Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

Dale, this weekend I will finish the shovel bracket and hopefully also the bracket for the track adjuster socket bar.

Lynn, just for you, some pics. I think I am fortunate to have 2 great projects, but this LP1 will be long term.

The ARN is 6573, disposed of on 20 June 1943.

I am a bit puzzled with several things with this vehicle.
1. The rear brackets as it appears to have had a tow pintle attachment.
2. The camouflage markings, it is painted khaki green but there are large traces of red/brown camo and black with a sand/white line to separate the black from the green. Very similar to WW1 patterns.
3. The markings on the LH side of the hull, appear to be an upside down triangle or most probably a 'V' (not sure on colour).

[Lynn Eades]

Thank you Darrin. She looks to be in quite good condition, with many of the small fittings still in place. A nice project indeed.
Where do the axles go.
Has anybody put together some form of registry for these LP1s.
I know of a few of them now, but not sure that all the owners want to go public.
Any how, I should let you go back to the project in hand which you are doing a great job of

[Keith Webb]

I have a total of 11 in my database, I'll list the hull numbers but in case some of the owners want to stay under the radar I'll leave out the other details.

I've created a thread on the subject here.

[Darrin Wright]

This morning I followed up on a lead that I got from talking to a gentleman on Anzac Day. Dropped in to a local earth moving & recycling place and recovered some lengths of BGC track that they had in their scrap pile.
The price was beer, and I will drop that off next weekend.
Utilised a forklift and chain to get the easy stuff, then had an excavator tear the scrap pile apart, pulled the track out and loaded it into a bucket tractor then dropped it into my trailer.
All up, just under 2 hours for about 25 sections of track. Some of it new and some worn out, some broken and some rusted solid.
Not all of it is useable, but I should get a fair bit that can go onto a vehicle.

[Darrin Wright]

Sunday morning saw myself and youngest son go out to a farm and collect 1 side of really good track, 4 front wheels and mounting plates with stub axles, 2 cut drive plates with worn sprockets and 2 good drive plates with good sprockets. Easier to load this time with a small farm tractor.
Got it home and washed everything and stacked it on a pallet.

Finished off the shovel bracket and welded it to the pioneer tool plate, also made the top bracket for the Track Adj Box Spanner. However, this is an early LP2 and I have a late Spanner or a LP2A Spanner. Have placed an add on the sales section to trade this.
2 options for this are to:
cut & shut the spanner to make it shorter, or
conduct the modification to the top bracket so the later Spanner will fit securely.

Fitted the rear pioneer tool plate to the back of the BGC and positioned it correctly and drilled all the mounting holes. this allowed me to adjust and align the exhaust system so that it can be welded in position. Made the 2 straps that will be welded to the mufflers. This was late Saturday night and ran out of time to tack weld.

[Darrin Wright]

Work also progressed on the drivers floor plate, bought all the countersunk bolts and nuts to secure the pedals and steering column base to the floor plate.
Also bought a cheap 3/4" countersinking bit from Bunnings. Proceeded to countersink the holes for the pedals, well that countersinking bit lasted about 5holes before it was gouged out.
Managed to finish all the holes and bolted all the pedals etc in place. I then ground any bolt heads that were protruding and ground a groove next to the bolts. I then used the Mig and welded all the bolts to the floor plate so they will not come loose when tightening them with pedals in place. Tidied up with the grinder when done.

My drivers floor plate has a circular cut out section near the gear lever, unsure why this is the case. I have another drivers floor plate that is more common with straight edges. This may be an earlier BGC or Vic Rail feature.

The floor plate is now finished and the new pivot posts are taped up so that the floor plate can be lightly sandblasted in the coming weeks.

[Darrin Wright]

Have been a bit slow with this update from the weekend.
The weather was poor on Saturday, so I spent several hours in the workshop concentrating on finishing the back panel with the pioneer tools and exhaust system.
Moved the Mig to the rear of the BGC and tack welded the rear mudguards in place and also tack welded the muffler and tailpipes in place.
Removed everything from the rear of the hull and moved it to my welding area where I proceeded to weld the mudguards in place and finish welding the tailpipes to the mufflers and the brackets in place on the pipes.
Just have to cut the tailpipes to length, approx. 40mm protrusion from the rear armoured cover.
Welded the bracket in place that holds the track adjusting spanner in location. Even stamped the part number on it.

