Lynx I MkIII purchase

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Hello Alastair

Was good meeting you in Normandy, albeit quickly and I enjoyed seeing your newly restored LAAT. And now you’ve bought a Lynx - you have a serous case of The Green Fever. Congrats!

Hanno

[Peter Duggan]

Alastair,
Welcome to the Lynx owners circle. Will be great to see another Lynx come back to life. I would recommend Brian Asbury for your maintenance manual. He provided me with a copy for my Lynx 11. Worth every penny. Do you know the hull number of your Lynx ?
Peter

[maple_leaf_eh]

Welcome (again), and you have my condolences on your recent outbreak of The Green Disease. There is no known cure, except maybe death or divorce.

[Alastair Thomas]

I was in error when I said that the vehicle is a Lynx I MkIII. This was based on the erroneous belief that the 6 stud axle made it so. In fact I have now seen the identification plate on the inside of the driver's escape hatch and it says that it is a Lynx I MkIII* with the number 1920. The number is confirmed in two places: both are on the horizontal armour in front of the crew, one on the left corner and one on the right. The left corner one is preceded by 5-43 making it a May 1943 vehicle (the hyphen is a '1' on its side). The one on the right side is followed by what looks like SSS. Confusingly, below this on the sloping front of the vehicle is 1977 in the same script as the rest of the stampings. I have been unable to find any International Harvester markings. Where would be a good place to look?
The process of getting it back on the road started yesterday. We removed the two fuel tanks and emptied them of stale petrol. Doesn't the smell hang around! There are no drain cocks in these tanks. One of them has signs of rust inside and I am considering un-soldering the outlet pipe so that I can soak the tank in molasses (the molasses process attacks brass).
Unlike one of the posts I have seen, the petrol pump is the usual AC mechanical one seen on all of these flathead engines I have examined to date.
Other points I have noted are:
- the engine cover (not hinged) is incredibly heavy, at least for us grey haired ones
- it has the correct single fan belt arrangement
- I cannot yet see how I take the crab top off the distributor to check the points
- the hatch to the rear of the tub has two hinges unlike the one I have seen on this forum, which has three.
I do not have a wiring diagram yet. Was the vehicle fitted with a single 12v battery with some sort of voltage dropping system for the 6v bits, or did it have two 6v batteries?
Alastair
F60S
Lynx I MkIII*

[Alastair Thomas]

Somehow a sentence or two got chopped out of the above post.

The number on the right side is also 1920 but this time followed by SSS.
On the sloping plate below this is 1977. It is in the same script but I do not know what it means.
I have not seen any International Harvester stamps. Where should I look?

Alastair
F60S
Lynx I MkIII*

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Alastair Thomas

I have not seen any International Harvester stamps. Where should I look?

Alastair
F60S
Lynx I MkIII*

I would think you would find them on a vehicle built by International Harvester; Isn't this a Ford Canada vehicle?

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

I would think you would find them on a vehicle built by International Harvester; Isn't this a Ford Canada vehicle?

I believe it is recorded that International built the hulls for the Lynx.

I recall this Lynx appearing at W&P in 1999, freshly restored. It is an ex-Australian one.

[lynx42]

Originally Posted by Alastair Thomas

I have been unable to find any International Harvester markings. Where would be a good place to look?

Alastair
F60S
Lynx I MkIII*

Welcome to the Lynx owners Club, Alistair. There is a good write up about your scoutcar and a lot of photos here.

http://www.mapleleafup.net/vehicles/cmparmour/lynx.html

The IHC stamp should be just forward of the windscreen armour on the flat plate near the right hand edge. It is small, about 12mm. in size.

Lynx Start to Finish 024a.JPG

Cheers Rick.

[Alastair Thomas]

Thanks Rick.
The Lynx looks almost exactly the same now as it did at Beltring in 1999.
It was kept in-doors and has not suffered at all (except for the loss of the Bren gun in a break in).
I am currently re-commissioning it starting with the fuel tanks. These had about two gallons of stale fuel each with the well known nasty smell. I have cleaned them and flushed them out and will shortly be replacing them. The fuel gauge senders do not work. However, there again, my experience of old cars is that the fuel gauge rarely works so I have made a calibrated stick in the time honoured manner.
The next precautionary job will be to similarly check the fuel lines, pump and carburettor.
The engine turns and all gears can be selected. The clutch pedal hydraulics seem to work.
The one job that promises to be major is that the brake pedal drops straight to the floor so it is possible that I may have to have all the cylinders off and check the seals. Mike told me that he had used silicon brake fluid. I know that in some quarters this has a bad reputation but I have used it successfully over a long period in vintage car restoration. Maybe there are different grades of seals. I will report on what I find.
The 19 set will be left until I run across someone who knows them and is willing to have a look.
One tiny job I have completed is to make keys to allow the hatches to be opened from the outside. These are not exciting enough to be worth posting a photograph.
Alastair
F60S
Lynx I MkIII*

[Alastair Thomas]

When Mike Ebeling restored this Lynx, Michael Cecil was able to trace its census number using the hull number. Thus it is now dressed with 12391.
Among some pictures Mike gave me there is one of the vehicle as found in a scrap yard. In this you can clearly see the number 12758 neatly stencilled on the fuel tank armour.
Can anyone tell me, please, if this a later census number (one digit short) or nothing of the sort?
Alastair
F60S
Lynx I MkIII*