OZM29C

@Jesse Browning Jesse, you have put forward an interesting aspect to your insurance woes. I hope that you have agreed on a realistic replacement value for your weasel in the event of a total write off. As a comparison, here in Oz my full comprehensive annual premium is $251.90 ($167.52USD) and my weasel is insured for a replacement value of $90,000AUD ($60,000 USD). Having said that, this policy only covers land use only. I, in conjunction with the GPA owners here in Oz have found that Marine insurance is impossible to find. My weasel being a tracked vehicle presented no barriers to insurance. Same goes for the weasel being Left hand drive. Cheers.

@Jesse Browning Thanks Jesse for your welcome comment. I did indeed give some thought to machining a split spacer washer however I do need to remove the drivers side idler arm in order to sort a problem with the idler arm itself. When I grease the idler arm, grease exits from under the idler arm spring where the spring seats on the idler arm itself. I suspect that the drilled hole in the idler arm that locates the spring has been either drilled too deep or has corroded allowing grease to escape and in turn not allowing full lubrication of both idler arm bushings.

As highlighted in the attached TB, my weasel also has a tendency to drift to the right when travelling a straight path. This drift necessitates the constant application of the left tiller to bring the weasel back on track. I am very confident that I don't have any underlying problems that could contribute to this drift so I thought that I would detail the corrective action taken as per the TB to alleviate this problem. Early days yet though. I have all but finished machining a brass spacer washer. The TB gives an option to fit one of three spacer washer thickness's. After some thought I have decided to try the thickest 3/8"inch/9.52mm washer first. If an over correction of the drift is observed then I can remove the spacer washer and machine it down further to a smaller thickness. The attached photo shows the spacer washer being machined. I would appreciate any feedback if other weasel owners here have found such spacer washers fitted to their weasels and more importantly what washer thickness was fitted. Stay tuned. TB 9-772-8.pdf

@Patrick Tipton That's what it's about Patrick, having fun. 😀 Well done👍. I found that I was unable to emulate the OEM tension spec on my LAR track. If the LAR track is too loose though, it will certainly jump sprocket teeth.

@HeepjeepI have taken two photos of my set up for you. Let me know if you need any further information. Cheers

Another email from a different email address this morning!

Got this unusual email below with a very suspicious link embedded in the email. I have deleted the link in order to safely share the email. I suspect that this is a fishing style of email. Anyway just putting it out there. Cheers Hello There, Please see the document within the u r l below. (Suspicious link located here) Enjoy a nice working day! Hello Everyone, The decision has been made to start the process to do another, and possibly the last, run of Liberty Weasel Track. If you are interested in purchasing a set of track or know of someone that has talked about it, now is the time to place your order. The cost is $12,000 and we require 50% down at the time you place your order with the balance plus the cost of shipping to be paid before they are shipped to you. We would like to receive your order by November 10th so that we can get all of the different parts on order and use the slower winter months as assembly time. There will be a 5-6 month time frame from the time we get everything ordered from our suppliers until we have everything in house and the track assembled and ready for you. We would appreciate your help in spreading the word to your fellow weasel enthusiasts that the Liberty Weasel Track will be available again and not to delay if interested in a set of track. I want to stress that there will be a limited number of track available and this will be the last time they will be available until who knows when. To place your order call Liberty Auto Restoration at 712-764-2170 on Monday-Friday. Thank you. Barb Smith Office Manager Liberty Auto Restoration Elk Horn, IA

See if you can spot the difference? One headlight bucket is from a Weasel, the other is from an MB/GPW Jeep. For all intensive purposes they are identical apart from one small feature.

Over in the Weasel FB group there was some discussion on marker lamps and I feel that the reference information on Marker lamps should also be captured here as well. I have posted the following photos before within a previous thread however I believe that this information now deserves to be in a standalone thread for future reference. The photos show a NOS marker lamp that I had just removed from its original packing box.

@Patrick TiptonFurther to your learned comments I’d like to add some more thoughts on this subject. I think it’s paramount that the correct grade of oil is used in the final drive. In my case I use this particular oil. https://classicoilsshop.co.uk/castrol-classic-xl30 My final drive steers well and that’s with the flotation gear fitted. Another consideration is the condition of the brake bands and their associated brake drums. I would consider it mandatory to do a full internal inspection of the final drive before putting it into use. A lot can happen in 75 years. The final drive has to be in optimum condition to ensure accurate adjustment of the said assemblies. Another observation to consider is the type of surface that a weasel is being asked to steer/turn on. Mown grass is very difficult to turn on, a weasel will labour considerably when turning on grass however loose gravel, sealed roads or sand (can’t offer any advice on snow though) offers very responsive steering. Correct Track tension is important as are the steering linkage adjustments. Last but not least driving/ steering technique is important.

@04mustang The Norwegian inner band thickness for 56 track is 24mm which is very close to 1"inch/25.4mm. That does not appear to match your calculations???????? Drawing attached.

