1954 Daimler Ferret armoured car
Discussion
Put her up on axle stands again yesterday to have a look at the brakes as they are pretty poor! All the wheels and drums came off no trouble, and apart from being just generally dirty there was absolutely nothing wrong with them.
Obviously at the time the Ferret was built most drum brakes would've been a single leading shoe setup, however due to the Ferret being able to drive as fast in reverse as it can forwards, it has to be twin leading. It has two toothed adjuster wheels, one within the other, and looking at the backplate it looks as if two nuts have been wound together on a stud. You hold one nut stationary and turn the other clockwise until the drum binds, then turn it back a notch. And then repeat but the other way round, otherwise you'll only adjust one shoe.
Cleaned all the drums up with some emery paper and roughed the shoe faces. Don't breathe it in! Then checked all were actually expanding out. One on the front RHS seemed to be sticky so we soaked it in penetrating oil for the night and adjusted the rest up.
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Will have another bash at it today.
Obviously at the time the Ferret was built most drum brakes would've been a single leading shoe setup, however due to the Ferret being able to drive as fast in reverse as it can forwards, it has to be twin leading. It has two toothed adjuster wheels, one within the other, and looking at the backplate it looks as if two nuts have been wound together on a stud. You hold one nut stationary and turn the other clockwise until the drum binds, then turn it back a notch. And then repeat but the other way round, otherwise you'll only adjust one shoe.
Cleaned all the drums up with some emery paper and roughed the shoe faces. Don't breathe it in! Then checked all were actually expanding out. One on the front RHS seemed to be sticky so we soaked it in penetrating oil for the night and adjusted the rest up.
[/url]Will have another bash at it today.
Edited by LewG on Tuesday 15th August 19:09
LewG said:
May well do that Zippee. Any ideas if I need to book in? Take it you'll be taking the TVR? It looked stunning a few weeks back when you come past me on the A1, I was filling the Chim up at the Esso garage with the dodgy business next door 
I think you do need to book. I know Alex Gray is running it form the TVR side (thread here - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... ) so it may be worth contacting him for some further info 
Guess that was the weekend before last? Didn't see you parked up as would have tooted if I had. Always a dodgy filling station as you can innocently fill up and when leaving it looks like you've been shopping elsewhere
Edited by Zippee on Tuesday 12th April 10:17
Well so far not a bad week with the Ferret bar one small issue. Went to the Clophill supercar meet now on the Bedford bypass instead last weekend with Gretchen. It was good fun but sadly due to an accident the bypass was closed and by the time we arrived most were leaving!
Took it into work on Wednesday, bloody freezing on the way there! It was so satisfying driving into a very German company in it, the looks were priceless I did sort of underestimate the amount of fuel she'd actually use though and ended up borrowing a gallon off my grandad so I could get back to a garage!
The only issue I do have is that the ignition switch seems to have a poor contact inside, once running it's fine but when trying to start sometimes it needs a bit of a wiggle. Having a look as we speak.
Took it into work on Wednesday, bloody freezing on the way there! It was so satisfying driving into a very German company in it, the looks were priceless
I did sort of underestimate the amount of fuel she'd actually use though and ended up borrowing a gallon off my grandad so I could get back to a garage! The only issue I do have is that the ignition switch seems to have a poor contact inside, once running it's fine but when trying to start sometimes it needs a bit of a wiggle. Having a look as we speak.
yellowjack said:
Now I wasn't with them, but 32 Armoured Engineer Regiment weren't referred to as "The Antiques Roadshow" for nothing during the '91 Gulf War! Even then, I don't recall many 'fit' Ferrets, and there are none in any of the photos I have that survive from the time so I assume they were pretty much phased out by then.
My 'truck' was a 1966 FV 432, and even our Chieftain AVREs and AVLBs were no spring chickens. 32 Armd still had Centurion Mk V 165mm AVREs, and some Mk 12 105mm AVREs in their fleet. We had the very devil of a time trying to keep up with the infantry and cavalry regiments, with their shiny new Warriors and Challengers. I'm not sure I even saw a Ferret move in our unit , either in Germany or the Gulf. They didn't really lend themselves well to RE tasks I'm afraid. Recce duties were carried out in Land Rovers or Spartans. Lots of Ferrets ended their days at BATUS (British Army Training Unit, Suffield) in Alberta, Canada. They were used as observation vehicles by Range Safety Staff when live rounds were issued, and they were standard olive green with big gloss red panels painted over them.
Is your BREN a 'proper' BREN, or is it the 7.62mm L4? The L4 is what was allocated to my 432, so that was my 'baby' too when it was dismounted. My section took 5 Iraqi prisoners with me providing cover from the commander's hatch behind the LMG (as we knew it then). My personal weapon was the Stormtroopers' blaster of choice - the 9mm SMG. Section personal weapons were 7.62mm SLRs, and we also deployed with 2 x GPMG from 'war reserve' stocks to give us a bit more firepower, although they couldn't be fitted to the pintle mount in our CES, so were used only in the dismounted section support role. Hells teeth! How do I remember all this s
t, when most days I couldn't tell you what I'd had for breakfast?
You still had SLRs in '91?My 'truck' was a 1966 FV 432, and even our Chieftain AVREs and AVLBs were no spring chickens. 32 Armd still had Centurion Mk V 165mm AVREs, and some Mk 12 105mm AVREs in their fleet. We had the very devil of a time trying to keep up with the infantry and cavalry regiments, with their shiny new Warriors and Challengers. I'm not sure I even saw a Ferret move in our unit , either in Germany or the Gulf. They didn't really lend themselves well to RE tasks I'm afraid. Recce duties were carried out in Land Rovers or Spartans. Lots of Ferrets ended their days at BATUS (British Army Training Unit, Suffield) in Alberta, Canada. They were used as observation vehicles by Range Safety Staff when live rounds were issued, and they were standard olive green with big gloss red panels painted over them.
Is your BREN a 'proper' BREN, or is it the 7.62mm L4? The L4 is what was allocated to my 432, so that was my 'baby' too when it was dismounted. My section took 5 Iraqi prisoners with me providing cover from the commander's hatch behind the LMG (as we knew it then). My personal weapon was the Stormtroopers' blaster of choice - the 9mm SMG. Section personal weapons were 7.62mm SLRs, and we also deployed with 2 x GPMG from 'war reserve' stocks to give us a bit more firepower, although they couldn't be fitted to the pintle mount in our CES, so were used only in the dismounted section support role. Hells teeth! How do I remember all this s
t, when most days I couldn't tell you what I'd had for breakfast? I thought SA80's came in around '85. I hadn't heard of any units still using SLRs is the first gulf.
Looks like they were phased out over time even until '94
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L1A1_Self-Loading_Ri...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L1A1_Self-Loading_Ri...
Mannginger said:
Looks like they were phased out over time even until '94
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L1A1_Self-Loading_Ri...
Every day is a school day!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L1A1_Self-Loading_Ri...
IanUAE said:
Fantastic! Cheers PH, much appreciated. Not sure if I'm allowed to post gun pictures but I have the Bren off it at the moment stored away. It's an ex Canadian one dated 1943, from what I remember when we bought it aside from being deactivated it was still in its greased crate. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff