Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[Jordan Baker]

Pulled the wiring loom cover from the steering tube. Just look at that lovely khaki green #3.

[Jordan Baker]

I also removed the instrument panel/dash. I’m thinking it’s the first time in a long long time it’s been out of the vehicle. Bruce Parker,on his last visit over, suggested I might get lucky and the mileage numbers inside the speedometer would still be present. Well when I pulled it apart they were. Checking out the mileage on the speedometer seems to show 13,719.8 miles.I didn’t think it would be this high but then again they did sever with the Dutch forces for a close to 30years after the war. My thoughts are the Dutch drove it the most.

[Jordan Baker]

Lastly I’m happy to report that the Otter is again back in the shop on solid ground this time.

Hopefully I will be able to post some more semi regular updates as work continues. The shop build continues as well.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Thanks for the update, Jordan. That workshop looks fabulous and it looks you will be cracking down on that Otter next.

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

I also removed the instrument panel/dash. I’m thinking it’s the first time in a long long time it’s been out of the vehicle. Bruce Parker,on his last visit over, suggested I might get lucky and the mileage numbers inside the speedometer would still be present. Well when I pulled it apart they were. Checking out the mileage on the speedometer seems to show 13,719.8 miles.I didn’t think it would be this high but then again they did sever with the Dutch forces for a close to 30years after the war. My thoughts are the Dutch drove it the most.

Nice find, indeed the Otters were the longest serving CMPs with the Dutch Armed Forces.

[Jordan Baker]

I got the dash fully disassembled this afternoon. I gave it good sandblast and it’s cleaned up quite nicely. Interestingly it was primed in black primer then over painted with KG#3.

The current limit relay has seen better days. I’m looking for a new one if anyone has any leads.

2.524 1997401 Relay, current limit. Per the manual it’s a 12v 30amp unit.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

Checking out the mileage on the speedometer seems to show 13,719.8 miles.I didn’t think it would be this high but then again they did sever with the Dutch forces for a close to 30years after the war. My thoughts are the Dutch drove it the most.

The other day I was talking to an acquaintance who asked me if I knew anything about the Otter armoured car. This, it turned out, because when he was conscripted in the Dutch Army ca. the early 60s, he spent 16 months in Suriname (which was a Dutch colony/overseas dependency until 1975) having the time of his life. They apparently went on long patrols in the jungle, up to three weeks at a time, and had Otter armoured cars. I’m not sure he meant they did those patrols with the Otters, but I suppose they must have come on at least some. That would probably get quite some distance on them, anyway.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

The other day I was talking to an acquaintance who asked me if I knew anything about the Otter armoured car. This, it turned out, because when he was conscripted in the Dutch Army ca. the early 60s, he spent 16 months in Suriname (which was a Dutch colony/overseas dependency until 1975) having the time of his life. They apparently went on long patrols in the jungle, up to three weeks at a time, and had Otter armoured cars. I’m not sure he meant they did those patrols with the Otters, but I suppose they must have come on at least some. That would probably get quite some distance on them, anyway.

See some period pictures of Otters in this thread: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...554#post231554

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Ah, yes, I forgot about that thread. I’ll refer him to it, I think

[David Dunlop]

Hi Jordan.

That relay looks bad, but it came from the era when a lot of things were rebuildable, particularly electrical items like motors, generators and a host of different types of coils.

Is there a competent electrical shop near you doing that sort of work you could take the relay to for an honest evaluation? If you could carefully clean the frame assembly and free up all the hardware, could the core and coil be repaired/rewound by them to original specs? Asking usually does not cost anything and if they think it can be saved, then you know the time you then put into cleaning it up will be worth it.

The other possibility is that the relay from the Otter may have seen usage in a lot of other GM vehicles in the 30's, 40's and 50's, as a stand alone item or built into a fancier regulator style case.


David

[Jordan Baker]

The dash rebuild is moving along nicely. The next few posts will be photo heavy with a handful of “before and afters”

First up is the dash as it looks now. The pitting was filled with some jb weld and then carved and sanded down until it was smooth again. The gauge cluster will not be the original one as it was sadly too far gone with the entire bottom portions rotted away.

