Looks great, Rory!! I hope to have the engine in mine soon. From your posts it looks like that will be only the start of new things to figure out and troubleshoot.
Tell your son I wish him the best at boot camp. I am sure he is excited. Dave
Yes Dave, you are in for some fun!
The toughest troubleshoot was the shifting. With those long, spindly rods and levers, getting them all set right is a trick. You get second gear set where it snicks in smoothly and find that you can't get it into third. You get third tweaked in, move on to fourth, then find you have buggered the setting for second, so you must tweak that one again...
I kept thinking of Gerald's auto tranny and that he may just have something there!
But eventually, the gears will all engage smoothly and you can actually drive it and shift
all the gears in
one trip! I've seen the shift pattern described in writings as 'difficult', and that is true. The shift diagram looks all nice and straight, while in practice it should look more like the ramblings of a drunken spider. But once you get the feel for it, all is good and driving becomes fun.
Steering is light and responsive, but like the M813, there is zero feel to it, no natural center. It also pulls a bit when you let off the gas and get that slight drop in hydraulic pressure, but that is momentary. Its not as noticeable on acceleration. The 5-ton doesn't do that.
The short wheelbase (105") and large tires make it a tad twitchy, but also make the turn radius amazing.
The lad is doing well in bootcamp. The toughest hurdle is First Phase, and that ended today. They are headed up to Edson Range for a couple of weeks of marksmanship training, followed by field work. By the time he gets back to MCRD they will enter Third Phase and feel 'salty'. I have passed on all the good wishes and he has been amazed and pleased with the support while, as he put it, they were re-enacting Full Metal Jacket.
Cheers