M45F Maxon Turret Work Begins

[papabear]

You are doing outstanding work Sir...as you always do.

I betcha that baby will purr/operate like a kitty when you're done!

 

[1943ht]

Don, no joy with VW .. those connectors are hard to find .. TY PB .. as always, I strive to "represent" as a member of CAMO

Thought I'd share some before pics of my project as recovered .. lots of rust and broken pieces.

 

[1943ht]

Well the motor and drives work like a dream with the turret in the front-lean and rest position hooked up jumper cables to a battery and the cable ends on the Maxson and ran her thru her paces using the gunners Cadillac .. runs like a dream forward and reverse and the elevation gear box spins nicely both directions .. adjusted out the belts and differentials and flipped the base over and mounted the trunnions so that I can get started on the upper portion of the turret .. Ran my spare motor and went thru the spare differentials before stashing them back on the shelf. Dry fitted the slip-ring into the bracket that I fabricated and installed brackets on the turret base to attach to the slip-ring (ensures that the upper portion of the slip-ring turns smoothly with the Maxson and does not put any drag on the cables). Am still working the cable end issue for the slip-ring.. but if need be will fabricate my own ends for power and commo.

 

[CARNAC]

Hi Mark. Looks like the HT is coming along. We met and discussed your HT and retirement at Alpharetta in 2009. Looking for my own HT and if things work out, I'll have one this spring.

Keep up the good work.

 

[1943ht]

CARNAC, It was a pleasure meeting and talking with you at the GA Rally, My 1st but hopefully not last one.

Landed up spending way more time than I thought I would at Benning with multiple surgeries to repair the damage to my legs .. all in all it turned into a great experience as I had the opportunity to meet Papa Bear and the outstanding CAMO Team .. finally completed the MEB and retired at the end of 2011 .
Am home and finally able to get back to work on my beast .. although I get around a lot slower these days !

Please let me know how the HT hunt works out for you. They are a thing of BEAUTY!

 

[col.halftrack]

Mark,
Guess I should check SS more often. Great thread on the M45F. I have a earlier M45 (no cannoneers step) and will be restoring it this winter/spring. How did you lift off the trunnions? I am going to have a little different wiring as the M45 had no provisions for being connected to the halftrack. No intercom etc. Have you found a wire for the sight that is the correct diameter? Thanks for the thread. Hope to meet you in Portland.
Kevin

 

[1943ht]

Kevin, I used my small engine hoist to remove and reinstall my trunnions. I use a 2 Ton Goodyear hydraulic hoist that I picked up at Sam's Club back in 07 and it folds up very easily for storage.

I started work on the right trunnion. Stripped off my inner cover and two of the M2 mounts so that I could get the gasket retainers off and pull out the old felt gaskets. Will have to FAB up some new gaskets and then install my wiring. The cutout / limiter switch needs some work and I may have to swap it out with a spare. Once that felt was out, I was able to lubricate the ball bearings in the trunnion and it moves very smoothly now.

The oilier on top of the trunnion needs to be cleaned up as it seems to be clogged, but functions correctly regards the spring operated detente.

My turret, like my track has it's serial numbers (2616L M45F) stamped into the frame even under the data plate and that appears to be a B-M trademark on conversions. My track was converted to a M16A2 in 1952 and the HT USA number was stamped into the front bumper in two places.

 

[col.halftrack]

Mark,
To remove trunnion is it just the wiring at junction blocks and the sixteen 1/2approx bolts that hold it on? Did all the trunnion balls look good and were they easy to replace? I checked my mount it is stmpd: MOUNT M45 E1 1xxxK.
Kevin

 

[1943ht]

Kevin that's it ... you may find that there are different colored shims under each trunnion block where each trunnion mates with the rest of the turret .. they were most likely used to level out the trunnions when installed on the turret.

I had yellow and black shims on mine.. the colors probably denoted thickness of each shim in thousands. There are also two alignment pins on each block .. you may need to do a little finessing with a screwdriver or pry bar when separating your trunnions from the turret.

My ball bearings in the 1st trunnion that I took down looked great (Shiny and none missing).. Believe they would be a "B" kitty to replace ..

