PS Magazine - TB 43-PS-580
PS, The Preventative Maintenance Monthly
ISSUE 580
MARCH 2001
Personnel Heaters…
M
echanics, when one of those new
A-20 Global personnel heaters breaks
down in a combat vehicle,
you
can’t
repair it or send it off to depot.
That’s
direct support’s job.
The heater, NSN 2540-01-396-
2826, has an SMR code of PAOFD.
That means you can remove it and
rewmen, the length of the indicator pins on your howitzer’s recuperator have to
be measured before firing and after every 100 rounds of sustained fire.
If the pins extend less than 1/4 inch or more than 3/4 inch, the hydraulic fluid
level in the recuperator has to be adjusted.
It’s easy to do more harm than good when checking the pins, though. That’s
because each time you check the pins you have to open the recuperator cover.
That
gives you a lot of chances to damage the recuperator gasket.
A damaged or missing gasket lets corrosion and dirt inside the recuperator. When
the howitzer is fired, those contaminants fall into the inner cylinder and chew up the
piston head seals.
Damaged seals let nitrogen escape from the recuperator.
To measure the pins, you don’t have to remove either of the two screws holding
the recuperator cover closed. Just loosen
both
screws to their stop pins and
gently
pry the cover away from the recuperator with your fingers.
If you loosen just the top screw and twist the cover open, the gasket tears.
If the gasket is cut or torn, tell your mechanic. He’ll eyeball Page 5-42 of TM 9-
2350-311-20-2 (M109A2-A5) or Page 4-86 of TM 9-2350-314-20-2-1 (M109A6)
for replacement info. NSN 5330-00-034-4448 gets a new gasket.
Once the cover is completely free of the recuperator, turn it so you can get to the
pins and fluid valve.
Never
leave the cover loose to save time on checking the pins next time, either.
That’s an open invitation to dirt and corrosion.
Loosen both
screws…
…then wiggle cover
loose and swing free
PS 580
MAR 01
22
M109-Series SP Howitzers…
PS 580
MAR 01
23
replace it with a new or repaired
heater, but DS takes care of repairs.
If DS can’t repair it, they’re author-
ized to send the heater to depot. But
you
should never bypass DS to send the
heater directly to depot for repair like
you do with the old Hupp and Stewart-
Warner heaters.
REMOVE BUT DON'T REPAIR
580. 22-23 (C)
1/29/01
11:07 PM
Page 1
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