M45F Maxon Turret Work Begins

[1943ht]

M45F Maxson Turret Work Begins

After many years (5+) I am finally starting preservation work on the Maxson M45F Turret for my half-track. Stripped her down and removed my trunnions so that I could flip the drive section over and free up the turret ring which was frozen from sitting for more than 50 years. Made up a jig to bolt to the ring and then applied a little "Love" with a BFH to break the ring loose .. bearings had been soaking in oil for several months and after a little persuasion she is spinning free. I can now remove each bearing to clean and restore.

Building a new wire harness will be next.

 

[pad_cdr]

Cool project

 

[Danger Ranger]

I'm in. Looks like a cool project. Where does that mount on the truck?

 

[battlecr]

Hi Mark, hadn't seen you over on the "G" for a while. Glad to see your starting on your Maxon. Hows the rest of your track doing?

My Frame on my M-3 is heading for paint this Friday and I can start putting it back together.

Don G.

 

[jasonjc]

My dad drove a M16 in the Korean war. He was a MP in the army/ air force (he started in the army but then the air force split off). They use the M16 to patrol the air fields at night.
I wish he was still here to to see yours.

 

[1943ht]

DANGER-RANGER, the Maxson mounts in the rear of my half-track .. Many Maxson turrets were mounted on Deuce and 5 ton trucks during the Viet Nam war and used as gun trucks to provide security on convoys.

Don, good to hear from you .. have not been on the :G" in quite a while .. Finally retired from the Army and starting to catch up on some much delayed projects, especially my M16A2. Did manage to restore a 53 M37 with trailer this year for a ALCAN trip. Will update my Maxson progress on the "G".

Jason, I am sorry that your dad has passed .. I to wish my dad could see what I have sitting in the shop as he just loved these old beasts .. he passed 27 Dec 03 while I was in Afghanistan and long before I recovered my track. My track saw service in WWII, Korea (As did my dad, 51-53 Combat Engineer) Viet Nam and then in Africa ... Its a piece of living history and is a preservation vs a restoration project .. leaving it completely original to include the paint, patina etc .. she looks just as she should after 4 wars and almost 70 years of service.

 

[maddawg308]

For those who don't know really what a Maxson turret is, here's a couple pics of it restored.

 

[1943ht]

PAD-CDR .. Like your M818 .. Just got mine finished and in progress of finishing up a lowboy so that I can pull my Half-Track and WWII M10 Ammo Trailer to events in style .. added a turbo and singled out my M818 .. lots more juice and speed with the upgrades .. Increased the WOW factor with the upgrades (My Opinion)
and I can't wait to show up to an event with my rig. Some pics of my M818, Half-Track, M37 with Trailer

 

[jasonjc]

Jason, I am sorry that your dad has passed .. I to wish my dad could see what I have sitting in the shop as he just loved these old beasts .. he passed 27 Dec 03 while I was in Afghanistan and long before I recovered my track. My track saw service in WWII, Korea (As did mu dad, 51-53 Combat Engineer) Viet Nam and then in Africa ... Its a piece of living history and is a preservation vs a restoration project .. leaving it completely original to include the paint, patina etc .. she looks just as she should after 4 wars and almost 70 years of service.

Makes me wounder if that could have been the one my dad drove? Hard to say. My brother has my dad's photo album from when he was in Korea. I need to get him to copy the pic's for me.

Thanks for saving it.

 

[1943ht]

Thanks Mike, was trying to find a couple of pics of gun trucks with Maxon's in my files ..

 

[1943ht]

Jason, there were hundreds of M16's shipped to Korea, but you never know!!
My M16A2 was #315 of 419 rebuilt and converted from M16 or M16A1's to M16A2's by BM and shipped in 1952 to be used to defend against the Human Wave attacks being thrown against UN Forces by the Chinese. It would be great to see pics of your dads HT. Please post them if you can

 

[jasonjc]

I'll try to get the pic's from my brother.
Being air froce I'd bet it would have been in better shape and may have lasted longer than most. He told me how they would test fire the .50's. That all 4 gun were aimed at the same piont. I forget how may yards out, but they would bonce a 55gal drum off the ground with them.