@Pips_Blaauw 👍Feel free to ask me for dimensions. With my floater weasel at home I can grab a tape measure and check measurements for you. Here is some more reference information. Cheers Rudder Pin as Measured.pdf

@Pips_Blaauw Good effort👍 Rudder arms look to be too long.

@Reamer Mate, I am not a learned weasel track scholar in regards to offering technical advice on alternative track repair methods. Many years ago I went through the trials and tribulations on how I should repair my old tracks and after procrastinating about the subject for many years I just decided to just bite the bullet and purchase a set of new LAR tracks. I am not advocating that this is the right decision for you, but in my case it saved me many years of hard work. My time was better spend on the other aspects of my restoration.

@ReamerYour best bet would be to have a look at how Snake River 4 x 4 constructed his track bands. https://snakeriver4x4.com/weasel-parts There is some good information there. BTW he does not manufacture the track band kits any more. In the drawing below, you can see that the reinforcing cable was not welded in the OEM style track bands.

Please note that I am not associated with the seller, just passing the info on; I have a BBR1 Carb for a weasel I would like to sell. It is a pull off, but complete minus throttle body. Can send pics Send PM if interested $70 Located in UT will ship. Wade Stout http://www.freedomvehicles.org/ https://forums.g503.com/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=332611

@Hound DogThanks for sharing your photos.👍 That D shakel on the front tank is certainly making a statement😃The canvas hood on your weasel looks great. Can you let me know if they are available to buy or did you have it made as a one off order?

@aktrapperbradOut of interest, does the original hull have a Letterkenny rebuild tag on it? Generally the tag was placed near the ORD plate on the driver's side bulkhead.

@aktrapperbrad The MWO ORD attachment might help to answer your question. I have added three photos that shows how I made and fitted my additional tow points. Cheers. MWO ORD G179-W8.pdf

@Patrick Tipton Congratulation Patrick on what I would consider is a very good choice of track system. The LAR track as you know was developed from the Ambilary track system that was fitted to a lot of weasels operating in Antarctica. A very hostile environment indeed. See attached photo of an EPF weasel. Like you I procrastinated for years on how I would put a set of reliable tracks on my weasel. Fortunately the LAR track came available and I too cleaned out and sold the remains of six MB?GPW Jeep projects that in turn paid for both the purchase of the tracks and more importantly the shipping. I have it on good advice from Brock J. that the OEM sprockets will run fine with these tracks but if you plan to fit the now defunct LAR sprockets, then you will need to make some modifications to them to make them work. As for tensioning the tracks, I have only had to re-tension my track after a few miles of break in driving. I found that a good indicator that your tension s right is when the track does not jump the sprocket during a hard turn. I was unable to emulate the OEM track tension specified in the TM; ie lifting the rear bogey wheels 2"/50mm off the ground. Rick W has put over 800 hard miles on his LAR tracks so I am reassured that the LAR track is durable.

@Pips_BlaauwFantastic Find. Well done👍 I look forward to following your restoration Journey. Its just a matter of time and patience to restore your float tanks. Look at my front tank before I started as an example.

Connie Gould, Long shot but Brian Asbury may still have something? Brian Asbury 1.pdf Brian Asbury 2.pdf

@aktrapperbrad As an option (if available), have a look in your new parts stash to see if you have a later designed clutch operating linkage. If so you can do away with the cable. Failing that you can always get one on ebay; https://www.ebay.com/itm/334294891084?hash=item4dd5873a4c:g:5VIAAOSwgSpbv23y&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoLBo9vgoJN9jSTVqUTs3LCidRhWvzJRPXAEGDmezj%2FZgzqBOORRl329YDJ3pKsm%2FjCYeydu4jpl8k3fTLUellTGoUEJhtLyytVfAqEBVszzlosKehx4FrYUgRUt%2BvP7vPa2YZigbq1C9flcBcP9qiI14YiS5BSdqthnFdmaZdugalaiTE9MuYpYc4%2BI3RVXRBMfn%2F2D3Vl7O2ehuIwOfNrU%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_q_3O3lYA

@Patrick TiptonPatrick, I purchased the Aluminium timing gear from a local Studebaker Parts vendor here in Oz. He did say that all of the parts for my engine rebuild were sourced from the US of A but he did not elaborate about where his suppliers were located. All I can say is, so far so good with my Aluminium timing gear. I am not advocating that you should balance your engine, I was just passing on the advice given to me by my engine rebuilder. As he is a very good friend of mine, I am in no doubt that he did not make this recommendation to simply extract more money from me. Having said that, the only parts not replaced in my engine were the camshaft and flywheel (less ring gear). All other parts like the crankshaft, ring gear, pistons, rods, clutch, crank pulley etc were either new or NOS. I guess that in this case, it was the right call for my engine. One thing I have learned is that I needed a 'Strong' engine to power my floater. I look forward to more instalments on your Weasel restoration.

@aktrapperbradWhat a brilliant stash of parts that you have discovered. Thanks for sharing your story. I do hope that you will aspire to become a member of the 'Floater' Weasel fraternity😀. I believe that all parts are worth salvaging. They simply don't make these parts any more. The float tank that you have are very repairable. Well done👍