Please talk him out of this

Knowing soldier A he would so be into that. This is why I asked you guys to help talk him out of this. But, ya'll were no help at all. LOL

Trying to get ready for an oil change

Baby steps seems to be a popular cliche. In our case that couldn't be more true. The down time we thought we were going to get hasn't come to pass as we had hoped. In addition the weather has been crap for two months now, and not having an indoor work space, progress has been non-existent.

Having said that, we might be getting a few sporadic nice days in the near future. So, soldier A wants to get things started with an oil change. However, being as OCD as he is, he doesn't want to put new oil in a leaking motor. That brings us to his master plan, god help me.

The rear main seal is leaking, so he wants to pull the oil pan and repaint it. While that is drying he wants to replace the rear seal with the sneaky pete tool he ordered. Then with a new oil pan gasket, everything gets put back together. At that point, the new oil and Lucas can be filled and the new filter installed, which we got with the purchase.

So, here is the list of what he thinks he needs:

3 Gallons Rotella straight 30 wt
1 Quart Lucas oil stabilizer
1 Can VHT Metallic Red engine paint
1 New oil filter
1 Rear main seal FPG - BS5974
1 Oil pan gasket FPG - OS3472C
1 Drain plug gasket NOE - 7043002

Anyone that wants to add to this will make my hugs list! By the way, I messed up and did a double post. Sorry! Computer was fighting me...

One last thing

The thing that I forgot to add tonight, is our intentions to try and keep everything in one thread if possible. Hoping to make things simpler and save room for others on this wonderful site.

Only thing I can think that you might need is gasket material to make the lower oil pan gasket. That one will not come with the Felpro main oil pan set. We haven't been able to find a civilian equivalent for that since I think it is military specific.

We also need lots of pictures of the rear main seal replacement process. I need to replace the rear main seal too and have the Sneaky Pete tool as well. Just haven't got around to it yet. Pictures would help me greatly!!!

Forgot to add...if any of those part numbers turn out to be no good or you find additional part numbers, please let me know so I can update our part list. Those numbers were good at the time I put them on the list, but occasionally the manufacturers change the numbers. This will help us keep the list up to date for everyone.

Two piece oil pan, Bit bigger job

USMC, Soldier A didn't understand what you meant by lower oil pan, but he does now. LOL He spent about 20 minutes under Ramona today and all I heard was holy **** about 50 times. Naturally, I was the ever so supportive wife saying things like, hey it's your dream truck.

Hope my sanity survives the loss of his. I'm sure he will be as methodical as he always is and will photo document everything as we go. That's what we do for our blog about the bobbed deuce.

Out and about town today

For the last two days soldier A has been doing small maintenance items on both of the trucks. It is getting to be time to move some things around at our mini motor pool, so Ramona can get her needed attention.

While doing all of this he just couldn't resist taking Ramona to town for some new gas and a stretch of her legs. She was a huge hit at the Fred Meyer fuel station. It's really fun to see a hardened guy like him at almost 50 turn into a little kid when he gets to play with Ramona. I might have to start go-caming some of this stuff. lol

She drove like the day she was built even in the rain, but we have seal issues and it was like riding in a dishwasher.

On an actual progress note, we picked up the air cleaner to carburetor hose that USMC had on the parts list.

On a non progress note, we had no success trying to order all the gaskets from Napa on line. So, tomorrow we are going to Napa in person with the hard copy of the parts list I printed out.

Third post today

OK, I love soldier A but he has definitely lost hos mind. He just came inside soaking wet, because he was outside in the rain under Ramona again. It would seem that the oil pans have several different types of bolts holding them on. So, mister anal retentive wants to replace everything so the all match with stainless. He wants the new metallic red oil pan to be highlighted.

He does have it bad. But then this is his own first military vehicle. My first was a basket case M38A1. I loved it into a restored Jeep in 5 years. Now that I know, I should have looked for a better one to fix up. Ahh..... first loves! Sigh.

Could you post some close up pictures of the front turn signals on Ramona and how they are mounted? I like how they are in the bumper.

Thanks and blinker pictures

USMC, Napa did come through today, but it was a bit pricey. I will add the information you sent in your PM to the supplier list. The head honcho at the Sumner Napa is an old iron guru so that might be one of the bigger breaks we have had lately.

Here are the pictures you asked for.

On the oil pan issue, soldier A made note that there were several different types of bolts holding the oil pan on the engine. The gentleman at Napa suggested going with a matched set of stainless bolts to complement the new metallic red oil pan. Any thoughts boys?

Trailer hook ups missing

Soldier A noticed that all of the trailer hook ups are missing from the back of Ramona. Upon further inspection, there is no plumbing in the frame rails. Is this common or did someone rip this stuff out?

Someone probably took it out and capped off where the gladhands would have hooked to.

Here are pics of what they did to one of mine. These are on the driver side of the frame.


The wiring harness was cut from the trailer connector and rolled up into the frame. All this is in the process of being corrected.


This is the left side of my next project and it still has everything attached.

RE: Trailer hookups missing

USMC, it looks as though all of the plumbing for the trailer brakes was removed all the way back to the air tanks. So, we will have to start from square one on that issue. If we pull all of this off before our busy season starts this will be a miracle.

Gaskets and seals are here

Inventory, tax prep and shop setup have been eating up every waking hour as of late. So, we are a little behind in posting about progress and asking questions.

However, we have some good news. Using the parts list that everyone has worked so hard on, we ordered the gaskets and seals to do the oil change and pan removal for the rear main seal replacement. We ordered 2 of everything, because of soldier A's obsession with redundancy. From the looks of things we got the right stuff, so the part numbers are good thus far.

There is one thing that is bothering him, and it is the fact that the rear main seal is a 2 piece unit. Any thoughts??? The hot rod guy at Napa gave a few bits of advice for installation, but said in the end it's a crap shoot. Thoughts would help. The good weather is on the horizon.

Forgot about the paint OMG!

Soldier A is doing a lot of web surfing and phone calling when I'm not around, apparently. So, now everything on the motor is going to be hot rod metallic red, because of some TV show clip of a guy named Stacy David building an inline 6 hot rod. Then there are all the performance parts that he is planning.

Just a girl asking a question. Is there any such thing as a 14,000 lb 6x6 hot rod???

He is also experimenting with his own camo paint scheme. I'm thinking tranquilizer darts at this point.

Since I purchased this truck, I figure I should update this thread with the state of the truck.

I am terrible with pictures, I will try to get better.

I have mostly worked on making thing work, which in some cases changing the military spec stuff to civilian stuff.

I have changed every fluid from bumper to bumper.

Rebuilt the airpack.

Installed matching large mirrors.

Stripped and repainted the cargo bed.

Back up camera.

HEI distributor with civilian cables and spark plugs, the military coil was dead, and replacement stuff is hard to find, and surprisally expensive.

I have been considering replacing the carburator with EFI system, just to improve reliability and hope to to get better MPG. Anyone ever convert one of these to EFI?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Yes please do post pictures when you can! I'm interested in seeing what distributor you used as well as everything else you've done to the truck.

yes,

Welcome! A backup camera is a nice thing to have.

I wonder if you could use a EFI for a 302 / 5.0 engine. It would be the same size. You might need to create or find an adapter. I have always thought a carby with a dual primary and secondary could be tuned to have the primary leaner for better fuel economy. Keep in mind these are thirsty engines.

HEI distributor is the best thing any gas engine could have done to it. Did you use a kit or find the entire distributor? I had an M37 that needed it (but never pulled the trigger) and have an F600 that needs it also (kinda far down on the list).