driver side using the cam adjusting tool. The gunner side had the extra link removed and only needed minor adjustment with the cam after that. So now I'm running on 172 links on each side. Think 168 is the dead or dying track indicator for a T-16 so I guess I have plenty of life remaining on this set given the limited miles it gets driven per outing.

[andrew honychurch]

Hey well done David, good to see that you are always keeping your beautiful restoration on top form. I am sure that an uneven count would make it drive to one side or another. I cant quite think how that works but it seems to make sense to me, maybe just different reactions to undulations in the road at its simplest would cause a movement to left or right?

What you need is a proper track jack to make the job quicker!

[horsa]

The tool I've always used for the tracks so far is a modern US type that I modified. Had to grind the hooks down quite a bit so they would work with the T-16 carrier track links. It does the job but can be a pain holding it in contact with the track with one hand, while cranking the central nut around with the other until there is enough tension to keep it in place. One shot shows a crescent wrench holding the track up. That was so I could tighten up the track enough to make up for the link I took out. Before getting the track broke, all wrench work had to be done in the limited space underneath the track.

I'm still unsure about the different length tracks causing the vehicle to creep to one side as it drives. Seems like the speed of the turning drive sprocket would be the only factor. If you put the vehicle down on a mile length of flat carrier tracks, it would simply crawl along it if everything was locked to spin each side at the same speed. Sure someone with more mechanical engineering smarts knows the answer for sure.

Still happy to have the same number of links on each side now either way.

And one day I'll hopefully have a proper track jack

[horsa]

Another evil reproduction part about to be primed, painted and bolted into my carrier. But until I can find a good useable original set, I'm very happy with these.

I had an example of the short section which was recovered from a carrier that was rotting somewhere up in the northern Canadian tundra. It's been sitting around for almost three years and Ray was able to get one of his business associates to fabricate duplicates along with the longer section.

These go on top of the floor locker located behind the driver in the T-16. The short section holds the floor board in place and the long section is the battery tray.

[horsa]

Warm weather and longer days means it's time to get back to work on projects...

Got the floor lockers installed again behind the driver and gunner in the engine bay. The driver side locker gets the pair of metal racks with one intended for the short floor board and the other under the radio area for the vehicle battery. The gunner side has no racks and gets a full length floor board since they didn't always have the seat up by the radiator.

There are no details about the two floor boards anywhere that anyone has found so far, but you can spot each of them in a couple of the wartime photos/drawings they included in the parts and service manuals.

[Lynn Eades]

Heres my explanation of why the carrier heads in one direction,when the track link numbers are uneven. It comes from the tendancy for the drive to come out of a differential evenly, particulary under load. Just like in a slippery diff, the planetary and side gears tend to push away from each other. The result is they tend to lock against the thrusts, and in turn the differential case. This has the effect of the whole unit turning as one including the sprockets with their thirty five teeth. It takes just that little bit longer for a track with extra links to get back around, and so the machine starts to head to one side. Of course this tendancy is easily overcome by the application of a bit of steering or brakes, or the effect of uneven terrain

[tankbarrell]

Lynn, the sprocket doesn't know how many links are in each track. If you short track a vehicle on one side it drives the same, all other things being equal.

That is where the tendency to pull lies in my opinion. Minor differences in track tension and road conditions.