T16 T101331 restoration

[eddy8men]

that's the one mate, been sitting there for some time before i got round to it but at least i'm on with the restoration now. i was wondering just how many hands this carrier passed thru before someone actually did anything to it, the centaur was the same, it had been recovered in 1992 but i was the first to do anything with it and that was nearly 20 years later, although to be fair i just pulled the turret off for my cromwell and it is kevin who will really put it back into shape and the best of luck to him.

rick

[Billruston]

Ok Rick looks good! Is it missing a lot of parts?
Looking forward for more photos mate.
Bill.

[eddy8men]

hi bill you can probably see what's there and what's not but i have been collecting parts for quite some time and all i really need to get the basics up and running is two wheels for the front idlers.

the tub was a little out of shape due to the sides being cut and the generally poor condition of the floorpan and sponsons not to mention the engine and chassis rails because of this i've had to pay attention to the lines before welding the plates back in, not really difficult but it does slow the job down.


in the pics i needed to pull the rear armour plate before i could weld the rear sponson, so i welded a bracket to the back plate (it's actually a churchill track idler tension shim) and used a hoist to pull it before tacking it.

samsung 432.jpg samsung 433.jpg

[horsa]

Do you only need the front wheels or do you also need the brackets that support the front wheels?

[eddy8men]

hi david
i only need the wheels as i managed to scrounge a idler bracket from shaun (cheers mate) and i'm having another fabricated.

[horsa]

OK, just checking since I have a set of left and right brackets in with my strategic spare parts. Wasn't really looking to get rid of them but if it helped get another carrier on the road, we probably could have worked something out. Glad you don't need them as shipping costs would be a killer from Texas to the UK.

As for wheels, we'd wondered about two options to your problem since idler wheels are tougher to source in good condition. One is to put a road wheel on a lathe and turn it down an inch. The other was mounting a road wheel as is since they are identical in every way other than outside rubber thickness. Not sure if it would push the track to close to the fender or not. Would sure help with worn track though as you wouldn't have to remove as many links due to age.

[eddy8men]

hi david
thanks for the offer of the brackets but like you said i'm glad i don't need them as i'm sure the shipping would have made my eyes water.

i didn't know that t16 idler wheels were 19" i had assumed that the americans would use their production prowess and fit 20" to keep things standardised, by the way does anyone know why the idler is 19" and not 20" ?

for what it's worth unless i can find 2x19" i'll fit normal road wheels, if i hit any probs i'll let you all know