Aligning Centurion engine to gearbox

[Malcolm Towrie]

45jim, I need to talk to you about this! I'll send a PM.
We've tried to drop the clutch in from the gearbox side (with the gearbox installed) but no go.

We are going to try rotating the engine 45 degrees in the hull to see if there is enough room to get the clutch in from the engine side, but it seems a faint hope. Now you are saying it can be done. I'll be in touch.

Thanks for the info on the risks of long term storage. Right now we have very frozen tracks from being a gate guard for decades, so I am certainly concerned about the first movement under power.

Malcolm

[jdmcm]

We suffered a frozen clutch in our Centurion this year, and it was a real bugger to break free, finally followed Rick from the UK's advice and gave it a good shot with the steam cleaner as it was running, clutch depressed, worked like a charm. This winter she is coming inside!

[Malcolm Towrie]

Do you mean ice frozen or rusted frozen, John?

Malcolm

[Malcolm Towrie]

An update: I finally have the clutch installed in the Centurion, or at least in place.

We were held up tracking down a lip seal for the clutch, the one that seals to the crankshaft. It's installed in a crankcase cover that's part of the clutch assembly. You can see it in the first photo. The original seal was 4 15/16" outside diameter. Despite Garlock and Timken making a large selection of inch-size seals (and probably others), they are a bit limited on the 1/16" increments, especially in the larger sizes. So we bought a 5" OD seal and bored the cover out to suit.

With the clutch finally assembled, I then struggled to get it installed with the engine and the transmission in place, the engine loosely, but the transmission fully installed.

What did the trick was supporting the engine in the hull with the gantry crane at a 45 degree angle to the centreline, and unbolting the left-hand fan so it could be pushed back towards the transmission. I then dropped the clutch in beside the engine and finagled it into place.

That was the last major hurdle to getting the tank moving (I hope).

Malcolm

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[MikeV]

So I have a question for Malcom Do we know the history of Our centurion Tank? Since the B.C. Tanks is a little out on their history?

[jdmcm]

Hi Malcolm

good to see you have it installed! I am so jealous of how clean that engine bay is...our frozen clutch occured from what we think was moisture rusting the plates together, so we used a Centurion clutch hold down device (a stick) fired her up and then we used a steam cleaner to loosen the plates, worked very well. Now after we run it up to temp, especially on typical Vancouver days, we use the stick to hold the clutch down for a day or two to ensure the plates are free from moisture, so far so good, but as soon as we get brave enough to bring her inside that is the plan...

[Malcolm Towrie]

Originally Posted by MikeV

So I have a question for Malcom Do we know the history of Our centurion Tank? Since the B.C. Tanks is a little out on their history?

Mike, this is a great thread on Canadian Centurions in general and ours specifically.

Malcolm

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ferrerid=11288

[Malcolm Towrie]

John, interesting that the steam cleaner worked so well. I would never have thought it would. Was it a large industrial type cleaner? Do you think it was just the heating effect or was it blasting dirt and debris out?

Malcolm