Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

Took Friday off so that I could attend a clearing sale and picked up some military items and a BGC rear stowage box (second from left in pic). I think it is NOS and when I got it back to the car found that it was full of V8 crab distributors. I also picked up a 1941 US musette bag, with the details of a RAAF Flt/Lt who was in a Transport Sqn as part of the BCOF in Japan. Will have to do some research on him to find out more.

I also picked up some imperial rod that I will utilise for the rods and linkages in the hull. The BGC parts list is quite detailed and gives all the specs etc to fabricate some of these items.
I made the 1/4" accelerator linkage rods and fitted the yokes to the engine bay rod. Will have to make 2 yokes for the rod in the front compartment.

Ran the engine some more over the weekend and fitted the choke/throttle cable bracket to the back of the carby.

Cleaned the gear box top and undercoated it.

[Darrin Wright]

This weekend I cleaned up the selector rails in the gearbox, removed burs and re-assembled it all back in to the gearbox top. Had a little trouble fitting the detent balls, did not have the correct tool as mentioned in the blitz manual, so used a flat tip screw driver. Those little balls sure can travel when the screw driver slips off or when the shaft does not quite go in as it should. Several times I had to turn the light off and look on the floor with my LED torch. And I did wear safety glasses....

I made 2 new 1/2" square yokes for the accelerator linkage rods, painted them and fitted them to the rods for final paint. I also painted the gearbox top and several other smaller items.

Utilising my floor crane, I fitted up the gearbox to the back of the engine. Not quite sure if there is a special trick to doing up the bolt that sits in by the starter bendix cup & clutch arm, I could only do this up part way and finger tight at that. Greased the service points on the clutch. Did not get time to run the engine with the box on, next weekend.
Removed the rear engine mount from the hull and fitted it to the back of the gearbox.

With some flat sheet steel, I measured & cut a new linkage access plate that goes into the base of the air scoop. It is now in the box to be blasted.

[Darrin Wright]

This weekend a few things came together and get done.
Ran the engine, with the gearbox on, and tested all gears. The engine, with the little bit of load from the box, quietened down and ran smoothly, also there was no noise from the gear box. Happy with that, which means it should not have to come off in the near future.

I cut the clutch linkage rods to size, and a friend of mine placed the 7/16 UNF threads onto the ends, then I undercoated them. Also picked up 12 clevis pins to suit the yokes, just have to cut them to length and drill the split pin hole.

I stripped down the Duplex coupling and cleaned it out, then re-greased it, fitted new grease nipples and fitted it to the output yoke on the gearbox.

During the week will look at the oil cooler lines and the fittings and look at reproducing them.