1943 Chevrolet Cab 13 C60s Wrecker

[Grant Bowker]

The CMP chassis winch is driven by a ring and pinion. Unlike a worm gear winch, these are not self locking and would pay out cable freely without a brake. I would be extremely surprised if someone sould tell me there were CMP winches installed without a brake.
It might be that when your cab had its rebuild, the floor from a GS (without winch although some GS did have a winch) might have been used. This fits with the data plate shown at the beginning showing as a GS but is only a guess on my part.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

John,

Nice find & buy. I remember looking over this vehicle quite a while ago - actually I think it had just been restored.

Here are many detail photos of your C60S Wrecker when it was on display during an event in Holland many years ago: http://www.wheelsofvictory.com/CMP%20wrecker.html

Regards,
Hanno

[cordenj]

Thanks Hanno,

I think that was in 2005 and the truck hasn't covered much more than 1000 miles in last 9 years

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

You are right that the normal brake location for the chassis winch brake seems to be misssing. There seeems to be a line (fore and aft) on the floor about where the brake lever would mount, are there any signs that a previous owner either filled in the holes (mounting and for the control rod) or substituted a different oiece of floor plate? If it's not clear from the top of the plate, what can you see from the bottom? How much, if any, of the linkage for the winch brake remains to give indications of where things were originally. The C60S parts list seems to refer to 2 rods with a cross shaft between them to the winch brake.
Worst case, after confirming what's on other wreckers (The Canadian War Museum has one on display (ex-Nowegian?) but I haven't asked to look at that detail and there is at least one more in the Montreal area but the owner isn't much for internet although very helpful) you could make appropriate holes and mount a lever and any missing rods.
I have recently agreed to buy a C60L with winch but have not taken posession yet. Once I have the truck I could try to photgraph that control setup if it would help you.

Thanks Grant,
I've been to to barn to photograph the chassis winch. I'm pleased to say the winch is there together with the integral cast brake "drum"....but nothing else.
So ideally I need to see some photos of the correct brake band/linkage and handbrake lever to see what I'm actually missing. I imagine it is a smaller version of the main vehicle handbrake mechanism.

Here are a couple of photos of what is there:


Thanks

[Hendrik van Oorspronk]

Wil have a look if i can make some pictures this weekend.

Groetn

Hendrik

[cordenj]

Thanks Hendrik,

That will be very useful

[Hendrik van Oorspronk]

Here are some pictures of my whinchbrake.

Groetn

Hendrik

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by Hendrik van Oorspronk

Here are some pictures of my whinchbrake.

Groetn

Hendrik

Thanks again Hendrik,
That looks like something I can build myself if I can find a suitable brake band.

Is your main vehicle handbrake alongside the left of the drivers seat?

[Phil Waterman]

Hi

The band itself is easy to make what you need to find is the ends and the hardware for the cam action. Another CMP brake assembly would be best place to start, but almost any Chevy drive line brake would probably yield the hardware you will need.

The brake bands on both winch and drive shaft had sever rust so I drilled out all the rivets got some flat stock the right width and thickness and just formed up new bands.

Will look and see if I have any photos of the process.

Cheers Phil

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Hi

The band itself is easy to make what you need to find is the ends and the hardware for the cam action. Another CMP brake assembly would be best place to start, but almost any Chevy drive line brake would probably yield the hardware you will need.

The brake bands on both winch and drive shaft had sever rust so I drilled out all the rivets got some flat stock the right width and thickness and just formed up new bands.

Will look and see if I have any photos of the process.

Cheers Phil

Thanks Phil,
The more photos the better, and details of how you built one will be very useful

[Hendrik van Oorspronk]

Visited today the national ceremony of Remembrance day 2014 in Apeldoorn with the Chevrolet.

Greetz Hendrik

[cordenj]

Getting the NOVA letter from Customs & Excise and then applying for a historic registration from DVLA all went remarkably smoothly. The Chev has a nice new set of black/polished aluminium plates.

While waiting for the bureaucratic wheels to turn I sourced some magnetic Hi-Vis signage for the back of the truck. Having been at the scene of two very serious RTC's where modern vans/cars have driven into friend's vehicles, I am very alert to the risk of driving slow vehicles in modern traffic.
The next safety measure is to fit a Xenon flashing amber beacon (12v from a separate battery)

We took the truck out for its first UK outing in more than 70 years on Saturday. Thanks to friends, James Baxter and Gosling for helping to get it started. As the engine hadn't been started for three weeks, all the petrol had drained back into tank, and on an icy morning the 6v battery struggled to pump up enough fuel and then start the engine.

