New camo developed for hiding in a bowl of tomato soup

[gjamo]

What the *******

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WOW-ONE-OF-A-...QQcmdZViewItem

[Richard Farrant]

It is a British FV432 Mk1 APC with a CVR(T) turret grafted on. A right bodge up ! The Ebay description states it is diesel, yet the write up says its powered by a Merlin ???????? driving an Allison box, NO. It is a Rolls B81 straight eight. There is no way you could get a Meteor (Merlin is an aero engine, Meteor is adaption for tanks) in that thing and still have room for the mini bar!

Richard

[Gunner]

Hi Richard:

Being new to the FV432 operators club (we have two) I started looking closely after I stopped laughing:

This strange beastie has a huge hatch on the side, much bigger than the normal oval;

The headlamps appear to have been repositioned Abbot style;

I can't see an exhaust system on top (as per the B81 version); and

The back end appears to slope inwards.

The missile on top is rather interesting

Any ideas? Used in some childrens' action movie? I can't get onto Ebay... how much were they asking (pure curiosity).

By the way are there any good sites for FV432 advice as we need a lot!

Cheers, Mike

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Gunner


Being new to the FV432 operators club (we have two) I started looking closely after I stopped laughing:

This strange beastie has a huge hatch on the side, much bigger than the normal oval;

I can't see an exhaust system on top (as per the B81 version); and

The back end appears to slope inwards.

Any ideas? Used in some childrens' action movie? I can't get onto Ebay... how much were they asking (pure curiosity).

By the way are there any good sites for FV432 advice as we need a lot!

Hi Mike,

I think they have made a larger inspection hatch on the side, similar to the front one. Not a big problem when you see the side windows and the front of the drivers compartment has a window, so you can sit in the lower position. The Mk1 with B81 engine had the exhaust come out of the top and you can see the armoured shroud in place, guess it has a straight through pipe as there is mention on ebay about the exhaust note

I did get to see the ebay site last night, but it will not open today. There were no bids last night with 6 days to go......if you are interested!

There was a Mk1 near here (England) a few years ago with a CVR(T) turret on, but welded in the fixed position, I did wonder if it was that one. Someone has spent a hell of a lot of dollars on it.

There is a website for owners, check out www.fv432.com

regards,
Richard

(if you get down to Texas, you can have my 2 bottles of Lone Star )

[Gunner]

Hi Richard:

Thanks for the info. I've been on the site you mentioned and it has been a big help.

We've had horrible problems with dried out carbs and horribly skunky fuel in our two Mk 1's (they sat for a long time). We finally got them running by tearing down the carbs (carefully as we had no rebuid kits), cleaning every port and nozzle and them gravity feeding fresh hi test fuel from a boat tank. A one mile run sucked the plastic tank flat! (Forgot to open the bleeder screw )

We had to replace one rubber accelerator pump with a home made piece so we will be in the market for carb kits... may have to order from Old Blighty (I have family in Bristol who act as forwarders for me).

Back to the orange-red monster, the side hatch looks well made but I wouldn't trust it in battle as it only has two clamps holding it shut. I wonder if the side windows are just stuck on the outside as opposed to cut through the armour plate?

If I get down to Texas I'll certainly drink those beer for you but you'll forgive me if I have them cold! Next time I'm in the UK (likely this July coming) I'll have to see if I can get in a visit to reciprocate!



Mike

[Keith Webb]

reserve not met...

When he sells it perhaps he can afford to go back to school for some English lessons:

"Here we have a once in a life time chance to purchase a very rare one off never to be made again registered personal army tank personal carrier this machine has had no expence spared from the top of the range sound system featuring six amps and eight sub woofers,full cinema surround sound has to be heard to believe all this is connected to a huge plasma screen tv ,sony play station ,it runs a Rolls Royce Merlin engine powered by a 6 speed alison automatic gear box it has full tortion bar suspention and rides like a dream you would not believe you are ridding in a tank it has a top speed of around 100kph and weighs about 14 tonne the whole interior has been re carpeted custom to fit 8 brand new passenger seats have been fitted the whole drivers compartment is in stainless steel bullett proof front window and the tank is fully armoured many of the original extras are still in working order it is air conditioned ,has a mini bar being fitted and comes with its own fridge were else in the world will you find one like this full custom paint job conditional road registration and set up like your own one of a kind mega rare mode of transport imagine saying to your mates come and see my tank ,and then the look on there faces when you fire up this beast it roars like a nascar any way enough said let the pictures tell the rest please no time waisters as this is a serIOUS big boys toy not for pretenders thankyou"

[Gunner]

The ability to spell and use punctuation correctly is not a prerequisite to selling ludicrously overpriced 'toys' on E-Pay.

