TNriverjet's M-1083 Thread

I need to start a thread to chronicle repairs, upgrades, etc. on this M-1083.

Acquired at GovDeals auction from Houston Co. TN Sheriff's Office. Reserve price not met, but I threw a bid at the last minute and was contacted two days later with an offer to sell at my high bid (still under reserve).
This is not the best looking truck due to faded paint, but if you look past that and the dry rotting tires, it really is a pretty good find!



It had less than 700 miles on the odometer when picked up. There is paint marker on the dash showing another 3,900 miles previous. I believe it went through an overhaul right before being given to the HCS. This truck has the 290 HP 3116 Cat motor.

Recovery efforts took place on Friday June 30th and were assisted by tnmogger who graciously drove to the Nashville area the day prior in his M-1078.

We did some tire swapping on site to get a badly dry rotted tire off the steering axle. tnmogger loaned me his spare for the trip home. See the empty spare rack on the photo above? The truck ran well on the return trip, but several items needing repair became evident.
1) CTIS seems to keep air in tires, but all lights are flashing.
2) Air ride cab not working
3) Fan clutch locked up and sounding like a freight train at high revs.

A few more photos upon arrival at home:



It has an interesting rear gate, and I believe we've determined that this truck had a shelter mounted most of its life. See the faded paint around the edge of the bed?

Nice truck. Is that the PD that takes as much surplus as they can get? There's one down that way that's always selling off stuff.

Suprman said:

Nice truck. Is that the PD that takes as much surplus as they can get? There's one down that way that's always selling off stuff.

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Yes, Houston Co Sheriff is one of the main ones, but I've also previewed items at Briarcrest PD, Adamsville PD. My previous truck (M-1078 ) came from Ridgetop PD. There's some good stuff coming out of Ft. Campbell.

Further inspection shows a few new items on the truck.

A new grille
A new push button transmission controller
Air filter is new
Oil looks very clean
Brakes look new

The engine is really clean with no drips or leaks on the bottom. This furthers my suspicion that the truck underwent recent service.

I greased the driveline.
Of course all fluids were checked and topped off before returning home on recovery, but I've checked them all again to make sure no systems are leaking.

Yesterday I was able to install the remaining two batteries and clean up the battery tray. I had to buy one new 6TL from NAPA. The other three original batteries were revived by the NOCO genius charger and I feel they will hold a charge well. I installed the one new battery on the low 12V side as they tend to stay better charged, but will likely rotate batteries long term as some have suggested to keep the high side batteries from going bad too quickly. I had to replace one cable end with a universal terminal clamp.


I was also able to diagnose and repair the fan clutch. I checked and cleaned the solenoids behind the passenger kick panel. I then made sure they cycled by using a 24V source. There are two on this truck as it has a transmission cooler mounted under the bed. (EDIT: This was found to be a bad assumption on my part the second solenoid controls the diff lock. A gracious member PM'd me so I could correct the information here. Thx Now we will have correct information for future reference The transmission cooler fan under the bed is electric). The fan on the engine was still locked up so I checked the coolant sensor switch for continuity. That passed, so I verified air pressure to the solenoids and went to percussion adjustment on the side of the fan clutch itself.

That coupled with some penetrating lubricant seemed to loosen things up. I verified the clutch was free by putting air pressure to the line below the passenger side of the cab. I was able to hear the clutch cycle and bump the fan with my free foot while holding air pressure to the line. It first spun with some resistance, but then completely freed up with repeated application of hammer and 120 psi air on the line.

At the end of the day, I took my son, wife and dog for a ride in the truck to enjoy the quieter cab now that the fan clutch is operational.

Through the photos I post, you will also see some progression of repainting the camo. It seems the black is the most faded, so that is what I'm working on first. As others have mentioned, the spray can camo colors at HD or Lowes do not match the green and brown colors of the 3 color camo. I will probably end up renewing that with mixed flat Behr paint.

I've also replaced some bulbs to make sure all marking lights and headlights are working.

Looks good !

I'm out of town for a few days for work this week, so I'm making my list. The truck is now licensed and I am working on insurance. My agent called today, with a policy, but I was unavailable and will have to get that finalized tomorrow.