[Darrin Wright]

Today I installed a road wheel to the LHR suspension unit. Had to clean the paint out of the hole for the wheel pin first, then lined the wheel up and knocked the pin in.
The wheel is a bit tight to turn, but I think that is because of new seals and everything is freshly installed or knocked together. With a bit of a short run it should all free up and spin nicely.

I also took a load of items to the sandblasters today, had 6 wheels blasted, rear armour cover, tool bins, fan shroud and steering linkage items. All undercoated this afternoon/early evening.

Repaired the LHF stub axle and mounting plate. Someone had cut the lug off for the track adjuster bar and gas cut an elongated hole for a mounting stud (previous life it was going to be used on a timber jinker).
I cut a section of rod and inserted it into the original hole and then welded it in place and welded up the hole. Made a paper template for the missing gusset and cut that out of my test floor plate. Finished shaping it to suit, and welded it in.
It is at the sandblasters tonight to be blasted with some other items.

[Darrin Wright]

This morning I painted a lot of the sandblasted items green, including the drivers floor plate and the LHF wheel mounting plate.
Had a friend over this afternoon, so with their help, removed the engine cover from the hull.
This evening I started assembling the pedals to the drivers floor plate and connecting the brake pedal rods to the "L" pivot brackets. Used a diagram from the parts manual to assist in the re-assembly so I don't have to backtrack.

[Darrin Wright]

Busy weekend and start to the week.
Managed to use the front left of the hull as a tool/mounting point to fit up a couple of front stub axle mounting plates to remove front wheels and salvage the bearings and spacer plates.
When finished I mounted the repaired and painted LHF stub axle mounting plate to the hull.

Installed the fan shroud and fitted the generator to check the fit. Looks good so far, unfortunately I had to remove the LH upper coolant pipe. Luckily I have not got around to filling with coolant as I am still researching and debating using waterless coolant or a rust inhibitor/coolant with distilled water.

Continued the assembly of the drivers floor plate, cleaned threaded sections, installed anti-seize, fit clevis yokes correctly, installed a new bearing onto the steering column, individually measured, cut & drilled new clevis pins for the yokes. Still missing some items like the left & right threaded turnbuckles, so will get them made in the next couple of weeks.

After the weekend, flew to Adelaide for work and to catch up with Colin Jones over coffee. Checked out his Acco 6x6 project, progressing well. He has set himself a busy schedule for March 2015. Then back to Melb Tuesday.

[Darrin Wright]

No update last week as all I achieved was a couple of hours washing out wheel bearings and recovering the plates that hold the seals in place inside the wheel. Not really exciting stuff....

However, this weekend was a long weekend and I spent several extra days working at Bandiana; so got a bit done.
With the good weather I pushed the hull outside and prepared the front interior for painting and also a number of parts that can bolt into the front hull. Also painted the rear diff armoured cover, so now it is ready to be installed with 2 coats of green.
Picked 2 of my good NOS wheels and re-greased and installed the front bearings, new seals and managed to get the RHF wheel assembly mounted to the stub axle. Only managed to get the LHF wheel on a little bit before the bearing caught at an angle on the stub axle. Will have to use my puller to remove it and investigate why? possible small burr or maybe I just had it at the wrong angle????
Installed some of the front hull fittings that I painted and hung the rear armour on the back of the hull.

the hull is getting quite heavy for my wheel dollies, so will have to concentrate on getting the bogie suspension stripped, cleaned, painted and installed. Then I should be able to move it in and out on its wheels.

The paint, while using 30% flattening base, did not flatten/dull down as much as last time I painted the rear and exterior of the hull. not sure why, but in time it will fade. So the pics may appear a bit glossy...

[Darrin Wright]

I had to free up and lubricate my handbrake lever and replace the locking nut on the NOS handbrake cable as it had seized. Not sure why, possibly overlooked years ago when I blasted & painted it.
Using new hardware have installed the handbrake cable onto the handbrake lever and installed it into the hull.

