Patrick Tipton

Congrats on the purchase @Mike B! I believe those are French made tracks from the 60's. I have two sets and am in the process of rebuilding them with new bands. They are a nice design but very heavy as I am sure you know. The rubber is heavy, the embedded links are heavy...tough set of tracks, but man are they heavy. My revised version will be lighter than the original Weasel tracks - but missing the road pads. I don't really care for my purposes. Pics soon!

My friend Carmen is working on his M29C - Hull tag is 6740. The machine was running and driving but needed a little sheet metal work. They are fixing hat channels and will have it back on the road later this summer. Norwegian return - very complete machine with a really nice set of post war tracks.

I don't have a set to measure but I would just make up numbers and have them look neat. I am all about originality, but I don't think it matters a bit here. Cheers

...and for the front windshield cover!

All good....I was planning on welding in the side and then adding the baffles. I did take apart an original tank and it was spot welded and soldered as you are planning to do - almost impossible to get apart! Cheers!

Greetings Larry. Looks like the correct wiper motor! I can't help on the demo cover.

The hardest part is getting a seam welder - do you have one? I am going to hammer form the sides and weld the visible inside of the tank from the inside. I will weld the other side where it is visible....at least I will have a functioning tank! Cheers!

I am likely going to make one for my T24 as the two tanks that I do have are in really sorry shape. I hope Alexander @M29C3284 gets motivated 🙂 but we are going to have to rent a boat to pick them up! Patrick

Look good on the ends, rubber. See pic.

The "hook" does not look Weasel to me. The first image looks like a transmission shift rail. It doesn't go in the Weasel T84 and I don't think it is the hi/lo shift shaft on the final drive...but? Not many "bells" going of for these parts. Cheers!

Nice Ernest! Both machines look great. Love the early tracks - very rare!! Not sure how many Weasels you have owned, but you are in for a treat! Would you kindly post pictures of the data tags and hull tags - we are trying to create a database. Cheers, Patrick

Working out the kinks on the M29. She is running like a champ! I am building a set of French tracks - trying to have them finished in the next two weeks and we shall see how they do. ShortSmall.mov

I paid $600 a few months ago.....they are nice but did not solve the skipping problem for me. The skipping is also causing a lot of wear so I am working a new set of banded tracks before a wear them too much....

The track "timing" is 4.5" inches....so the center of the grousers are 4.5" on center. From what I am seeing on older tracks, I think that between repairs and just stretching from age, most of our WW2 era tracks are just a little out of time and won't run correctly. I have a set that has the outside cables replaced with conveyor belts and they will skip too. If you run them like this much, the sprockets will end up pushing on those tracks guides like you say and if the grousers have any rust or are weak from age, they will crack and break. The other possible cause is the tensioning spring being worn like an old leaf spring. If you look at factory photos of Weasels, the track is tight enough that the rear set of bogie wheels is substantially off the ground. I know that isn't very helpful, but there is enough tension that the rear leaf spring is being compressed and the bogie yolk is pivoting up towards the drive sprockets. My hypothesis is that that angle is really important - and the reason why almost all other track vehicles have front drive.....makes for more sprocket engagement and it is much harder to get a tooth so far out of time that it misses the hole. When we run Weasel tracks too loose...the a tooth's first contact with the track is at the very end of the tooth and depending on wear etc, it is easy to see how it would slip forward and then be out of time. At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it! Run your Weasel in reverse....it will get back on track and then see if you can make your tracks a little tighter.

Greetings Alexander @M29C3284. That is my machine shop's general point of view - that we aren't running the engines hard enough to have it really matter. I do know that the study I mentioned above showed that there was accelerated wear in tractor engines....lot of hours but similar compression ratios etc....but it was not terrible if I am remembering correctly...something like the engine would get 70% of its expected life. Of course that would not be good if you are farming and driving the tractor every day but probably fine for a hobby vehicle that will get maybe a few thousand miles in a few decades if it is used a lot! I still would feel better with hardened seats though....

Greetings and welcome! Love that you posted the video - way to use this technology! I would love to see a few more pictures. First, it looks like you are running original tracks. Have they been repaired anywhere? If your tracks are in good shape, the tightness is a big factor in getting the tracks to run without jumping sprockets. You said they are loose.....can you post a picture of the track tensioning spring/setting? Regards, Patrick

@OZM29C Yes - I can see the pitting and it looks like someone had been in there before so I understand that you had no choice. Some of the valve seats on my engine are a little pitted - #6 is the worst, but I think they will likely clean up and be within tolerance so unless I am worried about the unleaded gas related erosion, I think I can build a factory spec'd engine without installing the seats....but I will report back after the machinist has inspected and developed his professional opinion. Cheers!

Funny that you should mention hardened valve seats. For some reason, my machinist doesn't believe in them for most applications. It might be that he is so busy that he doesn't want the extra work! 🤣 I am going to see him tomorrow to chat about the engine and I will bring it up again. There are quite a few interesting SAE publications about unleaded and valve seats including, if I remember correctly, a big study that was done in Oz. If I remember correctly, there was accelerated wear, although maybe not as bad as originally contemplated...I need to find that article and reread it. As always, appreciate it John!

I have been playing with other toys and doing just a little work on the T24. With the June MVPA convention looming, time to get back to work. I will be making a lot more posts again. Based on what I have seen (and nothing else) so this is speculation, I believe the T24's had matching engine numbers to their ordnance numbers or at least they were very close. This engine is a lot later than my hull number 127 but it was cast in 1943 and has a relatively early number at 689. Good enough! By the way, the casting numbers in the last picture mean W (1943) and Sept 20 (9 20). I dropped the crank and block off at the machine shop to have the crank turned and the block cleaned and inspected. The engine had a spun bearing so the crank definitely needed grinding. We shall see what the block needs - it may not need much. IMG_9251.mov

@OZM29C Totally agree - most guys don't have a mill so repairing the surface like you did is next to impossible. But, if the surface is bad, this is a great fix, even if you have to find a machinist to do the work. These water pumps are getting scarce everywhere, so you have to make them work.. As for shafts, seals and parts, the rebuild kit is the same as several later truck water pumps that are widely available here. PM me for a part number. @Pips_Blaauw If you have a press, this is easy - just a little scary the first time out of concern for the housing. Once you get it apart, check the seal surface and go from there. If the surface is just a little ugly, you can use sandpaper to polish a little...you just need to keep the sealing surface flat and square so if it needs more than a little, better off heading to a machine shop and have them clean the surface up or do John's repair. Patrick

Great solution John, as always. You probably saw that back in the day they made a special cutting tool for cleaning up the sealing face. It is shown in TM 9-1772. So far, i have rebuilt two Weasel water pumps and both were in nice shape...just a little 3m pad to polish them up. Given how hard it is to find one, though, this is a great way to fix one with a pitted surface. Cheers!

Check your emails Dan - I do have a couple left.

Greetings Rob: Sounds like the seals and/or bearing are failing. This is a video I made for the WW2 jeep water pump. The Weasel water pump rebuild is exactly the same process and steps. Don't forget to install the one bolt in the Weasel pump before you press on the pulley.

@OZM29C Happy New Year John! Thanks for continuing to make such an impact on the Weasel community by sharing this information with great photos and detail.

Billy Joe Hopper is selling the WW2 variety on Facebook....if you don't know him/have access etc.....let me know and I can get you in contact with him.