 

[1943ht]

Effective Range is 1800 Meters (Tracer Burnout) so that you can visually track your. fire. Max Range is 2000 Meters

 

[1943ht]

ALCON: Am making good progress on the Maxon turret preservation project for the half-track and am posting some pics of the lower turret drive motor and gear box assemblies ... Electric motor, drive units and main power cables (With the exception of one cable in pics) have been reconditioned, cleaned and new hardware installed as needed .. both drive units (Deflection and Elevation) have been cleaned, lubricated and installed and all of the bearings in the turret ring have been removed, cleaned (Acid dipped to clean up the rust in and out) rinsed, lubricated and the bearings now turn freely and smoothly.

New wire (Period correct covers and markings) should arrive early next week so that I can begin making a new harness and then I can reinstall the gunners Cadillac (Which has now been freed up and moves very smoothly) into the drive motor unit. With that last item being done I will flip the base over on its legs I will be able to sit in the gunners seat and operate the turret (Ground hop) to test its elevation and deflection movements and then begin work on the trunnions which need new felt gaskets, wire and 1 mounting plate for the right upper 50 fabricated.

Included some pics of our 1st snowfall Sunday .. supposed to be a very snowy winter this year, we had 18 inches on this day!

 

[NDT]

Mark, I have the two wires that come out of the generator if you need them, correct cloth wire, new production. Nice restoration you have going on there.

 

[1943ht]

Thank You NDT .. Fortunately I have the generator wires .. What I am somewhat anxious about is building my harness .. The wire schematic is less than detailed .. I have some of the old harness left .. but all of the wires were cut or missing .. has anyone on this forum made their own harness? It would be helpful to be able to ping someone with some experience on the Maxon wire harness as I go thru mine.

//R//
Mark

 

[battlecr]

Looks really good Mark. Looks like your really getting into it keep the pictures comming.


Don G.

 

[1943ht]

Have the wire harness figured out now as I have the correct M45F wire schematic! Went thru the 4 interrupter switches (cleaned up with new wire tags) and dismantled my generator power switch box as it needs to be repaired, it is very rusted and damaged on one side (Will sandblast it and I'll need to fabricate a small piece of plate and braze it into place before reassembling)(COMPLETED) Both power switches and the circuit breaker are in good shape. Will go thru the turret power box with the bore sight switch, power toggle and circuit breaker (COMPLETED) Both boxes are ready for primer and paint. New wire arrived today so I'll begin working on the harness in the next week. Also started on the Gunners Cadillac .. lots of crap in the gunners switch box and was looking at the triangular plate on the box .. Its says MAXSON which I found interesting as I have always read and heard that the turret is called a MAXON ...Ummmm .. will have to modify my verbiage as this is an "Original" and complete 1943 turret.

Pics of my progress:

 

[1943ht]

Have some update pics on the Turret Preservation. Almost done with the motor/transmission section. All linkage rebuilt and operational to include new drive-belts. gunners Cadillac and switch box installed and wired up, power switch box is rehabbed and ready to install as is the power junction box for the generator with volt meter.Volt meter is not correct, but I had it laying on the shelf, and I like the way it looks, its WWII stock (have an original/correct volt meter in the track). Wiring is complete with the exception of one power cable and my communication cable for the slip-ring which I was able to find in CA (NOS) dated 1944.

If anyone has any leads on the cable ends for the slip-ring, I would appreciate a shout out ..I am working a source in Europe as a backup.

Cheers,
COL K

 

[battlecr]

Mark did you try Vintage Maine?? I just got my wiring harness for my M3 from them about a month ago. Really nice. They may have the parts your looking for. My 2 cents. I'm heading over after work to install part of the harness on the frame.


Don G.