I tried to read that paragraph/sentence(?) aloud and ran out of breath abouth two thirds of the way through. Its frightening what our school systems are churning out nowadays.

I once had a subbie write, in a service paper, that, "mortal blows by the sword are often fatal". He was a graduate of an engineering university that does not have "Royal" in its title.

Mike

Originally posted by Gunner
Hi Richard:

We had to replace one rubber accelerator pump with a home made piece so we will be in the market for carb kits... may have to order from Old Blighty (I have family in Bristol who act as forwarders for me).

I seem to recall I have a small handful of 48NNIP acc pump diaphragms and at least 5 complete operational carbs.

When fitting the pump diaphragms it is important to have the pump on full stroke before tightening the four flange screws, if not the diaphragm can be stretched to breaking on the first operation and IIRC the Mk.1 432's need full welly all the time.

There are a few other Mk.1 432 bits around here and homeless after I converted a new Mk.8F engine into a Mk8.B, stuff like revcounter drive, alternator and bracket, exhaust manifold, some governor links, pulleys, etc.

R.

[Gunner]

Hi Richard:

I'd be interested in the diaphrams as the one I cobbled together was made from a piece of a fuel pump diaphram I had lying about... I have no idea if the material is the same specification as the original... it felt the same and miked out to the same thickness. The fuel leak caused by the original torn diaphram actually led to a brief but exciting engine fire!

Any advice you can throw at a couple of FV432 luddites will be welcome. My chum Ken is smitten with the beasts and has been putting in a lot of hours trying to get them to perform. We have done well considering... they hadn't been run in over five years and were not prepared for storage in any way... fuel gum everywhere, water in all the places where water shouldn't be (transmission sumps, etc). Right now we have them running after a fashion... real problems with developing any power. One, which was running passably well has suddenly lost power and sounds like it is only running on half the cylinders.... yada, yada, yada! The joys of Rusty Old Truck Syndrome!

Most our main problems right now have boiled down to fuel and developing full power. Hair tearing will be the next step! On the B81 do the two barrels of the carb each serve four cylinders? If so it might explain some of the low power problems we are having.

Let me know what you would like for the diaphrams and I'll get you an address to send them to in Bristol. I'll be in touch about the other bits. Due to temperature extremes here right now we are cutting back on outdoor work in an effort to preserve flesh from frostbite. We can still pull a carbie and work on it indoors, tho'.

Originally posted by Gunner
Hi Richard:

Hi,

The fuel leak caused by the original torn diaphram actually led to a brief but exciting engine fire!

More excitement that is generally desirable.

Any advice you can throw at a couple of FV432 luddites will be welcome.

Perhaps not so much on the 432 itself, but the B81 is very familiar indeed.

Right now we have them running after a fashion... real problems with developing any power.

There is a procedure for using the auto box in the appropriate range and they are rather gutless with the B81 which needs to be on the boil continuously.

On the B81 do the two barrels of the carb each serve four cylinders? If so it might explain some of the low power problems we are having.

No. The carb is a twin choke device with a shared float chamber simply to flow enough gas without having one huge and uncontrollable choke tube with its inherent difficulties of low Reynolds numbers.

The manifold below the carb is just one big oval hole.

I suspect one set of points are fouled if four cylinders have gone AWOL, in fact I'll stick my neck our and guarantee it. Generally the distributors completely fox the UK as we don't historically have twin point systems domestically and the US too where it was commonplace on the early, 6V multi-cylinder cars, but the B81 distributor operates in a totally different way to your historical norm.

You must consider the distributor as two, four cylinder devices sharing a common cam, and surprise, when you pop the top off you'll find a FOUR lobe cam firing EIGHT cylinders. Plus. . . . . .take one set of points out and use "Numbers in circles" as you will see moulded in the cap and you have a B40 distributor - common parts.

The points take turn and turn about at both firing their four pots and doing the dwell angle extension for the other set.

By pulling one plug lead you will immediately know which four are firing and (in firing order) cyls 1, 2, 8 and 7 are served by the "fixed" points - the set furthest from the engine, while 6, 5, 3 and 4 are fired by the "moveable" set nearest to the rocker cover. To put it another way for contact sets A - fixed and B - moveable:
A....1 2 8 7
B.....6 5 3 4
Thus a firing order of 1, 6, 2, 5, 8, 3, 7, 4


It is also important that the angular sync between the point sets is spot-on or one half of the motor can be mis-timed. This is a bench job only with a home-built jig and fraught with possibilities for problems, the process can be fiddly as both the gapping and angular displacement interact. If you're thinking about pulling the distributor best mail me first.

Let me know what you would like for the diaphrams and I'll get you an address to send them to in Bristol. I'll be in touch about the other bits. Due to temperature extremes here right now we are cutting back on outdoor work in an effort to preserve flesh from frostbite. We can still pull a carbie and work on it indoors, tho'.

