Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

On Friday and Saturday I managed to get 4 swing arms in place and I put 4 wheels on so that we could manoeuvre the chassis under the overhead gantry.

[Jonathan Moore]

I have to say that although there's a lot of weight yet to be added, I was please with how it all sat. The reason for moving it under the gantry, was so that I could fit the steering box and start on the drive train and here's the low point. We tried the steering box, which I knew would be a tight fit but on Saturday I was convinced I was going to have to explore another option. If there was the slightest chance of using the box the front left swinging arm housing was going to need re-engineering. It's funny when you are tired, things seem so insurmountable. By this morning I had the answer and out came the plasma cutter.

[Jonathan Moore]

After all my worrying, I have still got some room to play with, when I have slept on it and decided what to do. All I have to do now, is rebuild the swinging arm inner bearing housing. And what difference did the extra 400kg make to the suspension...….. very little.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All,

I have at last finished drilling the springs and I now have 10 complete springs and loads of spring steel left over, so if I need to increase the number of leaves I can. The last 4 springs that I assembled, I used 14 leaves instead of the 13 in the other 6 springs.

[Jonathan Moore]

The engine and gearbox are in place and the mountings all welded in. The exhaust manifold outlets had to be cut off, turned 180degrees, the angle adjusted and welded bock into place. Sorry but I forgot to take any before pictures. They need a little bit of tidying but I will do that once I have made the exhausts.

[Jonathan Moore]

I have been putting off adding some of the strengthening for the radius arm mountings, no particular reason, there just always seemed something more important to do but I have at last added these today.

[Jonathan Moore]

And finally for now, I have made and fixed in place, some covers over the maintenance holes in the base of the chassis. These holes line up with the engine oil drain plug and such like.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening,

A few more pictures from todays playtime, all self explanatory but if you have any questions then fire away.
Once the warm air is blown out of the rear of the cooling unit, it is blown up this channel and out through a vent in the hull roof.
There's still a lot of missing pieces to add to the jigsaw in this area but I have it all planned.

Jon

[Jonathan Moore]

Morning All,

Somewhere in this thread, I said that I didn't want to have too many engine electrics in this project, just hold that thought.

I have been plodding along manufacturing the cooling unit, although I had made the bearing housing the other components needed to be manufactured.

The fan shaft.

[Jonathan Moore]

Evening All,

The cooling unit is complete, although quality control, the wife, has questioned my decision of not welding every join. It all fits ok as does the drive belt. I will now have to make the tensioner.

[Jonathan Moore]

two more pictures.