 

[col.halftrack]

Hey Mark,
Dismounted the trunnions last night. Flipped the mount upside down and began clean-up. I tried hooking a battery up, to the two drive units I have, and got less than good results. I have two more or less complete drive units and they have subtle differences. One lacks the small springs on the gear drive outboard units, and the motor data plate shows 5400rpm. The other has those additional springs and the motor plate reads 5500rpm. The motor with 5400rpm has a phenolic square attached with four screws that surrounds the positive and negative studs for power input. These cables have female threaded ends. On the 5500rpm motor both pos and neg cables appear to pass through the motor case and be soldered to the unit permanently. Did you simply hook 12v to the pos and neg posts and have full speed on the motor? Mine seem sluggish and low speed. Possibly I have binding in the gear drives.

 

[1943ht]

Kevin, I'm thinking that your Differential Drive Units need to be cleaned up as they are binding .. the drive units have a spring and bracket that slides back and forth to close and open the pulleys depending on which way the Gunners Cadillac is rotated. Any binding will drag on the motor and cause a tremendous draw of current on the power cables.

 

[1943ht]

ALCON: Have put this project on hold again as I just relocated to Carlisle PA to go to watchmakers school .. put all back into storage but managed to drag my M37 with me so that I would have at least one MV to play with here in PA.. School will be 24-26 months and unfortunately I will not have much downtime ..so once again the Queen will have to wait for a little while longer... perhaps I'll get her finished before they plant me in the cold cold ground

 

[1943ht]

UPDATE: After School in PA and relocation to Prescott AZ, where I managed to move all my goodies to a shop in a hanger I
managed to restore and sell 2 M151A2's, sold my M37 and trailer, sold 5 M10
WWII Ammo Trailers with 4 of them restored and a battle damaged one sold to a
gent to pull behind his Stewart, and now due to the wife's career path just
relocated to Cincinnati OH in Dec 2018!

That being said I am finally
concentrating on finishing my turret restoration and also finishing all the
final stuff on my track. The turret is complete except for some tweaking and I
just installed in the track Thursday. I attended a local car show yesterday,
Friday, the Queens 1st show! Needless to say we made quite a "splash"
with the crowd when we showed up with the track and 42 GPW. Overwhelming crowd
response, even with a display board of information I could not keep up with the
questions. "I Just Plain Loved It." I am doing the Hagerty Magazine Picture shoot
on Wed the 25th so I need to finish the wiring on the M10 Trailer this weekend.
Pics of the turret etc. and at the car show. I had all the weapons, to include
my Garand's, Carbines and Thompson. All are original and fully functional.

Will keep the updates coming!

 

[papabear]

Mark, is that a PE-75 generator? It looks just like the one for the K18-C.

 

[NDT]

Mark, is that a PE-75 generator? It looks just like the one for the K18-C.

I'll reply 'cause quad generators are my side hustle, the engine is the same Briggs model I on the quad generator as the PE-75, the generator part looks similar but the quad it 12 volts DC and the PE is 110 volts DC for the teletype. I have sacrificed countless PE-75s to make them into quad gens.

 

[1943ht]

Larry, what NDT said ... Yes it's strictly a Quad mount generator and I'm sure NDT will second me on this, almost impossible to find anymore. Was lucky enough to get one donated to me from Kevin K in 2007 when I brought the Queen back from Africa. Kevin was from WI, and the 1st collector/restoration expert I met in the hobby. He was a friend and mentor and his unexpected passing in 2011 left a deep void, just like Dicks passing did with CAMO and our group.

 

[1943ht]

Ready for the magazine picture shoot tomorrow .. My pup Jillian just had to get into the pic. The M-10 is not quite finished yet as I need to mount the correct combat wheels and tires. But its good enough for the shoot.

 

[1943ht]

ALCON: Attended a National Car show last week Fri-Sun, with 2700+ vehicles. Out of the top 50 awards we took 1st place and even brought home some $ to offset our costs!! We stole the show period, and had many vendors/ collectors showing cars there state that in all the years they've attended they had not seen the crowds we had at our display. Also took the 42 Ford GPW as part of our display.

It was the best fun I've had in a long time, and validated everything I believe about the public's interest in these unique and historic vehicles. Had to talk the group into letting me bring it to the show as they believed there would not be a lot of interest. Assured them that it would be a crowd pleaser and now they hope that I'll attend next year! Some pics: