Thread: The Ultimate FC

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

These pics are for Sean in QLD.
It is the crane anti slew pin.
This pin was rusted in its holder and was a 2 hours work to try to save it and the holder bracket.
The R clip is advailible from Bare and Co tractor suppliers.

Thanks Ron another job at some point lol

cheers

Sean

Its another month gone.
Not much happening Stalwart wise as I have lost interest in hanging upside down with my guts being poked with sharp edges of metal wise trying to do something inside the hull.
The floor plates are back in the cabin and the front bilge pump tested.


Things are a bit quiet income wise with my job, so money is extremely tight and this is slowing me up too as I need to buy more bolts and paint etc.

I have been working toward of how I am going to rig up dog clutches on the bevel box drive shafts to prevent wind up and improve performance on hard surfaces.
Here is 3 pics of how other people have done it.
1

This one is cable operated.

2



3

This one is air operated.

This is what I have to work with on my stalwart.

Room for the front muff couplings is extremely tight and also hard to photograph.
The means to disconnect the drive is already there via the muff coupling, just by removing the cir clip on the drive shaft and sliding the coupling back over the drive shaft.
The problem is the drive shaft is very heavy and turns at about 2000 rpm and must be supported when the muff coupling is moved away from the centre bevel box as the muff coupling supports the weight of the drive shaft to the bevel boxes.
The correct way to support the drive shaft would be via self aligning ball race bearing.
The problem is the crane, fuel tank, transmission and motor would have to come out to do this and the support bearing would have to be a split type which I am told would cost about $2000 dollars a pop to buy in the size I need.
I want to do this without pulling the vehicle into a million bits.
So the next option is to do it similar to everyone else and use a pipe or seleeve around the outside of the siding muff .
It like the way the outside pipe or coller has been done is pic 2 above.

Picture 3 above has a simple air cylinder to shift the muff coupling and these are advailible from ebay for as little as $30 dollars each.
To use a cable or linkage to the cabin would be crowding a already crowded area on the vehicle.
To use the vehicles air system only requires one small nylon air line from the vehicles cabin air supply which has a 60 Psi safety valve in case of air loss to preserve operation of the brakes.
I have wiring already inplace to operate air soleniod valves for air cylinders.
To help me work this out and to keep the vehicle mobile I locally purchased Saracen muff couplings and bevel box lock nut.

The problem is the muff coupling on the stalwart is smaller and the nut is very different too.
All the british FV vehicles were suppose to have high inter changeablity.
I now realise the muff coupling on the other Alvis FV 6x6 vehicles do not have a rubber boot over the coupling.
It was done differently on the stalwart with a rubber boot because the bevel drive shafts are so close to the bottom of the hull and much water was expected in the hull with amphibious operations.
Stalwart bevel boxes, transfercase and bevel drive shafts ect appear to be different from other vehicles in the Alvis family.
I did buy some new rubber Tie rod end boots which will help with water proofing in the future.

I have been looking for a new rubber boot to go over the gear stick selector box..........the tie rod end boot fits good enough to do the job.
12 tie rod ends need to be split off the steering to fit the new boots and are real big rod ends too which have not been removed since new, so that should be a interesting job.

The . A.M.V.C.S the army truck club I belong to ,use to do rallies to the shoalhaven and the families farm at Kangaroo valley.
They said they were thinking about doing a run to the farm soon and asked if it was OK.
I am thinking of getting the Stalwart ready to do a run to the farm and start to enjoy the big beast of a thing and put it over the small off road test course on the farm.