M275A2 DOA but now RUNS!

I recently purchased a M275A2 deuce tractor from another member. Finally got it running today, and figured I'd post the story so far.

Here is how the truck looked when I first saw it:



Here is the seller helping me get it out of the field to ship it home:



Then finally got it home right before the Haspin Fall Rally, just watched it hang out in the back yard for about two weeks.



Enjoyed looking at it, but needed to get to working on it!

Baby steps

Started with cleaning out the truck. Bunch of scrap metal came in the bed, bunch of vegetation came all over it, and some wildlife habitat in the engine compartment.



Then I drained some fuel out of the tank to see what I had to work with. Siphoned some off the top and drained some off the bottom. Looked pretty good to me.

First attempt

Started to get excited that I didn't seem to have anything nasty in the tank. Maybe this would be an easy start after all! So, I stole my batteries from my M1009 to see what would happen.



Installed batteries, turned on ACC, no sound at all. Fuel pump wasn't doing anything. Very tediously pulled the fuse cover off of the pump (not easy to do with tank location on the tractor, very tight). Fuse was blown. Tried finding the right fuse at NAPA, had no luck (their smallest slow-blow was 8 amps). So, bought 3 amp fuses off of Amazon. Also went ahead and ordered an Airtex E8131 from Amazon as well as I wasn't feeling very lucky and hate waiting forever for snail mail. It was inexpensive, and would serve as a spare if the old pump didn't work.

2nd Attempt

Got my fuses a few days later, and my external Airtex 24V fuel pump. Got a few minutes to mess around and installed new fuse, hooked batteries back up, turned on ACC, and listened to my VERY loud factory fuel pump fire up!

Left the pump on and started cracking fuel lines to see how lucky I was. I went in the wrong order! I started at the IP, then inlet to secondary filters, then finally the primary filters. Everything was dry. No fuel. Just a bunch of noise. So, either plugged fuel lines or pump wasn't pumping. I completely disconnected the fuel line at the primary filter and blew / siphoned through it. Yup, fuel flows fine, just no pumping. Gave up for the day, but knew I should be able to use my external pump to get this going. The no start issue could be as simple as splicing in a new pump, no big deal.

Is there a filter on the pump? Is there enough fuel?

3rd Attempt

Finally get some time to splice in my external fuel pump. Figured I would have to draw through the old one as there is not enough clearance between the cab and the tank to pull the in tank pump out without pulling the tank. Researched how to pull the tank, looked like a pain, plus I had 100 gallons in the tank!

Option A - Try to fit a wrench in there and disconnect the first copper fuel line section on both ends, remove, then splice! NOPE. Not enough wrench clearance.

Option B - Cut into the copper line as it goes across the chassis. Not as classy, but doable. So, I did it. Ended up cutting a lot more tubing that I wanted to because I had to go from 1/2" to 3/8", used an inline filter, used adapters that were locally sourced, and it was REALLY LONG! The Airtex pump has 1/4" FNPT female threads on both ends, and comes with 1/4" MNPT by 3/8" hose barb fittings. I tried a lot of places looking for a 1/4" MNPT to 1/2" hose barb, but couldn't find one locally. Ended up using hose barb adapters to go from 1/2 to 3/8.

Wasn't pretty, but I was rewarded with fuel going EVERYWHERE when I was done. Bled the filters and lines all the way to IP. Cranked the engine. NO JOY. Hit it with some ether. Fired up on the ether, but no fuel was getting to the cylinders. Crap

Check the shut off lever. Take the cover off the ip and clean it up and spray it with some wd40 or something similar and work it back and forth. Make sure it's free.


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4th Attempt

I had researched fuel issues before I bought the truck, and figured I had a problem in the Hydraulic Head. Removed the center plug in the head, had fuel in there. Had my daughter crank the engine while I held a wooden skewer on top of the shaft. Didn't seem to be moving right. Ordered a new button retaining clip and o-rings from MVPARTSTORE just in case I got lucky enough this was going to be my final issue.

I spent a lot more time removing the hydraulic head than probably a lot of others might. The fuel lines for cylinders 1-5 came off easy enough, but I had to fight fuel line #6 to get it off. The nuts came out fine, but the end at the injector was seized in place. Kind of bent the line getting it off. Worried myself a bit there. Ran out of daylight, didn't want to get into the guts of it in the dark, so waited for Saturday.

