Irritatingly a couple of the wires that connect to the smoker control unit snapped off; I’m not surprised because they weren’t really long enough so were under constant tension. Luckily I was able to salvage wires from the old broken smoker unit and planned to use these to extend the length of the wiring so it wasn’t under tension anymore, as well as being able to route it in a more organised fashion.
The next step was to reinstall the gearboxes so I could carry out a test run to make sure everything still worked ok, and after that start installing the axle support bearings.
The gearboxes and anti flex brace are back in place.
The electronics sans smoker are installed. I think I manage to do a much better job at keeping the interior tidy compared to how it used to be.
The test run went well; everything still works ok and the new hull already shows an enormous improvement on how it used to run.
After this I took the tracks and sprockets off, and made sure the gearboxes were aligned as straight as possible. I then popped the first bearing on and drilled the holes, making sure they were accessible from the inside of the hull.
It became clear that as the lower screw that secures the metal plate to the front of the hull wasn’t flush it was interfering with the correct positioning of the bearing, so I removed it. Seeing as the bearing screw would do the same job, it was no longer necessary.
With both screws in and the bearing tightly in position against the hull, I repeated the process for the other side.
Next was a bit of a faff. The gearboxes had to come out again so I could install and secure the nuts from the other side.
The installation of both axle bearings is now complete.
I then reinstalled both final drive covers, and reinstalled the sprockets and tracks.
I resoldered the broken wires back onto the smoker control unit, and soldered the wires I salvaged to the gearboxes.
It was then just a matter of soldering the two wires together and routing them as neatly as possible.
The electronics are now fully installed into the new hull, and I tested and confirmed the smoker was functioning correctly.
The Tiger is whole and fully operational once more.
The only thing left to do is tweak the track tension, which I’ve had time to do as I’m writing this post about a week behind when I actually did it. Its running at a much higher tension than with the old hull, but performance is good.
One thing I did note of interest is wear is starting to appear across the whole width of the track link.
On the old hull with the knackered suspension there was significant deflection on the wheels, which meant all the weight was focused on the inside of the track, and the outer edge of the track barely (or not at all) touched the ground. Wear was excessive on the inside part of the track and barely present anywhere else. Now it looks like the weight is being distributed evenly and the outer parts of the track are taking their share of the weight.
I still need to do some tweaking with the sprockets, but overall this has been a huge success.
Now the next question is – I purchased a Tactical Bucket along with the most recent batch of parts. Where to put it I wonder?