light combat cars dec 1940

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Fig. 2. Parts of the heavy duty clutch

By

Herb

Packer

Editor

A Light Combat Car being built in the

Rock Island Arsenal, Rock bland, Ill.

M ANY types of equipment

for our military forces are

turned out at Rock Is-

land, Illinois, but to automotive

men the production of small tanks

or light combat cars is probably

of the greatest interest. Many spe-

cial machining and assembly op-

erations are necessary in putting

the tanks together, details of

which come under the heading of

restricted activities and cannot be

described or illustrated at the

present time.The illustration at the start of

the article shows the general ap-

pearance of one of these tanks,

the interior of which is divided by

Fig. 1. One of the Cuiberson Radial DieselEngines, with special clutch and blower to

provide the necessary cooling

a partition, with the engine in the

rear compartment, and the front

compartment reserved for the

tank's crew. Access to the gun

turret is also had from the frontcompartment. This turret can be

rotated so that fire can be directed

toward any point on the com-pass.

24

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Fig. 3. Tank before track

C O M BA T C A R SHow Uncle Sam Builds Tanks

The writer had the opportunity of see-ing many of the assembly operations such

as the installation of one of the Guiberson

Diesel engines illustrated in Fig. 1. Afterthe engine is received from the Buda fac-

tory, it has a special clutch installed, this

clutch including a special fan or blower

for cooling purposes. This fan can be

clearly seen, being on the side of the

engine which is towards you in Fig. 1.

The parts of the special clutch are shown

in Fig. 2 and will be no surprise to ex-

perienced mechanics who have worked on

cars for some time, for this clutch is

merely a large edition of the conventional

multiple-plate clutch of the general type

used in some automobiles until a few

years ago. Throw-out collar, clutch control

fingers, plates, backing plate and springswill be readily recognized.

Coming to Fig. 3 we see a tank unit

itself after the engine has been installed

but before the track has been put on. The

big sprocket wheel at the right is the one

that gets power from the engine, delivered,

of course, through clutch, transmission,

etc. The man on top of the tank is busy

at the job of making a clutch adjustment.

The illustration shown at the beginningof this article is the tank after the track

has been installed. This track is composed

largely of steel and rubber and requires

no lubrication. In fact, the entire track

mechanism needs very little lubrication,

To the best of our knowledge, thisis the first article on tank

Dept. for use in any automotivepublication. Ed.

25

there being just two points which need

oiling. In Fig. 4 we see the business end

of the vehicle, the 37 m.m. guns which

will be installed before the tank goes out

for tests. Testing is done on a privatetrack on the large island on which the

arsenal is located.

Fig. 4. The 37 mm. guns with which these

tank. are equipped