A couple of C8A PERS-3 oddities

[cmperry4]

Just a couple of things noted during work in my HUP '45 "Staff Car"

1. The staff cars were equipped with the driveshaft drum brake, as with other CMPs, to quieten the driveline sound, according the Bart V's W&T article.
This superseded the cable operated rear drum brakes. What I found is the torque tube for the cable actuation still mounted to the cab frame, suggesting cab assemblies might have been well along the line before they made the switch to the driveline brake. Any opinions?

2. Both Rob Clarke and I have noted a hole cut in the floor for access to the upper transfer case bolts. His looks more neatly cut out than mine, which is a rather crudely peeled down opening (to be hidden under the lino flooring of the staff car). As the staff car transfer cases were mounted on rubber blocks (same type as forward engine mount), it would raise the bolt heads about and inch or so, so I'm wondering if this "access hole" was a crude, ad hoc "modification" made on the line, or something that would have happened in the field the first time the RCEMES had to drop the case and discovered the boltheads were darn-near inaccessible under the floorboard.

[rob love]

The hole cut in the floor reminds me of a similar and common, albeit unnoficial, procedure in the M151A2 Jeep. The guys used to cut two slots about 3" back on either side of the transmission/transfer case assembly and bend the floor back. Otherwise, the correct way was to remove the whole powerpack (which only took about 45 minutes, mind you). After the job was done, the guys would just bend the floor plate kind of back into place. I even saw one jeep with hinges added to the bent back piece for next time.
I personally never did this. I liked working on the old M38a1s and M151A2s, and found that sometimes these shortcuts actually ended up taking more time than to do the job right.

I did do a similar modification on the Clark aircraft mules to allow removal of the oilpan. Ottawa approved the modification so it was OK. It made the replacement of the oil pump relief spring into a 1.5 hour job instead of the 18 hour job it used to be when you had to remove the engine.

Along the same line, I saw many Ford CMPs out of the Saskatchewan area had the cowls angle iron over the radiator radiator cut so the engine could be taken out without removing the cowl. Whatever works, I guess.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by rob love
Along the same line, I saw many Ford CMPs out of the Saskatchewan area had the cowls angle iron over the radiator radiator cut so the engine could be taken out without removing the cowl. Whatever works, I guess.

The fact that the upper radiator bar was hampering engine removal led to a new feature on the last variant of Ford's no.13 cab:

"Removable upper radiator bar was a feature of very late
production and was a good idea to assist in engine removals."

Source: http://www.oldcmp.net/machm1.html