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

[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.

[Lynn Eades]

With all due respect to your knowledge and experience with tracked vehicles. The point is that, every thing else being the same, tension etc,and the only difference is that one track is more worn than the other, and therefore has one less link than the other side. the machine heads off to one side.
The workshop manual descibes the fault, and how to fix it. By making sure the two tracks have the same number of links each side, and by quarting the two tracks, and swaping the quarters to give equal length tracks.

[Nigel Watson]

If your track is stretched more on one side and your sprockets are worn this means that when the track goes around the sprocket teeth they will not mesh correctly, and will ride up on the side of the teeth. If they do that all the way round the sprocket then more track is going round the sprocket than was designed to do. This surely would mean it takes longer, or is it shorter, for the track to go round that sprocket. If the other side is ok and meshes correctly then would the carrier not have a tendency to veer to the side? Or have I just had two too many of the barley water?!!!!!

Nigel

[horsa]

My limited engineering knowledge makes me think the size and speed of the turning sprocket is the big factor here. Not the length of the track itself. Assuming the tracks are both the same in terms of pitch and condition so they stay engaged with the sprocket teeth. So the differential regulating power to each side comes into play. A longer track would have more weight but since the vehicle rolls on it, that should also not be a factor.

In the end, going with what seems right prevailed. Make the track link count the same on each side and then tension each track so it looks the same on each side. If it continues to pull slightly to one side, I'd guess that would be due to rod tension for the brakes and steering which can be adjusted after a few turnbuckle revolutions to take pressure off the differential parts.

[Nigel Watson]

Too much barley water then David?!!!

[hrpearce]

You are all right depending on the surfaces you drive on as well, but where there is a diff involved you are never going to get perfect power division. We had a small John Deer crawler that didn't have a diff just clutches to disengage an axel for turning and because the earth isn't perfectly smooth you had to make regular corrections to the steering.

[horsa]

Spent some time messing around with the temperature senders over the weekend. Toying with the idea of having two regular senders with one in each head. As opposed to one sender in one head and the cut-out switch unit in the other head. Wiring would visually appear to be the same but there would be a second wire inside the conduit back to the instrument panel. The two sending unit wires would be connected to a toggle switch hidden inside the instrument panel and then the selected position would continue to the temperature gauge.

This would allow one gauge to appear correct and still be able to check the true temperature on each side of the engine individually. Essentially the same way that there is one fuel gauge with a selector switch that gets the reading from each of the fuel tanks individually. Except the selector would be hidden in this case since it wouldn't be correct.

By original design, the temperature gauge only reads the left side of the engine. But if the right side gets to a pre-determined temperature, a switch opens and kills power to the temperature gauge which causes it to peg out. On researching this, two versions of the switch were produced. One that opens at 195 +/- 5 degrees and the other closer to 220 +/- 5 degrees. I'd rather know the real temperature if possible as opposed to having the gauge getting effectively disabled before I am really at a true overheated state. The gauge maxes out at 240 degrees. Still haven’t made this change as I’m experimenting with the senders, voltage reducers at the gauge, and the gauge itself since I don’t get an accurate reading when comparing it to a modern gauge with its own probe inside one of the other ports on the right side head.

Shot attached shows a temperature probe that I'd placed on my tool locker while working on the carrier the day. My tools seemed to be pretty hot before having worked on the engine so I wanted to see what the probe would indicate. Was surprised it was showing 150F at 2pm since I hadn't been running the engine yet and it was yet to become truly hot outside.