My BIG M925A2 Project Truck Is Home - Page 44 - Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite

Bill W · 01-28-2010, 08:19

**** Chris
I look at a pile of coal and see ash, you look at the same pile and see diamonds.
Great work
Pat yourself on the back for me will ya

steelsoldiers · 02-02-2010, 16:18

Thanks Bill!

I had a good work day yesterday. There was around 6-8" of snow and ice on the ground, but thankfully the sun was out and it warmed up into the 30's pretty quickly.

I focused on a lot of little projects to make it road legal/safe. First thing I did was install longer 1/4" bolts in the door hinges. I tried 3" last time, but didn't have enough threads on the top hinge with all of the mirror brackets. I used 1/4x3.5" and those were perfect. Then, I had to install a new center pivot bolt on the right side mirror assembly. The nuts were rusted and seized on the old one so I located a good used bolt and installed it. Once that was done, I put on the new mirror heads. They are the most recent heads with the built-in convex spot on the bottom of the head. I won't need to install the big convex spots on the center pivot with that type. I aimed the heads and tightened down the bolts. At least I will be able to back up the truck now without worrying about crushing my Excursion.

I also stripped off the old soft top and rusty top frame in preparation for the new to me top/frame. It felt good to toss that nasty sucker to the ground. I laid out the new top in the sun to get it pliable for installation.

I also finished up some wiring issues. I shrank all of my heat-shrink tubing on the headlight harness. Then, I spliced some wires back together on the low-air-pressure sensor harness. I also swapped out the warning light cluster for a less crusty used piece and installed a good head on the air filter monitor.

The next big project that almost killed me was installing the passenger seat unit. I had to hoist that cumbersome mother up into the cab. Just when I thought I had it balanced so I could get a new grip on it, it slipped and peeled about an inch of skin off of my left index finger. I paused to give it a cussin' and make a homemade band-aid out of a piece of blue shop towel and some electric tape. Once that was on, I finished sliding the big *&!@ in place without shorting out the batteries. That was only half the fun because I then had to slip 6 little #10 bolts through the hinge plate into the compartment and start some nuts on them without the seat dropping on my arm and chopping it off like a guillotine. I finally managed to get them started and tightened down. Woo-hoo. Comfy seating for the Mrs. I'm sure she's excited

Last thing for the day was installing the soft top. The sun was going down by that point so it was cold and stiff again. I carried it into John's office to warm up for a bit while I installed the new frame. Once the frame was on, Pete stopped what he was doing on a bob-truck to help me wrestle the top in place. Between the two of us we got it battened down and latched.

I just had to take it for a test drive in the snow after that. I used my new rear view mirrors to watch the super-singles kick up mighty clouds of slushy goodness. That was a blast. I also got to test the braking performance of the truck in snow and ice as I skidded right past John's driveway

The good news is it skids nice and straight so I didn't have top correct any fishtails. I never drove my 923A2 with ABS in the snow so I can't comment on how different the two of them are.

Of course I have pics, but you will have to wait until tonight to see them!!

srodocker · 02-02-2010, 16:20

congrats on getting it closer to being done!

steelsoldiers · 02-02-2010, 21:59

Pics as promised! The first few are of my hydraulic motor rebuild. I took it all apart again in order to replace all of the o-rings and lubricate it with petroleum jelly as directed. It is a good thing I did because the check valves had water contaminated oil in them and were pretty gunked up. I then reassembled it timing the Geroter and valve assemblies as specified in the manual. Let's hope it works!

The rest of the photos are of yesterday's festivities. Enjoy!

steelsoldiers · 02-02-2010, 22:06

And.... a few more!

onegmjack · 02-02-2010, 23:00

Great job, only a real Steel Soldier would work in weather like that.Your truck looks great and the dedication you putting in it is priceless.

duncan · 02-03-2010, 02:43

Shaping up every time you post pictures!

That picture with the warning labels made me wonder, why cant you push/pull start it?

steelsoldiers · 02-03-2010, 05:39

Thanks Dwight. I feel like the US Postal Service of old. "Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep me from my appointed 5-ton work session."

I actually

Duncan, it's an automatic so pushing or pulling with it in gear could do significant internal damage to the tranny. I took the photo to show the "new" warning light cluster. It has a light for high beams, front axle lock, over temp, spring brake override, parking brake on, and low air. The over temp light is actually for the earlier trucks with the NHC-250 Cummins, but I will find a use for it.

duncan · 02-03-2010, 05:43

Thanks for explaining, I keep forgetting you're mostly on automatic transmissions!

steelsoldiers · 02-05-2010, 23:00

I got some more work done at Winslow's yesterday. I got there around 7:20 and immediately went to work stripping a few more parts off of the donor truck. I was waiting on Joe CrashAF and his buddy to show up. I was going to help Joe pull some parts off of the donor for his 936A2 wrecker project.

I was able to pull off the complete fuel burning heater kit, a mud flap, and a few other bits by the time Joe got there. Once Joe and his pal Mike got there we went to work on getting the parts off that he needed. We removed the steering box, the steering shaft/wheel, a spare tire/wheel, a brake valve, air compressor, and power steering pump.

Once we got everything off we had to get it loaded in the truck. Everything was easy except the spare tire. We wrestled it a little bit and then decided a new tact was needed. I drove up the hill to get the 925A2. We hooked up the chain hoist to the davit boom and used it to haul the tire up in the air to the level of the tailgate. It was easy to roll it into the bed after that. We also used the davit to load my spare into the tire carrier on the 925A2.

Joe and Mike hit the road after we finished. They had a long drive back to SC ahead of them. After they left, my first goal was to pull a good u-bolt from the donor truck to replace to broken one on my truck. It was a royal PITA to get off of the truck. I had to remove all 4 nuts and lock washers, knock the lower spring plate off, and then jack up on the truck underneath the spring to create enough clearance to get the bolt out.

After I got the bolt out, I headed up the hill to move my truck to John's shop. I used the air tools to make it easier get the u-bolt swapped. I repeated the process I used on the parts truck to replace my broken bolt. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the old bolt had been cut with a torch. I have no idea why they would do that, but nothing surprises me at this point. I finally got everything bolted back together and got the truck back on the ground. I definitely feel better knowing that the u-bolts are in good shape.

Progress, progress, progress. I see a road trip in my not too distant future!