Slowly undressing Liesel
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:09 pm
Those of you at Tankfest will have seen Liesel in the lineup, but not seen her moving about much ..... I've been running her for almost 2 years now, and the dreaded 'clicking tracks' problem has surfaced, due to the drive chain stretching and slipping on the motor. It's a Big Issue for us Mark IV devotees, as it entails taking the track off completely (unless you've followed Oliver's clever solution !).
Noting Steve and Daniel's experiences, it's a job I've been dreading. I had planned to park her up for the rest of the season, and tackle it over the winter. But yesterday, in a flash of madness, I decided to get her up on the workbench and have a go.
Track removal on a Mark IV is relatively straightforward, in theory. Slacken off the tensioning bolts to the front drive sprockets, allowing the drive assembly to drop down inside the front horns. It helps if you take off the front track inserts EK0239 and EK0240, to get in a screwdriver to pull down the tracks even further. Then unbolt a few of the track plates covering the track chain joining links, pop off the clips, remove the joining links and the tracks just lift off. Simples ! In practice, of course ... the real problem (I'm assuming you've adopted Steve's fundamental suggestion of painting the joining links so they stand out, otherwise you'll never find them) is undoing all those little M3 bolts on the track plates (the outer four per plate). On all the plates I took out (you'll probably need to undo four) three came out relatively easily and the fourth was a complete pain. But, 3 hours later, the left track was off ! Time to look at 2 years of wear and tear.
There is, of course, a lot of crud. But surprisingly little wear:
The drive chain is incredibly floppy - no wonder it was skipping ! The solution is to loosen off the bolts securing the motor, drop the motor a bit to tighten the chain, and then re-tighten the bolts. Fiddly work with a long-handled Allen Key in a confined space. I hope Mark is right to say that you only need to do it once !
Surprisingly little wear. Paint has, of course, been worn off, but the metal is bright, with no obvious sign of pitting or other corrosion. And the rollers all spin easily - in fact, probably more easily than when they were originally put in !
There's very little pressure on the top. Most of the crud is carried around the tank (hence the 'bird's nest'). The plastic strips (largely, I suspect, to reduce the sound of the tracks dragging over the top) are still intact. The only obvious wear is to some of the rivet heads on the side of the front cab and rear roof, which have been flattened a bit as they're under the track edges.
The track chains are fine. Some of the track plates have buckled a bit from going over rough ground, but the tarnishing is surface only. The only work required is a wire brushing to get rid of loose crud and some bike chain oil for the track chains.
This one intrigues me. The lines of crud, and the lack of wear to some of the teeth, suggest that the track chains go round more like 'four sides of a square'. It doesn't seem to be a problem - just an odd effect.
So, I'm pleased I've started it, and it wasn't quite as scary as I'd imagined. "There is nothing to fear but fear itself" as several wise men are accredited with. And I can't see any damage or problems building for the future. So a good clean up looks to be all that's necessary (along with tightening that drive chain, of course). Then the other track, rinse and repeat.
But, while I'm going to all this effort, there are more things to do. I've also taken off the sponsons, as I've got a new set with corrected viewing port layout and a revised system for spinning the drums. Then I can fit the 'wiggly gun pack' - will that make Liesel the first Female to use it ? And there are some details I want to add that I didn't do originally, like the extra front armour, the shield over the rear exhaust louvres, and extra detail to the roof (I recently picked up an old postcard of Liesel with good top detail). So plenty to do. I may have it all done for the Open Day, but my real target is 1 June 2018, when I'm minded to take her over to the Fort de la Pompelle, near Reims, for her centenary.
All the best,
Chris
Noting Steve and Daniel's experiences, it's a job I've been dreading. I had planned to park her up for the rest of the season, and tackle it over the winter. But yesterday, in a flash of madness, I decided to get her up on the workbench and have a go.
Track removal on a Mark IV is relatively straightforward, in theory. Slacken off the tensioning bolts to the front drive sprockets, allowing the drive assembly to drop down inside the front horns. It helps if you take off the front track inserts EK0239 and EK0240, to get in a screwdriver to pull down the tracks even further. Then unbolt a few of the track plates covering the track chain joining links, pop off the clips, remove the joining links and the tracks just lift off. Simples ! In practice, of course ... the real problem (I'm assuming you've adopted Steve's fundamental suggestion of painting the joining links so they stand out, otherwise you'll never find them) is undoing all those little M3 bolts on the track plates (the outer four per plate). On all the plates I took out (you'll probably need to undo four) three came out relatively easily and the fourth was a complete pain. But, 3 hours later, the left track was off ! Time to look at 2 years of wear and tear.
There is, of course, a lot of crud. But surprisingly little wear:
- Final drive, looking forward
- Bottom Rollers
- Top roller, with 'bird's nest'
- Track run - top
- Track chains and undersides of track plates
- Front drive sprockets
So, I'm pleased I've started it, and it wasn't quite as scary as I'd imagined. "There is nothing to fear but fear itself" as several wise men are accredited with. And I can't see any damage or problems building for the future. So a good clean up looks to be all that's necessary (along with tightening that drive chain, of course). Then the other track, rinse and repeat.
But, while I'm going to all this effort, there are more things to do. I've also taken off the sponsons, as I've got a new set with corrected viewing port layout and a revised system for spinning the drums. Then I can fit the 'wiggly gun pack' - will that make Liesel the first Female to use it ? And there are some details I want to add that I didn't do originally, like the extra front armour, the shield over the rear exhaust louvres, and extra detail to the roof (I recently picked up an old postcard of Liesel with good top detail). So plenty to do. I may have it all done for the Open Day, but my real target is 1 June 2018, when I'm minded to take her over to the Fort de la Pompelle, near Reims, for her centenary.
All the best,
Chris
) and a row of rivets around the top plate. But, from a modelling perspective, the drums now swing smoothly. This required an awful lot of refinement, with several disassemblies to file another piece down just a little bit more .... even some of the glued rivets needed to be cut down as they were jamming against the drum. Then I fitted Adrian Harris's new Lewis Guns, which look superb (and, of course, there's a lot more of them than on Steve Stuart's Male !).
), but the LED's are a bit more of a problem as they use d-sub connectors - Adrian and Steve are working on that one.
).
.
, in that I'd fitted some of the machine gun con rods the wrong way round. I bodged my way round this by using longer (M3*16) bolts between the con rod and the servo arm, which hasn’t created a problem (yet).