How To: Restoration of Ford M8 armoured car US Ordnance number 7373

[Big D]

Hi all,

Just a quick update on what I’ve been up to since the M8 has been on its wheels.

I’ve tidied up a few more jobs on the hull. I’ve fitted the shock absorbers and tightened the torque rods. I still need to source one fixed torque rod, as one of the three I have is not right. I also still need to find a 1 ¼”-12 die nut to tidy up one of the threads on the adjustable torque rod mounts on the axle. I added a new DM-34 dynamotor to the other radio and have now fitted that to the radio tray, so that setup is good to go.

I have fitted some of the data plates to the driver’s area in the hull. One of them is slightly too wide so I need to find a sharp guillotine and shave 1mm or so of the side of the plate without bending it. Does anyone know where this small rectangular data plate showing dimensions etc goes on the hull? I have a feeling I have seen photos of this plate on the hull but I can’t locate that photo.

I still haven’t got the turret back here to the workshop so I have started work on a few other things to keep the project rolling. There always seems to be multiple small jobs on the go…

The gearbox is in pretty good shape but there is wear to the synchroniser and ring for 1st and 3rd gears. I have located these parts and they will be on the way to me shortly. The bearings seem to be in good shape but I will confirm once I have the main-shaft out. I’ll shortly start disassembling the gearbox in preparation for the arrival of the parts.

I will get the radiator dropped off to a repair firm this week for reconditioning. The exterior of it suggests it has been through a war, but I don’t know what the internal condition is like, so it will be interesting to see what they say. I will clean up the radiator fan diffusers in preparation for the radiator coming back.

I used a grease/gear oil slurry as lubricant in the pillow block but noticed that it seeped a bit of oil from the keyways. After a bit of research I used the tip about fitting a bit of cork into the keyway, and sealed it with a bit of flange sealant. We’ll see if that works. I have also started on the transfer case and will show some photos of that next week.

That’s all for today.

[Big D]

More photos.

[Big D]

Hi all,

I’ve been busy with work and life for the last few weeks and I haven’t posted for a while, so here are a few updates on what I’ve been up to on the M8.

I have stripped and reconditioned the transfer case. Overall it was not in bad shape and I don’t think it has been that long since it has been apart. All the flanges came off easily which I’ve found is a good indicator. The gears had some light corrosion on them from the transfer case sitting around with little oil in it. As per the photos, some of the teeth on a couple of the gears had some pitting resulting from the corrosion from that sitting around. I have cleaned that up and the pitting shouldn’t create any issues.

The bearings looked good and just required cleaning. I cleaned up all the gears and flushed and cleaned the internals. I found some oil seals ‘off the shelf’ from a local supplier which were the correct size for the bearing caps. The same seal is required for the handbrake drum bracket but the fit on this was a whole lot tighter, and it needed some persuasion to get it in there.

I did notice a very fine hairline crack in the front axle declutch housing. Looking back at my pre-disassembly photos, I see the crack was there and just visible under the old paint, so it might have been there for a long time with the paint and dirt holding it together. I have covered it in some epoxy adhesive which should seal it. I made up new gaskets, and cleaned all the shims from each bearing cap and fitted them as they were. All clearances seemed pretty good. I cleaned up the rest of the transfer case and a coat of paint freshened it up nicely. Let’s hope it doesn’t leak!

I fabricated some retainers for the rubber mounting cushions out of a bit of channel with some angled steel which will form the mounting strips on the sides. I will finish the welding and tidy them up over the weekend and then hoist the transfer case up into place on the hull.

[Big D]

More photos.

[Big D]

The turret is back and looking quite nice, complete with that old battle/range damage. I had to clean up a couple of lumpy parts on the top of the bearing face, where the hold down roller bearings would run, that I had missed pre blasting and painting. I have fitted the 37mm gun mount and recoil system. The gun mount sits on two heavy pins, one at the top and one at the bottom, each secured by a 3/8” screw. It was a bit of a handful fitting the assembly on my own, but I got there. The barrel has been straightened and I will likely fit this along with the damaged breach while I await the arrival of a replacement 37mm gun which is in better shape.

