How To: Restoration of Ford M8 armoured car US Ordnance number 7373

[James P]

Originally Posted by Big D

Hi James P,

Thanks for that. That is a great idea about the silver paint. I will do that.

Interesting video. The little cork wedge I made actually did the trick and stopped the leak. However, I did learn though that the recommendation for lubrication for the pillow block changed from gear oil to grease, simply because of the leaks. I will do some more reading about that grease.

Hey Big D, I use Corn head grease on a VW transfer case that is prone to bleeding out and can vouch for it being a good call. The silver paint idea is something I saw on the show Tank Overhaul where after painting the vehicle they touched up all the strikes and hits with silver paint .

[Big D]

Hi David

Thanks for that. I'm getting there now.

Yes, I have that Zaloga book here. It is very detailed and a good read.

[Big D]

Thanks James P. I will need to get some of that paint. It will be a good little 'fill-in' job between other bigger jobs.

[Big D]

This week I have been tidying up a few more jobs and working on the transfer case and gun. I sourced some axle 'wedges' that I was after from a US supplier. In the US they are referred to as wedges but they seem to have different names (collets/split cones)in other countries.

I finalised the headlight wiring in the front of the hull and fitted the headlight holders and clips. I had one of each of the headlight holders and clips that were original and fabbed up the others. I am still on the lookout for those elusive T locking pins for the headlight pedestals.

After fitting the gun sleigh to the recoil system, I wasn’t happy with the way the sleigh slid on those two brass strips on the recoil system. I pulled the recoil system out again and rechecked the measurements. I found that the fold was not perfect across the whole length of the folded strips, and in places varied up to 0.2 – 0.3 mm. In the end, I shaved off 0.1-0.2mm off the top and bottom of the using a flap disc on a grinder and that set the gap up nicely. The sleigh moves freely on the recoil system now. I think if I had to do that job again, I would find some brass, or maybe even aluminium, channel the exact size, rather than folding brass sheet.

I got some advice about fitting the gun tube and decided that was a good way to go about it. Although the barrel had been straightened it was not perfect and I had to grind a few high spots that had been caused by the damage, before it would even go into the sleigh. At the time of writing, I am still working on this and not yet been able to get the barrel all the way into the sleigh. It needs to move another 20mm to seat it in the large ring at the end of the sleigh. Big hammers have not worked and I think I will have to make up a tool to give it some mechanical assistance to fully seat the barrel tube in the sleigh. As you can see, the freshly painted barrel and sleigh will need repainting!

I started test fitting some of the gun parts like side plates, .30 cal mount and ammo tray etc, so I could work out what mounting bolts I needed. I also fitted the mantlet but will need to get the two correct 5/8” NF allen head bolts for securing it to the recoil system.

I don’t have the little wedge piece on the bottom of the gun mount finalised as yet. The piece I’m talking about has two notches in it and is bolted onto the bottom of the gun mount. The two bolts sit in bushes on the mount, and have little cams on them, presumably for fine adjustment. The notches align with the release lever on the underside of the elevation system. From what I can see this acts as an elevation release and when you release the handle on the bottom of the elevation gear into the second notch, the elevation gear can rotate a little, releasing itself from the sector gear on the recoil system, and dropping the gun. In what situations was this used? Is it used when the gun is fixed in travel mode, to take the stress of movement of the vehicle off the elevation system?

I found that the two scope mounts I have are not matching for my turret model. As you can see from the photo, the mount nearest the breech sits too far away from the side plate. I am told though that these early scope mounts late had a spacer block between it and the side plate to allow them to sit at the right distance for mounting the scope. Hopefully I have secured a repro of one of these spacers.

Have I got the .30 cal ammo belt feed plate and empty case feeder chute mounted properly? Does the feed plate just swivel on one of the 5/8” rods from the mantlet? What about the empty case feeder chute? I also need a bush of some sort for the trigger lever for the .30 cal.

Now that I have all those bits and pieces in place, I’m hoping that everything can just remain there now awaiting me sliding the barrel and sleigh into place on the recoil system.

That is all....

[Big D]

More photos..

[Big D]

Yes, more photos......

[Big D]

Hi all,

One of the things I have been working on this week is getting the turret interior completed. As you would have seen on the photos, the breech ring is damaged on the underside but I have fitted this and the damaged tube until the new gun arrives.

I had quite a battle getting the gun tube seated in the sleigh and in the end had to make up a tool to make it happen. I guess there was enough of a kink in the tube to make it a tight squeeze in the sleigh.

The mantlet has two pieces of threaded rod which along with two large 5/8” Allen screws screws underneath, hold the mantlet onto the recoil system. My mantlet had one original piece of 5/8” threaded rod in it on the right side. I had to fit a new piece of threaded rod in the left hand side of the mantlet. I am not sure why but the original right hand rod does seem too long (maybe it’s not so original?). As it is it tends to sit over the ammo belt making the feeding of the ammo belt a bit tight. It does work but I wouldn’t trust it in combat. Ideally, I should take the mantlet off again, cut the rod down, and tap a new thread on it. I may yet do that. Thanks to Jonathan for his advice around the ammo belt feeder and ejected rounds shute. The .30 cal seems to sit in there nicely.

I also had quite a job getting the brass guide block on the side of the breech ring to line up with the right hand side plate. The brass lock was bent and it took a few hours to get it straight enough to align the breech ring and the side plate.

I am not at this stage yet, but how do you guys lift your turret? The access point where the plate bolts on at the back is an obvious lifting point but what about at the front? Do you wrap the strop around the mantlet? Perhaps front and rear, along with a strop that goes from side to side using the tie down ring around the turret?

I have a few other things back from the blasting and painting. The floor pieces came out good. The pintle hook is now fitted.

That's all for now.....

[Big D]

More photos.