From: Henry Fackovec (hfackovec@easternems.com)
Date: Sun Dec 18 2005 - 07:27:43 PST
Hi Tim:
I have been to see the elephant...several times. Starting 1978 Charlie
Petro and I restored a M3A1 that was aquired as a logskidder, with
nothing behind the dashbord, we made our first self powered "flight"
with a milf crate of a drivers seat.... We changed tracks out several
times, mostly because we kept putting used tracks on and the cables
would snap. Once we got a set of Israeli tracks it was great.
I can tell you that the manual method works, you need to either find a
set, or make a set of "H" blocks to lock the idlers in the retracted
position. We jacked up both sides and once the drive basket was off, put
it in drive the tracks were easy to guide off with bars. Putting the new
tracks took more work, It took 3 of us to bull the tracks into position
(We were much younger and thinner then, now, I would recruit 4 or 5
people <G>).
A funny story, just shows that you never know: One day we were working
on the track, On Staten Island, part of NYC. The track got mixed reviews
from civilians, many stopped to look and ask dumb, or intelligent
questions, many stopped to yell at us for being war mongers, Nazis or
communists... One day we are trying to get a track on (One of our
first attempts) there are several of us working, most of the locals
butting in and Charlie's mother making us lemonade and sandwiches with
the crust cut off (God bless her, she thought we were still little kids
<G>) Anyway, back to the story: At a point where we were worn out and
laying in a sweaty heap, a mini van pulls up with a elderly woman
driving. After watching us for 5 mins, I went over to let her yell at us
and get it over. I went over and she rolls down the window and says "You
are doing it the hard way: It can be done much easier"....... After a
few moments of staring at her, she explained that during the war, she
drove one at Miller Field (An Army Air Corp base on SI)as a base
firefighter or something like that, and she found that if you did it a
little different that the manual, it could be done by 2 people in an
hour... She came over, sat in a chair, had a lemonade and pointed with
her cane and directed us (She said with a great smile" if I was 10 years
older I would do it myself<G>). .... We were done in very short order.
You never know who you are going to meet. I can't remember exactly
what the difference was, 25 years worth of other memories has bumped it
out of the buffer.
Anyway, good luck with the halftrack, and Happy holidays
Hankie
-----Original Message-----
From: Military Vehicles Mailing List [mailto:mil-veh@mil-veh.org] On
Behalf Of timothy.smith1@att.net
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2005 12:20 AM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: [MV] Halftrack
I'd like to report that within the past month I have taken delivery of a
complete set of 16 NOS rollers and a set of new 1990 manufactured tracks
and an 81mm mortar for my halftrack.
If anyone on the list has "been to see the elephant" on the job of
replacing rollers and tracks on a WWII halftrack, I'd sure like to hear
about the pitfalls before I get into the job myself.
TJ
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