Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

Work this weekend was a catch up on numerous small jobs that had been left for later- whatever the reason, it was very satisfying to get them done.
Last weekend I had purchased more bolts, this enabled me to paint them for fitment. I also painted the LHR suspension unit and some smaller parts.

I finally installed the last oil cooler mounting bracket, cut the mounting bolt to a suitable length and now all done up tight.
Painted & cut to length the 2 underside of hull bolts that hold/secure the RHR suspension unit in. Early hulls had these 2 bolts and later they were discontinued. Trap for your players when dismantling and removing the suspension unit from the hull.

Painted and fitted the large wing nut for the Vickers gun shield.

Painted and fitted the coolant overflow pipe bolts, this is now all secure and installed the way it should be.

Painted the LH brake linkage pivot post that was riveted to the floor over the Christmas break. Found and test fitted the linkage pivots that mount to the post.

Disassembled a steering column and removed the mounting plate that holds the lower bearing. Removed the bolt at the base of the steering column that engages with the linkages, who knew this was screwed in? Tried everything else (apart from breaking it). Will get new item machined up in the next 2 weeks. The pic showing this apart has a yellow arrow, this is pointing to a thin sheetmetal dust/water cover that may have protected the bearing- anyone have a better pic of this or dimensions?

Cut out a pivot post from the rusted drivers floor plate, this will be a sample to assist in two new items being made so that I can weld them onto the new drivers floor plate (already laser cut).

I also managed to fix the ride on mower and cut some lawn.

[Dale Jordan]

Hello Darrin do you mean the dust cover in my photo painted grey ? .If so I can take photos and sizes for you . Your carrier is an inspiration to me, if my machine turns out anything like yours . Ill be a happy camper ..Dale PS Darrin looking at your photo of your single station , the nuts to hold it to the hull , should they be on the outside of the hull I checked this out in the books to show them this way around I could be wrong .

[Lynn Eades]

The stubbs generally have a spigot that centers in a hole in the floor before welding. There are 4 different sorts, if I recall correctly.

[Dale Jordan]

Gee Lynn you and I must have been on the same page with this reply. Dale

[Lynn Eades]

Quote: Disassembled a steering column and removed the mounting plate that holds the lower bearing. Removed the bolt at the base of the steering column that engages with the linkages, who knew this was screwed in? Tried everything else (apart from breaking it). Will get new item machined up in the next 2 weeks. The pic showing this apart has a yellow arrow, this is pointing to a thin sheetmetal dust/water cover that may have protected the bearing. Unquote:

The bolt threads into the spider (7/8 UNF?). It has a washer under its head that is folded down against the spider, and another part up to hold the hex of the head.
The plain shank goes down through the clevis slots, under which is a washer, followed by a castle nut (3/8 UNF?) with a split pin.
The dust excluder has a felt seal in it, and the bearing housing in later carriers has a grease nipple in it. The felt in the dust excluder runs on the top of the bearing carrier.

[Darrin Wright]

Thanks Dale for noticing that, I have checked my pics and 2 other hulls that I have here and you are correct. The nuts should be on the outside with the bolt heads to the inside.
Will rectify this weekend.
I had a slight suspicion when I put it together......50/50......did not check pics at the time and went with the logical replacement.

[Darrin Wright]

Well in the last 2 to 3 weeks I have not been able to do too much as I pulled a muscle in my neck. Restricted movement and pain are not idea for doing much, especially working on the BGC.
But I now have the LHR suspension unit fully painted and ready to be mounted into the hull. Some other items have also been painted.
I spent some time knocking wheel bearings etc out of 5 road wheels and pressure cleaned them ready for sandblasting.
Got side tracked and bought another BGC, having to juggle parking spaces/hard standing for them as we go into winter, as the ground is soft and they sink.
Followed up on a lead and visited a farm with some BGC track and front wheels and mounting plates. Settled on a fair price and will collect Anzac day weekend with trailer.

[Darrin Wright]

Prior to Easter I had some machined items for the front & drivers floor plate arrive. This allowed me to get stuck into the drivers floor plate. It was a case of marking out all the bolt holes, creating a template to ensure holes went in the new plate correctly, test fitting and welding in of new pivot posts. After approx 3 hr and help from my son, we had a new floor plate ready for bolts (which I have to buy) to be placed in & welded so that they do not come loose (accelerator and clutch & brake pedal mounts).
Also installed the LHR suspension unit into the hull, installed all the bolts correctly this time.

Installed seals into the 1 wheel that I have ready for installation, also buffed up 2 wheel pins ready to install the wheel later.

With the 5 wheels stripped the previous weekend, it was time to clean 5 sets of bearings, seal retainers and spacers. Found several different types of roller bearings fitted to the wheels. Also found 2 crook bearings.

Another job that I had been putting off was the modification of my jack bracket, for some reason it was 13" high, this is too high for the Joplin jack. The correct BGC bracket is only 11" high, so I removed the base plate, shortened the bracket and re-welded it back to the base plate. It got a coat of paint later in the day with the seal retainer plates for the wheels.

Made the strap that holds the shovel onto the pioneer tool plate, just need to know how high it sits off the plate that it is welded to.

Picture 4 shows the drivers floor plate with the LH 'L' pivot bracket on the pivot post, I am missing the RH bracket, so if anyone has a spare good bracket and they wish to sell, please message me.

Also managed some gardening....but that is not as exciting as making progress on the BGC.

[Lynn Eades]

Well! no you have a really great project to start on (one with rivets!)
What a find!
Can you post a picture of the ID plate please?

[Dale Jordan]

Excellent workmanship Darrin . How come your floor plate has that cut out in the bottom left hand corner , also what height and length did you end up making the shovel bracket ? Dale