Difficult and dangerous without compressing the springs? Understatement, I don’t think it can be done. maybe replacing a wheel with a jack or something but replacing an arm with spring tension on it would be…Uhm, I think almost suicidal and probably damage a bunch components too. I’m not saying the spring would shoot out of there but who knows, it might burry itself in the concrete 
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For what it’s worth, Workshop Wednesday did an episode when restoring one of their Grants that showed working on the volute springs and how they did it to remove the springs and take apart the bogie housing. I thought it was pretty interesting.
Jeff
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Lifting up one side’s arms to replace a wheel was the specified practice.
The springs weren’t going anywhere, just compressing.
A chained-up arm sounds like the recommended expedient when a wheel is too badly damaged to roll but can’t be replaced or replaced in situ.
KL
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Possibly from my specialist subject? 
See also this photo of that tank — zoom in on the fifth roadwheel.
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There is a picture of a Sherman being readied to get pulled by an M31 in Normandy, where they do exactly that. I have it in one of my reference books. I’ll look it up tonight, as my google-fu is letting me down and so I can’t find it online.
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Here’s the picture I was referring to. It’s from Zaloga’s “Tank Battles in France” in the Concord series. It shows an M4A1 from the 741st tank battalion being hauled by an M31.
Zooming in we can see that the second to last roadwheel on the left hand side of the tank is missing and the arm has been secured with a chain.
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That’s a good find! And it’s an action shot, the track looks blurry from the motion.
something unrelated stood out to me from this photo. The cast texture is very heavy on this tank. it has like linear marks on the armor along the side and the rear, too big to be paint brush strokes. it also has a like a big round scar on the side between the cable clamp and the bracket for the shovel handle. I wonder if that was just a remnant of the molding process or if it was a tank that got penetrated and then repaired and put back into service?
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Sharp eye!
The texture is indeed heavy and in spots indeed looks like brush strokes, which doesn’t make sense. As far as the scar on the armor, it does look like a patched hole, but that would have to have been a real quick turnaround. According to the caption by Zaloga, the tank was damaged on Omaha beach by a 50mm PAK that shot the rear bogey (hence the missing wheel). Could it be a result of the hit? The mark seems to be right above the missing road wheel and there is a noticeable dent in the sand shield mounting strip as well. So that makes a patched hole unlikely, so short after getting damaged on the beach and I would think any holes would be patched at where ever they are hauling her to. These tanks weren’t transferred from other units that were already in Europe (like say Italy), so old damage seems unlikely.
So I’m inclined to think it’s a result from getting shot in the running gear on the beach, but I can’t explain why it looks like it does, because it doesn’t look like the result of an impact, while other visible damage does.
Or maybe that’s just where they cut off the pouring plug of the casting. What? You mean these things weren’t cast just like our resin parts? 
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Wow great pic! And great idea for a diorama
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Maybe they had to patch up or smooth out the sand mould a little there?
The mark on the side can’t be a patch for having been shot in Normandy — the tank still has almost all of its waterproofing on, including over the fuel filler cap. If it hasn’t been refuelled since coming ashore, it certainly wouldn’t have had any holes in it patched yet.
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My thoughts exactly. And because these tanks hadn’t seen combat anywhere else, I think it is an “artefact” from the hit in the running gear.
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So something hit the wheel then bounced up and off the sponson/side of the hull?
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I guess. Given that the damage is right above the missing wheel and there is a dent in the sand shield mounting strip, it seems likely. But at the same time I have no idee how something would hit the wheel and then bounce up in such a way that it would hit or scrape the side of the hull, given the overhang of the sponson. Then again, perhaps it wasn’t an AP shell, but a high explosive.
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A direct hit with HE to the sponson might explain the circular scar…but that would mean that the debris from the blast caused the damage to the roadwheel?
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I’d think that a HE hit could seriously damage a road wheel. All it takes for a roadwheel to stop doing what it’s supposed to do is bend an axle, damage a bearing, stuff like that.
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Suppose the road wheel was blown to pieces. Could a chunk of road wheel make the mark on the tank hull?
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Wow — this thread got totally high-jacked. Too bad . . . I was looking forward to seeing more of the Takom kit.
Mark Neukom
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I agree.
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