aktrapperbrad

Since posting in Apr. I have come up with more info and conclusions about steering. In May I ended up breaking a rear axle, so had to disassemble the final drive, allowing me to change the oil and inspect the braking system. The Brake bands were fine, but the drums had lots of groves. Luckly, I had a set of NOE drums in the parts that came with the T24. After getting everything back together, minor adjustments and test run, it now steers a lot better🙂. It now turns on a dime to the right with hardly any pressure, even in the brush, but still takes more effort to turn to the left. After further investigation I believe I have figured out why. Where the main cross-shaft(one behind the driver's seat) goes into the side of the hull, the hole is slightly worn forward, allowing the shaft to move. Because of the geometry and physics involved with the location of the rear pushrods, this requires more travel and effort on the left side lever. @Patrick TiptonIf you are still having a noticeable difference, you might check if you have the same problem. I hope these observations help out. Thanks, Brad

What a beautiful job! I wonder if the used a big stamp press originally.

Once you own a weasel, it seems you tend to keep an eye out for more, if for no other reason a source of spare parts. I found this m29C about a month ago and was able to make a trade for a trailer I didn't need😎. It was used to haul stuff to a gold mine a few times a year during the summer months. Rocks sure did a number on the tracks and hauling heavy gear didn't help out the cargo area any either. Loaded and ready for the 4 hour trip home. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to restore it or keep it for parts. Supposably the engine did run good but is not running at this time due to the fuel tank nor electric systems being hooked up. The engine had been rebuilt in 1954 by the Mt Ranier Depo. Here are a few pics. Anyone else ever use a T96 trans? 2nd set of springs are tilted back might be due to bent up tube. Surprisingly it still has the front 2 cover plates yet. The previous owner had started to rebuild 1 track and the other had been partially rebuilt in the past. Heavy plating had been used to fix the tub above the tracks. The only data plate. I am still trying to get the one I found last year, so I will definitely get this engine running since the other one is locked up after sitting for 70 years. I am hoping all I have to do is put the generator back on, replace the plug wires and hook up a fuel source to test run it. All comments and suggestions are welcome🙂. Thanks, Brad

A few picks of original floats with the skids intact that I recovered last fall. let me know if you need some good picks or measurements.

The end of the broken axle shaft had bound up slightly but came out fairly easy by tapping it from the other side with a piece of wooden dowel. When I checked the parts stash that I got with the weasel, I not only found NOE axels but also 2 sets of NOE brakes🙂, so those will get replaced also. The old ones have lots of groves, even though the brake bands are in really good condition. The bands must have been replaced sometime in the past. I also decided to replace the end bearings and races even though they appear to be fine. I'll try to get some pics when I put it back together. Thanks, Brad

@Patrick TiptonSorry I should have said axle shaft😕. Thats what happens when I try to post late at night, and I am half asleep. I'll try to post some pics later. I didn't have my camera with me, at the time. At least it picked a good place to break down. It could have been out in the woods but happened eight at the edge of the parking spot, on the driveway, not out in the woods.

So, todays trip didn't go as planned😢. just as I was hitting the trail, I snaped the driver side drive shaft. Instead of hauling supplies, I spent the day pulling the final drive apart. The question I have is, can the broken piece of shaft be knocked out from the other side or do I have to tear it all apart? Everything looks fine and nothing is binding up. There doesn't seem to be any slop in the gears nor excessive free play either. I'm hoping that there is an easy way to get the piece of shaft out, so I can get it back together without too much trouble. Thanks, Brad

The weather has been nasty for the last few weeks, so I have just got back to playing with the T24. @Patrick TiptonThe Tracks are from a m56 scorpion, it was a light unarmored 90mm AT gun carrier that was used in Vietnam. The Drive sprocket and front roller is from a M76 Otter. When I bought the T24, I was told the Bogie wheels had been filled so they wouldn't need air, but I noticed some looked flat and the sidewalls were rubbing on the grousers. I thought that since it had been sitting for at least 5 years without moving, the foam had broken down in that spot. I decided to see if they would take air, turns out only 2 were filled and the other 6 the tubs were still good and was able to air up to 50psi. What a difference it made. I can now run in high on the drive🙂. On the trail, it runs in 2 low nicely if I can keep the RPMs up, but with this suspension it is a rough ride going faster. Here are a few vids of my last outing. I have a few other new vids on my YouTube channel also. Hope you enjoy. Thanks, Brad

Looking good, Pat! I wouldn't worry about being exact on the pattern placement, even in the early 80's the factory fresh camo on the CUCKV's were not all the same, much less the line vehicles.

It took a bit, but I found a carb that would work🙂. I had to modify the throttle control arm on it but otherwise it bolted right up. I also changed the oil since it was so thinned out with all the gas that had been going through the old carb. pulled almost 8 quarts of oil/gas out of the pan. After a little tuning I decided to see how it would now break trail in the deep, soft snow. In these snow conditions it doesn't perform very well. It is more like swimming through the snow then driving, with all the lose sugar snow the tracks don't grab and makes it hard to steer, also when I hit a harder patch it tended to throw it to one side or the other. On the way back it preformed a lot better. https://youtu.be/DHk9BPbiDbc

I was able to take my T24 out the other day and do some testing and tweaking. As Pips and Jesse stated "Keeping the linkage well oiled" defiantly makes a difference on the effort to pull the levers. I used spray chain lubrication on mine and it greatly reduced the effort required to pull the levers back. The Drivers-side track still didn't want to break well, so I tightened the wing nut 1/4 turn, and this improved the response, but it still needs more. (Note: this causes the lever to move forward so after this adjustment is finished the pushrod length needs to be redone if there is a noticeable difference.) I didn't get a chance to see if adjusting the Set screw would also help improve the breaking. I did my testing on 2-3 inch of fresh snow over 4 inch hard pack on a gravel Drive and it preformed surprisingly well, considering it still needs work. I did notice in the really deep powder snow(3-4 ft.) it doesn't do the best at turning. It is always in a nose high position, creating quite a bit of side pressure from the snow, from midway to back. If I needed to make a really sharp turn, it was easier to turn in reverse, since the snow was already broken and somewhat compacted. I hope these observations help, and once I get my carb and fuel consumption worked out some (5 gal. in less then a mile🤢), I will do some more testing. Brad

So I figured out how to post vids! I need to get a better camera man though, LOL.

