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

[Big D]

Hi all,

Progress continues…

I was about to fit the transfer case to the hull but have just found some original cushion mount retainers (thanks Nick and Charles), so I will wait until they arrive before I fit the transfer case to the hull. I filled the transfer case with oil. The front declutch housing took just under a litre of gear oil and the main housing took just under two litres. I filled to the point where oil was just coming out the filler. I expected the transfer case to take a bit more than that. Can anyone confirm? I don’t appear to have anything in my manuals which shows the quantities. Someone was reproducing lubrication charts for these a while ago. Are these still available? I messaged the seller without success.

While I was mucking around with the handbrake assembly, I realised that I didn’t have the bell-crank which is fitted to the hull, as shown in this picture I borrowed off the net. If anyone has one of these lying around in their bunch of spares, I’d be very interested.

I’ve painted the stars onto the turret. The rough surface of the turret didn’t make it easy to apply paint masks which meant that I had a bit of bleeding of paint on the edges, so I’ll need to clean those up. I’ve also added a few more waterslide decals to the hull and turret. The bullet hole in the star looks effective!

I got the handles and two locking levers made up for the engine covers. The handles were spot on but the rod used in the locking levers was not quite the right diameter, and they are a slightly loose fit, so I’ll get the other two made up with the correct diameter.

Now that I have some hydrovac kits (thanks Reg) I have started reconditioning the hydrovac. I don’t think these kits are exactly right for my hydrovac, but we’ll see how we go. The slave cylinder on the hydrovac is pretty rough internally. The main return spring was rusted inside the bore of the slave cylinder and removal twisted it, so I will need to replace that. At this stage, the piston is still stuck in the bore of the slave cylinder so I am soaking it in the hope of getting it out at some point. The bore will need a stainless steel sleeve so once I get it all apart I’ll get it off to the experts for fitting that sleeve. I have rebuilt the main cylinder of the hydrovac with replacement seals and that side of it looks alright at this point. I’ll finish the whole unit off once I get the slave cylinder back.

I am trying to finalise the bleed points for the hydraulics now. I want to fit a bleeder nipple to the end of the short hydraulic lines I’ve made which come from the T junctions, but I am struggling to find a fitting that will allow this. What have the guys who have done this used for such a connection?

I have the lockers front outer guards and some other parts back from painting now. I’ll pick up the gun tube, sleigh and mantlet next week.