Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

Nice Jeep with unique Australian mods, its owner siting in the display.

[Darrin Wright]

last of the pics

[Dale Jordan]

Looks like a great display Darrin well done to you and the other members good practice for Corowa . Did you leave the tools on the side and rear for the trip or remove them ? I thought they might vibrate loose . Was there four carrier at the show . Dale

[Ian Mastin]

G'day Darrin,

Thanks mate! for putting up the photo's of me and my display had a great weekend at this years Air show hope we do it again and also thankyou for giving me a ride in your awesome BGC to, looking forward to see it at Corowa.


Regards
Ian

[Darrin Wright]

There were 4 BGC at the airshow, 2 from the GRMG (Robin & Tims) and 2 from the VMVC (Euan & mine).
Tim's was active in the battle re-enactments with a Bren and Boys firing.

All tools were left on the vehicle, I used tie wire to secure them from falling off and theft. They would be reasonably secure utilising the standard hull fixtures as that is how they secured them back then. I guess when they lost them in WW2, they could just go to the Q-store and request another. We don't have that luxury.

Found the grinding noise, the bolt on the end of the bendix vibrated loose and fell out. I have pulled the starter motor and recovered the bolt with a flexable magnet.
Now to Loctite or tie wire it back in. It did have the lock washer, but this is now broken...

[Mike K]

The most unrealistic scene would have to be the Japanese soldier in the surrendering pose

[Darrin Wright]

I had a tilt tray load the BGC and deliver it to Corowa on Wednesday, I had to provide guidance on how best to secure it to the deck of the truck. The operator had never loaded anything like that before, and that was good, as he was open to advice.

Drove the Jeep across with trailer.

Camped at the Ball Park Caravan Pk in our usual spot. Parked the BGC out the front of our camp site.

It was good to catch up with several people on MLU at the park.

Thursday I went to start the BGC and the starter motor just spun. Pulled it out and discovered the bendix spring had shattered. Not good. A friend and I drove around town in his Jeep, looking for an engineering place that we could repair the spring. Instead, we found a place that the owner was into Ford hotrods and just happened to have a spare bendix spring at home. He was kind enough to loan me the spring to get me going. That got the BGC going again, and by lunch time we were driving along the river bank area.
On Thursday I managed to drive approx 35km until later in the day she was hot and vaporised the fuel system. This provided some quality time to talk BGC and reflect on BGC.

Friday morning I took it back down to the river bank area and drove around. Unfortunately, the BGC broke down again, this time it was catastrophic. The generator pulley had spun on the shaft and the fan bladed got wobbly. This was the noise that something was not quite right. Luckily the only damage was the pulley and generator. A friend brought his 6x6 GMC down and another loaned me a chain so we could recover it back to camp. I removed the blades and kept the cooling belts on, this allowed me to run the engine for a short period so that I could manoeuvre into our camp site.

Another friend in Albury had an engine with generator and pulley and was kind enough to loan it to me. So a 4hr round trip to borrow that, go home and clean & lubricate the bearings and return to Corowa, meant we had it operational again by 1700h. Just in time for the VMVC BBQ.

Friday night, attended the presentation by Mike Cecil at the football grounds. Sounds like there will be some good books coming out in the near future.

Saturday morning took the BGC for a quick test drive to ensure all was good. I still had some doubts about reliability and going in the street parade. last thing I wanted was to be broken down in the main street. All was good, so with the children in, drove up to the parking area and looked and all the other vehicles pulling in.

We drove the shorter version of the parade and headed out to the showgrounds. All went well, sat on approx 34-36 mph most of the way with the sound of the engine and the clatter of track on the road. Arrived at the show grounds and was parked in at the back. Not happy, as the other BGC there were all meant to be parked together off to the side. Oh well.
The swap meet was interesting. Didn't buy much at all, managed to talk with a few people.

My wife left early in the Jeep to go back to the park, this left my eldest son and I to take the BGC home. So when we could, we left. The BGC sat on 34-36mph again, all the way back. Went for a quick swim in the afternoon, it is hot work operating a BGC. Then later drove around some more until it got hot again. Then it started to lack a bit of power and not perform very well.

Saturday night, went out for tea with friends to a local restaurant.

Sunday, the day everyone hates, was pack up day. In the morning Keith Webb came by and we did an interview down by the river bank area. Packed up camp and had the tilt tray arrive at 1000h to load.

When we had it home, decided to take it for another drive in the vacant block behind out house. There we discovered what was causing the lack of power. The fuel tap and linkage had vibrated partially closed, staving the engine of fuel. Adjusted this and we were off again driving, until it got hot. Took some good quality pics and then took it home and gave the suspension a quick wash.

It was really good to catch up with people, especially those that are on MLU and meet those that helped me with info & advice. Thanks