Things Heat Up Again (Namely, Dave's Stomach!)

Well, we got the steering levers and linkages all set up and bolted in place using a plate my dad made up with a pivot for each lever.

While making the steering levers, the project's second fire related incident occurred when, while grinding one of the levers, my dad's shirt ignited. It burned holes through all three of his (polyester) shirts, left a minor burn on his stomach, and burned one of his fingers where the polyester melted to it while instinctively beating out the fire. After changing shirts and bandaging it up, it was back to work.

We rigged cables for the throttle, the brake, and the clutch, hooked up a throttle trigger on the right hand steering lever, and rigged a pedal to act as a brake and clutch.

After a very successful test drive using a 2x4 as a seat, we mounted the seat I've been saving for a tank seat for quite some time. After another relatively successful test drive we brought it back in to make a few minor changes to the clutch cable and to move the shift linkage up next to the driver's seat (seeing as the linkage broke during the last test drive anyway.) We noticed that we needed to adjust the throw on the idler pulley arm so all the tension was taken off the belt when the clutch pedal was in. We also decided to eliminate the dual purpose clutch/brake pedal and to make the pedal just a clutch, and to rig a brake trigger on the left hand steering lever.


Running the throttle trigger.

My dad taking the first test drive with the brake pedal and steering levers hooked up.

Track Work and Flooring

This is not what anyone wants to see when they look at their tank! Wednesday, we were having trouble when driving the tank in 2nd gear, if you turned right it would often lock up on you and you would be stuck there turning until you backed up a short distance. We came to realize a loud thunk from the right front bogey wheel that would only happen before and after this phenomenon.

Much to our dismay, but as we had assumed, both bearings were wiped right out, most likely due to the fact that these are the only 2 sets of bogeys out of 12 that don't have any grease fittings, and at high speed the bogey wheel was jamming sideways and not allowing the track to turn. We discovered this of course after disconnecting the track and jacking up the right side of the PPT.

Luckily, the bearings were just 1" inside and 2" outside, and our local auto parts store had them in stock, so we pulled it all the way apart.

You can see what was left of the two ball bearings, seized right to the shaft.

When we put it all back together, we reinforced the track with some conveyor belt rubber, since the connection point was pretty weak.

Today we sprayed down the crossmembers that would be exposed under the tank with rubberized undercoating, and put the marine grade plywood floor in.

We also began machining the steering levers, and debating the interior design. I threw up the white flag today and admitted that this is going to have to be a one man show.