After almost a full year, our ATS 59G artillery tractor has returned from major overhaul in Slovakia and is now again in mint condition. When it originally arrived in 2011, first attempts at starting the engine showed that the engine pre-heating system exhaust was full of coolant, indicating a leak of the cooling system. As the pre-heating system is located on the right-hand side of the hull beneath the water/oil cooler, engine exhaust and engine oil tank, we totally stripped the right side of the engine and thought that we had identified the problem – a failed weld in the exhaust/coolant heat transfer chamber. After re-welding this part, the vehicle spent several years waiting to be re-assembled (and had become well known to the visitors of our annual fall gatherings because it provided an unobstructed view on the 12-cylinder V2 engine). By July 2017 we had agreed with our sister organization in Slovakia to call upon their help to re-assemble the vehicle, and it was transported across the border.
Initially expecting an easy and straight-forward re-assembly of all components, a first pressure test of the re-assembled cooling system showed multiple additional leaks. Apparently before coming to us in 2011, the vehicle had been parked in Latvia since the early 1990s without any anti-freeze in the cooling system. Many pipes and hoses were replaced, however a further pressure test resulted in coolant exiting from the gearbox vent line, indicating another burst pre-heating element. To accelerate things, it was decided to simply blank off the gearbox pre-heating element and proceed with assembling the vehicle.
However – the engine seized after only 15 seconds. The external oil pump had seized and the drive shaft to the pump sheared off. It thus became apparent that we would have to remove the complete engine from the hull for its own massive overhaul. A silver lining in the clouds was that dis-assembling the vehicle down to the hull now also gave us the possibility to access the gearbox pre-heating element and fix that leak.
After removing engine and transmission it became apparent that the source of the multiple failures was an accumulation of rain water in the hull over the two decades the vehicle was parked outside with a torn canvas and the hull drains closed. Many winters had seen the water-filled hull freeze and thaw again, also allowing the water to enter the crank case up to the crankshaft level, corroding all bearings and the oil pump.
The major challenge now was how to get a replacement engine for a vehicle that was first introduced in 1959. Again our Slovakian friends could help, and we got a brand-new A650 engine – by early 2018 it arrived at the workshop and re-assembly of the vehicle could commence.
On January 9 2018 the engine ran for the first time, by January 15 the cab was again mounted on the hull.
Ab jetzt waren nur noch Kleinigkeiten sowie die „Optik“ des Fahrzeuges zu erledigen. Die Lackierung im Original-Farbton der Tschechoslowakischen Armee war der krönende Abschluß einer nahezu einjährigen Restaurierung.
Am 25. April traf das gute Stück dann wieder bei uns in Prottes ein.
