M35 truck value

**EDIT**
Not selling the truck anymore, I've made some money happen.

Due to some circumstances beyond my control, I might have to sell the Deuce. I don't know what a fair price to ask for it would be. I know what I paid for it, but I'm sure it's not worth that now.
It's a 1969 M35A2 w/w truck:
Engine: It's a LD-465 multi-fuel, non-turbo. Needs to have the rear main seal replaced and the clutch is basically gone. The engine itself starts and runs great.
Body: The front bumper had been slightly bent before and straigtened. The bottoms of the doors have some rust, but not visible from inside or out. The wipers work and all the glass is good. There's only a little rust on the body itself. The paint definitely needs to be redone, had a bubba job on it when I got it.
Bed: It has the troop bed on it and troop seats. What wood is there is in decent shape. I have the metal pieces for the bows, but no wood and it's missing the top two rails on the passenger side of the bed rails. The bed has a good deal of rust, esecially at the bottom of the stake pockets and front of the bed.
Electrical: All of the lights and switches work. The turn signal flasher is out on it and the fuel gauge doesn't do a full sweep. It goes from about 1/4 to 3/4 of a tank.



They're cutting days out of our work week and a week at a time about every 2-3 months. On top of that I have some other financial issues that I'm addressing. If someone is close by and interested, I can get pictures. It REALLY pains me to do this. I know it's a project truck, but it's definitely worth saving.

900-1200 on a good day.

Part it out....you will make a lot more $$$.

dm22630 said:

Part it out....you will make a lot more $$$.

Click to expand...

That's not an option right now, I might be moving soon and there's no easy way to move a parted out Deuce

12 to 1500 sounds good

I'd like some pics. thanks

I'd be astounded if you get $1,500 as it sits. Don't get me wrong...the truck is worth that. It is just that most guys would rather gamble that a truck on GL is a good runner rather than buy a truck with known problems. As others have said, you have more than $1,500 in it in parts. You might be better off putting a few dollars into it to fix the main problems (clutch, rear main seal (could fix both during the same job). Then, advertise it locally for $3,500 or so. Good luck.

The winch alone ought to make it worth over 2000, but of course someone nearby has to want it.

i thought 3500 was too much to ask for a truck?

Alot of it is sight unseen

Mechanically the truck has been great. It made a trip from Atlanta to Louisville and a round trip from here to St Louis and back. The StL trip home is when I noticed the clutch and that lead me to the rear main as well. I'll probably go with BKubu and put a new clutch disk and rear main in it and try to break even.

What kind of job is it to replace the rear main seal?

shootiniron said:

What kind of job is it to replace the rear main seal?

Click to expand...

Doesn't seem to be that bad. I printed off the sections of the 2815-210-34 TM's (-2-1, -2-2) that pertain to it.

How hard is it to replace rear main in my 1970 2.5. It's seeping and have heard they should be replaced before they contaminate clutch. truck has appox. 35000 on it. Where did you get info on chnaging it?

IMA944T said:

How hard is it to replace rear main in my 1970 2.5. It's seeping and have heard they should be replaced before they contaminate clutch. truck has appox. 35000 on it. Where did you get info on chnaging it?

Click to expand...

Have you ever changed a clutch in a manual transmission pickup? It's actually easier than in a pickup truck. I haven't used a manual or anything, I just dove into it and figure it out as I went. It pretty much goes like this:
1) Remove all the transmission covers from inside the cab.
2) Disconnect all levers from the transmission (and PTO if app).
3) Drop the front driveshaft, the shortshaft ( from trans to t-case) and the PTO shaft if app.
4) Undo most of the bellhousing bolts, leave the adapter on the truck for now.
5) Hook up engine hoist or whatever means you have to manage the transmission. Then undo the rest of the bolts and drop the trans to the ground.
6) Remove the adapter plate from the block.
7) Depress and put spacers in the pressure plate levers. This will take alot of leverage to do and it's kind of tricky. I just used old bolts for spacers.
After that, you can remove the PP bolts and remove it.
9) Keeping the engine from turning, undo 5 of the flywheel bolts.
10) Hook up a ratchet strap or something to support the flywheel and undo the last bolt. After that, grab hold of it and set it somewhere.
11) Now you can take the rear main housing out. Undo all the bolts, then find the small indents to pry on. It shouldn't take much, so don't force it. Make sure you're housing is updated with three 1/4" holes in the bottom. Mine only had one and I've heard of some housing not having any at all.
12) The rear main is removed and installed just like you would a wheel seal on a regular vehicle.
13) Now everything is reversed for install.

If you get into the seal houseing and find that it's not the updated one, where can you get one?? Is there a bulletin on this updated housing

Here's a member wanting an engine:

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/deuce/34102-good-source-prices.html

Here's a member wanting a winch:

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/ebay-items-members-selling/34096-need-buy-m35-winch.html

A win, win, win situation?

I know you're not wanting to part it out, but I would at least take all the winch stuff off and sell it for ~$800 and then advertise the truck for $1000 on farming and 4x4 message boards. 4x4 guys would pay $800-1200 for a set of rockwells, and will buy a truck and recover some of that money in scrapping the rest. Then of course there's always ebay.

For an example look at this frame and axles...
eBay Motors: Military 6x6 M35A2 Monster Rockcrawler Mud Truck Axles (item 300302028752 end time Mar-27-09 17:03:31 PDT)

If you sold the winch off separately for $800, then sold the truck with the desription geared towards farmers or off roaders and got $1200 for it, you'd have gotten $2000 total. Better than only getting $1000-1200 for selling it outright.

I sold off some of the ole muscle car parts that I've been hoarding and raised the money to fix the truck. I had to (figureatively speaking) beat my wife away with a stick when I had that much cash on me at once though.

As far as updating the housing, there's a page in one of the TM's about it. I have it out in my garage, I could tell you the TM and page later. You basically just need to have a machine shop drill two more holes. Shouldn't cost a whole lot or take alot of time.

$3,500 is not too much to ask for a truck WITH A TITLE. However, in my opinion it is too much for a standard M35A2 w/w WITHOUT A TITLE. While $3,500 is on the low side of retail and there are plenty of great reasons to buy retail (anyone can review my previous posts where I have stated on many occasions that it is often better to buy retail than through auctions), no one wants to spend that kind of money on a truck for which the have to worry about getting a title.