Armortek

The original upgrade, a nylon bearing: Having seen the new Tiger with a lazy susan annular bearing and been impressed by how low a turning force is required I have worked how to retro fit it to my Early Tiger. I needed to order from Armortek the Bearing CE2103, the Lower Spacer CE2173 and finally a new Gear Ring CE2409. The old gear ring does not register with the holes in the new bearing assembly, so in with the new! There was another spacer required to sit between the the deck and the Bearing CE2103, so I purchased off ebay a cheaper bearing of the same size as it was dismantled to use the outer ring as the spacer required. This is because a recess needs to be made to accommodate the depth of the Turret.
The first thing was to register the Bearing CE2103 on to the deck and drill through 5mm holes and countersink them to attach the bearing and spacer to the underside of the deck: holes

The next thing was to line up the bearing to the Turret, using 3mm drill bits as pegs in the old Gear Ring bolt holes, I drilled through the new Bearing to create location holes for the 5mm dome headed nuts that secured the stack of Bearing CE2103, Spacer CE2173 and Gear Ring CE2409: The Turret Motor mount had a spacer block fitted between it and the deck to lower it and to allow for a change of position owing to the larger diameter of the Gear Ring CE2409: To secure the Turret Down I have fitted two Catches: The Spacer and Bearing needed the fore and aft edges filing down so that it cleared the deck support beams, otherwise the overall width was to great to fit in between. The height of the turret in the recess can be adjusted by adding washers under the dome nuts. All in all it turned into a straight forward job, and is a neat upgrade.

Great modification - thanks for the description!
I particularly like the catches to hold the turret secured!

Super upgrade. If easy, why don’t Armortek offer it? Must surely be popular!

Possibly because it is the sort of thing that Armortek leave to customers to work out for themselves, because they know it keeps us entertained working solutions out. The main thing is that Armortek will supply the parts to allow us to do these things under our liability. Who knows what each older model has undergone in terms of upgrades and changes, so you have to be prepared to adjust the recipe to suit! Anyway I am grateful to Kian and Monique in getting this upgrade onto my Tiger. I am prepared to add more if what I have written needs clarification, just send a PM.
Steve

Steve,
Well done for working this all out. It's really good to know that this conversion can be achieved without the need for major surgery to the original tank parts.
David

Steve

Did you lubricate the bearing?

Vince

Vince, I have not as yet lubricated the bearing, as and when I think I will use a dry lubricant such as TF2 which contains PTFE beads. I don't want anything greasy or liquid oozing from the bearing!
Steve

Thanks Steve for the info. I have a can of silicone spray and was thinking of using that.

Vince

Vince Cutajar wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 14, 2019 2:00 pm

Steve

Did you lubricate the bearing?

Vince, there is no need to lubricate the turret bearing.
Kian

Thanks Kian. Good to know. As the body of the bearing is aluminium I was worried about wear but I will heed your advice.

Vince