VICKERS MK6B's resto

[tankbarrell]

You could say they were an engineering masterpiece, cramming all of that into as compact a vehicle as possible. A tactical masterpiece!

[Lynn Eades]

Adrian, you appear to be in a tactically defensive position?
Colin, I have done recon work on a ferret trans and assembled a couple of bevel boxes, however I have not been (un)fortunate to have tried working on a broken down Ferret. I have yet to see in British historical photos, images of mechanics hanging by their feet while working on carriers and tanks. I do remember (a picture in a manual) of the Leyland man holding a Leyland 680 cylinder head at arms length while lowering the head (there are two) onto the block. My back trouble probably stems back to TK bedford head work. A much more viable proposition. I digress (again!)
Back to your master craftmanship on the VLT. On your hydraulic drives. I assume you do calcs. to work out what your ground speed might end up at?

[colin jones]

Hi Lynn, I've heard there's a full sidchrome socket and spanner set under every ferret and sarecen engine.
I have done calcs for speed in the hydraulic tank and if my calcs are correct it should do 18kmph and 25kmph. I have a two speed pump and the komatsu drives are also two speed.That should be at around 1800 rpm.

[colin jones]

I decided to do a job that's been bugging me for quite some time. It's the round head bolts that hold the towing/ lashing points on the front of the tanks. I had some normal 1/2"bolts in there but I thought it was time to correct them and finish the front considering that's where I am basically working on.

[colin jones]

After making the round head bolts, I wanted to just put the drivers side final drive on as it was ready to do and I thought it would have been about an hour or so to do How totally wrong I was Much, much frustration. It is a very heavy and awkward component and I had to line it up perfectly horizontal, slide it over the spigot end, line up the two planetary gears and keep sliding until it slid onto the spigot bearing so it all meshed perfectly.
After a full day of on, off, on, off and not sure if I was doing any damage by forcing it on, I decided to continue this morning and disassemble the final drive and reinstall it piece by piece.
I remember removing it in one piece but that was 4 years ago and there was nothing to line up. I have to assume they did that in the field during the war as there just is no way of lining everything up unless you were really lucky. Anyway, it is now done and the other side will not be any where near as hard as this side.

[colin jones]

I'm sure the mechs had plenty of specialized tools and jigs to make their job better as I have already made a few things to make my job easier. I am really happy that they are going back together as well as they are.

[colin jones]

Just completed fitting the other final drive. After putting it on I found it was too tight for some reason, so I removed it and disassembled tha one as well. I am glad I did as I found I never machined the bearing cup quite deep enough so back on the lathe it went and 3.2mm came out. I also countersunk the bolts that hold the planetary gear hub as a precautionary measure.