The 'Futura' Truck. LOTS of PICS! Dial up Hell!!!

No, this ain't about a Ford. My other M715 is named Futura. It's named that because of the guy on GSA that outbid and ran the price on me two years ago for it when it was only 20 miles from the farm. He was 'Futura' and I hated him since, but the truck was so purdy (I had gone and looked at it) that from then on super clean 715's would be referred to as a 'Futura Truck.' Yeah, so I'm weird. Well, our own McInfantry calls me one day and says, "Hey man I found a truck down here and you said you been looking for another and I though you could do a good job with it. I'd keep it but I think I'd be sleeping in it...or be nutted." He sent me some pics and incredibly...IT'S FUTURA!!! Unbelievably Futura had traveled some 1,200 miles to be parked under a tree and neglected until McInfantry stumbled across it. The guy was willing to sell...other vices had him needing money, and I bought it! Yeah...for a $h!tload less than what he did too! McInfantry had business in a town about 1/3 the way and I had some stuff to bring him and another guy so we all met and swapped parts, loaded Futura, shot some guns, and headed home.


Our other buddy with a M715 winched it on.









Then it was my turn to molest this fine hunk of expendible military equipment. One of the parts swapped down there was a busted up NV4500 from a '97 2wd Chevy. NV4500's have a really nice overdrive 5th and a deep granny gear. The M715's have divorced T-cases so a short tail tranny is a nice set up. I went through that and got a bunch of new parts to get it ship-shape again. I also cut a deal with another buddy to get a CUCV's 6.2L V8 Diesel with 5,000 miles on it from a military rebuild. I searched ebay until I found an old Lakewood Scattershield bellhousing to use so that I'd be able to weld to it or modify it easily. I also wanted mechancal linkage. The fifth pic down from here shows the throw out bearing's slider snout I had to make for this tranny as it never came with one factory. Welded a 1.5" solid round to 1/4" plate. Faced the back and OD of plate, clamed it by that and turned down the od of the round stock and bored it out to fit. Might look a little mungy, but I didn't need to turn the front side the whole way down so I didn't. I'm a function guy, not a pretty guy.





















Orginal shifter hole was round, I squared it off and voila! Engine and trans is a real comfortable fit. Remounted main mount for T-case shifters and E-brake handle on a simple angle piece. Oil pan even has factory step in it that looks perfect for it's new home above the Dana 60.

Spicergear, is this thing on the road yet? I'll bet its a nice truck with the road oiler in it. I gave Cranetruck a CUCV 6.2 for his sons M37. I hope he uses it!

Adrian (17) has been very excited over the 6.2. You know we appreciate it, Kenny!
He is currently fixing up a '77 CJ that he needs to get to and from school (45 mile round trip) since the M37 doesn't excactly offer great gas milage. I think he found some gas in the crankcase and put an electric fuel pump in it yesterday.
We have been looking for a suitable combination of clutch/transmission for the M37 and the 6.2 liter diesel.

Doesn't the M715 and the M37 have some parts in common? How about the NV4500?

BTW, beautiful job there, spicergear!

Cranetruck, I forgot to offer you the 700R4 auto trans and 208 transfer in the back yard. Figuring Adrian will probably want to keep the standard shift though. What about the 3053A in the M37 with the 6.2? If Spicergear hooked one up to a bigblock, should be no problem hooking it up to the 6.2!

Kenny, the truck is still being worked on...daily. Previous owner had cut off the 12 pin connector and taken out the multifunction switch. I hate people some days. The last few nights I've got that sorted out and tonight even got the thing to turn over. Didn't want to start it as the oil cooler lines aren't hooked up to the cooler yet. Couple other wire related switches and I'll be ready to jerk out the open front diff and put in a spare locked and Selectro'd rear I have kicking around.

Yeah, it wouldn't take much to hook the 6.2 to the 3053A. Only thing you need to contend with is the external balance on flywheel. I think you could cheat on that...still have it balance and get the project done. It's a fairly simple swap.

Tom, your work bench is way to clean! Nice work man. Looks great. I always like seeing your creations. Thanks for posting. Say Hi to Katie..

Al, my soon to be EX-wife says hi.

I got to start Futura for the first time today! Was real happy when it kicked off, hunted for a couple of seconds then just purred. Ahhh...what a relief! Still have some wiring to finish off, but now it's just this and that not a bunch of major jazz to do. Today was a big-BIG day. I got to find out that my guesswork (educated LOL) on some wiring, all the alterations to the bell and clutch and the once destroyed tranny all seemed to work...like they should.

Tom any updates on the Futura project? Got some questions for you about mileage and gearing on the thing.

I know this is an ANCIENT thread, but I just saw the video of some upgrades that someone had done to this truck, post-your-ownership. Pretty awesome rig, both while you owned it and afterwards....

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwuAfdFKC28&feature=related[/media]