I picked up some of the other parts which had been painted and fitted the inner front guards. I left a lot of the imperfections in them but the new paint has freshened them up nicely. Just fitting these inner guards changes the appearance of the vehicle again.

I have continued tidying up a whole lot of other little jobs. The data plate that needed to be trimmed to fit has been done and glued into place. I received the 11/16” hydraulic fitting I needed for the throttle slave cylinder (thanks Taylor) so that hydraulic line is in place now. I still need another tapered fitting for the master cylinder which is on the way. The back panel is now fitted in place. I have also fitted the master switch box and battery cable as well as the interphone boxes for the commander and gunner. I will wire up the interphone boxes over the weekend and give them a test.

I spoke to the engine reconditioner and unfortunately the bores on the engine block were too pitted for even a bore out to 0.020 pistons. I might have got away with 0.040” oversize but I didn’t have any pistons that size, so I have decided to make use of the 0.060” pistons I have here and we are boring the cylinders out to fit those. Does anyone have any 0.060” rings they want to part with?

I have located the gearbox parts I need and I’ll have those parts on the way to me shortly.

That’s about it for the moment….

[Big D]

More photos.

[Big D]

Hi all,

Here are a few pictures of the latest progress. I have fitted the recoil system and elevation system. I found the elevation system and sector gear on the recoil system had to be fitted at the same time. I had the elevation gear in first but I couldn’t find a way to fit the sector gear for the recoil system afterwards as there was just not the room to make them mesh unless installing them together.

The 37mm racks, map clips and binocular holder are fitted, but I will need to remove the rear 37mm rack to lift the turret onto the hull. As you’ll see the binocular holder is white. From what I could see these were white on earlier M8’s and then green on later ones. Someone may correct me on that.

The barrel is now straight and the good news is that the damaged part of the tube will be obscured by the sleigh. The breech ring is off and will require some rebuilding.

What is the easiest way to fit the barrel to the gun mount? My thoughts were to fit the sleigh onto the recoil system and then with the recoil system angled downwards, slide the barrel (minus the breech ring) into the sleigh. Is there a better way?

After cleaning up the channels, I test fitted the sleigh onto the recoil system with my fabricated brass channel on the sides. The sleigh will go on, but it will be a snug fit with that new brass.

I finalised the interphone box wiring for the commander and loader. The headphones on these worked straight away but the microphones did not. I worked out that the way I had wired the connector on the FT-237 radio tray (which was as per the TM 11-2702 manual) was actually wrong. I can recall when I did that FT-237 wiring, that it didn’t seem right that the microphone circuits (yellow and brown wires) for the back interphone boxes weren’t on the same line as the interphone boxes for the front. Anyway, I wired them together on the FT-237 and the rear interphone boxes now work fine with headphones and microphones.

I have some of the sheet metal back from the sandblasters, painted and ready to go. Unfortunately, the sandblaster got their wires crossed with the painting. The plan was to blast and paint the tool lockers, as they were ready to fit, but just blast and prime the big sandskirts, because I still needed to apply some fibreglass to them to improve their roughish appearance. The blasters got that the wrong way around and I have a pair of tool lockers which have just been blasted and primed (!), while I have some fully painted sandskirts which still need to be fibreglassed! Oh, well….

I spent a bit of time making the radiator drain plug access flap on the rear lower engine panel. The reproduction panel that I had didn’t have this hole cut in it. Thanks to Willy for his help on the design of this. I received a nice load of parts I needed in the post today (cheers Reg), including the radiator mounts, hydrovac tube and hydrovac repair kits.

The last of the bits and pieces are loaded up and ready to go to the sandblasters for priming and painting.

That is all for today….