My first carrier: some assembly required

[super dave]

I have just purchased my first carrier a few days a go and hope to start on it in the near future. What would be the best manuals to get as it is in a million pieces and most are foreign to me. I think it is a 43 mk 1 but not positive. This carrier was one of the few that was burried in Manitoba. I have taken all of the pieces out of the 4 trywalls to take pictures of them to see what I have and the big missing bits that I can see so far are the gas tanks and the air cleaner as it is totaly rusted out.

Dave

[Jordan Baker]

Get in touch with Alex Blair as he has all the manuals you will ever need.

Yes, your does look like a Cnd built Mk1. There shoudl be a front armour # and bulid date stamped on the top edge of the front armour just in front of the steering wheel position.

Finally, welcome to the club.

[super dave]

It is very hard to read the top as it is so pitted up from the rust. Is there any kind of way to raise the numbers?

[rob love]

Dave
Did you confirm that this carrier was previously mine? When I sold it the sheet metal was still in place over the track...looks like the next owner decided to strip it down even further. When you reattach them, careful that you do not have rivets or bolts protruding downwards towards the track....these will get very noisy as the track tries to shear them off.

About the only way you might raise the numbers is to run a grinder with a sanding disc (fairly fine grit) across the area, and then polish the metal with a wire wheel. That should raise most of the numbers. The stamped metal will be a different hardness than the sorrounding metal, and will react differently.

You can also satisfy yourself with the numbers off the division plate and the back angle iron. They should put you within a few hundred of your serial number.

[super dave]

Yes Rob this was your old carrier as he gave me a few pictures of when you were digging them up. He removed the plates above the tracks to install new ones. Where exactly were the carriers dug up and how many were there? Do you have any more pictures of the event as he gave me 3? He sand blasted about 95 percent of the parts so that most of my time will be spent hammering and to straighten some of the bent bits.I did get a few new parts like the master switch,speedometer,smoke discharger tube and the cable. Here are some of the parts that I will need in the future so if any one can help me out with any of the following I would be grateful.

Fuel tanks
Air filter
Generator and mount
Rad fan
Carberator
Starter button and dash lamp
Speedometer inner cable (have the outer cable)

Here are a couple more pictures.

[Jordan Baker]

Boy I wish mine had come with all those bits. Good find.
Get in touch with one of the Caldwell brothers about the speedo cables. Dan is supposed to be starting production of them shortly for both carriers and CMP's.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally posted by Jordan Baker
Boy I wish mine had come with all those bits. Good find.
Get in touch with one of the Caldwell brothers about the speedo cables. Dan is supposed to be starting production of them shortly for both carriers and CMP's.

Hi Jordan...
I'll bet Superdave would love to have you out on the farm in Alberta for a week or two to help him put that carrier together..
Make a deal..
He flys you out and puts you up and feeds you and you and him put the carrier together,as much as possible..
He may even let you drive one of his real tractors..not the puny little things they call tractors in Ontario..
His manuals are on the way..just putting the order into production..
You would never go back to Ontario once a farm boy like you saw those big prairie skys and millions of acres of farm land..

[charlie fitton]

Someone tell this story, please.

[rob love]

The story would be worthy of it's own thread, and one day I might do just that.

There was a hunting lodge here in Manitoba that had between 6 and a dozen carriers. There are photos somewhere of Clark Gable riding in one during a hunting expedition.
By the mid 60s, the erosion on the shore of the Marsh (lake) was threatening the main lodge, so a number of the carriers were parked on the shore (approx 10 feet from the lodge) and buried, to re-enforce the shoreline. Later, rocks were added and the edge treed, so the carriers were now under the lawn of the lodge.

Rumours had been going around the club for years about these, and locals would tell of picking up the brass anti aircraft sockets from the ground. As stories will get bigger, the carriers turned into tanks, and the numbers reached 100.

Dave Dunlop and Gordon Falk chased down the stories, and with a metal detector, found the location of 2 of the carriers. The lodge was now a research station for the University of Manitoba. They dug down a bit and found the control panel in a reasonable state of preservation.

Sometime around 1999, 4 or 6 of us showed up to start to dig a couple out. If memory seves, the diggers included Rob Fast, Gordon Falk, myself, and some others. Our intent was just to dig down and slavage things like armour, and whatever else presented itself. To our surprise, once we reached the fenders, they had not rusted through. We dug deeper to the floors, and even they were solid. Hinges on things like the grenade boxes even still worked, and certain rubber pieces and wooden pieces which would not have survived above ground, still remained on these carriers.

