1919a4 Information needed

[kenwest516]

Got the barrel off. Cant get the bearing and plug separated, but not sure I have to the more I look at it. Going to try to get time to drill the rivets out tomorrow after work. Then get the side plate off. I'll get more pictures up after that.

[fjruple]

Got the barrel off. Cant get the bearing and plug separated, but not sure I have to the more I look at it. Going to try to get time to drill the rivets out tomorrow after work. Then get the side plate off. I'll get more pictures up after that.

kenwest516--

I would not separate the bearing and plug. I just make sure that the opening in the booster plug is 13.5 mm in diameter. Before you drill the rivets out you may want to remove the barrel jacket. From your pictures it looks like the barrel jacket is just screwed on. I believe the holes in the barrel jacket are about 5/8 inch in diameter. Make sure the casing group is secure in a padded vise use a car jacket handle (they fit perfectly in the barrel jacket holes). Insert the jacket into the holes nearest the trunnion block. Going in a counterclockwise motion (Righty tighty, lefty loosy) using a firm pressure unscrew the barrel jacket from the trunnion block. This will give you a better handling of the casing group to remove the rivets. I would do the bottom plate first. I would use a drill press to drill out the rivets. Center punch the dome rivet heads to keep the drill bit from moving. The rivet holes are 5/16 in diameter with a small centersink on the outside. I use a larger drill bit and only drill down enough (DO NOT drill all the way though the rivet) to remove the rivet heads then use a chisel and hammer to remove the domehead if it still on the rivet. Using a 5/16 punch I punch out the rivet into the casing group. On the rightside plate that going to a little difficult as the rivets are welded into the right side plate from the inside. I would do the same for the rightside plate as I did to the left except you are going to drill the rivet down enough with a 5/16 drill bit to clear the bottom plate from the right side plate. You do not want to oversize the rivet holes. With both side done you should be able to knock off the bottom plate. The same process is used on the top plate except once you remove the rivets you remove the top plate by pushing it to the rear and off of the two casing sideplates.

When you are ready to remove the side plates from the trunnion block please let me know and I will walk you through you that as well.

--fjruple

[browningautorifle]

Yes, the whole front piece stays together. There'll be a small washer that moves. There also should be a screw holding the barrel jacket to the threaded shank on the receiver. One side or the other. Flat tip counter sunk screw... Like he said, careful when you do it, you can mess this up a bit if not. Some of these have been on there a long time...

[kenwest516]

fjruple The shroud was off when I took the barrel off.It does have a little previous damage on the receiver end. Is slightly flared. It's useable, I'll probably replace it before I get it reparkerised. But that's down the road when I find someone who can do it. It unscrewed from the trunnion before the bearing and plug screwed out of it. I sent you pictures in an E-mail after it was all apart. It don't look like the pictures sent for some reason.
browningautorifle There was no lock screw. The hole is in the trunnion and in the shroud, but no screw. It was turned past probably causing the slight flair on the shroud.
I'm A mechanic drilled bolts and rivets many times. Thanks for explaining it though. Its all apart. I used 3/16 1/4 then 3/8 and took the head off the rivets in the trunnion from the right side The bit did deflect a little on two holes in the bottom plate, but nothing I'm concerned about. I didn't attempt to take the bearing and plug apart and I'm not going too as per suggestions here. It is marked 13.5. I will measure it. (I just realized the battery is dead in my calipers.)Nothing else looks harmed as you said. I will try to get more pics up soon.
Numrich has new .308 barrels. Ohio Ordnance works has the bolt barrel extension and trigger assemblies. I have to look around for cartridge stops.

[kenwest516]

I got Ohio Ordnance semi auto parts. Sorry no pictures yet. When I'm looking at cartridge stops how do I know if they are Israili? Or will any 7.62 stops work?

[tankhunter]

A note of caution for anyone contemplating a similar operation on a .30" Cal MG.

In British Service, the Barrel jacket (Shroud) was also 'swetted' to the threaded portion of the Trunnion Block. With soft solder. It was part of any routine inspection procedure, to grip the jacket by hand. & twist left & right, to see if there was any looseness.

If this as the case, it was removed & cleaned up. Then re-tinned with solder. & the same process applied to the trunnion block threads.

Both areas reheated, & then screwed up correctly. retention screw refitted & staked in place. If there was 'overturn/ underturn' of the jacket. It was screwed up as described. & a new hole drilled & countersunk in the jacket. To align with the Threaded hole in the trunnion block. Screw refitted & staked. If it was discovered on any gun, that refitting the jacket. resulted in the jacket butting up & over/ under turning so that only HALF of the screw hole was observed. & new jacket, or exchanging used jackets until a suitable one was correctly aligned. Was also acceptable. If there was play in a loose jacket, this would obviously result in poor accuracy!

[Peter Laidler]

When a lot of .30 Browning armed tanks were firing their Brownings (usually ast the hundreds of fig 11 targets spread across the whole range area - meant to represent thousands of charging VC or NVA or Chinese Infantry, you could always tell the Brownings with a loose barrel jacket as you could see the tracer bullets spread about all over the place wildly in front of you. That was a sure sign that the gun needed fixing later. The tank crews didn't care too much, not when they had zillions of rounds to get rid of before the end of the week.

And if the zillions of wasted .30 didn't kill all of the targets then the follow-up cannister rounds did. Imagine a 120mm shotgun on steroids............ There were two types. The first fired a zillion-x finger diameter 1" or so long sharp guillotine chopped re-bar type things. And the second type, for close in protection - so said - fired about 10 zillion steel guillotine chopped square steel plates, each approx 3/4" x 3/4" with razor sharp curled edges. These shredded anything. You could hose down other tanks that were being swamped.

Happy days on the ranges as young Armourers eh Tankie?

[fjruple]

[

I got Ohio Ordnance semi auto parts. Sorry no pictures yet. When I'm looking at cartridge stops how do I know if they are Israili? Or will any 7.62 stops work?

Ken--

Keep in mind that Ohio Ordnance semi auto parts are cut differently for their proprietary semi-auto Rightside plate. They may not fit the "KMP" type semi auto rightside plate. The Israeli cartridge stops can be easily identified by a Hebrew character and "7.62" stamps on them. I will see if I can find some pics of them.

--fjruple

Please note Israeli right rear cartridge stop attached to right side plate.

Attachment 73839

Attachment 73838

[browningautorifle]

Happy days on the ranges as young Armourers eh Tankie?

And played hell on the barrels I should think.

[tankhunter]

They weren't too bad on Barrels TBH. And we had PLENTY of 'Em' spare to be utilised!

Yes Pete, very Happy Days indeed! Nothing like riding in the Turret across the barren plains of BATUS training area in Canada. Hundered & hundereds of miles of Fu......Errrr. Nothing at all! Firing Truckloads of out of date ammo. To use it up 'for training purposes only'!......Never in my life had I seen laxness on the issue of ammo, you could ask for & get. Just about anything you wanted! I used to Command a ferret Scout Car with rotating turret with a .30" Browning MG in it. Simply 'spraying' anything & everywhere you wanted! Unbelieveable Fun! LOL The hardest thing, was trying to find something to actually shoot at. As the area was a Barren Desert! The odd Cent Tank Hulk here & there. 'Bunkers' constructed from empty steel ammo boxes, wired together in a square. Riddled like cullenders! Firing Carl Gustav Anti-Tank Guns with SO MANY training Rounds. You fell off the firing Point, 'Punch Drunk' with the backblast vacuum's. Yep, Happy Days indeed!