Fitted the drivers seat into position. This had been assembled and painted weeks ago. Have used all new slotted nuts and drilling all the bolts for split pins. Even conducted test fitting of driver in position, it will be better with seat cushions I tell myself...
The control rods between steering column to steering cam plate have been placed into position, but not fitted to the cam plate as this is possible a 2 person job. Will enlist the assistance of a child.

Pulled the wiring through the conduit and assembled/installed that into the front hull. This turned out to be quite a job, back then they may have used child labour as I found it a bit tight and working at different angles and upside down added to my problems. Used anti-seize on all bolts and conduit, and if I had to do this again, would recommend installing the handbrake lever after the conduit is in. Even used some original conduit from this hull with bends etc, but upon installation looks like it will need some adjustment the more I install and fit.

[Dale Jordan]

Excellent workmanship Darrin . Good timing for me with these photos, I needed that shot of the conduit layout under the nose . Did you use modern new saddles to hold in place ? also notice that your left hand head light guard must be further outboard on your fender then my carrier . Dale

[Darrin Wright]

Dale, I don't believe that you can get these old style thick half saddles anymore.
I have managed to salvage from 4 hulls (project hull included) conduit, fittings and saddles. Using modern steel tubing I have replaced several sections of straight conduit and threaded it myself with a 3/4" UNF die.
The conduit against the centre bulkhead and under the air scoop is 1" dia and due to that being high off the floor has survived very well. The additional diameter is to accommodate the extra wiring for the generator, regulator and to battery.

[Dale Jordan]

Thanks Darrin . Where does the change from 3/4 '' to 1'' take place is it from the tee peace under the instrument panel or at the right angle at the fire wall . also is the 3/4'' and 1'' outside O/D or inside .. Dale

[Keith Webb]

You mean saddles like this one with a carrier part number stamped into it?

[Darrin Wright]

I managed to spend most of Saturday working on the BGC and achieved a fair bit.
Removed that front left wheel and inspected the stub axle. There were several small burs or gouges that were catching the outer bearing. So filed and polished these off and then the wheel slid into place, installed the slotted nut and split pin.
Bought more nuts & bolts for the rear armoured diff cover, painted these and located the rear cover into position. Had to run the electric drill through some of the holes to get the bolts through. Prior to fitting this, it was easier to run the rear wiring loom and install the conduit in position and drill and mount the half saddle that holds the conduit in place. I am using modern wire and running additional earth wires were required.

Fix or adjusted the front conduit so that it sits correctly and ran a new (longer) wire in position as I was not happy with the other wire.

Installed the steering box onto the steering column, had to clean the splines with a file and wire brush and used plenty of lubricant to get them together. I do not fancy trying to separate the 2 items later...

I then installed the drivers floor plate into position to check fit, got carried away with the progress and installed the steering column into position. Still waiting on the 1/2" UNF turn buckles to be machined, but they can be installed later. Will install the mounting bolts for the floor plate this weekend.

Went to install the clutch rod, which I had made previous, and found that it was too long. This item I had made from the measurements in the parts book, minor oversight back then. Will cut down the rod and re-thread.
I also painted several items for installation in the coming weeks.

[Darrin Wright]

I have found the following hub seals used on the BGC:
Front inner (stub axle) TC12193
Front outer and wheel pins TC12152

a common seal normally stocked at most bearing places

[Darrin Wright]

This was a cold but productive weekend, with cold wet weather blowing in for the weekend and the family off on a scout trip gave me about 6 hours on Saturday and 2-3 hours on Sunday.

The drivers floor plate has been bolted in.

The 1/2" rods from the steering column to the steering cam plate are now in. Had trouble with these rods as I had about 10mm too much thread sticking through the long clevis yokes at the steering cam plate. this resulted in the front pointy bits (tech term) hitting on the protruding thread section. Removed this offending thread and the adjustment will be made at the front clevis yokes, that will make adjustment later much easier. The steering wheel now moves the tube axle from side to side, which will warp the tracks. Gravity is not my friend right now, due to the design and position of the tube axle rollers.