On my Jeep I have a fuel pump with manual primer lever, but not on this Chev. Photo shows the pump fitted. Is there an pump option for the Chev 216 engine with manual primer? As I believe this will greatly help starting

[cordenj]

One of the slight oddities about the way the Chev was rebuilt is that the passenger step appears to be set about an inch too far forward, preventing the fitting of a mudflap.

I've been to photograph the Chev cab13 Wrecker in the REME museum at Arborfield and the difference is clear.

Can someone confirm that the REME museum set-up is "correct"?
Just seems odd that the rear vertical bracket is fitted in such a way as to reduce the space for a second battery (if one was ever fitted).

Any views welcome as I plan to try to move the step and supports back into a similar position.


Thanks

[Grant Bowker]

Unless there is an illusion involved, it isn't just the rear bracket but the whole step that is mounted differently (althought the front bracket appears to be the same shape in each case). On the green truck the front bracket appears to clear the fender while on the brown the front bracket appears to be ahead of the rear edge of the fender.
I have never seen a second/passenger side battery but that doesn't mean it never happened.
When the bracket layout shown on the green truck was used on the driver side, the battery was aligned transversely as the "standard" battery box will not fit lengthwise within these brackets.
My speculation is that the transverse battery may have been a C15A feature as otherwise the fuel tank I received with my C15A (no guarantee it hasn't been swapped from a larger truck but certainly not a C60X tank) is an interference fit between spring hangers and the step bracketry (brown truck style) on the driver side. I have original appearing battery tray support plates for both longitudinal and transverse battery mountings.
Overall, my feeling is that unless there's proof that the brackets your truck came with are definitely wrong (more than the mismatch of fender and step) or the setup offends you, they might as well stay. One way would be to just let the mudflap flex forward to seal the gap although this might look odd if the flap has the stiffener plate in it.
I'm not aware of a lever primed fuel pump for the Chevrolet but would also be interested in knowing if there's a source as it seems such a logical addition for a rarely used vehicle. On the other hand, there's not a lot of spare space in that area of the truck so the lever would need to be reasonably compact. (The combination fuel/vacuum pumps that I've seen don't fit the space available although they can help wiper performance.)

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

Unless there is an illusion involved, it isn't just the rear bracket but the whole step that is mounted differently (althought the front bracket appears to be the same shape in each case). On the green truck the front bracket appears to clear the fender while on the brown the front bracket appears to be ahead of the rear edge of the fender.
I have never seen a second/passenger side battery but that doesn't mean it never happened.
When the bracket layout shown on the green truck was used on the driver side, the battery was aligned transversely as the "standard" battery box will not fit lengthwise within these brackets.
My speculation is that the transverse battery may have been a C15A feature as otherwise the fuel tank I received with my C15A (no guarantee it hasn't been swapped from a larger truck but certainly not a C60X tank) is an interference fit between spring hangers and the step bracketry (brown truck style) on the driver side. I have original appearing battery tray support plates for both longitudinal and transverse battery mountings.
Overall, my feeling is that unless there's proof that the brackets your truck came with are definitely wrong (more than the mismatch of fender and step) or the setup offends you, they might as well stay. One way would be to just let the mudflap flex forward to seal the gap although this might look odd if the flap has the stiffener plate in it.
I'm not aware of a lever primed fuel pump for the Chevrolet but would also be interested in knowing if there's a source as it seems such a logical addition for a rarely used vehicle. On the other hand, there's not a lot of spare space in that area of the truck so the lever would need to be reasonably compact. (The combination fuel/vacuum pumps that I've seen don't fit the space available although they can help wiper performance.)

Hi Grant,
I think the whole set-up on my brown truck is "wrong" and am guessing the green truck is "correct".

It looks to be a reasonably easy fix though:
1. Unbolt and move the front vertical plate backwards to next set of holes in the chassis (there are bolts in them at moment in my truck);
2. Up-bolt the rear horizontal step support iron from the rear triangular gusset;
3. Move the rear vertical angle with the triangular gusset forwards to next set of holes in chassis (this will also correct the odd angle it is currently bolted at);
4. Re-attach the four bolts that hold the rear horizontal step support onto the rear face of the triangular gusset.

