My BIG M925A2 Project Truck Is Home - Page 38 - Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite

steelsoldiers · 12-13-2009, 22:03

Man, what a nasty day to work on a truck in the middle of a field! It rained on me all day today. I was soaked to the bone by day's end. I thought I was going to have to stick it in 4x4 to get out of the field. Sorry about the ruts. John!

My goal today was to bolt the front clip in place and get it adjusted so it will close easily.

The first thing I had to do was get the pivot mount off of the parts truck. I had to unbolt the 4 mounting bolts and then slide the whole hood unit off onto the ground so I could remove the mount. That was fun to do by myself! As you can see in the first picture, the parts truck is starting to look very picked over now.

Once I got the mount off, I loaded that and a couple of other things up and went up the hill to prepare the good hood for mounting. I had to bolt the pivot mount onto the good hood and then flip it right side up so I could snatch it up with the 816. I had to snake the wrecker in between all of the other dead trucks to get to the hood. Once I pulled in front of it, I let the boom do the rest of the work. I had the hood hanging from the hook in a matter of minutes. Then, I had to slowly make my way back through the trucks on both sides of the road.

I pulled the wrecker in front of my truck and went to the shop to fetch Pete. He ran the wrecker boom while I spotted and pushed the hood into position. Once we had it lowered into place we lined up the holes and bolted in down loosely. We then disconnected the wrecker and lowered the hood down to check alignment. We tightened the bolts down once we got everything lined up.

Pete went back to work on a bob-truck and I finished the hood install by mounting the catch cables that keep the hood from going past the balance point.

It feels so good to have that hood on there. It finally looks like a real truck. I hope to get all of the lights working next time so I can do a real test drive.

Westech · 12-13-2009, 22:06

Its starting to look like a Truck. When you think you will be done with it?

steelsoldiers · 12-13-2009, 22:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westech

Its starting to look like a Truck. When you think you will be done with it?

I'm hoping to be able to drive it up here to VA after a couple more all day work sessions. It won't be done, done for quite some time. I have a good bit of body work to do in the cab, sandblast, paint, CTIS, etc...

Nonotagain · 12-13-2009, 22:53

Chris, All I can say is that you must have "VISION" as I would have written that POS off as a basket case prior to your purchase.

Green must flow thru your veins to be able to reincarnate that truck back into a Mean Green Fighting Machine.

Well done sir, well done.

halftrack · 12-13-2009, 23:26

Nice progress Chris. Sometimes I think we are in a race.l

steelsoldiers · 12-14-2009, 04:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nonotagain

Chris, All I can say is that you must have "VISION" as I would have written that POS off as a basket case prior to your purchase.

Green must flow thru your veins to be able to reincarnate that truck back into a Mean Green Fighting Machine.

Well done sir, well done.

Thanks! It definitely was a POS when I got it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by halftrack

Nice progress Chris. Sometimes I think we are in a race.l

Ha! Thanks Jason. I'm pretty sure you're in the lead!

M920 · 12-14-2009, 04:49

Man Chris, the weather you have does look as miserable as mine here! I just hope it was not as cold... lol The truck does look awesome thought, with the hood on....what a difference!! I really like the 900 series trucks....can't wait to see it finished....

Soni

peecook · 12-14-2009, 09:08

**** Chris, thats awesome work. the hood on there has to make you feel like you got over the hump. dont know how you did it in that rain yesterday.

steelsoldiers · 12-14-2009, 10:39

Soni, I was almost wishing for some white stuff! The driving rain blowing in the window of the wrecker as I backed into position was really refreshing!

Jason, it definitely feels like I am over the hump.

Now, if I can just get all of the muck out of the fuel system so it quits clogging the filter! I am going to try some biocide to see if that takes care it. It is dark brown/black muck so it is likely a bacteria or fungus growing at the water/fuel interface. I drained the tank completely when I got it and it was running clean, but it sat all summer with less than 10 gallons in it. It probably got some water in it through an open fitting. I think I will let it sit all week, pull the drain plug to drain the bottom couple inches of the tank off, add more fresh fuel and some Power Service BIOKLEEN.

steelsoldiers · 12-21-2009, 21:57

Well, I had a chance to work on the truck today. It was around 25 at first light with a heavy frost, but thankfully I didn't have 2 feet of snow on the truck like some of our northern members!

The first thing I did was drain the bottom inch of fuel out of the tank. It came out nice and clear. Hmmm... After that I added 20 more gallons of fuel, some Power Service diesel treatment, and some CRC Bio-Con.

I wanted to take it for a spin after that to test everything out before starting on the electrical stuff. The truck was air locked from the last fuel filter change so it took a lot of cranking and some ether to get it going today. It finally started and ran smoothly after a bit. I actually had some good batteries in the truck today so it was the first time it had started without a slave cable. What a milestone!

I pulled out of the mud hole and headed down the farm road. I forgot to latch one of my hoot latches so I pulled over to do that. While I was latching, I took a look at the fuel filter. That sucker was half full of crud already. Uh-oh. I headed down the hill where I could turn around and the drove back up to my parking spot. By the time I drove the 1/4 mile back up the road, the whole filter was black. Dang! I'm guessing there is a bunch of junk hidden behind one of the tank baffles and it doesn't end up in the line until I move the truck and get it sloshing around.

After plugging another one of those dinky inline filters, I decided that I was going to do the field modification where you install a giant fuel filter from the M809-series or M939-series with the NHC-250 in place of the crappy little A2 filter. Winslow had part of a kit on hand. I need to scrounge a few fittings and get a hose made up. I will probably get it installed next week. That should really help with my filtration issues. I'm hoping I don't have to pull and flush the tank. Ack!

After my test drive I went to work on the harness plug for the front clip. I had to take several apart to make one good one since all of the wires had been torn out of the donor connector and the nut was broken in multiple pieces. I salvaged 6 wires and connectors from another plug and then solder 2 more to finish my set. I got it all back together and still had time to get the headlights working and most of the tail lights. Next time I will get the rest of the lights working.