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M106 Mortar Carrier

runamuk45

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Hello, I'm new to this forum, (I found while looking for M106 info) congratulations on your rebuild! I know it takes a lot of work. Since you are familiar with the M106s I was wondering what radio was used in the M106A1 in the late 60's era? We are working on one and I can't seem to find that info. We are trying to recreate one from 1968. We are having to do a bit of body work on ours, it looks like it was pushed around a lot by forklifts. We're just a few weeks into it but it seems like it's mostly all there. I look forward to talking with you guys!
 

LanceRobson

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VIC-1 intercom with an AN/GRC160. It is the vehicle adaptation of the PRC-25 or PRC-77 man pack radio. To have the complete commo set you'll need a TA-312 battery powered telephone and, hanging on the rear of the carrier, a DR-8 reel of commo wire. You may want a 100 meter pigtail of commo wire already tied into the binding posts on the rear to make running the "hot loop" of wire to the other gun tracks and the FDC.

AN/VRC-64 and AN/GRC-160 vehicle radio sets (United States) - Jane’s Military Communications

Then let's see.....now you need a couple of spare .50 barrels, the tripod and T&E, some willy peter rounds, fuze setters, extra aiming posts and lights (never know when you might abandon some rather than run out the 100 meters to pick them up while taking fire), spare antennas, the radio backpack and accessory set (extra antennas here, too), extra hand mics and plastic bags to wrap them to keep the water out, man pack batteries, an M45 bore sight, some ammo cans of clean all cotton rags (no synthetic fabric please-it melts in a hot gun tube) about 1,600 rounds of .50 ammo, a case or two of Claymores, C-4, blasting caps, ftime fuze, fuze ignitors, and det cord (you may need to knock over or "top" some trees so you can shoot), a gazillion straps to tie everything down, water, c-rats, coffee pot and coffee, a footlocker of extra 20 round mags, a case or so each of smoke and frag and 40mm grenades, some Illum rounds, a butt load of M329 HE with the usual assortment of fuzes and fuze wrenches, your first aid kit and medic's aid bag, extra fire extinguishers, a couple of rolls of concertina wire strapped over the front engine compartment door, some extra track blocks, a road wheel of two, an extra torsion bar, 10-30 oil, LSA, GAA, a gallon or two of rifle bore cleaner. Oh, and don't forget the 1-1/2 ton trailer of extra ammo if you are expecting to "get in the s%*t" and are going to be in dry country.

Jeez, I'm getting all teary eyed just thinking about it (it's really my aching back). I can almost smell the preservative on the ammo crates and I just checked to see if the wax coating from the fiber ammo cans was still under my fingernails...

Enjoy, an M106 is one of the few tracks I'd go out of my way to help work on.

Lance
 

earnie

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seattle ,washington,usa
Thank you very much for the info and the description!! We've got a ways to go yet. We have pulled the power pack and cleaned up the engine compartment. We are starting back in with the diff. We figure to work our way through from front to back.
thank you for making me feel old i drove one of these thing in desert storm
i was an 11c in the army and we had the 4 deuce mortar
i have several pics of the ones we drove over there if any one wants to see them i can scan them and post them here
 

WillWagner

The Person You Were Warned About As A Child
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I'm in the Mayflower Village between 10th and Myrtle and Camino and Duarte.
 

David_4x4

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North Texas
Thank you very much for the info and the description!! We've got a ways to go yet. We have pulled the power pack and cleaned up the engine compartment. We are starting back in with the diff. We figure to work our way through from front to back.
Fun project. Good luck.
 