Well folks, Today I was able to run the weasel for about a mile and for about 30-40 minutes😀, and came away with both good and bad news. I cured some of my steering problems. I took spray chain lub. and applied it to all the connection points and also into the cross tubs where I could. I also tightened the left side break band wingnut 1/4 turn, (that was the side that didn't want to grab). It now turns a lot easier, without nearly as much force. especially after the final drive warmed up some. (It was 20F during the run and -2 last night.) I also noticed it is a lot more responsive and takes less effort in higher gears. It still isn't turning to the left like it should so it might need another 1/4 turn on the wingnut. The bad news is that it burned through 5 gallons of gas in the time it was running😢! It ran out just as I was going to try it in the deep snow off the driveway, luckily I had some more handy, so I could get it back to its parking spot. Due the track and running gear modification, along with the extra weight from the top, it mostly needs to be ran in low range, (I was able to get it into 1 high on a long straight stretch but liked 3 low better.) so I can see it using more gas, also the carb is still leaking. Looks like I may have to find a new carb for it. I did get some videos of it running but need to figure out how to post the longer ones. here is a super short one, at long rang. DSCF5983.AVI I hope it works. Will keep you posted on my progress, Thanks Brad

It has been a long, cold, snowy winter so when it started to warm up some, I decided to try to bring the T24 back to life. It has been sitting since I replaced the clutch cable just before the cold and snows hit and I have been looking forward to seeing how it would run. I had been hoping to use it for hauling larger loads of firewood and building supplies for a friend. This rig had been siting for over 5 years before I bought it last year and took some work just to get it running last fall. I had only put about 1/2 mile on it before winter hit and was hoping I had most of the kinks out. After some snow removal to clear the exhaust and front opening, it turns out the float is stuck open in the carb and was just dumping gas into the engine. The original carb had been replaced with a Carter LF1 so it wasn't too hard to get a rebuild kit. After more weather delays (it's not fun working on them at -5F outside) I got it moved to better parking spot🙂. While moving it. I noticed the brakes didn't what to grab, so it made it hard to steer, so after some research on this sight and more weather, it was time to start it up and see if I could adjust the steering some. This time after starting right up, it would only run for a few minutes before dying. take a bit to get it running again then want to quit. Experience in this country (plus the fact that the fuel was over 5 years old) has taught me it was probably water in the gas. At 6 bucks a gallon I didn't want to dump the 30 gallons that was in it. Since it has an electric fuel pump, I knew of an easy way to check, I just had to hook up a boat fuel tank with fresh fuel. It did the trick, and now is running fine again😂. Now I just have to pump the 30 gal, of "Cleaning Solvent" out of the main tank. At least now I can run it and see if I can adjust the steering. I'm hoping to have some video of it running this weekend when my buddy comes up. Have fun and good luck. Brad

My T24 is one of those that takes both arms to pull to turn.☹️ It does track straight though. I just got it out of hibernation and out of the 4ft of snow it was parked in, so hope to play with adjusting the steering before I run it more. I am hoping that I just need to tighten the bands. The levers seem to move fine it's just mushy at the rear and takes a lot of pressure to get the brake to engage. Brad

Back in the day, when most cars had drum brakes and steal rims, we would get rims that would be froze to the drums. We would slowly heat the rim with a hand torch then hit it with a 8lb hammer to pop it lose. ATF with a little diesel also makes a decant penetrating oil. Just mix some up in a spray bottle. Good luck and keep us posted Brad

if it wouldnt cost 10-12 grand to have it barged to Alaska.

Good to see you have been able to work on your weasel🙂

@OZM29CNone that I could find, only 900 miles on the O.D. Looks like only had a coat of new paint on the outside and a coat of Zink Chromate in the back lower hull. 1 set of tanks appear to have black, white and dk. green cammo under outer paint.

I was wondering if anyone knew when the front float changed from the single large tow point and added the additional 2 smaller tow points?

On 1 of the sets of floats I recently recovered the USA# was centered on the front float. The only numbers I could find on the 2nd set were on the right rear. Your number only seems to be on the left, I wonder if it was a state water-craft reg. number. It would be interesting to see where the USMC numbers were located.

Here are 2 if you are still looking for numbers: 1st- Hull tag only UST-24-621 2nd-Hull tag 29C-5279 Ser# 9731

I'm looking forward to hearing how it turns out. One of the first things I'll need to do is pull the engine on the M29C, after I get it home, and check it out. Who knows what shape it is in after sitting 60 years

It quit raining last night so made another trip for the other set of floats today🙂 When I went to load the last float, I found another nice surprise, more parts stashed inside, the best thing was the rudder control assembly and 2 rudders that look like that they were brand new when they were stashed😁. I only need to track down the side skirts, front surf-shield, and lower Caspin assembly to have everything for a complete floater! The only thing left to get is an engine block, crank and some other misc. parts, besides the main hull. I am hoping to get them all in 1 trip before the snow flies. here is a few pics of today's adventure. thanks Brad

@D.R.H.I sent you a PM