Only new holes to be drilled would be in the relocated rear horizontal step support iron, but I suspect this was new metal when truck was rebuilt 9 years ago.

But before I do all of that, am interested in any views from the forum or any photos of how their Cab 13 C60 passenger step is supported

Thanks

[hrpearce]

Originally Posted by cordenj

But before I do all of that, am interested in any views from the forum or any photos of how their Cab 13 C60 passenger step is supported

Thanks

This is the setup on my Chev.

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by hrpearce

This is the setup on my Chev.

Thanks Robert,
Exactly the confirmation I was looking for. Your step is the same as the wrecker at Arborfield. I'll follow suit.
Cheers

[cordenj]

I moved the step back today, so can now look at having some mudflaps made up.
Once I'd removed the horizontal angle iron, found that the "correct" original holes had been welded up for some reason and new holes drilled on the other face.
Easy fix, welded up the new "incorrect" holes and reinstated the originals.

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by Hendrik van Oorspronk

Here the other plates, if you look good you can see on the back of te plate the contact no. is changed from LV 1514 to SM 6056, is there any information about the LV 1514 contract?

Hendrik

Thanks again for posting these Hendrik.

When I went to photograph the REME Museum example a couple of weeks ago, also took these shots of its cab plates.

I see manual MB-C2-W is also on your plates but what is C-SCWE-01? A special for this vehicle ?

Thanks

[Grant Bowker]

C-SCWE-01 is the Chevrolet Special Cold Weather Equipment parts list.
The following is a guess, but I think MB-C2-W is the normal MB-C2 maintenance manual with a supplement added for the cold weather equipment.

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

C-SCWE-01 is the Chevrolet Special Cold Weather Equipment parts list.
The following is a guess, but I think MB-C2-W is the normal MB-C2 maintenance manual with a supplement added for the cold weather equipment.

Thanks Grant.
I was hoping one of them might refer to a manual for the wrecking kit and extra winches; but yes the REME Wrecker has extra cold weather equipment including what look like ducts by the front screens. To stop icing?

[cordenj]

Progress made with making the complete chassis winch handbrake system that was missing on the Chev.
Fortunately was able to borrow the critical mounting bracket from a friend's artillery tractor (thanks Neil) and used it to make a replica. This was essential as very difficult to copy from photos:

[cordenj]

One part that was fairly difficult to replicate was the main brake band.
Again I was fortunate and able to borrow one for comparison, and found it to be almost identical to the main handbrake band used on Post-war M37 Dodge "Powerwagon".

Photo shows an original Chev Winch brake band and the Dodge M37 band.

One was duly sourced from the USA (carriage and UK import duty effectively doubling it cost!)

[cordenj]

The next task was to manufacture the various parts that make up the brake band actuating mechanism. Simple lathe and metal work and I now have the complete rear mechanism ready to fit.

Photo of a test fitting of the NOS brake band without springs and parts of the scratch built actuating cams

[Andy Beevers]

Hi John,
thanks again for Sunday, The winch brake is looking good, should be able to find more info from a gun tractor, should be the same.
Also have noted that Dirk has the wooden rifle butt holder's on his site, I'll be ordering, would you like some too?

[Hendrik van Oorspronk]

Thank you for the dateplates and nice to see you make progress with the whinch brake.

Hendrik

[cordenj]

Originally Posted by Hendrik van Oorspronk

Thank you for the dateplates and nice to see you make progress with the whinch brake.

Hendrik

Hi Hendrik,

Its interesting that your wrecker and the one on the REME Museum are both from contract SM6056 but their dates of manufacture are 10 months apart. And mine is said to have been built in July 1943.

[Hendrik van Oorspronk]

Mine is even manufactured before the contract! It was first build for an other contract as a brkd 4 wrecker. I saw it when I removed the data plates, the old contract number and the 4 were hammered flat and stamped again in the plate as a 5 and with the contract SM 6056.
There are also several points where you can see that the winterization kit (the difference between the brkd 4 and 5) is added later to the truck.

Hendrik

[cordenj]

Finished making and fitting the complete main chassis winch handbrake today.
Using some NOS parts from USA but mainly scratch built bits. A few photos of the process and using card template to design pivot bracketry.

[cordenj]

Completed installation, which all seems to fit in quite neatly