10:55 FLANGE

I can't decide if Adam is a genius with zen-like calm or a psychopath just biding his time before his next killing spree

the "cooling" system is there to pre-heat the pump in harsh cold conditions. The T-72 has a diesel heater that is pre-heating the coolant. This kind of repair work is done by pulling the engine out as far as I remember. The whole work can be done under 6hours in field conditions (well 3.5 if you make those techies some legs). I hope you have the M version, the maintenance of Oil filter is same PITA on the Classic, the access is from the turret via door, the M and newer has the filter up in engine bay on sides of the air filter box, if I right remember. Dont forget to hold the primer until you ignite the engine, if you start with air and not the electric starter (or was it the other way around?). Also never use fuel meter button if anything else then diesel is used, or kaboom. And now major safety advise, *always sound the horn just before you start the tank so everyone outside clears the tank surroundings. The hydraulic gearboxes can be in gear even if you are in "N" with gear selector, especially in cold weather, so the tank might jump a little when starting* . Now the last advice, you CANNOT turn if you depress the clutch! Also dont forget to clean the big airbox (plates are -cleaned- washed with diesel), if its too clogged in summer, it can caught fire due to booster suction (dont ask me how I know).

A long time ago, a very clever man ( my father) said to me, while I was trying to fix my Ford Capri, " If the B'stard who designed it had to work on it, he would not have bothered" I find this very true of many things in today's life.

I was a GM tech for several years, I feel your pain, We could pull the entire pack, transmission, and engine on the M60A1 in less than 2 hours. And it was air-cooled. What a mess, well-done fellas.

So that's where Toyota got the idea to put a starter motor deep in the guts of their V8 diesel engine, 79 series etc. Brilliant!

Don't worry about the tank designer- Brezhnev had him shot a long time ago.

One of the laws of Murphy is that a job will always grow in proportion to the size of the problem, the smaller the problem the larger the job will get. You have very aptly proved that law.

Master Milo made do with dive bottles of air to start his T69 until he got the electric start functioning. That meant he had to get a dive compressor to fill the tanks. Interesting to compare the cost of that to using argon. He did that for a while but if it's hard to start a bottle disappeared real quick. Great to watch you working from 1000s of km away and not get dirty. Cheers.

that prime pump probably is not water cooled, it is designed to be water warmed, because in -40C it would do no good if it just spun some jelly around without being able to generate any pressure

Ted thinks he's the main character... Well...he is!

Everyone of us who has had similar issues with a poorly designed item and usually its ridiculous location, feel for you right now. Just think once repaired you have to get them to go back in 😞

You know guys I think I might know where you can find just about any parts you need ( cheap) . Problem is they more than likely will have some “ heat stress “ damage, and you could get shot at,or blown up.😮

As my mother used to say, "it's character building son." Respect, fellas. 👏

At -20 c, you want to preheat the engine by heating the cooling system and circulating at around the engine block. Russian trucks run 80 octane benzine because diesel is a mother fcuker to start at -20.

Some Russian Army Mechanic is watching this and thinking, "Wow", thats how you get that out....

Wow, what a complete nightmare of a job. Kudos for sticking at it. Re compressed air, you can re-purpose old gas bottles & fill with compressed air. either that or an old oxy bottle. Thanks for uploading.

What an absolute nightmare! Top work as always lads! 💪

To show my support for you during a frustrating task I went and threw some spanners around the garage whilst swearing loudly With hindsight I should have moved the car first 😐 Nice work guys 👍

I appreciate the explanation of the different parts you remove and how the work!

As an Ex-MBT crewman (Chieftain, Challanger1, Scorpion CVRT) - Your content is superb!!! keep em coming!!!

great video again chaps ... always enjoy watching your footage from these mad tank repairs...

I clicked coz I was told this video had "oiled up guys laying cable". Instead i get an engineer taking a tow line off a tank. Top job boys.

I do admire the enthusiastic approach you guys have on getting a job done well done

Yet again, your persistence and ingenuity win through and the parts are extracted. Fixing and replacing them will be a doddle!!

