A few questions for the T16 experts out there.

[Andrew Rowe]

Interesting question about track pulling to one side or the other. We had this problem on a Tank and even went as far as swapping tracks over from one side to the other, and even marking the final drive to make sure there was not a different ratio. Turned out that one side had an extra link, even though I am pretty sure we set both tracks up with the lineal length the same on both sides. Once we had taken the link out, we also "quartered" the track as well to achieve the correct lineal lengths. Tracks worked perfect after this.
We also run a M113, which has 64 links on one side and 63 on the other, and this is factory setup. Not entirely sure why they did this, whether it was for road camber? , but it is a bastard driving down our roads and it pulls to the left, but we drive on the left hand side, so is it the camber doing this? if I was in the good old US of A, where they were made , I would be on the other side of the road and it would be driving straight?Cheers Andrew.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Andrew Rowe

We also run a M113, which has 64 links on one side and 63 on the other, and this is factory setup. Not entirely sure why they did this, whether it was for road camber? , but it is a bastard driving down our roads and it pulls to the left, but we drive on the left hand side, so is it the camber doing this? if I was in the good old US of A, where they were made , I would be on the other side of the road and it would be driving straight?Cheers Andrew.

It is because the torsion bars are offset from left to right, so it ends up making things a little longer on one side than the other. Note that the final drives and the idlers are lined up.

Mathematically, it shouldn't make very little difference. End of the day, the sprocket teeth are a certain distance from each other, and they drive the track one pad at a time. The amount of stretch on the track is important, and this is where the problems will occur. It is one reason why the proper track tension is so important. There is a certain amount of stretch with rubber bushed track. In the end, the two rubber bushings on that one extra track pad will add very little distance overall.

I recall in my younger days driving the M113A2s from Shilo to Winnipeg and vice versa. They did not drive in a straight line, and one arm got very tired constantly pulling and releasing the one tiller bar. You could not drag on the bar for a long period as it would cause the differential to overheat.

[Jon Bradshaw]

The back of my machine is now the front and it steers to the left as I am driving the new "forward". The oil leaked after a good hour of hard driving and I am blaming it on overheating. I drove it again the next day for an hour of less heavy steering and there was minimal leaking. Gear oil on the floor is terrible to clean up.....
For the rest of you I will certainly be counting track pins tonight. I can pull a link if that works out to be the problem. As for laying out the track to measure it that will need to wait until I have some help.
Here are some pics from the weekends fun! That deuce never had a chance. He came over the hill and bang!
Not a re-enactment just two of us playing around. I had a guy with a drone flying around doing video but I am waiting for him to email me some of it.
For anyone in the Edmonton area looking for a machine of metal shop I can recommend the ones I used, that barrel is a complete fab job and I think it fits/looks the part pretty dam good.
A big thanks to Dave for letting me come out and drive on his land.

[rob love]

Perhaps some of the more modern synthetic oils will have a higher boiling point.

Most pinion gears are cut for forward movement. So there may be a little extra heat created by the gears. Also, how is the pump set up on the T-16 differential cooler. Is it trying to pick up oil from the dump side and pump it into the bottom of the diff? Just spitballing here...I have minimal experience with the T-16, but I do know that those diffs were used on snow machines like the Nodwells and have seen them with 8.2 liter detroit diesels powering them.

[Tony Smith]

Does the seal surface on the Pinion have spiral groove to encourage oil back into the diff under normal rotation, but tend to drive it out past the seal in your reverse rotation application?

This feature appears on various Ford shafts, bushes and seal surfaces from the 40's, but is more usually seen with felt seals than leather.

[Lynn Eades]

I would think that more heat is generated by driving technique or "too tight" brakes, than the cut of the gears. Sure it is designed to work one way, but it is not a hypoid. Only later U.Cs had a pinion seal at all. I doubt the T16 has a spiral slinger. The earlier carriers had nothing to stop the oil migrating (which it must have done, or they would never had modified them)
Rob,I think you covered it in the last line of your previous post.( #15)
Should these diffs with wet brakes, run a special oil?
btw. I have no experience with a T16 (except to look in one at W&P 2014)
Jon, If you suspect the breather valve, you could do away with it and run a (non kinked) hose to an inside the hull fuel filter?

[charlie fitton]

I was envisioning the oil piling up against the pinion gear as the crown gear pushes it that way now. that , possibly with what Tony suggests would leave a lot of oil piled up in the pinion housing.

extend your filler plug with a tube. Catch what falls out in a dish, clean up the mess, and replace the same amount....with new oil.

[andrew honychurch]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

Does the seal surface on the Pinion have spiral groove to encourage oil back into the diff under normal rotation, but tend to drive it out past the seal in your reverse rotation application?

This feature appears on various Ford shafts, bushes and seal surfaces from the 40's, but is more usually seen with felt seals than leather.

I would have thought that you are on the right track here. I cannot believe that the T16 diff is set up to run backwards all the time. I didnt strip my rear axle right down as David did so he will be best to answer this, but I feel sure it won't be designed to run like this and the oil cooler may not be working correctly as a result.

edit, or of course the oil bathed brake bands for steering. these work by not grabbing and sticking on the hub ( much like a Jeep handbrake early type) and literally drop cooled oil on the bands. If the pump doesn't work in reverse you will be getting seriously hot oil in the diff etc etc