WillWagner

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Time to dig upan old thread. FINALLY, after 9 years, didn't think it was that long, but I looked at the paperwork on this thing, and sure enough, I am 9 years older! The issue we had was the fan drive pulley and shaft. Well, I took it to a friend, it sat there for a while, got it back and gave it to another person I know and, well, they lost the whole shebang. I felt bad about that. So, the other day, I was looking around in the back 40 and cme across some 113 track, in with the track was a locked up fan drive motor only for a 113. The fan assembly that I took apart to rebuild the one in the track now was sitting on a covered up M47 power pack. I look to the left, adn what do I see. A complete fan assembly for a 113. I flop it over and lo and behold, there is a driveshaft and bearing carrier in it! Pulled it out, the bearing was toast. Cleaned the shaft up and pushed the shaft out of the bearing. Twisted the bearing out of the housing and the local bearing/drive shop had what we needed!. Now the only issue was a drive pulley. I looked and found one that works at Grainger. A much better design, uses a keyed hub and the pulley wedges onto the pilot, like the belt drive used on over center clutch drives for things like chippers. Fit like a glove! Installed the fan drive and belts, moved 9 years of accumulation from around the track, again, fired like it ran yesterday. Let it run a bit, then pulled it out of the hole it was in and started around the compound. Here's the shoulda, woulda, coulda. Shoulda checked the go juice, If I woulda, it coulda went around the compound without issues. When I popped the filler and strainer, wht was in the tank looked like Tang. So, now, I had to suck the fuel out of it in the area the public walks around in. Good thing no mess was made. Drained the filters just to try and make it back to the shop. Got it fired and back into the shop, tomorrow is a full fuel system service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ql-HCUYz4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAoyFC_EoW8

Part2 and 3 were filmed by good friend and fellow SS member BLKHMMWV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aJcrrSYqzw
 
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WillWagner

The Person You Were Warned About As A Child
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Update 2. Serviced the filters, a little gunk in the bottom of the suction, pleats a bit wavy, indicating water, pressure side was clean, very little debris in the can, mostly this waxy crap. Got it primed, took a bit, but fired it off, let it run and took it for a test drive. Pulled out of the shop, out the gate, left turn on the front road, then, in the same spot, it starts missing and loosing power :shrugs:. Got it back to the shop, it still ran, but like poop. Installed test gauges and found only 5, maybe, PSI fuel pressure, no restriction showing on the gauge installed in the suction filter inlet. Driptroits use a positive displacement gear pump driven off of the geartrain, simple design, the only thing I can think of is the regulator in the pump. The cap faced down toward the gear housing, so the pump comes off. Get it off, pull the plunger and sho nuff, there is a chunk of something on the plunger where it seats. Clean everything out, put it back together, fire it, fuel pressure comes up, kinda slow, to 40 or so at idle and hangs there. Give it some throttle, 50 psi, [thumbzup], got this licked! Done deal, done for the day.

Yesterday, Friday, :clinto: I get to work on it, putting it back together and taking care of some loose hardware on the gear case that were the cause of a leak. Gauges are still on it fir it to get it warmed up, pressures look good, back it out of the shop, out the gate, down the road, SAME SPOT the freekin thing starts missing and losing power! look over at the gauges, 5 psi, maybe 6 inches restriction. Get it back to the shop and start thinking. The ONLY thing it can be is the pump. Maybe the regulator spring is weak from no use for all the years of sitting and watered down fuel in it? I make a few calls to friends that have fuel shops, bounce my issues off of them, and all of us agree, restriction or a failed regulator. 6 inches on the gauge, so, I go for the regulator spring. Pull the pump and check the regulator for debris, looks good. Start calling around for a spring, nope, nobody has one. On line, complete kits are 75 bucks. They come with the gears, seals gaskets....one for the regulator port and one for the pump body halves....and the regulator stuff. I want to fix it, not be a parts changer. I know the gear pump works fine, it is a regulated pressure deal, so, there is a power pack out of one of the M551s out back. I went out to it, pulled the pump, it is locked up. Pulled the regulator out of it, a little rust in there, but cleaned up the spring. compare the two springs, and found that the one in the 106 has had 3/8 to 1/2 inch cut off of it :shock:. Put the un cut spring in the pump, put it back together, I am thankful that these are easy pumps to remove! Fire it, pressure climbs to 50 psi and pegs a 60 pound gauge when throttled up! BAM fixed it! Back it out of the shop, out the gate, down the road, it starts missing and loosing power AGAIN! At least this time not in the same spot, it started right when I gave it a foot full of throttle. Look at the gauges, pressure bouncing around between 15 and 20 but the restriction is now at 25 inches. Reverse it back to the shop and start looking at things. Decide to install a pick up line into the second inlet port on the suction filter head and drop it into a jerry can full of fuel. Get that all set up, fire it, no restriction, about peg my 60 pound gauge at idle. Time to find out if it is plumbing or tank issue. Take the line off at the tank shut off valve and connect a clear line to the carrier line, pinch off the test line installed in the filter head. Get things all set up, crank it over, it fires but won't pull fuel into the line, it is sucking the test line empty! Plumbing issue. Trace the lines, they are soft lines out of the tank, plumbed to hard lines along the hull, to some soft line...this is starting to look like a job to find things....to some 45s to turn down into the hull and across the I guess "B" pillar under the engine compartment and into a hard pipe 90 into the engine compartment. Guess what that hard line goes into? A quick disconnect, there's the issue. Pull the line from the disconnect to the suction filter and the short hard line with the female end of the disconnect. Both of the nipples in the fitting had "hair" growing around them. Cleaned the fittings/line out and got about 1/2 teaspoon, maybe a bit more of this orange silicone feeling waxy goop out of them and a chunk of aluminum. Drained some fuel out of the shut off, it came out ok, only a little of the silicone looking stuff at first, then clear. Blew out the carrier line, a mess of stuff came out of that. Looked in the tank, there is small blobs of the orange stuff in there, the drain plug on the rear of the hull is stuck in the bung, I think the same guy that installed the plugs in the suction filter housing installed this one, I couldn't get the plugs out with the correct square plug socket, they just rounded off, ended up replacing the filter head.