The air compressor on our T72 also didn’t compress. We pulled it out (pretty easy, for a change), and it was knackered. It’s driven by transfer case so it runs continuously, with an automatic valve loading and unloading it. Unloader valve setting is pretty high (2200 psi, I think) so as compressor wears, it can’t reach unload setpoint, and ends up running continuously loaded. So then it wears out quickly. Tried lapping the compressor valves which helped a bit, but rings were worn. (Found a aircraft supply company that still makes them, but part number is slightly different.) We installed a used one that generates 1600 psi, after lapping valves. What we need to do now is reduce unloader valve setting to just above pressure it takes to crank engine quickly (about 800 psi) to minimize time compressor spends running loaded. Like Adam suggested, coolant to priming pump (and a lot of other things) is to heat up oil on -40C day. Starter is 48 volt so 4 good batteries helps start. There’s a complicated series of heavy relays to left of driver that connect all 4 batteries in series. The starter has quit on ours too. Spins but no engagement. I suspect planetary gear set has broken up, but it could be hydraulic circuit that drives dog gear into engagement. There’s only a coarse strainer on tank suction to main oil pump and priming pump. We had a ton of sludge in the bottom of the tank. Access is quite easy to pull suction hoses and drain and flush tank. We checked priming pump discharge pressure after flush and only got 1 bar. Supposed to be 2 bar. I suspect sludge has worn out pump. And now latest problem is the drive shaft from the gear train to main oil pump has broken, and some shaft bushes in pump casing are all chewed up. I suspect sludge in tank also caused this. Easy to remove cover from underneath to get at shaft and gears but not easy to remove pump. Anyway, great video! Thanks.

A good way to start my day, watching you all practice yoga/ contortions geting coverd in shmoo and coffee knowing my job today in just packing clean stuff. I Thought I would miss working on stuff turns out I much prefer watching you all working on it 😂

Dear Joe, Digging into a Russian T-72 battle tank is a hell of a job. The Russians still aren’t building tanks with a so called cassette engine what easy ca be lifted out of a tank for maintenance and easy to be replaced.Th Russians still use the old style engine mounting system what makes certain parts very hard to reach and to replace. Since the Russian army has a huge number of soldiers in service including soldiers who are specialized in maintaining their tanks nobody cares about the number of hours they need for maintaining these tanks. Even the most modern T-14 Armata still has the old school engine mounting. Hopefully you’ll get the T-72 running soon. I look forward to your next vlog and send you love from the Netherlands

Makes the Chieftain look even better! Great video boys as always.

It's almost as if it was designed with an expectation it wouldn't survive long enough for the starter motor to fail.

Good perseverance with that thing...Looks like a real challenge. Thanks for uploading..

"So we basically looked at a few manuals and... er... we got quite bored. " I can only assume the Russians banked on most of their tanks getting blown up before they needed any maintenance. What a total PITA. Brilliant. Another winner Ted n Co. production!

One more push madam! Congratulations you have a ten pound baby oil priming pump!

That was a nightmare. You are an amazing team. Great perseverance and skills.

thanks man ive been trying t get my t-72 up and working and this fixed the problem

This is like changing the light bulb on a Renault Megane only with Armour Keep positive😊

Could watch you lot for hrs love this channel keep them coming lads

thank you, comrade, very useful. greetings from donetsk, russia

Russians end up getting on record of repairing their T-72's, T-80's within hours. even though its by haste because the vehicles are important, i think it was 26 minutes that it took them to rip a whole transmission and Engine out, half an hour or so to repair the damages and 14 minutes to put the whole damn thing back in before it fully was able to drive again other than that the T-72 is such a fucking bueaty, even though it's a cramped small death cage of its own everything about just seems so cheap, difficult yet wonderful

Could be a comedy Patients of saints The oil pump bit. Excellent content.

You do pick them don't you Joe! At least you had a happy delivery of a very slippery oil pump. Good catch bye the way. As usual, up to the very high standard you set! Thanks.

You need a medal for working on these mate

Pull it, twist it! which way, that way, what way, that way! greatest team work ever!

I just want to say thank you to you guys for the pleasure your videos give me. Its so nice to watch you grovel around in the mud and old oil, get bent out of shape trying to reach the impossible and worry about whether the damn thing will ever work again. Its so nice because I will never again have to do it my self.

In battle at the time these were designed they rushed forward in a change and some got through! The British cavalry units tried the same thing but quickly ran out of machines and crews. The Russians did not have the same restraint and made more tanks and crewed them! Say what you will the crews were brave buggers!

One of my most favourite looking tanks, alongside the Tiger 1

Great way to start the day. Thank you Sir.

Brilliant content lads

Props on the job .. and appreciate the Sound gear improvement! / or better filming equipment! video turned out well!

The clear tube on your Milwaukee torch needs a clean, haha. I have the same one. They're brilliant

48 hours of Soviet hell later, and the b'stard still doesn't work. I honestly never thought it would, to be honest.. It does explain why Russia kept multiple tank parks full of unloved tanks. Not that they have many left these days. It also makes me think that Ukrainian tank engineering must be exceptional considering their ability to repair the buggers. 😊❤❤❤😊

Good work lads 👍🏼

You guys never give up, well done.😁

I hear the turret pops of easily though!

You boys have patience of saints

What a nightmare! all I kept thinking was how much of a struggle to get it all back 😮

We all love watching your videos, but this one really does show us the importance of a well designed tank for maintaining in battle. What a farce (but fun to watch you guys "battle" with it). 😎

Cool video as always , thank you .

The T72 wasnt designed to be repaired, it was mass produced if it died they would just replace the whole tank, they had thousands of these unlike the UK where every tank counts.

