T-16 S/N 5399 T.D. 97377 Restoration

[horsa]

Warm weather and longer days means it's time to get back to work on projects...

Got the floor lockers installed again behind the driver and gunner in the engine bay. The driver side locker gets the pair of metal racks with one intended for the short floor board and the other under the radio area for the vehicle battery. The gunner side has no racks and gets a full length floor board since they didn't always have the seat up by the radiator.

There are no details about the two floor boards anywhere that anyone has found so far, but you can spot each of them in a couple of the wartime photos/drawings they included in the parts and service manuals.

[Lynn Eades]

Heres my explanation of why the carrier heads in one direction,when the track link numbers are uneven. It comes from the tendancy for the drive to come out of a differential evenly, particulary under load. Just like in a slippery diff, the planetary and side gears tend to push away from each other. The result is they tend to lock against the thrusts, and in turn the differential case. This has the effect of the whole unit turning as one including the sprockets with their thirty five teeth. It takes just that little bit longer for a track with extra links to get back around, and so the machine starts to head to one side. Of course this tendancy is easily overcome by the application of a bit of steering or brakes, or the effect of uneven terrain

[tankbarrell]

Lynn, the sprocket doesn't know how many links are in each track. If you short track a vehicle on one side it drives the same, all other things being equal.

That is where the tendency to pull lies in my opinion. Minor differences in track tension and road conditions.

[Lynn Eades]

With all due respect to your knowledge and experience with tracked vehicles. The point is that, every thing else being the same, tension etc,and the only difference is that one track is more worn than the other, and therefore has one less link than the other side. the machine heads off to one side.
The workshop manual descibes the fault, and how to fix it. By making sure the two tracks have the same number of links each side, and by quarting the two tracks, and swaping the quarters to give equal length tracks.

[Nigel Watson]

If your track is stretched more on one side and your sprockets are worn this means that when the track goes around the sprocket teeth they will not mesh correctly, and will ride up on the side of the teeth. If they do that all the way round the sprocket then more track is going round the sprocket than was designed to do. This surely would mean it takes longer, or is it shorter, for the track to go round that sprocket. If the other side is ok and meshes correctly then would the carrier not have a tendency to veer to the side? Or have I just had two too many of the barley water?!!!!!

Nigel

[horsa]

My limited engineering knowledge makes me think the size and speed of the turning sprocket is the big factor here. Not the length of the track itself. Assuming the tracks are both the same in terms of pitch and condition so they stay engaged with the sprocket teeth. So the differential regulating power to each side comes into play. A longer track would have more weight but since the vehicle rolls on it, that should also not be a factor.

In the end, going with what seems right prevailed. Make the track link count the same on each side and then tension each track so it looks the same on each side. If it continues to pull slightly to one side, I'd guess that would be due to rod tension for the brakes and steering which can be adjusted after a few turnbuckle revolutions to take pressure off the differential parts.

[Nigel Watson]

Too much barley water then David?!!!