15-CWT, 2K1, WIRE 5 Body Details

[David Dunlop]

Sadly, when I had my WIRE 5, it was only my 2nd MV restoration and I had not yet fully understood the invaluable lesson of taking photos of everything to do with this kind of project, let alone serious note and measurement taking, so please forgive the lack of detail here. My hope is some of you may be able to recognize the pieces, if you are missing them and or better understand how they worked. If any one has an original one of these tables, please post pictures and specifics.

I have added a sketch of the general look of the Cypher Clerk's table and the two support rod assemblies for it. IIRC, the hinge at the back of the table was piano style, but don't quote me. The two support assemblies were mounted on the wall of the wireless body below and just inboard of the outside edges of the table. The upper clips for the supports were definitely U-clips. The lower ones may have been U-clips immediately below the weld for the cross brace, but I am leaning towards a socket bracket right at the bottom of each vertical rod.

The support rods folded over one another against the wall when the table was not in use and the table dropped down over them. I think a spring clip was attached to the wall that engaged the front centre metal trim of the table top.
The metal trim around the edge of the table top extended about one half inch or more below the plywood. This allowed the two retaining clips to be screwed underneath either side, just aft of the corner tapers that locked the ends of the support bracket rods in place. It struck me at the time, the metal edge trimming for the Cypher Clerk Table looked very much like what was seen on 1930's era kitchen tables, but everything was painted white.

For what it is worth, these table assemblies were in short supply in all the boxes I saw at Princess. Most had nothing at all in that location and showed signs of repaint over that spot predating being surpassed out. A few had fixed brackets and basic ply tables installed. Not totally sure the tables were popular enough to disappear for that reason, but think they may have fallen into disuse due to the progressive failure of the interior plywood walls in these bodies. The original plywood was all constructed using common animal glues. Over time, these bodies start to leak and the constant exposure to moisture is fatal for the integrity of the old plywood. My WIRE 5 body had a few sections of wall that were visibly in tough shape. The rest looked pretty good, until I removed it to use as reference pieces for cutting new replacements. Within a few weeks of drying out indoors, even though it was still close to it's original thickness, the individual plies in each sheet started to separate from each other.


David

[RichCam]

Guys,

Jim pulled the terminals apart since we needed to know just how and what they looked like from both the inside and outside.
As per the pictures, Brass stud, brass wing nuts, washer, bakelite round spacer and bakelite spacer.
So, they were insulated from each other, you could pass + current through one and - current through the other. There is a 3rd terminal, on the inside, that ties directly into a steel stud. That would be a logical ground. I agree with Robert, this would be excellent for a field telephone connection as well as an external power port.
Other pictures are of the chorehorse closet. I will be replacing some of the rusted bottom pieces with new flat bar and angle stock. We have to leave 1 leg free so it can be stood up inside the box, had to cut it to get it tipped over and out the rear door.
Does anyone out there have a spare chorehorse closet door?

[David Dunlop]

Rich.

I ran into the same problem when planning the replacement of the ply in my 2K1. Even when moved to the centre of the floor at the high point of the roof arch, no way to tip it over. Had to keep shoving it around to work around it.

I suspect they must have placed the Gen Box into the 2K1 bodies before dropping the roof assemblies down on top of the rest of the structure. Once the spot welding and all the screws were in place securing the two body components, the interior ply was probably added and the Gen Box secured in it's corner and the painting done.

By the way, with regards to the armour cable and Bus Bar running from the Gen Box, the armour cable was all painted white and all it's fittings. From the Bus Bars I was able to examine, they all showed signs of white paint on them to some degree, but when you looked at the red cylindrical stand off insulators behind it that the mounting screws pass through to mount it to the wall, you could see they were all oversprayed and the paint was always thin to non existent on the bottom edge of the Bus Bar and insulators. The insulators look like a red resin or bakelite and were probably a common electrical bits. The terminal strips and actual wire cables were the only unpainted wiring inside the body.

Boy! I would love to find an old local electrical shop that has been around for decades and see if they had any 30's and 40's electrical supplies catalogs still kicking about. Can't help but think virtually all of the stuff in these boxes was off the shelf.

David

[David Dunlop]

The storage of this item can be a bit confusing due to the various different Wireless Bodies in service during the war. In several vehicles, it was stored on a mounting bracket on the right side wall of the body close to the fuse box. In the 2K1 and 2K2 series of wireless trucks, the Switchboards, Charging No. C5 was actually stored face down, slid into a pair of steel rails underneath the central portion of the wireless table.

David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by RichCam

Guys,

Jim pulled the terminals apart since we needed to know just how and what they looked like from both the inside and outside.
As per the pictures, Brass stud, brass wing nuts, washer, bakelite round spacer and bakelite spacer.
So, they were insulated from each other, you could pass + current through one and - current through the other. There is a 3rd terminal, on the inside, that ties directly into a steel stud. That would be a logical ground. I agree with Robert, this would be excellent for a field telephone connection as well as an external power port.

It's much too heavy for a telephone connection point! I'm fairly sure it is intended to supply 12V power to the penthouse when that's in use. The wingnut terminals are typically those used for slotted-lug connections on the various "Batten, Terminal" strips. Are they marked with + & -?

Chris.