The second picture is of the parts I’ve rebuilt. See the next few posts for more details on them. The circuit cut out cleaned up quite nicely after vapour blasting. I haven’t tested it yet but it’s on the list to look at.

[Jordan Baker]

The trouble lamp socket is a two wire version. It also has a wider face than what I’ve seen in CMP’s. It was re-plated in nickel after being vapour blasted.

[Jordan Baker]

Next up is the ignition switch. These are available as NOS as they were used in US built half tracks. It was carefully and fully disassembled so that the rusted parts could be cleaned up. It was given a zinc plating then buffed up.

[Jordan Baker]

The starter push button is next up. Again this one was carefully and fully disassembled. It was quite full of rust and fire extinguisher sand. The metal parts were vapour blasted. There was too small springs, one under the brass contact and the other behind the button. Both spent over night in a rust eating solution. It wasn’t Evaporust but something similar. The body was given a zinc plating and the push button and outer retaining nut nickel plating. I still need to get the terminal screws out but they were seized. I don’t want to break the fibre board. So I’ll see how an overnight soak in the anti rust stuff helps.

[Jordan Baker]

Lastly for the night.

The three terminal strip in its before state. I vapour blasted as you see it and it cleaned up almost looking new. All of the screws/nuts/washer have been zinc plated. I still need to do the metal bits clamped onto the fibre board.

The last item is a bit of a mystery. It was attached to the fuel gauge. It broke and came apart so it’s not usable. However I’m not quite sure what it is. The fine wire is tightly coiled on a fibre strip inside the assembly. If someone has any ideas I’d love to know what it does.

[Grant Bowker]

It might be a voltage reducer... One source lists the otter as 12 volt system. using a voltage reducer would permit use of a 6 volt gauge, common to other CMP... More research is needed.
A photo of a current version https://vintageautogarage.com/electr...RoC1zQQAvD_BwE is attached. They are also referred to as Runtz https://oldchevytrucks.com/catalogse...esult/?q=runtz

[Grant Bowker]

Otter parts list CRAC-02 lists part 862138 "adapter, fuel gauge" on page 123 (group 9.7312). There is also "adapter. heat indicator" part 1510678. I've no idea why they list 2 different adapters if they are the type of voltage reducer I'm suggesting as current practice is to use one version for low current devices like gauges and a different version for higher current devices like fan motors and radios. It seems the high current versions give bad gauge readings...

Although they don't have the * that commonly means unique to CMP in the parts list neither of those part numbers show in the 1929-1948 Chevrolet Master Parts Catalog. Also no result in GMpartswiki.com


On edit: In an effort to confirm or deny my idea, I just thought to check the part number of the fuel gauge mounted on the dash - it is the same part number as listed for the C60S. For the heat indicator, the C60S uses a mechanical gauge and the theory about voltage reducers only makes sense for an electrical version.

[Jordan Baker]

Dash is coming along. The speedometer was replaced but it needed a rebuild. I also decided to reset the odometer to match what was originally removed from the Otter. The wiring junction block was also rebuilt and plated.

[Lynn Eades]

I think Grant is bang on, that it is a voltage reducer. The resistance needs to suit the load. Macs have them for individual instruments, 12 volt to 6 volt.

[Jordan Baker]

A “few” hours were spent sorting out the original wiring harness that I removed from the vehicle. Every wire has been tagged on both ends for what is it, the size and colour and how the wire ends in either nothing, ring, spade or a flag terminal. I did find a few differences from the wiring diagram with some of the colour tracers. I ended up writing 4 sheets of hand written notes documenting each wire that now to be typed up.

I’ve also ordered all my wires in bulk amd I will hopefully have that in a few weeks.

One interesting bit that I found. The vehicle was wired for for high/low beams, however no actual switch was provided. So the headlamps have both sets of wire at the junction terminal strips and there is two sets of wire that are at the dash terminal strip. However only the high beam has power from the headlamp switch. The other was that the harness had the wiring for two brake lights when only one was fitted.

