Armour Dreams

[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,

I have been working on the engine and radiator bay surrounding walls, if that's what they are called.
I have had to make a modification to the area of the fire wall where the gearbox protrudes into the crew compartment, originally the gearbox was a separate unit situated next to the driver. In order to be able to remove the engine and gearbox, I have had to put a removable section in this area of the wall. I don't think that it will be noticeable once the interior details are added.

[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

[Mike Cecil]

Jonathon,

As I said, just a thought in the light of AFVs such as Centurion, M113A1, etc. I think I'd rather scrape crap out a screw slot than have to try and extract a bent/deformed bolt, but interesting that the German (and Australian?) designers didn't consider it an issue. Wonder how many German and Australian mechanics cursed that decision!

Great job, outstanding skills displayed, enjoying this thread very much.

Mike

[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]

A few more.

[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]

Next on the list was the exhaust which entailed replacing the stripped manifold studs. Out of the three that needed replacing, one came out ok, the others had to be drilled out and re-tapped.
I centre popped the broken stud, drilled it with a 5mm drill before opening it out to 8.5mm and re-tapping the hole to 3/8" UNF.

[Jonathan Moore]

two more pictures.

[Jonathan Moore]

On the original tank, where the exhaust exits the hull, there is an armoured cover.
This is my copy.

[Jonathan Moore]

Morning,

The petrol tanks in place but not leak tested or finished, as I have been waiting for various components to arrive.
It should hold about 70 litres of fuel, so a lot less than the 170 litres in the original tank but I want to put the electrics between the engine fire wall and the petrol tank. This area then gets covered so that you won't see any of it.

One of the other items that I have been making, is the air filter housing. I want to use a standard early Jag filter, so although the outer housing looks as it should, hopefully, the modern filter fits inside. These are the best two pictures that I could find of the original item.

[Jonathan Moore]

Morning Mike and D,

I am glad that you are enjoying my pain.

The engine is a 1990ish Jaguar 3.6 ltr straight six fuel injected petrol unit and the gearbox is a four speed auto.

Jon