I live in Birch Run, Michigan, Am a member of the MVPA & GLMVPA(Great lakes Chapter) and currently have only one Military truck, an M342. (M35 dump truck) and an ammo trailer. I am relatively new to the steel soldiers website but have been an avid restorer of m-series trucks for many years. I used to be active on some of the email lists but life is busy and My time and collection was greatly reduced by getting married, having kids, and totally rebuilding an old (1935) house.
I try to participate in club events in my area, but, as I am on call every other week, many of the events I don't attend. Each year I take many digital photos of everything MV related I can find, ask club members to send me their photos too. Then I burn them all on a cd. Around Christmas time I burn about 100 copies and mail hem to all the GLMVPA club members. some of you may recognize my truck (It's blue) from some of the many photos I have taken.
I am getting ready to pull the engine and transmission in my truck. I have had them both out a couple of times before for various reasons.(it's a long story) I currently have a LDS465-1A in the truck and really like it. But there is a persistent fuel supply problem that causes the truck to "run out of fuel" or act like it after the engine warms up. or in about 10 to 15 miles of driving.
I have tried everything but change the fuel injector pump itself. I have changed the electric in tank fuel pumps, primary fuel filter & housings, secondary fuel filter and housings, fuel lines, secondary fuel filter overpressure relief valve, injector pump overpressure relief valve, & gear driven booster pump mounted on the injector pump. Non of these have solved the problem.
As the truck is driven and the engine warms up the fuel pressure at the top of the fuel filter housings on the engine slowly drops off from about 70PSI at start up, to less that 5LBS. Then the engine stalls. It has been very frustrating! and has put my truck out of commission for about three years. And my kids, 5 & 7 years old can hardly remember the truck ever running!
So I picked up a spare engine from Gov Liquidation and hope to put it in this summer. Then I'll look at the problem in the engine out of the truck. Hopefully fixing it as a future spare.
I plan to convert the new engine I am swapping in from its current 5 ton configuration to a deuce version before pulling the engine out of the truck. So I am currently trying to round up the parts necessary. As I remember I'll need a flywheel, bell-housing, pressure plate, clutch disc, oil pump pickup tubes, Oil pan gasket, & bell-housing gasket.
Can anyone else think of any other parts?
Also, My brother tells me that someone was experimenting with a gear set to overdrive the transmission for higher road speeds. This would be a great addition as driving to events is sometimes quite a long haul.
Who was doing this conversion? Any info would be helpful.
Not so old! From the 2005 fall trail ride. The last event my truck made it to! On the way home I barely made it, It stalled so many times. There were a lot of unhappy drivers behind me most of the way home.
Bill
I'll attach a couple more photos of the same event.
The truck is an ex air force M49 fuel tanker. When I sanded off all the red paint it was blue underneath. And being as i am also ex air force I am also partial to Strata blue. So I went with it. Everyones truck is green. I thought it would be nice to be a little different.
I don't think anyone has ever said "thats too many pictures."
The only thing I can think of is to trace all fuel, vent, & return lines checking for air leaks. Some on the board here have also discovered that some soft fuel lines will delaminate causing some interior layers to collapse blocking fuel flow. Good Luck. I really like the Strata Blue, Dump, Knuckleboom combo.
Hi Bill, welcome on board Sir! I'm glad you finally came to the right place... so we all can learn from you!!! Seriously folks, Bill has a lot of experience and done a lot of nice upgrades to his blue beauty!
There sure is a cure for the fuel supply issue. Just to give you ideas: my first Multifuel (a Tooele rebuild) is running for over 12 years now and from day one on never had the primary pump on the IP since the little gears were frozen inside the pump housing and the small driving shaft broke at the very first turn of the starter. All it has is a Bosch high pressure/high volume inline lift pump next to the tank. (Actually two identical pumps since it was converted to a double tank system to burn veggie oil)
Still running strong!
M35 engine, transmission swap, & road gear
I don't think anyone has ever said "thats too many pictures." 