They're so light I may well be able to send them direct and I do have some economy (A misnomer if there ever was one) jet diaphragms too.

I do not know about Canadian fuel, but the American stuff with added alcohol does play merry hell with older diaphragm material and often needs an extra jet size to account for the alcohol content.

Carb icing is a problem here also; more accurately idle air bleed icing and a function of EU spec high volatility fuel, un-heated inlet air and damp English days. I can guarantee it here below 13ºC unless its a very dry day.

Plugs too can be problematical, we have had no end of trouble with the platinum RSN13P, even a new set out of the wrapping beginning to mis-fire in 100 yards. If you dis-assemble to clean do not ever uses any metallic brush as the centre insulator will become "plated" and shorted immediately. The mica insulating tube in the bore also gets chafed and causes HT shorts. You may well have 1/2" of spark at the lead but the nature of the 13P is a weedy yellow-white pin-prick of spark at the electrode.

We find the RSN12Y (24V LR) a much better bet.

Tracking rotor arms, distributor caps and broken ballast resistors are also known to lead you on a merry dance too.

R.

[Gunner]

Wow! Thanks, Richard:

I've printed what you explained and will take that and the manual and see what we can do with the igniter/distributer. Is cleaning the plugs with a sandblast cleaner OK?

I'll PM my address and you can let me know what I owe in postage and goods.

Ta very much

Mike

Originally posted by Gunner
Wow! Thanks, Richard:

No problem.

I've printed what you explained and will take that and the manual and see what we can do with the igniter/distributer.

What manual do you have?

Is cleaning the plugs with a sandblast cleaner OK?

I have found it doesn't get that far inside and you must use a non-conductive media. Best to dis-assemble the plug and use a glass-fibre brush and some No.1 thinners.

I'll PM my address and you can let me know what I owe in postage and goods.

Roger, recd. Be a day or two before I access the garage whare they are.

If you send a direct email address by PM I can provide you with some useful scans and drawings.

R.

[Gunner]

Hi Richard;

I have the operators manual which doesn't provide a lot of maintenance detail beyond what a driver does. I'll be looking for a maint manual once I get some financial issues dealt with and free up some space on the old VISA card!

My email address is calnan.mt@forces.gc.ca

Its in the public domain (Canadian Forces) so theres no problem posting it here. If your email gets through the mile thick firewall it should be clean

Mike

[Douglas Greville]

Back to the ex- FV 432 thing.

One word - "hideous".

Doug

[Gunner]

I'd like to post LOUDLY and PUBLICLY that a small packet arrived from the UK yesterday.

It has travelled far, coming from Winchester by Royal Mail to Ottawa and then forwarded by Canada Post to the snowy Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia (I'm on temporary duty in Aldershot (the Canadian one not the UK one its named after) teaching on the international Junior Command and Staff Course).

For those who have followed this thread, Richard Notten (known to us as FV623) was kind enough to dig out three desperately needed diaphragms for a B81 engine carburettor and ship them to Canada.

Typically, there was no fanfare and no request for compensation. MLUers are a grand bunch!

Thank you, Richard. I hope to make it to Beltring this summer and I shall find an opportunity to meet up with you there or, as they say in Quebec, 'chez vous', to say thanks in person and to hand deliver some maple syrup from my neighbour's sugar bush.

The diaphragms are on their way back to Ottawa where Ken is looking forward to fitting them to the carburettor. His wife tells me that he already has it apart on the kitchen table... she must love him!:love:

and thanks!

Mike

Originally posted by Gunner
I'd like to post LOUDLY and PUBLICLY that a small packet arrived from the UK yesterday.

The Royal Mail still scratchin' about then, it gets steadily worse. I have seen the first piece delivered here now by a private company as the RM monopoly has been broken.

For those who have followed this thread, Richard Notten (known to us as FV623) was kind enough to dig out three desperately needed diaphragms for a B81 engine carburettor and ship them to Canada.

Best they get used somewhere.

I'll have my palindrome back though when you've a moment.

The diaphragms are on their way back to Ottawa where Ken is looking forward to fitting them to the carburettor. His wife tells me that he already has it apart on the kitchen table... she must love him!:love:

In my experience, having done a few kitchen table carb jobs, the petrol smell seems to be embedded in the special crack-o-matic, crap metal, carbs are typically made of, I believe its Mazak officially but is never called that by real engineers.

Anyhow, said embedded malodorous niff seems to be magically released in the kitchen environment and rapidly permeates the rest of the household to be followed by a huge bollocking by the keeper of same, be it mother, live-in girly or wife depending on the point in the time-line; and for the latter two people a severe reduction/cessation of personal privileges often ensues.

Your mileage may vary.

R.