REME Help required

Dan Sicotte · #1 30-03-08, 16:14

Any of you ex REME guys recognize this from a Ferret wheel station drain plug? I tried to drain the 90W, but it would not come out. I had a look in the plug hole, and saw this other obstruction. I tried to free it up, but no luck. Any Ideas?

rob love · #2 30-03-08, 17:07

It's been a while, but as I recall that is not a drain hole, but rather a plug which indexes the internals of the station. Does the plug you removed have a little indexing pin that fit into the slot? If I recall, the slot is what allows the shaft to extend/retract as the suspension is raised or lowered.

Seems to me the real drain plug is inside the hull, where you can make the most mess.

Again, it's been a while.

Richard Farrant · #3 30-03-08, 20:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Sicotte

Any of you ex REME guys recognize this from a Ferret wheel station drain plug? I tried to drain the 90W, but it would not come out. I had a look in the plug hole, and saw this other obstruction. I tried to free it up, but no luck. Any Ideas?

Dan,

I have spent a lot of time working with Ferrets in the past, but your photo taken from underneath mislead me at first, but I am sure this is the drain plug. In this case, I would be worried as it may not have had any oil in it.

Rob has said that it looks like a dowel plug which indexs the internals, well unless there are differences in Canadian Ferrets, I doubt it as there are two long dowel pins in the back of the bevel box which engage with the inner tracta housing which slides in on them. Any movement of the suspension allows the inner tracta to move slightly on these pins.

Dan Sicotte · #4 30-03-08, 22:24

The ferret is a British one..Mk2/3. The other wheel stations do not have the same odd plug inside. They all have a brass plug on the outside of the wheel station, 1/2 inch allen key type. I tried to remove the weird plug, and it won't budge. So I was wondering if it was an emer mod or something that was jammed in the housing.
As for oil, it does have some, I changed all the lubricants last fall....except that one (I topped it up). Is there any other way of draining the wheel station without taking it off the hull?
Thanks
Dan
Ferret 00 DA 81

Richard Farrant · #5 30-03-08, 23:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Sicotte

The ferret is a British one..Mk2/3. The other wheel stations do not have the same odd plug inside. They all have a brass plug on the outside of the wheel station, 1/2 inch allen key type. I tried to remove the weird plug, and it won't budge. So I was wondering if it was an emer mod or something that was jammed in the housing.
As for oil, it does have some, I changed all the lubricants last fall....except that one (I topped it up). Is there any other way of draining the wheel station without taking it off the hull?

Dan,
Just to be clear, you are talking only about the inner tracta / bevel box, it seems. The photo was looking up from underneath, what was the end of the plug like, ie. did it have a peg on the end to locate in the visible slot up in the hole? (Not that I have ever come across anything like this before). The normal drain plug is the one underneath the inner tracta on the outside of the hull.
Some bevel boxes might have a plug on the inside of the hull on a vertical face at opposite end to the input drive, are you refering to that as well? Not a drain as it is too high.

Your last sentence mentions draining the wheel station..........do you mean the outer tracta? There is no drain plug for the outer tracta, but the hub can be drained.

Dan Sicotte · #6 31-03-08, 01:00

Yes, sorry, I had a couple of little boys distracting me while I was typing.
The inner tracta joint on the right front is where the problem lies. I hear no noise while I drive, so it's not touching anything important....as if I could hear it anyway.
The obstruction has a 1/4 inch by 3/8 inch slot that seems to be a reciever for a male ended tool. I can't see the top end of the threads, so I think it's screwed in, but it's on there really tight. I tooled a piece of flatbar to try and remove it but it was no good....the flatbar is too soft, and it just rounds out of the slot.
I was thinking of drilling a 1/4 inch hole in it, to allow the fluids to drain. But I wanted to make sure with you REME types that it wasn't an emer Modification. Afterall, I am an ex-tanker.....Make it work!

Does the inner bevel box vertical plug look anything like this?
Thanks for your time.
Dan

Richard Farrant · #7 31-03-08, 01:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Sicotte

Yes, sorry, I had a couple of little boys distracting me while I was typing.
The inner tracta joint on the right front is where the problem lies. I hear no noise while I drive, so it's not touching anything important....as if I could hear it anyway.
The obstruction has a 1/4 inch by 3/8 inch slot that seems to be a reciever for a male ended tool. I can't see the top end of the threads, so I think it's screwed in, but it's on there really tight. I tooled a piece of flatbar to try and remove it but it was no good....the flatbar is too soft, and it just rounds out of the slot.
I was thinking of drilling a 1/4 inch hole in it, to allow the fluids to drain. But I wanted to make sure with you REME types that it wasn't an emer Modification. Afterall, I am an ex-tanker.....Make it work!

Dan,

I have to be honest, it is quite a while since I last withdrew an inner tracta housing, so cannot visualise it, but am now thinking that the slot is in fact a channel for the oil to transfer from bevel box to tracta and thus to drain plug. The inner tracta housing slides in at this point so this would make sense. Why not remove another of these plugs and check if oil comes out and what you can see in the hole. Is this is the wheel station you are suspecting a problem with?

Perhaps someone else could chime in here, who has done one more recently and can confirm if the slot is a drain or oil transfer channel?

Dan, just to add, I looked closely at the section drawing in EMER's and the slot looks to be in the bearing housing, something you do not see unless bevel box is totally stripped and am certain it is a transfer channel.............my feeling is that there is no oil in this bevel box. Quick test, squirt some diesel, paraffin or something light throught the filler hole to see if it runs out of the plug hole, cannot see what would have blocked it.

Dan Sicotte · #8 31-03-08, 02:33

This is the only inner tracta joint with this type of plug/ obstruction.
I tried to run it through with Naphta, no joy. Hence why I really want to drain it's fluids. I could send a larger immage, so you could zoom in and see what it really looks like. Send PM if you are interested in a better picture.
Dan