1. Tires: I'm leaning towards putting two MV/T's or XZL's on the front and using the best of the remaining XML's on rear two axles. Ideally, I'd like a full set of MV/T or XZL, but that's a bit cost prohibitive for me right now (can anyone say 6X6?)
2. Flywheel bolt tightening. Thanks to recent threads on this, it looks pretty easy to do.
3. Cab air ride. Driver's side bag has a noticeable leak right after the truck is shut off. The air bag itself feels and looks newer than my last truck, so I'm hoping I can just rebuild it with some good O-rings. If not, I'll be ordering the rebuild kits found by ReworkedLMTV.
4. CTIS... seems to work sometimes. I'm wondering if the pressure drain from cab air ride is causing the system to see unstable pressures. I'm hoping it will clear up when the air ride is repaired which is why I'm tackling that first........... Let me at least hope. It's weird, when I shift into "mode" I hear the air solenoid under the dash shift the transfer case and immediately afterwards the CTIS seems to work for a short period of time. So something is funky because it "kinda" works "sometimes"
5. Paint I found some current brown and OD paint in spray cans on the big auction site. I don't have bed sides to do, so I really don't have that much to repaint on just the cab alone. I ordered some of that and can get flat black anywhere... I just may be able to give it a decent repaint for south of $100. if I black out the front bumper, skid plate and side steps, there really isn't that much green and brown left. Updates on this to follow.
6. I also ordered some door weather stripping off the big auction site. It was delivered at home today. The passenger door was leaking horribly in all the rain last week. I need to keep the power distribution panel dry! I'll install and report on that next weekend too.
7. Heat control. I may eventually tear out cab interior and put some insulation down. There are both paint-on coatings and dyna-mat style adhesive pads... Not sure which way I will go here. I also may add a 7" round fan on the dash. Remember the old bus drivers used to have 2 or 3 of those while all us kids just roasted in the back?

Obligatory photos: You have not seen these yet...

Like I said, It's a pretty clean truck aside from the faded paint.

your coming along great, I have been looking for the door weather strip for my M1079, can you get me a link to the product you bought super please

Seth

I got mine from JCWhitney.

by chance do you have a part number?

Cheers
Seth

sjohn116 said:

I got mine from JCWhitney.

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Adventure Driven said:

your coming along great, I have been looking for the door weather strip for my M1079, can you get me a link to the product you bought super please Seth

Click to expand...

I'll be glad to share information once I make sure I've ordered something that will actually work. I eyeballed the shape/profile and guessed on the length. Info to follow when I can get home to install.

ok, sounds great

Seth

TNriverjet said:

I'll be glad to share information once I make sure I've ordered something that will actually work. I eyeballed the shape/profile and guessed on the length. Info to follow when I can get home to install.

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Ok Seth, it worked! I ordered the 120" length... It would only have taken another 24-30" to get completely around the door. I have sealed between the old and new with some silicone (this is how the original was joined at the bottom of the doorframe). I'm hoping this improves the water seal as it was rushing in during the last storm.

Here are profile file shots to show the shape of each piece. The original is on the left and the new is on the right. I will say the new seemed to hold much better in the corners.


Here is the old dry rotted spit piece. I really should order another 20' to finish this out and do the other door too...


The door shuts tight, but I'll have to report on any wind noise later

Flat black paint is easy to find and match with the camo pattern. The brown and green rattle cans from box stores don't match well. I found this and am excited to try it out. I will post pictures tomorrow if I get a long enough dry spell to tape off a door and shoot it.

TNriverjet said:

Flat black paint is easy to find and match with the camo pattern. The brown and green rattle cans from box stores don't match well. I found this and am excited to try it out. I will post pictures tomorrow if I get a long enough dry spell to tape off a door and shoot it.

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I tried the green and brown i got on epay. they are VERY close and look good.

Looks great! I think the air ride and fan clutch are connected.

Fan clutch is now working great! I took the truck out for a fresh tank of diesel on Sunday evening and chose a station where I'd have to climb over a good sized ridge going each way. The fan did not engage on the outbound trip, but did kick on coming back over the ridge. It then engaged two more times before I arrived back home. As I slowed into my neighborhood, speed/airflow reduced and it ran once there and once climbing my steep driveway before parking.

Saturday started out kind of wet in Nashville, but the rain stopped and the sun came out. Here is the truck sitting ready and my helper... When the paint was wet, it looked great, but it was really faded when dry.


Once it dried up, I went to painting... All taped up. I also taped windows, but did not grab a snapshot of that.


I wasn't sure how far I'd get, but ended up painting the whole cab. I also touched up some around the edges of the bed and battery box to match. I still need to do the air intake snorkle. See photos below.


Here is a close up of the cab before and after to show how faded the paint really was!

I definitely have more to do, but getting the cab and some of the main components behind is a great start.

Looks good, i've enjoyed following this post. After painting my whole truck with bedliner, I wish i would have just repainted it in camo.

Ok, updates today... both good and puzzling.

Yesterday, at the request of a customer, I took the truck to their location for a lunch meeting. They were interested to see the truck. It started sluggishly when I went to leave, but I made it home


Today was M-1101 recovery day from last week's auction. I was able to convince my favorite person to ride along! My bride for over 23 years.



We drove about 70 miles one way to the recovery location. The trailer was ready and waiting. We signed, hitched and rolled to a nearby fuel station to air up tires and check a brake light.


The truck started sluggishly again several times, but we made it home. The newly repaired fan clutch got a workout in the heat and the transmission cooler fan cycled several times as well since air temps were soaring over 95.



I plugged in the NOCO G7200 through the slave port and batteries are taking a charge. I'm going to have to track down the drain or lack of charging. Otherwise, things went well. CTIS straightened up and worked (mostly). So I still need to fix the cab air ride and get a couple of tires.