Thread: The Ultimate FC

Sounds like the next step is a cold beer or a bottle of wine. Things always look better after that...

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

I dropped a spanner to the goo which is the bottom of the hull and couldn't find it ...[/URL]

Hard luck Ron!

Would a magnet on a stick reach in there? I have one on an extendable telescopic shaft, which has saved my sanity several times - $10 on the net,

Cheers Charlie

If you've left the steel plate Off on the rear of the cabin and just put the pressed plate with the seats on back, would this not affect the watertight integrity of the superstructure if water comes over?

Originally Posted by spongie

If you've left the steel plate Off on the rear of the cabin and just put the pressed plate with the seats on back, would this not affect the watertight integrity of the superstructure if water comes over?

Very good of you to pick that up spongie.
Yes there is holes at the corners which can just been seen in the pics.
They could be sealed up with silastic or some thing.
But even with the steel flat plate on it is really not water tight as water can travel though the bottom of the hull under the cabin and though the Aquatic steering rod cabin holes etc.
In side the cabin each side at the back the cabin is open in around about way to the area under the cargo floor and cooling intake which is not water tight, as is the cooling air drawn in behind the cabin and though under the cargo area floor to the radiator and then out though the exit grill in the rear most area of the cargo bay.
I think nothing has been lost except for weight and a cause of rust.
The plate now fitted is strong and is extruded alloy.
I am guessing the reason for doubling up on plates at the rear of the cabin as a requirement for a double bulk head between cargo and cabin for the transport of petrol and diesel.( most likely will never transport fuel again)
The parts to worry about water wise is sealing of drop tailgate and sides/windscreen/winch rubber grommets/ NATO lights sealing to hull and a whole lot of other stuff.
Cool weather tomorrow, will make another start on that wheel station.
The bottom of the stalwart is like a dirt /water/oil covered labyrinth topped off by a layer of pipes/tanks and linkages..............what falls downthere stays down there to be found again many years later.

I have study the DUKW and the Stalwart and tried to get as much information about Russian amphibious vehicles etc.
My father use to own a DUKW and I got the chance to work on it when I was a lot younger.
A simple forty year old rubber seal can pop on a stalwart at any time without warning and cause the vehicle to sink in short order.

On a DUKW the only water proofing of the drive shafts to the diffs is via large rubber bellows , two per tail shaft and they are exposed if the vehicle is used off road.
Lose/ tear the tailshaft bellows and no Higgins pump is going to keep the DUKW a float.( the pumps only buy time and keep over wash out)
Replace placement bellows are old stock as are the parts for the Stalwart.
Rubber parts age.
A lot of the Russian wheeled amphibious stuff has very low free board and again have design features that rely on rubber seals etc.
The point I am making most of the amphibious military vehicles , yes can swim, but were new , had a large government founded workshop servicing them and operators wear life jackets etc.
It has always been a marginal thing and is more difficult as the vehicle ages and replacement parts dry up.
A simple servicing plug left lose or out is another danger.
A classic for a stalwart is if the drop sides or tailgate was locked incorrectly or the simple thing of beening side tracked and not checking something.
The LARC is better with sealing , but is more boat than vehicle and has compromises on land.
Every second Corowa swim in sees a GPA or something else get filled with water( usually only the worse for wear and everyone safe).
In the Pacific a lot of DUKWs were lost though incorrect operation on water/ overloading/ overlooked hull sealing or simply swamped with rough conditions.
I should be noted during the last years of the Stalwarts service life in a effort to reduce maintance costs of these vehicles the swimming gear was removed so they could not be swum.
The stalwarts compromise is it started as a family of vehicles never designed to be amphibious or load carrying and has things like a winch and its controls sort off sitting under water.
Salt water operation would kill a Stalwart if done regularly and is the reason why the Aust gold coast stalwarts died , that and operation all the time on hard roads twisting around the gold coasts back streets.

RIP

That's nothing longer snorkel couldn't fix and it would drive out

Well I have learnt a lot.
Again I learnt with the right tools and know how the Stalwart is straight forward to repair.
I now know a wheel station can be quickly changed in the field and take about 3/4 of a hour to swap one over with every thing going for you.
If the vehicle is old and a pin or tie rod end doesn't want to shift, then its a different story.
The first pic shows the wedge in the torsion bar stop and me wrongly trying to use a bolt to pull the outer housing of the inner tracta joint/ bevel box.
Luckly I didn't try too hard to remove it.
Looking at the workshop drawings etc it is hard to understand the set up.
What I knew was the inner tracta joint ball had a adjustment and I couldn't workout or understand how sidewards movement was allowed for in the tracta joint assembles as they are radius differently from the wisbones.


Bottom wishbone pin removed, the slide hammer worked a treat.