DonM

What did you do for coolant on your test stand?

Opened up the unit and I think it is in great shape. One of the drums has absolutely no ridges and the other has barely noticeable ridges. My only concern is some minor pitting which may be a result of from a small amount of water in the case. The brake bands looked almost brand new to me. My guess is it was not used much since its last maintenance.

Fun in the shop today…..started diving into the final drive unit. Looking over the housing we noted a casting number and a tag. See photo. Don’t know if there is anything meaningful there. There is also a tag from what I assume is a repair shop in Lyon, France dated exactly 67 years ago. See photo.

As an aside, Patrick as an aviator might appreciate this. I’m doing my work on a shop stool from the Curtiss-Wright plant in Buffalo. It’s where the famous P-40 and C-46 aircraft were built during the war when the Weasel was being built in Southbend.

Work on the hull is progressing a bit slowly due to other pressing issues but we are making progress and gaining experience. We have pretty much patched all the holes in the aft end. Small fender washers worked well for filling the large round holes after I soaked them in vinegar overnight to get the zinc plating off of them. The first photo shows the aft end prior to patching with a very large cutout and numerous holes from rivets and who knows what else. The second photo shows our progress with just a couple holes remaining. It looks funky as we haven't polished the grind marks yet but it is quite smooth. We're getting much more comfortable with welding. Not pro by any means but not bad. We also have some radiator support hat channels coming from Alexander in Norway. We'll be getting started on the floor soon. We also checked in with the shop working on the engine. So far things look good. They "hot tanked" the block and it cleaned up good. See photo. They will magnaflux the block, cam, and crank as well as inspect the rod bearings which are babbit. Hopefully they are ok. As soon as they get me the tolerances I'll order the overhaul kit. It may be awhile as they are quite busy. They've got engines from everything there from tractors to boats to locomotives.

Looking around my barn, I think #10 flat washers might work.

Quick update.....gaining proficiency with the MIG. Filling and patching holes at rear of the hull. Filled 31 small holes and and patched a massive 12" x 9" cut-out. Still need to polish the welds up but it's working out great! Now there are larger four 1/2" diameter holes (for who knows what) that need to be filled. What is the best way to fill them? Should we try to fill with weld material or weld in little patches? I thought about patching in slices from a 1/2" bolt but maybe that's dumb. Also I want to thank Patrick for the excellent recent ShopTime videos about the drive unit differential. I feel a lot less intimidated about digging into ours as we wait for the engine to come back from the shop. It is interesting to note that our drive unit case has a tag from a repair shop in Lyon, France.

Quick update…..we picked up the metal for the right side floor and hat channels. We will start our welding small, patching holes and cut-outs using some smaller sheet stock to get proficient before going big.

Just a quick update…. Things are really starting to move! The engine is the shop now (Caledonia Diesel) for cleaning and inspection and magnefluxing. Initial assessment is pretty good. They’re pretty backed up getting farm equipment ready for spring so it may take a few months before we get it back. Exciting nevertheless! Generator and starter are in a shop for cleaning and repair as needed. Metal for floor and hat channels should be ready next week so we’ll get started with welding. Thanks again guys for all your support and advice!

Thanks OZ and Pat, will make sure to margin my dimensions. Getting ready to go to the shop soon. Sounds like they can turn things around in a couple days. They figure about $400 to do the right side floor and hat channels. Now looking at the hat channel cross sections I have attached a sketch of what I measured. Are these consistent with what you have seen?

Getting ready to order metal for the right side floor. We removed a full length section with a cut up the side of the hull 3.25" and down the inside wall 1". Question is when ordering the metal should I specify the exact dimensions or add an extra 1/8" or so on each edge for margin to trim off later to allow for variation in the cut lines? I think the cuts are pretty good so may be not. How big a gap can we reasonably deal with using a MIG unit?

Also sad to say that I got a bit too aggressive removing the crank pulley😢 Looks like cast iron…..is it possible to repair or should I look for a replacement?

Here are photos of the rod bearings with the “pits”. Interesting to note that the defects are all on the rod side of the bearing. The cap sides were all ok.

Correction….episode 193. I’m glad I didn’t have any broken head bolts!