[Jordan Baker]

While waiting for the wire order to arrive I figured I may as well build what I can with what I’ve got. It’s not much but it’s a start. The original wiring was well beyond saving. The covering simply crumbles away. I was also given the chance to go over an original harness that was NOS. This proved invaluable.

[Chris Suslowicz]

If you can borrow the NOS harness again, is it worth making up a wiring board so you can get all the individual lengths correct and lace it up/add sleeving before fitting it to the vehicle?

Chris.
(I suppose it depends on how much workshop space is available.)

[Jordan Baker]

Workshop space I have. However that harness is in England in an Otter. I did some detailed drawings and pictures of it though. I was also fortunate that my original harness is pretty intact. So I’ll be making up a board with it to layout the new one. Only a few ends were bits were cut from it.

[Jordan Baker]

About 1.5hrs of work to get this inner left foot well panel removed. Hamilton Bridge used a lot of round headed slot machine screws. 80years later they can be a challenge to remove. Most had the slot completely covered in layers of paint. I found using a box cutter and slim slotted screw driver worked well for cleaning the slot. I then tried out my new Milwaukee M18 impact driver. Wow I am impressed. It has different speed settings then automatically adjusts the torque and speed once it senses the bolt or nut is backing out. I found this really helpful in keeping the slotted bit from slipping out of the screw.

I was also fortunate that the original junction blocks were still present. It should clean up quite nicely similar to the one on the dash.

[Jordan Baker]

With the removal of the foot well parts I decided to sandblast them prior to getting the dents and damage removed from them. It’s just nicer working with clean parts. There was a pile of crud to remove prior to blasting. This was composed of the usual dried oil/grease and road dirt along with a pile of fire extinguisher sand and a few Dutch repaints over the original paint work. It was great to see all the original factory applied Khaki Green #3.

[Jordan Baker]

The sandblasting of these part’s probably took about 6-7 hours in my cabinet over a few nights work. An interesting find was the cast steering tube support bracket was originally painted in KG#3. The other item I found interesting is that the two dome headed countersunk screws featured external star washers under the heads. This was documented in a General Motors Service Information Bulletin.

Lastly I vapour blasted a few of the more delicate parts. The wiring junctions blocks cleaned up quite nicely. All of the metal parts were removed from the fibre backing and plated as previously described.

[Jordan Baker]

Before and after. This panel had been crushed by the engine hitting it when the Otter was rolled. The doubled up edge had been crushed and the whole side curved. Managed to get it all straightened out. No heat. Just an adjustable wrench, shop press and lots of steel blocking and hammer work.

[Jordan Baker]

The post office had a nice delivery for me this morning of my bulk wire order. Now I can start making all new wiring for the Otter. First up was to finish the wiring for the dash. This section was made up of a number of separate wire jumpers to all the lighting toggle switches. I also made up the wire for the fuel gauge to the fuel gage switch and the wires for the trouble lamp socket. Thankfully the original wiring was mostly complete for determining how all the connections were made and lengths of wire.

[Jordan Baker]

I also replaced the original wire on the fuel tank sender wires. These units were NOS items in great shape. I just do not trust 80 plus year old wiring. However I was able to reuse all of the original connections. It’s interesting to see the production differences in the original connectors compared to the new made ones.

[Mike Kelly]

Looking neat . You have an eye for detail that's for sure.

I am always looking for these old electrical connectors at auto swap meets or ham radio fests. Usually they are $1 or $2 for a box full .

Years ago, Bill Drew had a big stack of NOS Chev CMP main wiring harnesses, wrapped up in sealed boxes. I did buy one, the rest of them would have been scrapped along with the other treasures.

[Jordan Baker]

Removed the crankcase breather tube tonight. Sadly it had been crushed when the Otter rolled and the engine hit the hull. But this will provide a nice pattern to make a new one. Also comparing some very NOS khaki green#3 painted parts that had been sealed to the dash paint. I’m quite happy with how close the new paint is. Lastly got a nice ignition switch lever to replace the badly pitted one.