Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[Jordan Baker]

Work slowly continues on the various bits and pieces.

The drivers hatch was completed and rebuilt. It’s been fun spraying something else other than flat khaki green. When the parts have come off and apart I have been trying my best to determine what the original factory colours were. This is regarding what interior bits were white or painted in green. However with limited wartime interior pictures sometimes it is a challenging.

Lastly the crew commanders visor hatch. It got the usual disassemble process followed by sandblasting. I also spend some decent time on getting the hinges all nice and free. For getting them loosened up I’ll mount one end in the vice and then just start rotating the other end back and forth. I’ll use a combination of ATF, WD40, Brake Cleaner and Blaster. I find the Brake Cleaner does a great job of flushing the rust out. It’s just a matter of repetitive action until no more rust is flushed out.

Once everything is cleaned up the, parts were washed and prepped with metal prep spray. Next up will be painting.

[Jordan Baker]

I’m also happy to report that the transmission is now all back together. The bearings arrived last week. It now has a pair of Japanese KOYO bearings in it, replacing a Swedish Timken bearing.

The front input shaft bearing was an oddball New Departure number that I was unable to find for a reasonable price. However after learning about all the different types of bearings and the letter designations, I was able to cross reference it a KOYO bearing. All was going well as it fit the shaft and the hole in the transmission case. The issue arose when I went to install the snap ring on the input shaft, it simply would not fit. I needed about 2mm more of grove space. It was then that I realized the original bearing’s inner race was actually about 2mm shorter than the other race. The bearing was handed over to a machinist friend of mine who got it back to me later that night. After that everything fit perfectly and the snap ring went one without issue.

I’ve included a few pictures of the new KOYO bearing on the shaft and the snap ring not fitting.

[Jordan Baker]

Last of the front hatches finished up. The only thing that needed replacement were a few badly corroded nuts.

Next was the removal of the door vision hatches. In some of my pictures you may have noticed some text. I am really enjoying the text feature my iPhone and iPad have. It is super simple to add some captions right after taking a picture. Such as noting which shim went where or the location of specific bolts. Yes I’m doing my best to put the same bolt back in the same spot.

[Grant Bowker]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

Yes I’m doing my best to put the same bolt back in the same spot.

Putting them where they came from beats mixing them up and discovering they are either too short to do the job at their new location or that they are too long and interfere with another part you've spent hours getting "just right"....

[Jordan Baker]

Many of the boss head bolts called for in the manual are all very close in length. Varies by 1/8” sometimes.


The one door hatch after needle scaling revealed what I believe to be a Hamilton Bridge Company number. Hand painted on the metal prior to the KG#3 layer.

[David Dunlop]

Hi Jordan.

That number find is interesting. Very possibly a form of 'Production Control Number' applied by Hamilton bridge to track their work flow and allow them to identify the scope of any manufacturing problems that came to light on the line.

Be interesting to find a similar applied number on the core, armoured body assembly of your Otter and see how far off it might be from the actual Serial Number assigned to the completed vehicle.

Marconi was using a similar number system on all the chassis units for the various main 52-Set components, and similar number systems also showed up on major sub-assemblies they had contracted out to other manufacturers.

Keep up the good work!


David

[Jordan Baker]

Hi David.

Hamilton Bridge’s part number for that assembly was A42 and B42. So I’m guessing it’s related to that. I did find a hand stamped number of 223 on the bottom right inside edge of the driver’s visor. I’ve also found a hand stamped number on the turret ring.

If only this was 40-50 years ago, I would have been able to track down some Hamilton Bridge employees.