Went ahead and re assembled the carrier, fired it, pressures are great, moved it but as soon as there was a demand for fuel, pressure dropped and restriction came up. We need to find a way to clean the tank. I will need to take the quick disconnect out again and clean the fitting and line. Before I left yesterday, We looked for some type of filter we could use to pull the fuel out of the tank, thru the filter and into storage cans. Found a suitable filter and I plumbed it up so we can suck from the bottom hopefully pulling some of the goop out with the fuel. The tank is part of the carrier, unlike the 901 that is removable. I'll also work on removing the bung at the rear of the hull to drain/clean, but it does not sit at the bottom of the tank, it is an inch higher than the bottom of the tank. I also found one of these,

https://www.mcmaster.com/43935k22

I will install this on the outlet of the fuel tank shut off. There is a 20 mesh screen filter in the Y. The screen filters down to around 800 microns, .0300 of an inch. It will be the sacrificial lamb for the fuel system. Easily cleanable and hopefully stop the issue we are having.

This carrier was acquired thru either State Surplus or another Museum 20 plus years ago, nobody remembers. There is a tag stating it was overhauled in 1981 and only 1000 miles or so showing on the ODO. I can't believe all the different issues this is having, from 9 years ago, the fan, wing bearings to all the fuel system issues. I know, sitting is bad for things, but I have seen 30 year old fuel be fine. Why would someone cut a pressure regulator spring? Seems that for everything I find, it causes yet another issue. Oh well, keeps my mind working! Hopefully, next week this track will be better.

No pics, but I will take some next week.
 
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glcaines

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Very good job on the mortar carrier. I used to drive those and M113s when stationed in Germany in 1970-71. They were fun to drive. Much better than the M114A1E1s we had as well. Much higher ground clearance and a much better engine.
 

WillWagner

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Well, here is ANOTHER update. The tank was full of, don't even know what to call it, never seen anything like what was in there, ever. Ended up using an air chisel to remove the drain that soldier B put in extremely tight...guess they didn't want leaks? Pulled the tank inspection/access cover, totlly cleaned the tank. There was/is still, some sort of sealant on the welds, so, I installed the screen I posted about in an earlier post. Put everything all together, clean go juice and, today, the track made it's first runs around the compound with ZERO issues! Great power, no restriction, yes, I had a gauge hooked to it as I drove. Put it in place for display and fixed a few other issues with it. The museum now has a good running M106....9 years later!

A link to a vid fom the drivers seat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCFl7B6hiKo

Runs better than the 551!
 
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