Bought a new tap & die set from the local tool shop, this has allowed me to thread my steering linkage rods (before I had a generous friend who cut the threads for me). I have made the linkage rod in front of the gunners feet and installed the clevis yokes and painted it in undercoat. This rod is 28" from pin to pin.
Recovered and primed the special purpose pin for the accelerator linkage in the front of the hull/drivers compartment.
Have attached a pic of the 2 special pins for the clutch and accelerator linkages in the front of the hull. These 2 pins take the return spring. Accelerator pin is 1/4" and the clutch pin is 7/16" dia.

Modified (shortened the rod from the original parts book listed length) and installed the clutch rod and have commenced adjusting the rods to achieve some sort of clutch pedal. Will have to run the engine to complete adjustments. Installed the NOS spring to the pedal.

Installed the RH guard and installed the elec conduit. This has been wired up from the dash to the headlight mount. The guard is not perfect, it still retains some damage from being in service as this is the period (1942 to 43 in Darwin) that I am restoring the vehicle back too.

Finished tightening the mounting bolts for the exhaust system, this is now finished.

My wife came down to check on me, so taught her how to install a road wheel. This was fitted to the RHR suspension station unit and she fitted and tightened the wheel pin nut. I had to jack up the hull and hammer in the pin.
The hull now sits on the ground on its rear wheels with the front of the hull on jack stands.

There are a few items I am yet to turn my attention too, these are the strip down and rebuild of the bogie suspension units and the panel beating of the left front guard. The wheels are all blasted and painted ready. Also have to wire the vehicle up, but still trying to figure out how they installed the wiring conduit through the centre baulkhead, from engine to dash.

[Darrin Wright]

Over time I have slowly been conducting research and trying to find out more info on the modifications to convert a BGC into the 3" Mortar Carrying version.
Months ago I emails the AWM if they had drawings AFV (T)1201, 1202, 1207, 1208 & AFV (SK)740, as these are the working drawings for rear echelon Ordnance Wksps to convert a limited number of BGC to provide for the mounting of a 3" Mortar on the engine cover and stowage of bombs and stores in the rear compartment.

They dug around and provided me with some reference material in the Melb office. Well I finally got around to registering with them and booked the files out for this afternoon.

It was interesting looking through the documents and the archive people were very helpful.

The information was not the holy grail, but it did document some of the history of how the modification came about, also found all the information from Met Gas on the production schedules (A & B) for 2 pdr AT and 3" Mortar Carriers. These schedules listed all the manufactures of the parts (pic attached) that were interchangeable between the vehicles and also listed all the Met Gas produced parts.
A common number of parts produced, as listed in these schedules is 210 for single items and 420 for items two of a kind. This leads me to speculate that they were committed to producing at least 210, 2 pdr or 3"Mortar carriers at that time.
These schedules were printed/written on 22 Sept 42.

back to the 3" Mortar, some condensed notes of my findings:
20 Oct 41, Mr Frank Mead writes a letter to the Army suggesting several modifications that he has come up with, from his service in the great war. One idea is to mount a Mortar or Howitzer onto the back of a BGC.
12 Nov 41, Idea declined by the Inventions Board Eastern Comd as the BGC is too light and would be overloaded.
At this point in time, only the Aust LP1 BGC had been produced and was in limited service.

4 to 18 May 42, TPR J. White writes a letter through his chain of command, ref fitting a 3" mortar to a 2 wheeled trailer to allow for better mobility and use of the mortar. In these letters he/they acknowledge that 3" mortars are fitted to BGC.
5 Jun 42, letter declining the 2 wheeled trailer mortar carrier. The Director of Mechanization states that:
Mortar carriers have been received from overseas,
Local made model now being produced.

4 May 42, another letter states that 3" mortars currently being fitted to BGC.

TPR White was posted to 2nd Aust Armoured Brigade, Rec Sqn, AIF at the time of his letters.

Will post pics soon as internet playing up...?

[Keith Webb]

Good work Darrin, nothing like going to the original sources. Look forward to seeing whatever photos you have.

[Darrin Wright]

For some reason when the page loaded the 'manage attachments' button would not load. some of the other icons were MIA as well.

Hopefully these pics will be of use to some, I have high res 3Mb pics of all the pages and letters, so they are readable.
Have had to compress them for this site.

