Restoration of Canadian Scout Car Ford Lynx I, Mk.III No.1726

[lynx42]

As mentioned earlier, the rear spring perch bracket had been moved inwards for the farm trailer so I had to grind them off and reposition them. I had to wait until the chassis came back from the sandblasters to ensure that I got things lined up correctly.

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Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

I thought the rear diff was OK as everything turned. I took out the drain plug and nothing came out. There were plenty of metal scraps in the drain plug.

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I stuck my finger inside and it came out with a silver sheen and accompanying bits of ground up metal. BUGGAR!.

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So the rear diff was pulled apart and what a mess I found. The pinion inner roller bearing was next to non-existent. It had ground itself to smithereens between the pinion and crown wheel.There were no rollers left. The crown wheel and pinion were beyond re-use. Both had many many divots and dents ground into all of the teeth.

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The pinion nut was seized onto the shaft and the cotter pin broken off so there was no alternative except to used a lot of heat and a fine 1mm. cutoff disc. Fortunately I was able to use the universal flange again.

I was fortunate that I had located a complete Lynx front axle around about 2001 and that gave me a good crown wheel and pinion to use. Both these rear and front diffs had come from the same vehicle originally. The rear diff went to Childers and the front to Newry. Only about 100km apart. The cut down Lynx had been used as a loader for a sand pit up at Swifts Creek, Vic. It was cut up and sold about 40 years ago, the rest went to scrap. I swapped a White Scout Car gearbox for the front diff.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

New seals and bearings were the order of the day. As said before, the local bearing shop had them in stock. Lucky for me I run a trade account there.

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The rear diff housing was then split in two, cleaned up and with new bearings and seals was readied for fitting to the springs when the chassis came back. There is a small wear plated inside the diff housing and that also was renewed to help keep things in line for the future.

Rick.

[lynx42]

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All of the bearing cups had quite a lot of pitting and marks from standing in one place for so long.

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The diff oil was a funny colour and was quite metallic with plenty of silver flakes in it.

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The only parts useable from this diff were the two halves of the housing and the brakes. All the rest were replaced.

Rick

[lynx42]

The hand brake mechanism was removed from under the hull floor and after dis-assembling, was put into the molasses bath.

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The hand brake cables were totally beyond saving and I remembered seeing some at Dirk Leegwaters place in Holland in 2009. These were new old stock ones on the shelf. An email to LWDPARTS.com saw two on the way very quickly. Thanks Dirk.

Rick.

[lynx42]

Some old photos from 14 years or more ago when we started to weld the armoured windscreen into place. The rear armour was also taking shape.

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This is what we brought home taken from the front showing the Australian ARN. 123980.

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The mounting bracket for the steering column helped to locate the exact position of the front armour.

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The column mount bolts to both the hull and the 1 inch + ¼ thick armoured ‘windscreen’ panel. This was to help locate that windscreen panel in its correct place when we welded it back on.

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Now back to stripping the hull 2013. The steering column was again removed from the hull and put aside for later work. The steering wheel was extremely hard to turn and the column had to be completely disassembled and new bushes fitted.

Rick

[lynx42]

The hull was now nearly ready to take to the sandblasters but before I took into town I did a complete photo walk around taking photos of every stencil and sign on the hull, mudguards and lockers etc.

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The Hull number 1726 was stenciled onto the front of the fuel tank armour on both sides. Note the sand coloured base paint with green camouflage.

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‘Sling Here’ at the four lifting points.

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‘W/T’ on both escape hatches. Notice I did not say doors, these are just that, Escape Hatches in case of a roll-over.

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Tonnage and Tare on the out side of the fuel tanks. (TARE 3 tons 13 cwt 3 lbs.)
And other stencil’s in other places.

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and the unit sign of the 1st ARMOURED REGIMENT (I think) who went to Japan with BECOF in January 1946 as the 1st Australian Armoured Car Squadron – the vehicles were initially 18 Staghound Armoured Cars and 8 Canadian Scout Cars (Lynx). ( I am open to correction here as I am not up on Heraldry).

Rick.