[Carburettor Plunger 64-89S]

When I rebuilt my weasel carburettor, the NOS plunger had dried and shrivelled rendering it completely unusable. I found a company that could supply a replacement plunger. I would like to share below, both the company details and a very useful snippet of information that may be of help to weasel owners. 

Please note that the Plunger supplied is just that. It has to be retrofitted onto the original piston? An easy job.

Cheers John W.

 

Weasel Carby Page 2.pdfWeasel Carby Page 1.pdf

John!  We also make our own basic repair kit for the Carter BBR-1 Weasel military carburetor.  The original Leather is a "chromed" leather ( a special process to add extended use for the leather, resulting in a purplish color).  This is the best you can do for any type of gasoline, E10 or otherwise.  The issue with any accel pump is the continual contact with gasoline.  Any carb accel pump will not give good service in applications that are continually setting and drying out, regardless of the carb make and model!  This is just the way it is.  Leather pumps will give excellent service, as well as more modern flurocarbon rubber pump cups, as long as they stay immersed in gasoline.  When they set and dry out, the leather shrinks and it must be re-immersed in gas for a few minutes before use, to expand to their original working diameter in the pump well.  So, to help with this problem, you can simply change the method you use to restart an engine that has set for a few weeks: DO NOT immediately start pumping the accellerator pedal when re-starting the engine. Just crank the engine over, for say 15-20 seconds, to allow the fuel pump to fill the bowl of the carb with gas.  Then let it set for at least 10 minutes.  This will allow the fresh fuel in the bowl to also fill the pump chamber and allow the leather to re-expand to its normal working diameter. This method, with any leather pump, will allow it to give you much longer service life. When the leather on the pump shrinks it is not in contact with the sidewall of the pump well; when the engine starts, the vacuum actuated accel pump in the Weasel carb preloads the leather portion upwards, and when accellerating, vacuum drops on the piston head of the pump, and the spring causes the pump to move downward and discharge a shot of fuel.  If the leather portion has not had time to soak up fuel and expand in the pump well, the force against the liquid fuel will cause the leather to "roll over" and ruin the pump.  This is a common cause of leather pump failure; not because the leather is not good, but it cannot do its job is it is not fully expanded and sealed against the side wall of the pump well.  So, a little patience can greatly extend the useful life of any leather pump. Our part #156A is made for the Weasel carburetors.  This item costs $10 ea + shipping to AUS.  I hope some of the information helps you, and if you are still not sure of the above explanation, let me know.
Thank You!
RON HEWITT
DAYTONA PARTS COMPANY
1191 TURNBULL BAY ROAD
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL 32168
PH:386-427-7108
FX:386-423-8528
www.daytonaparts.com

 

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

9 hours ago, Patrick Tipton said:

Thank you sir!

I like that approach.  Unfortunately, the lower bulkhead/flange on the right side of this hull is full of rust/pinholes and needs to be replaced with new sheet metal.  It also suffered a blow from underneath so it is also bent out of shape/plane.  I wrestled with various repair ideas and finally decided that I am going to use the strength and straightness of the new 8 foot floor run to locate the right position for the bulkhead.  I will make a new flange/lower bulkhead and then fit it to the floor and tack in place - probably untack the floor, finish the bulkhead weld and then mount the floor.  
 

One step up and two steps back sometimes but I don't know how else to proceed.

 

To improve the rigidity of the replacement floor/sponson, I opted to use 1.5mm thick sheet in lieu of the OEM 1.2mm sheet. Visually you would never know the difference.

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

5 hours ago, Patrick Tipton said:

Second, I purchased 8 foot sheets of 18 gauge and they are a little short to do the entire length of floor.

BZ on your excellent work 🙂 I had the same problem with short sheets. I made the join under the engine bulkhead. The bulkhead flange helped to reduce the sheet metal warpage from welding and looking from above the join was invisible.

[M29C Weasel - body nr 6672]

Here is a page from Consolidated Industries that highlights their new track design. One design is similar to what is pictured above.

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

9 hours ago, Patrick Tipton said:

Interesting....must be early/late feature.......is that picture from 1003?

TY!

Yes that is a picture of 1002

[M29C 7333 Track Apron repairs]

The track apron brace retainer clips were originally riveted in place. Unfortunately the rivets had frozen solid with rust which meant that I had to drill all of them out. Rather than re rivet them I have opted to hold the retainer clips in place with M8 button head screws.

[M29C 7333 Track Apron repairs]

A well know Weasel floater owner purchased a set of split pins needed to retain the track aprons. I fitted R clips to the ends of the split pins so that they would not vibrate out and be lost.

[M29C 7333 Track Apron repairs]

Some of the split pin retainers had broken off, so I machined a number of replacements and welded them back in place.

[M29C 7333 Track Apron repairs]

The photos below better show the work needed to restore my track aprons.

[M29C 7333 Track Apron repairs]

Back in 2008 and purely by chance I found five pairs of track aprons here in Australia. They say in life that you have to have a win sometimes and in this case it was finding my track Aprons. As you know track aprons are made of unobtainium and I was not sure at that time what I was going to do to find a set for my weasel. Just digressing from the story, In 2007 my offsider and I brought into the country a dilapidated M29C floater. Anyway before we brought it down to my place, my offsider took it to put on display at a Studebaker Car meet on the Gold Coast. During that meet a fellow walked up, pointed at the surf shield on the front float tank and said that he knew where another one was. The only other surf shield I know of that was available in Australia was from a Amphibious GPA Jeep. Email addresses were exchanged and a few weeks later a photo arrived showing a weasel surf shield. From what I can gather, five m29C weasels were imported into Australia in the late 1940's to be used as ski tows.

Here is an interesting link to their story;

http://australianalpinoversnow.blogspot.com/2011/09/m29-weasel.html

Before being modified most of the amphibious gear was dumped. And that's where it stayed until we recovered it many years later. Included in the booty were rudders, water ejectors ventilator lids, floor panels and a surf shield.

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

Yes that hat channel cut out is original. It carries over into the M29C. I am not sure why it is there though???

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

That concludes this post. The photo below shows both my front float tank and track aprons loaded up to take up to friend of mine who is a tradesman panel beater for some TLC. I should have the tanks and track aprons back next month.

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

I forgot to add that I had hours of fun making the square style nuts that weld to the tank.

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

Now I fitted the last of the patch panels.

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

It was then off to the sandblaster for blasting and etch priming. I left three big sections of repair panels off to give the sandblaster better access to the lower areas.

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

Time to start filling in some empty real estate

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

Here some random repair photos I forgot to post earlier

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

I used the water ejectors as templates to weld in place the previously fabricated lower section of the tank.

 

 

 

 

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

Next item on the agenda was to weld back in place the lower shelf and then start the repairs to the lower tank areas.

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

As the telemarketers would say, 'But wait, there's more' 🙂

The upper mounting brackets (tank top to hull) were modified in the past using an oxy/act torch. Also the sheet metal behind the brackets had corroded as well. The pictures best describe the repairs. The blue length of RHS tube visible in some pictures was added to give more rigidity to that panel.

[1943 T-24 Restoration Thread]

Patrick, are you going fabricate and fit the original style T24 battery tray or stick with the duel battery tray fitted IAW with TB 9-772-FE5?

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

I decided to fit the tandem tow hitch tow points.

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

Couple more photos showing the underside of the front deck

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

I also had to repair the inner tank shelf

[M29C Front Float Tank Repairs]

I was also fabricating the external tank bracketry