Thread: The Ultimate FC

DSCN0241 by john smith, on Flickr
DSCN0237 by john smith, on Flickr
DSCN0240 by john smith, on Flickr
DSCN0242 by john smith, on Flickr
The battle continues.
On the pic above the side gate hinge bracket has to be realigned with a bit of help from the porta power and the welding finished off and ground back..........the welding on the above plate is a bit rough as the metal is thin and rusty and the MIG did a bit of filling.
I use .9mm wire instead of .8mm or smaller at normal amps as I find the thicker MIG wire is better for filling rusty gaps and just using a touch welding method.
The new plates are welded both sides where possible , full penetration of the joint gap is achieved and then ground back flush.
I use a large tungsten carbide cutters on a air die grinder tool to smooth welds in tight areas .

Alvis Stalwart "Stolly" - A relationship never forgotten "BAOR" - YouTube

Hi Ron,

Just wanted to add my thanks for a fantastic thread!
I am in the UK, but have just bought one of the last MK1 stollys which has a factory fitted winch, the same or similar to yours. bought the stolly then read your thread, maybe I should have read it first!
Hope you get to swim yours soon mine has all the swim gear removed so I wont have to be so particular about the inevitable holes.

One thing that has sprung into my mind is that the braking characteristics will be different when you get the disconnects working, so might be worth doing a lot of brake testing somewhere that doesn't matter before you venture back onto the roads? At the moment if one wheel locks all the wheels will lock due to the interconnects between the wheels. once the interconnects are removed, each front and back wheel could lock individually and the centre wheels lock together (I am guessing the locker works the other way too), independently of the fronts or rears. just a thought... might not matter but definitely worth testing somewhere safe first.

Once again thank you for such an in depth saga. look forward to reading more

Richard

The braking side of things with the disconnects is something I have not thought about too much.
I do know that the high speed (100kph)MK 1 stalwart here in Australia with disconnects has no issues and a stalwart hard under brakes tends to pick up the rear and centre wheels anyhow.
The biggest issue on my MK 2 is getting both brake packs working exactly the same as the brake packs do different front wheels.
None of that is a problem for a MK 1 with a single brake pack.
I like the Mk1 Stalwarts because they are simpler , 2 tonnes lighter and most have been up graded during Army service with many MK 2 features.
The only thing I would look at in owning a MK1 is getting some sort of central lube set up like the Limber Models as it saves a lot of hard work when set up and if you have a hub or bevel box leaking some where , providing you keep the central tank topped up it is not too much of a problem.
Good luck
Ron

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

The braking side of things with the disconnects is something I have not thought about too much.
I do know that the high speed (100kph)MK 1 stalwart here in Australia with disconnects has no issues and a stalwart hard under brakes tends to pick up the rear and centre wheels anyhow.
The biggest issue on my MK 2 is getting both brake packs working exactly the same as the brake packs do different front wheels.
None of that is a problem for a MK 1 with a single brake pack.
I like the Mk1 Stalwarts because they are simpler , 2 tonnes lighter and most have been up graded during Army service with many MK 2 features.
The only thing I would look at in owning a MK1 is getting some sort of central lube set up like the Limber Models as it saves a lot of hard work when set up and if you have a hub or bevel box leaking some where , providing you keep the central tank topped up it is not too much of a problem.
Good luck
Ron

Hi Ron,
Yes the split braking circuit on the Mk 2 maybe more of an issue, I dont know anything about the locking diff at the moment to comment on how that might help or not. You might find that the split circuit effects are exacerbated when used with the disconnects.
Thank you for the luck From just looking round quickly, the body has light surface rust which shouldn`t be too much of an issue, the main area of rust seems to be around the exhaust, similar to yours. but I am going to have to dive straight into both front bevel boxes, and most if not all of the drive shafts/tracta joints etc as most of the boots are split. I will definitely be using the oil dag, as you recommend too.
How does the central oil system work? does the level in the tank correspond to the level in the boxes and joints? sorry very early days for me on this.
Richard

The main thing I have noticed with the auto locking diff is you must drive the vehicle smoothly around sharp corners.......... ie round abouts and avoid changing gear in a round about.
The Old B81 Rolls digs down deep enough to do larger round abouts in top gear anyhow.
The auto locking diff is one of the Stalwarts greatest assets off road and makes the vehicle far superior to its amoured cusins.
I know on my 101 Landrover with a auto locking diff, the diff will act a little bit like a anti lock system..
I do not have enough time behind the wheel of the Stalwart to know if it is the same story.

On the early mark 1 all the hubs and front/rear bevel boxes are separate units oil wise and have small oil capacity and therefore a undetected leak from ......Say the speedometer drive could cause expensive trouble and the leak would be to the inside of the hull and not noticed.
The separate hubs and bevel boxes have their own breather valve set to vent or relief vacuum at certain pressures.
This can be a source of water entry , especially when swimming.
On the Limbers the round cross the hull brace between the fuel tank and transfer box is converted to a gear oil tank with dip stick and multiple hose outlets to every hub and bevel box and speedometer drive.
There are no breather valves and the breather hoses running to the hubs and bevel boxes are completely filled with gear oil.
There are no air spaces inside the hubs and bevel boxes.
Than means a incredible amount of oil drag and power lost if the oil is cold and many miles driven down the road until the vehicle warms up and becomes alive.
The advantage is a leaking hub is not to much of a big deal if the oil tank is kept topped up, and only one easy to get at top up point.
The tank being higher than every thing else means the oil is gravity supplied.
One other point of the central lube tank I found if the black oil dag is just added to the
tank it still finds its way to every part in short order if the vehicle is used as the whole set up breathes with temperature change of the working oil to and from the tank.

The Mark 1 Stalwart here in Australia has a owner who has done a lot of worth while changes.
Which has had up grades with hub breathers inside the hull,done while in army service.
The current owner has removed the breather valves and connected the all the breather pipes to a air tank inside the cabin and a electric air compressor with a pressure regulator set to 5 psi.
The positive pressure is used when swimming to keep water out of the expensive bits and to try and stop the need to change all the gear oils after swimming which is expensive in time and oil used.
If and when I ever get around to sorting out all the problems I have to fix and swim the big silly thing.
I intend to just pressurise my central lube tank to 5 psi , all the hard work plumbing wise has been done for me.