I have been rebuilding the front suspension on a Jaguar XKR this is much worse ! Thank you for your efforts ❤

That looked fun....I imagine the edit cuts fill a few bins....well done for seeing it through

How to fix a T-72. Step 1 - *sips tea*

At 14:36 I couldn't help shouting out "it's a boy!"

and there i was wondering if it would help if you unscrewed the front light lenses - hehe !!! amazing work as ever Joe and team, when your an olden man dribbling in your beer, cider, you'll look back and laugh, saying do you remember that damn T-72 starter motor and oil pump?

How cool. Best of luck to you all. Great group of guy wish I could buy you all a beer man.

It looks like he'll and it also looks like fun to learn about war machines like this. I'm not gonna lie I sorta envy you guys for this

Love watching you guys . The word , Dedication comes to mind watching you work . I would have used that tank for target practice , what a shit of an idea , in the way to start or repair or remove an important item . hope that makes sense .

Bloody well done gents, this would have to be the most heart-breaking, soul destroying mechanical job that I've ever seen!

The coolant around the pump is for heating it in the winter. Russian winter are ridiculously cold and they can heat the coolant and circulate it around the engine and oil pump so that before starting the engine all the oil is not frozen solid and can circulate through the engine. Like a kind of heat exchanger idea. These systems are commonly used around arctic areas.

'Wind' corrected to 'Air Flow'.......nice one. Keep it real, Joe!

Please, please use copper grease on every bolt and thread when you rebuild it! makes it sooo much easier the next time.

The things that break are always the hardest to get out and apart but your team are good at fixing the unfixable and I like watching you and your lads fixing and driving that when you leave the army never ever go back to working on any more then a push bike untill the next video

Unbelievable 😂😂 great video thanks for sharing

I think your first T-72 mechanic to wear blue gloves

i was on my basic military service tank driver right on this type. Reparing motor oil pump was my first job,when i have assigned machine. Motor oil pump for engine is on diferent places and it is possible take it out during service hole under engine.it is little bit more forward and left,it is not easy take it out,but it is work for some hours. Basic problem with oil pump for engine is leaking oil inside to pump during sealing behind working parts of pump and electric part of pump. if you dont have this in working condition,starting is dificult and you little bit destroy the engine bearing,because its DRY starting.

You need a rock climbing harness and the engine lifter that goes on the forklift then hang upside-down to get this job done

Thanks, I needed this

Bimmey …I’m not the quickest on the keypad,no sooner had I reacted to your oil pump problem but after putting my comment, I looked up and the back of the tanks off well done

Times like these I’m glad I’m on this side of the camera and not your side Always tomorrow mr hewes 👍👍🇦🇺

Living the dream!

Imagine doing that job in -20 conditions in a blizzard, twood be bloody awful probably impossible. Well done fellas.

I admire you patience and determination.... but at times like that, perhaps taking up knitting is more rewarding pastime!

So when I'm thinking how sh$t life is, I can rest assured it could be worse, I could be a Russian tank mechanic

Keep going guys, so sorry about that burn out you had, keep your chin up. Great show. The m113 near Chester. I've seen that from the road.

When you are reinstalling the fan don't forget to measure the fan slippage torque. There should be a tool to measure in the kit on the tank, if it came with it. If it's not properly adjusted it could cause damage in the long run.

I was literally watching one of your videos like 5 mins ago, and the t72 was in it so I was wondering like "hmm, haven't seen a video about that thing in a while, I wonder when they're gonna do some stuff to it". then 5 mins later I see this video in my feed, posted "2 minutes ago". quite silly

Looks like the same oil pump unit that Aus Armour had a go at recently. As I recall theirs was full of rust. Hope you remembered how it all goes back together... may the force be with you.

Keep calm and carry on! Love your videos, just wish there was not so much suffering endured each time. XXX

That looked like so much fun

Fun to watch thanks

What a beautifully built main battle tank with incredibly easy and accessible parts. Disposable tank for sure

Wow...just Wow...speachless.....what a complete nightmare....great effort....im sure you lot can fix it.

Maybe keeping the starter oil pump warm in -40c and priming the warmer oil and out of the way of blast damage is more important than accessibility.

Lol it was like watching the birth of a baby complete w “womb” waters 🤣🤣🤣. It’s now Dr. Hewes!

😂I enjoyed this video while having lunch. Looks very familiar to me. I would have removed the radiator too, it will give much more space and use some pieces of foam rubber to sit on while working.

Watching this process reminds me of this old adage, "better you then me" Indeed you endeavored to persevere.

It seems to me that you really do enjoy working on tanks.......😁..... go on, you love doing this..

Fantastick program the videos you make are grate and you have a grate teem

Ive been there b4, nightmare jobs that make you want to scream. Good job guys, you kept at it and got it done. 👍

"I feel honoured to work on this!"