Turret Traverse Gearbox Stripped and Rebuilt

The Turret Traverse Gearbox was found to be seized solid !  So It was stripped down, all components checked and cleaned up...

There were no major issues...  some water had got inside (over the years) and the grease had gone hard.  After re-packing with grease it all worked fine... a coat of paint and its as good as new again.

Before - seized solid

Major Components

Drive to the Turret Ring Gear

 

 

After - Good as New !

Gunners Periscope No52 Mk2

A few shots of the gunners periscope...

Front Bulkhead & other bits stripped to bare metal

Front Bulkhead & other bits stripped to bare metal

Another good days work today !  Several major parts stripped to bare metal (Aluminium) and primed. Top coats tomorrow.

Front Bulkhead

Removable bit of Front Bulkhead

J60 Engine (Photos) plus others

A few shots of the J60 Engine prior to its first run...  plus a few other misc images.

LH Side (Drivers Side of J60 Engine)

RH Side - Exhaust Manifolds & Heat Exchanger

Rear - Engine goes in with Flywheel towards the front of vehicle

Distribution Box adjacent to Driver

New Drivers Floor Panel

One of the air vents newly painted.

J60 (Jaguar) 4.2 litre engine - First Start !! (Video)

J60 (Jaguar) 4.2 litre engine - First Start !!

After basic checks (inc Compression test) and an Oil / Filter change I briefly started the engine the other day.

Sounded good... no oil leaks.  Only ran it for a few seconds as there is no cooling system attached !

Dummy Chain Gun installed

Dummy Chain Gun installed....  Looks good !

If you would like to see what a Chain Gun is and How One works... then see video below photo...

Paintwork: Interior & Components

A few shots below showing the interior floor areas coated with Special Metal Primer.  Also 8 periscopes stripped to bare metal and primed along with the front power distribution box.

Gunners L2A2 Night Sight

Just cleaned up the Gunners night sight...  this really is a beast...  comes in two sections when joined together its over 5ft long !

The front section is now installed in the turret with its armoured cover on (see photos)

The bit that goes inside the turret.. with the two eyepieces will be fitted at a later stage.

L2A2 Night Sight Front (outer) section

Inner Section with Binocular Eyepieces

Assembled Unit

Front Section attached to Turret

 Armoured Cover with Hinged Door

Turret Exterior Painted

Over the last few days I have done a bit of paintwork .. interior and exterior.

The original interior paintwork is in generally very good condition. The area in the red primer (where the 3 master cylinders go) was poor due to leaking brake fluid.

The upper turret had a few areas of flaking paint. These have been taken back to bare metal, primed and painted (Bilge Paint)

Turret exterior painted in NATO green

Brake Master Cylinder Refurbed

Brake Master Cylinder Overhauled today.  New set of seals fitted.

Plus some paintwork in the turret.

Before......

Stripped and ready for new seals

Assembled

Complete Brake Pedal Assembly

Steering Master Cylinders - Overhauled

Today spent removing flaking paint from inside the upper turret... using Nitromors and stripping, checking and re assembling the Steering Master Cylinder assembly.

On close inspection the main alloy block had a crack on one of the mounting points....  luckily I had a spare so this was replaced (see photos).

The replacement unit appears to have more reinforcement by the bolt holes so I guess cracking may have been an issue....  just luck that I had a better item in "stock"

Annoyingly I managed to "compromise" one of the master cylinders... I had put a small amount of tissue paper in the fluid inlet to stop brake fluid from dripping onto my work bench..  when I assembled the unit and operated the cylinder the tissue was sucked into the cylinder and caused the piston to stick in the the fully extended position...  will require stripping to rectify.  Again I had a good spare and this was installed.

Before

After

Cracked Unit on Left

The Crack !!