Sexton hull

[Jesse Browning]

Interestingly the hulls are numbered 2056 and 2057.

[Jesse Browning]

Amazing that I can remember that almost 10 years after the fact, but can't remember why I just walked into this room.

[Jesse Browning]

Robert. When you get the hills from Huntsville, can you please look in the radio compartments and see if the schematic plates are attached to the main junction box door. On earlier models there is a plate on the inside of the door, and another on the outside showing two different electrical schematics. An owner of an even later Sexton told me his plates were missing. I'm suspecting that the plates were omitted in later vehicles because they are absolutely useless; being impossible to read in the position they are in.

[tranham]

Will do. Plan is to move them Saturday

[tranham]

No plates I can see


Pics from the move here

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7mcfozq6g...SZOyhHG8a?dl=0

[David Herbert]

Robert,
What you have there looks very good. I have worked on a number of Sextons but have never seen the plate showing which way CDP track should be fitted (though there is a similar drawing in the opperators instruction book. it is also quite rare for the vehicle data plate that should be on the horisontal plate to the right of the driver to still be there as they either get stolen or rust gets under them and the screws break. As you probably know the hull or shop number is stamped just above the cranking handle hole in the centre of the upper rear hull plate.

From quite early on in Sexton production they were fitted with a design of VVSS suspension bogies which were different to all other VVSS Sherman family vehicles. These had bogie castings with more pronounced vertical ribs on the outer face but also internal webs that greatly limit spring deflection. You can see the bigger ribs in the period photo that you have in your dropbox link. The reasion for these changes was to reduce the 'bucking' of the vehicle when the gun was fired with full charge. This wasn't such a problem with a gun tank as they are much heavier and also need to be driven more agressively if under fire. You will find that fitting normal M4 bogies will give a much better ride so I wouldn't stress too much if you can't find Sexton ones !

If you get into rebuilding bogies you will find that the 1 inch fine threads are 14 tpi not the 12 tpi that became the standard post war, also the same thread on the eight studs that hold the sprocket hub onto the drive shaft. Those have tapered split collets between the hub and the stud that can be buggers to get free. I weld short pieces of 1" bore tube to them and use a slide hammer to pull them out - works every time and the collet can usualy be cleaned up and re-used.

Good luck,
David

[Jesse Browning]

Thanks for looking.