Armour Dreams

[Wayne Hingley]

Very impressive work Jon! I cant wait to see what you do next.

[Jonathan Moore]

Thanks Wayne

[r.morrison]

Jonathan: You just never cease to amaze me with your workmanship. Hopefully your son appreciates your "gift of talent" now or in the future. Hats off to you! Robert :

[BCA]

I would like to revisit the axle discussion and the proposed solution of flipping the drive axle to allow for correct gearing. I recently saw a T16 drive axle mounted upside-down in a replica armoured vehicle which unlikely ever been driven because there was no engine. However my suspicions are that there would be major fluid issues from operating the axle upside down: either leakage or failure to have proper fluid distribution. Anyone with experience or an opinion?

[Bob Carriere]

In the good old days of dune buggies when one installed a Corvair engine onto a VW trans-axle ( with an adapter plate) it was necessary to flip the ring gear assembly of the VW trans-axle to accommodate the different rotation of the Corvair engine...... I have never seen the inside of a T16 axle....but is it feasible????

From the overall appearance of the T16 axle it seems to have some sort of wet clutch assembly on each side....if so the concern from BCA may be very appropriate.......

If the T16 axle was simply rotated flat.... not upside down...... the input to the gear cluster(driveshaft) would need to be reversed...or you get 1 forward and 4 reverse gears......

But the rotation of the driveshaft to the front axle can be changed by feeding the transmission output into a regular CMP transfer case and using the front axle output of the T case which would effectively reverse the rotation...... and with a 2 speed T case it would add the low gear ratio......

You need a paper and pencil sketch to fully understand it....... but I believe it can be done!!!! will need to take my sketch to the barn and verify my assumption..... all based on a clockwise rotation of the engine when seen from the front!!!!!

And from having taken T cases apart with its massive straight cut gears, I believe it can be driven backwards....

Now in this instance, with the engine located off center to the right, I would feed the engine/transmission output into the front axle yoke of the Transfer case and use the input shaft (where the transmission is usually connected) of the transfer case to feed the front central gear cluster mounted T16 axle.

Not sure how much space is available to install the T case.

Comments please....

Cheers

[rob love]

On the armoured snowmobile/penguin models, they used an upside down T-16 axle. Have a look at "Mud and Snow Vehicles...page 24 and it details the changes required.

[Jonathan Moore]

Robert,
good to hear from you and thanks for the inspirational comments. I actually don't think that my “gift of talent” as you refer to it, is a gift, more of a curse. It seems that in this day and age of the throw away, people who can do, are not required or valued. I would love to make a living doing this sort of work but there's not a market for it around here. My Grandfather always told me that engineers would be worth their weight in gold one day but it seems not in my life time.

RIGHT, THE DRIVE TRAIN.

Firstly thanks for the discussion.

Now that I have a clearer picture of where I am going with the project, I have made some working decisions.

I don't have a T16 axle and if I did I couldn't bring myself to cut it up for this application.

I estimate that the completed tank will weigh between 5 to 6 tons.

Its not going to be used to invade Poland but it has to work and be reliable. It is, after all, just an engineering exercise.

Therefore I intend to use components that are available in the UK, relatively cheap and plentiful and that I know.

Working on a power to weight ratio of 15bhp per ton, I am going to use a Land Rover 2.5 diesel 300 TDI, which in theory produces 110 bap. Connected to a standard 5 speed gear box but run through a reduction box to reduce the gearing.

The steering will be a simple braked differential, again using a modified Land Rover axle casing and differential. As per an original PZII.

The steering brakes, and this will be interesting, are going to be discs, with a set of drum brakes either side to act as parking brakes.

All this will be camouflaged to look like the original drive train. The length of the Land Rover engine and gear box will just fit in to the engine bay, which elevates the problem of trying to recreate the original configuration of a remote clutch and gearbox. Running the gearbox through a reduction box will negate the need to turn the differential upside down, but in all honesty I don't think that this would matter in this case.

All your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated, as are any suggestions on where, in the UK, to get track links cast.


Jon