Armortek

A great weekend at Tankfest, even if my lefthand track drive became progressively worse as time went on. Mark identified a loose drive chain so so least I know what to look for and correct once I start taking the rear of the tank apart for the next round of upgrades and maintenance.

So I finally decided to bite the bullet and start dismantling Lighting III in order to fix the track slipping that got progressively worse during its time at Tankfest. Mark had diagnosed a loose drive chain so the left side rear armour plates had to come off to give me access to the motor mounts. Off came the sponsons and I flipped (hah!) it on it's side for access.

First, off came the track, a task made complicated by a combination of dirt and rust that prevented the easy removal of the track plates but after much cursing..
Once the track came off the rest of the trim had to be removed but even with the bolts removed the paint and the glue that held the rivets in place put up some stubborn resistance. In the end brute force prevailed although I will have to straighten out some parts when it comes to re-fit everything.
The end result was to expose the root cause of all my trouble, one very, very loose drive chain.
I m currently debating taking the other track off and checking the right side as well just to be sure and to check on the wear and tear, just not now, one day of grief at a time

With the track off to fix the drive chain issue it allowed me to take a look at the wear and tear that eighteen months of running had inflicted. There was a fair amount of dirt and some surface rust but nothing worrying. These photos were taken before any cleaning as a reference.

The rollers Front Sprocket Drive sprocket (with slack drive chain) Dirt (and grass!) at the top rear
Top run, no real damage to the anti-rubbing strips, just a lot of dirt. The frame around the rear showed the only real area of wear

Many thanks for the photographs Daniel.

The wear at the back looks quite nasty, but it looks worse on the flanges (EK0246) - do they sit slightly proud of the frames ?

Adrian.

Adrian, given Daniels photos I feel my Mark IV will show similar patterns of wear.
It may be that Mark may need to be asked to produce some more of part EK0246 as spares, we shall see. My hope is that as the chain links wear and are then tensioned this will cease to be a problem and clearance will be achieved.
Steve

After a long day working on re-assembly I got to take out my Mark IV for a run around the garden to test the tracks. Happy to report it is running smoother than ever with no clicking. I think what I thought as a binding issue was the chain slipping from day one.

Drive chain is now tensioned properly after re-mounting the motor
Replaced all the plates and trim after straightening them out after the struggles of removal. Rivets went back in and paint covered all the scratches For once the track went on with no issues, guess by now (forth time on) I have the process sorted out

A quick test run around the garden proved all was good Post Tankmod I will strip both sides done to clean and inspect for wear and move the electronics to a more central location as well as all the other upgrades that I am shamelessly copying from the likes of Steve Stuart amd Chris Hall. For now I am happy that the drive issues that I have had from day one that got progressively worse at Tankfest are all sorted.

Good to see No 35 is up and running!
Steve

Good to see Lightning III back in the land of the living ! And it's not copying - we all learn from each other (I certainly do !).

All the best,

Chris

So I finally got motivated enough to start work on the next round of maintenance and hopefully upgrades on L9. Since I have been putting in a fair bit of 'mileage' once again I thought it would be useful to share the wear and tear. Having removed the left hand track last year to fix the slipping drive chain this time around both will be coming off. I started with the right hand side as this has not been off since my initial build shenanigans and after a couple of hours and much cursing the track was removed. The photos below were taken immediately after the track came off before any clean up.
The other track will come off at some point over the weekend and if there is anything significant since the last time I will post some updated pictures.

Interesting to see your photos, I wait to see how the other track is behaving.
Steve

Daniel,I don't have a MK1V so I'm not familiar with the construction, but is it not possible to use disguised bolts and nuts instead of rivets so that panels can easily be removed to access the running gear. You're very brave dismantling the model!

Many thanks for the picture Daniel

I wonder whether fitting a 5mm thick aluminium plate, with a radius slightly larger than the ends of the main plates, would act as a sacrificial rubbing surface and prevent damage to the main plates and angles

Do you know if the wear is from the track plates themselves, or from debris being carried around the ends of the horns

Any witness marks on the undersides of the track plates

Adrian.

hello all,
a lot of the wear you can see on the corner wear plates are from the outside m3 button heads that attach the track plate trough the track chain in to the track nuts, good thing to look for when assembling the tracks that any thread protruding through the track nuts to file them flat, with the nature of this design real/model you are going to get a lot of wear from the tracks rubbing the track guides etc,
hope this is of some help,
chris.

hello again,
should of added these pics to the last post, the pictures will show what and where is rubbing, I put this model together for the company that produce the chains for these kits, and wanted it for display to show there chains etc so hence the missing plates and panels.

Track two came off today, more recent removal and better technique on my part meant it was off in thirty minutes rather than hours. Wear on the left side hasn't noticably changed since last year but here are some reference pics:-
Looking at the tracks side by side the witness marks show the contact point is outside of the bolts so protruding shanks might not be an issue.
Finally a quick check of the right hand drive chain showed it was very slack, nowhere near as bad as the left one was but enough that corrective action is necessary to stop another track slippage problem.