T-16 Diff

[cantankrs]

Hi,

Just a curiosity enquiry - was the T-16 the only carrier to come out with wet steering brakes in the diff centre housing instead of dry drum brakes out at the hubs? And do they still have dry brakes out-at-the-ends as well? And the reasoning for this brake design?

Thanks

Alex

[horsa]

Hey Alex,

Don't know what other vehicles used this system but I can tell you the T-16 does have dry drum brakes on the outer ends of the differential/axles where the sprokets are located. The inside of the pumpkin has a pair of wet drum style brakes but the brake shoes have a type of Asbestos lining. Because of friction heat build up, there is an oil cooler for the rear end in addition to the normal type found for the engine oil.

The driver has four tiller bars. Two in the center for steering which control the wet brakes and the two outer levers work the dry brakes. A foot brake also works the dry brakes and applys uniform pressure to both sides when pressed. The levers would be for tight turns but can be used for regular steering if needed, although the manuals say to only steer with the inner set and to brake with the outer set or foot brake.

So with this system, there is no track warping for minor turns as with other carrier designs.

[cantankrs]

Hi David,

Thanks for your clear answer!

Regards

Alex

[ozm29c]

Alex,
My Studebaker M29C weasel employs wet steering brakes in the diff centre housing.
Cheers
John W.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by cantankrs

And the reasoning for this brake design?

Hi Alex,

The reasoning for this "brake" design is that the Ford engineers applied a proven tracked vehicle steering concept, instead of the archaic track-warp-and-drum-brake concept on Universal Carriers. The concept they chose to apply to the T16 design was Controlled Differential Steering, which was widely used on WW2 tracked vehicles. The T16´s axle was later used on other vehicles, notably the Canadian Armoured Snowmobile.

Hanno

[rob love]

The T-16 axles were used in oversnow vehicles into the late 70s and 80s. We had an oversnow vehicle on issue in Moosejaw (I don't remember if it was a go-trac or a nodwell, or some other brand) which had an 8.3 liter GM diesel with allison transmission powering the T16 rear end. A copy of the Levy autoparts T16 axle parts list was supplied in the main maintenance manual for the vehicle.