We were not prepared to pull out these 2 carriers, so we went ahead and removed the armour from them. As we dug the second one, we could see the fenders from a third. That one would wait until another year.

We filled the hole in with rubble, topped it with top soil, and sodded the area. It loked better than when we started.

Another year came, and Derk Derin and myself went out to dig the third one out. Of course, there was another set of fender poking it, so we removed 2 that year. Derk has since restored his, and the second one is the one that Dave now has.

And of course there was another set of fenders poking at it. Once again, we filled the hole in with rubble, topped it with top soil, and sodded the area.

The second dig was the subject of newspaper stories. It was not long after that the university was approached by claim jumpers wanting the next one(s). Fortunately for us, the university station director was an honourable man, and refused requests by others for them. The next year, we went and dug out another one,which is now in the posession of Gordon Falk.

Rumours persist of more there, but the metal detectors (I was using one of the old no4C mine detectors) were not indicating it.

I have several photos of the digs, as do Gord, Derk, and others. There have also been others who allude to have been part of this dig, some of whom were hundreds, if not 1000s of miles away from it at the time. Gord can correct me if I am wrong on some of the facts, and some of the names I may have forgotten.

All 5 carriers were mk1, and most were fairly early, with the early style aircleaner, and things like horn brackets and crowbar brackets. In the case of the 1 Gordon Falk got, the transmission and rear end would still turn. Engines were, as to be expected, well siezed.

The fact that tyhe carriers were buried in sand/clay, and frozen for the better part of the year, certainly helped in their preservation.

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi Rob
Now that is a GOOD story, but where are the photographs. There used to be a complete and running Carrier in my area several years ago but when the owner sold his property he had the local earthmover bury that along with old tractors etc. I approached the earthmover to investigate the possibility of recovery. However he informed me that he had run over these vehicles with a 22 ton front-end loader and dumped the lot into a deep silage pit, Carrier first.
Sad Bob

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Bob Moseley
Now that is a GOOD story, but where are the photographs.

IIRC, the story was featured in Wheels & Tracks magazine.

H.

[super dave]

Thanks for the info Rob. If any of the persons that helped remove the carriers from the site have any pictures they took I would love to have some copys of them.

Dave

[super dave]

I just received my manuals today fom Alex Blair and they will be a great help when it comes time to start assembly on the carrier. Thanks for the quick shipping Alex.

Dave

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally posted by super dave
I just received my manuals today fom Alex Blair and they will be a great help when it comes time to start assembly on the carrier. Thanks for the quick shipping Alex.

Dave

Hi Dave..
Glad you recieved the manuals and are hard at work on the carrier.
You pix are great and progrees reports such as yours are what keep us all coming back to the "Family" forum...from hence forth called the MLUFF..
I think I'll name my up coming grandchild.."Mluff" ,a secret I'll keep from my family as to where the name came from, and they'll only get the answer if they start reading the MLU FAMILY FORUM....a forum for geniuses..
It is an ideal name for me because I do not know the babys gender yet and MLUFF is gender neutral...

Well done Jiffy...
Thanks again for hosting MLUFF...
(Retirement is so stressfull that I have to amuse myself by coming up with these ingenius thoughts and plans...LOL)

[Snowtractor]

Hi Dave,
I've a MkII in Edson, but you are welcome to come measure anything you would like to during your puzzle assemly. However if there is something about carriers these chaps here don't know, I wouldn't know what that would be. Maybe "how to pick girls up with a carrier" might be beyond them
Sean

[super dave]

Thanks for the offer, I will have to get your phone number and the next time that I am going through edson I will look you up and check out your carrier.

[rmgill]

Wow, I'd LOVE to have a project that was completely disassembled like that waiting on re-assemlby. Already blasted and primed...wow...I'm working on a Jeep CJ2A that needs LOTS of care to restore. I'll have to tear down to the frame which has some bad rot and repair that before I can start attaching bits to it as I clean each of those up.

Rob, I think I've driven two of those earth bank carriers. Jim Burrill and Barry Detweiler both bought one each did they not? (or was it just Jims?) If so, I've been in both and driven both. Fun stuff.

