T-16 S/N 5399 T.D. 97377 Restoration

[horsa]

Had the T-16 out for our local army base's annual open house and WWII public show battles this past weekend. We had decent weather for a change which was nice since the wife and kids came out and camped. They all dress out as part of a French FFI Resistance Maquis unit and used my wife's '32 Citroen while I ran around with the carrier stirring up the dust.

Probably only drove 10 miles total but burned up almost five gallons of gas, although we did idle quite a bit. And the tracks need adjustment again since they have stretched out a little more after driving over about a mile of rocky terrain.

[horsa]

A few more photos and some video clips from the same event this past weekend. Usually my group is British airborne but we opted to don black berets with Royal Armoured Corps badges this time since we had the carrier out. Not that the public here in America knows the difference.

Staging the vehicles before one of the show battles. We were tail end Charlie following up the two Shermans and a Stuart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd2Kfui8aTA

Video clip filmed from the gunner side as we follow a Sherman tank through a patch of mud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyJMw...ature=youtu.be

And this third video was shot by my younger 10 year old daughter. She did a pretty good job keeping it steady as one of the Shermans was approaching her about 45 seconds into the video clip. The T-16 isn't in the video since we were out to film so you'll see a jeep taking up the rear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-h51Gr3Eko

[RichardT10829]

Awesome David, great work

[andrew honychurch]

great stuff, its really good to see it covered in dust as well!!! It back to the workshop for me then.

Did you have any running issues over the weekend or was all as expected?

[horsa]

There really wasn't any problems with starting and running now that I have the electric fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator hooked up into the system. On flat pavement I did some driving in third gear while there were no other vehicles with me but never had space and opportunity to get into fourth gear. There is a fairly steep half mile road having about 20 percent grade with a 5mph speed limit posted on the base. First run we did in first gear and lumbered up but the second run uphill was done in second gear and it also had no issues with the long climb or fuel issues. Temperatures were getting on the hot side in the afternoons but the carrier temp gauge never made it to the 200 degree mark.

Only issue towards the end of the tour was degraded turning to the left. But the tiller bars on that side had a lot more play by then and the tracks now need adjustment like I'd mentioned before. I'll need to adjust the steering and braking linkage as well which will be more of a pain since it will mean pulling the floor locker to get access.

At least nothing broke and there were no vapor lock issues

[horsa]

Been awhile since I last posted anything related to the carrier project. Haven't done anything major to it since I've been tied up with two BSA M20 projects. One completed and sold off already and I'm just finishing off the second which will be a keeper.

Managed to put my breather pipe back on the engine since having pulled it off before resolving my original fuel supply issue more than a year ago. I'd removed it and plugged the two holes to eliminate that as a possible problem with fuel/air flow. You can really see how dusty everything is. Maybe an old parachute would do the trick to keep it cleaner while being stored.

I'm still waiting for a long overdue Waltham speedometer which I sent off to be restored several years ago. But decided to plug my spare mid-war production jeep speedometer in to fill the void for now. That meant having the fun of running the uninstalled speedometer cable back to the rear end with everything else already in place. The angle drive I got from Ray worked perfectly so thanks again for that.

And the current thing I'm playing around with is more weapons mounts. Just drilled and bolted up a rifle clip beside the gunner which isn't per spec for a T-16 but certainly will come in handy. Next will be the brass mount for an AA pogo stick if I can figure out a place that won't interfere with other mounted gadgets.

[horsa]

So I decided to clean the garage early this morning and parked the jeep on my side pad and the carrier in the front yard on some old lumber since we had rain a few days ago and the soil is still damp. Had hosed the concrete down and was mopping with a soapy solution when a minivan pulls into my driveway. The driver gets out and has the balls to say he is the president of another housing area’s home owners association and asks me if I get complaints for having this thing in my front yard. I told him an armed society is a polite society and he looked like he had choked on his own breath, got into his minivan and left.

I sure didn’t expect his reaction as its an old saying. Obviously he had never heard it and probably thought I was threatening him. Figured I should post about it in case he calls the cops and they come to take me away. My neighbors have no problems with me and it floors me that this busy body had so little to do that he is trying to enforce his own ideals on people in other neighborhoods. Dumb shit must have thought my carrier sat outside as yard art but even so, it wouldn’t be a violation where I live.