[Darrin Wright]

On the weekend I managed to install the first vision cover and glass.
Glued the glass in with an adhesive.

Discovered that the main bolts that sandwich the sections/items together are all different lengths and are all individually drilled and pinned. This makes it interesting when trying to re-assemble and match them back up.

[Darrin Wright]

Finally bit the bullet and commenced the strip down of the bogie suspension units.
Due to the vehicle coming from a desert area everything came apart pretty easily with the exception of 1 wheel pin castellated nut. When undoing it, something caught the thread and destroyed the wheel pin thread and nut. Luckily I have several spare, so this is not a big problem.
All the bearings look to be ok with dried grease in them. Will clean them up properly this coming weekend.
Pressure cleaned 1 unit to remove the grease & dirt, ready for sand blasting.

[Darrin Wright]

The machined turnbuckles for the linkage adjusters arrived during the week, so test fitted them and tidied up some threads in the clevis yokes that they engage with.
Removed them and undercoated them.

Installed another vision shutter assembly, installed and drilled a new nut so that it suits the bolt for that location. Also pinned all the nuts on the 2 vision shutters installed so far. Will tidy up later when I next spray green.

Replaced the left upper coolant hose and placed the rust inhibitor and demineralised water into the system. It required approx 25 litres. Unfortunately the right water pump leaks. Leaks like a sieve. I have a feeling the fibre disc that came with the water pump kit has not bedded in to the sealing surface inside the pump housing. Since I have not had the pumps rotating by the V belt, this is most likely (for initial engine cooling I had the garden hose flooding the water jackets and pouring out the water pumps). Perhaps I will fill the cooling system with water and install a belt and run the engine and see if the seal will bed/wear in. That might be easier than removing the pump.
Pumps were cleaned up and rebuilt with new kits, impellors and seals/gaskets.

[jack neville]

It kink it pretty normal for Ford water pumps to weep slightly till they are bedded in Darren. Did you resurface the pump housing where the seal engages? I had to do that with one of mine. There is a proper tool for it but I polished mine up with emery tape and a home made tool and drill.

[Darrin Wright]

I did clean up or have machined the sealing surfaces in the water pump. Will run it and see if it seals up as that is the easiest option.
Not much progress this weekend, I did however remove the left water pump as the gasket at the top was weeping, and cut a thicker replacement gasket and re-install the water pump.
This was an easy fix and test run to removing the right water pump at a later stage.
I always pictured this job as very complicated as it is one of the front engine mounts- not so hard really.
I utilised a small bottle jack positioned between the engine rail and the manifold bolt to take the weight of the engine, removed lower radiator hose, removed all bolts (they are new and stainless steel), removed engine mount bolt and out it came. Using a little grease on the rubber hoses sure helps getting them off and on again.
Too busy working to take pics, but if the right water pump has to come off I will have the camera ready.

[Darrin Wright]

after sourcing dimensions from a couple of friends regarding the long brake rods that go nearly the length of the hull, I manufactured these rods.
They are:
7/16" diameter
2510mm long
the flat surface (for the rod return spring) of the welded olive is 131-132mm from the rod end.
the olive has an ID of 7/16" and a OD of 3/4", it is machined so that a clip or tie wire holds the leather or rubber boot in place. See pics.

I have the olives being machined and they should be ready in a week.

These rods are now painted green along with some other items, so next weekend they should be fitted.

Saturday night my family and several other BGC owners in Albury Wodonga got together at a local pub and held a BGC owners meeting. Managed to spend about 4 hours chatting about all things BGC related. Very good night and of those that attended, they represented 6 projects and 4 donor vehicles.

With the good weather I got talked into doing some gardening. So to make my job easier, I decided to get the Chev out to assist in tree pulling. Unfortunately with the water logged ground the Chev rear end bogged down in the lawn. I was able to engage 4WD and with the front of the truck being on firm ground, crawled out and parked it back in the workshop. Later there will be some more gardening to fill in the two trenches in the lawn.

[Lynn Eades]

Darrin, a boot like this

[Dale Jordan]

Hi Lynn . Now your talking , where can you still get these , I've been looking every where . Dale

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

Darrin, a boot like this