[rob love]

I believe that only one of those was parts from one of the buried ones. It would have been mostly the upper armour that came form the ground...the lower hull was one of the regular farm modified hulls with all the upper armour cut off.

[alleramilitaria]

from what i have been told i have the front armor from one of the dam carriers in my side yard waiting to be put on my windser project.

[Hendrik van Oorspronk]

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
IIRC, the story was featured in Wheels & Tracks magazine.

There were also some pictures.

Hendrik

[rob love]

Super Dave: Yours is one of the two pictured on the first page. I believe it is the one closest to where Derk is bending over:at least I think it's Dirk...it's too skinny to be me. For those ones, it was just Dirk and I digging. The single one on the second page is now in the posession of Gord F.

Note that the single one on the second page (which we dug out a year later than the other two) actually is located underneath the big front end loader shown in the first page.

[super dave]

Well it has been some time since I picked up this carrier and I have officially started on its restoration. I have overhauled the transmission as second gear was half worn out in the gears (see picture) as I used a spare trany I had for the second gear as well as the lower cluster.

The engine I did a complete overhaul as it had water in it at one point in its life and I had to install a couple sleeves and all of the valve seats as well. I have assembled it as far as I can go at the moment as I need the following for completion if any one can help me with these parts:

GENERATOR
CARBURETOR
EXHAUST MANIFOLDS

I have the fan and fan extension and a regular generator but it will not line up with the fan extension (Is the carrier generator carrier specific or is there a civilian model that will work and what year?)

I was given some exhaust manifolds but I think they are the wrong ones (see picture) and does any one know what years they would have been from or if anyone has a spare set they would be willing to part with?

I am also looking for the correct carburetor as well as I can use one from a car/truck engine but I would like to find the correct one again if any one could help me with this as well.

Was the factory intake cast steel and is the adjustment for the generator a bolt into the intake as that is what it looks like from some of the pictures I have seen from other members carriers?? Is the aluminum intake from a civy the same or is the carrier intake carrier only as the aluminum one is all I have and it has a stud and want to know if it will be strong enough for the weight of the generator/fan extension??

The next item I will be tearing into is the differential to see its condition and replace all of the seals if I can find them and see the condition of the shoes as well.

Anyhow I will update this thread during the course of its resurrection during the following months.

Dave

[rob love]

The exhaust manifolds you want are off a 36 Ford if I recall correctly. I don't have access to a part manual these days, but the part number of the manifold will give you the dates of when the part was first introduced, as well as what vehicle (car/truck) it was designed for.

The ones in your photo are definitely not carrier.

[super dave]

Ok I will keep an eye out for that year of manufacture for the manifolds. Would you or anyone else know if the generator on the carrier would be of the 36 model year as well or is it carrier specific?

[Lynn Eades]

Here are a few pictures of your generator bracket which locates on one large peg, and two small ones. I show a lucas genny, and the Canadian Ford one as well as the part number on the later one. The stud in the manifold is std., but the nut (about 3" long is carrier specific, with a round washer, and a square one, which engages with the serations in the front of the fan extention.
The manifolds are the std ones, that have the outlet directly opposite the front port.

[super dave]

Thanks Lynn that is the info I needed. Just a couple questions, Is there a gap between the generator mount and fan extension like in your picture or do they mount flush with each other? Would you have any pictures of the nut and its dimensions as I will more than likely have to make one made up. Also how thick is the coupler that links the gen to the fan and what is it made of as I will also have to make one of those as well.

Dave

[Lynn Eades]

Will do photo of bolt in the next few days.
Coupling O.D.= 52.3mm
slot width=1/2"
coupling thickness= 1/2"
Bottom of slot to opposite side bottom of slot=35mm (1.375")
Hole in centre= 7/8" (has a shallow bevel out to 30mm, both sides.
Ask for anything I've missed.

[RichardT10829]

do my eyes deceive me or is that a linkage cover that is on the ground next to the front fenders ? the cover that sits at the base of the steering column infront of the driver ? if so i would love a pattern of this item

the phrase "All the right bits" springs to mind with this carrier, what a wonderfull clean project to own ! i can feel myself turning green


Richie

[Lynn Eades]

You mean the one behind the front guards, and yes, I would also like details, and more photos.

[Lynn Eades]

Here is the bolt for your fan extension.
I have included a pic of the Ford and Lucas generators.