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you ought to see what the turbine looks like after 25,000 hours of running 24/7. It really shows a lot of super heated metal. Gear box will look the same except for red oil stains from filter changes and sometimes you’ll see hand prints on the outside.
I hear folks ragging on that power pack all the time, and it’s really because they are clueless. That power pack is over built in a 4:1 ratio (some places closer to six to one. I saw two failures in thirteen years on the dyno, and one was a casting flaw that all the gauging in the world wouldn’t have found. In the end the guts of that gear box was powdered metal, and you heard it all over the building. A failure in the field was almost always caused by the wiring harness being installed incorrectly. Those kids fielding that tank seem to take pretty good care of them, but have been known to break an anvil. We want them to break it so we can fix a problem before it goes into combat (yes we had a few). Every power pack is extensively tested on a dyno. We don’t use the turbine engine due to heat generated alone. We use a V16 locomotive engine! The test is 7.5 hours long, and roughly 1.5 hours of it is installing the gear box on the dyno and hooking up the wiring harnesses (quit a few hoses and several wiring harnesses). The tanks rebuilt in Alabama are no where as good as the tanks built in Lima or even Warren Park. 90% of problems with a new tank always go back to Alabama (per TACOM).
gary
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Here are a couple photos. It is the gun elevation unit, and mounts to the top of the turret. You really can’t see much of it once the breech, ammo box, and radio gear are installed.
Ken
Here is a shot of it looking at the bottom part from under the gun breech. The black bellows part attaches to the gun mount to move it up and down.
Ken
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http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/rob_mccune/m1a1/ has a bunch of great interior shots, this is where the second of Ken’s is from.
This shows the area where the elevation drive mounts well. Red is where one of the two struts mount to the turret ceiling, black is where the housing mounts to the inner turret wall, and green is where the elevation cylinder mounts to the gun cradle.
Another view of the drive being removed from the turret
The RFM interior is a great start but is missing a few items . There are no traverse gearboxes for the turret or for the A1 CWS, no hydraulic reservoir, no stub case catcher, the radios are too big, and none of the wiring harnesses are present
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All that’s true and more, but it is still a great start, and much better than what anybody else has done, or trying to scratch build everything. I wish someone would do that much for an M60. At first it looked like AFV Club was going to come out with something, but never did.
Ken
Fingers crossed we may see something eventually.
Interior for M60 series tanks - Armor/AFV - KitMaker Network
Looking excellent and great information.
Cheers,
Ralph
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Love the shape of the abrams , doing a good job here.
Thank you everybody for the awesome comments and replys! Here is an update… tonight im gonna attempt to put the turret basket together
Question… what color are the bolts that go around the turret
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I can’t choose to paint them either steel, brass, or white… i think i might go with steel cause that’s what the majority of the pictures show… maybe the colors differ between the m1a1 and the m1a2?
Gino’s picture is an A2 as well as the 2nd photo I posted, the 1st one is an A1.
Yes it is, cadmium, I think. Color/paint of those bolts will depend a lot on maintenance. If the crew has repainted the turret, they will be painted. If the mechanics have done any major work, the bolts may be replaced with different color ones. When originally delivered from the factory, about a million years ago, they were painted. I don’t know if rebuilds are painted or not.
Ken
I guess I’m going with the steel color then… gonna have to get a bottle of motivation for tonight haha! Looking at these pictures i noticed this
Got me thinking what weapons were the crews normally given during the Bosnian conflict and where were they typically stowed?
Typically tank crewman are issued a pistol as a personal weapon. The tank might have a M16/M4. Not sure what the Army did then.
Army tank usually carried Grease Guns in the early 90s. Not sure they had them in Bosnia though. I have a friend that was a tanker with 1AD during Operation Joint Endeavour as part of TF Eagle in Tuzla.
Might have to pick his brains on that.
last I heard Karr supplied all the bolts used in Lima, and all their metric bolts are gold cad plated and in some cases a very shiny silver. Usually the gold color. Very corrosion resistant, Not really important as the bolts get painted after assembly.
gary
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Quick question… what color wash should i give the interior