I had checked the fuel shutoff before I did the hydraulic head check. Forgot to mention that. Mine was perfectly smooth. (I'm typing all of this after the fact. I already have the truck running now).​

Got some good time to work on the truck today. Started this morning with pulling the hydraulic head. Already had fuel lines removed, then removed fuel shutoff rod. This was the first critical step, as I had to be careful not to lose the jesus clip and the plunger tip. Got the clip off easy enough, walked it inside my garage and placed it in a safe area. Freaking small clip. Then I pulled out the cutoff rod. I thought I was being careful, but when I visually saw the entire shutoff rod I was missing the plunger tip. Crap!

Freaked myself out. Used my mirror to look inside the hole for the tip. It's not there. Did it go down the IP? Is it on the ground (working in grass, here)? Can't figure it out, can't find it. I need to move the engine to line up the timing mark for HH removal. If the tip fell down the IP, will I grind it to a mess and ruin everything? Crap!

I looked at online pictures of the HH and decided it is unlikely that the tip fell down the IP or even could with HH still installed. So, I cranked the engine around to line up timing marks and finished removing the HH. Didn't see the plunger tip in there. It's a gonner. Crap!

Silver lining - my button and retaining clip had fallen off the bottom of the HH. My trusty magnet gets them out of the IP. I stuff a rag in there and take the HH to my garage. Figure out the rest later. It was lunch time.

I decided to buy the biggest magnet I could find at Menard's and search under my truck for the missing plunger tip. Wasn't really motivated after lunch so mowed the yard to clear my head. After that I went ahead and reattached my button to the HH with a new retaining clip. Went ahead and put new o-rings on the HH while I was at it.

I figured even if I never found the plunger tip I'd go ahead to put everything back together except for the fuel shutoff rod. Went a lot easier than taking it apart. Got done quicker than I thought, then grabbed my new 80 lb pull magnet and started searching the grass. Wasn't happy for a bit. Moved that dang magnet around a bunch. I was about to give up when I heard something jump up to the magnet. PLUNGER TIP! I'M GONNA START THIS BABY TODAY!

Took me a while to get the fuel shutoff back in and adjusted right. It isn't safety wired yet, but I'm just trying to get this baby to light off. Began safety checks to ensure neither me nor my truck would die in the event that it actually runs.

5th Attempt

Status check:

1. Drive shaft between trans and transfer case is disconnected, so the truck isn't going to drive off on accident. Check.
2. Pulled air cleaner mushroom and laid a board big enough to suffocate the engine on the fender. Check.
3. Made sure that fuel shutoff rod was floating and not bound up. Check.

OK, put fuse back in fuel pump, turn on ACC, wait a minute, crank.

Nothing.

OK, give it a tiny bit of ether, crank, kind of fires but not really.

Go check engine bay, find fuel leak on HH (GOOD, IT'S GETTING FUEL). Fix leak.

Try again. Try stepping on fuel pedal this time. Nothing. Noticed that the fuel pedal doesn't really do anything. Found the connecting rod not attached. Reattached connecting rod. Cranked again and feathered the throttle. IT RUNS!

https://youtu.be/FokBWsrx1yU

https://youtu.be/pjM27TIop8U

That's cool Cory. It's nice to hear it running. Sounds good and strong.

kblazer87 said:

That's cool Cory. It's nice to hear it running. Sounds good and strong.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Mike. I had it easier than some because you and the owners before had kept the fuel system clean. No gunk in the tank, no gunk in the lines, piston in the HH wasn't stuck, etc.

Now the real work begins. I don't believe my temperature gauge is working, it didn't build up air pressure and kick the pump off (gauge showed about 30psi), and of course there are no brakes.

I also left my battery connections loose when working on the truck and ended up partially melting my positive battery lug on the 24V end because of it. Oops. My main goal was to get it running while we still had good weather, and that goal was reached. Now comes all the other stuff needed to make it road worthy.

When we bought a deuce, I'd the same problem with the air pressure. Checked all kinds of stuff to fix it. Ended up having a bunch of crud stuck in the pressure relief valve on the air tanks wedging it open. hopefully yours is something simple like that.

Truck sounds good.

Thanks for the detailed write up, it will help others thru their issues with non running trucks. I followed your lead on the in tank fuel pump problems, but the military mechanics had pulled my tank & left the fuse block hanging after replacing the fuse. They may have replaced the pump, but I can't tell other than new gaskets under the pump & fuel level sending unit. My pump worked great, even with the old filters & funky fuel. I replaced the funky fuel & put in new 700 cca batteries along with new filters. She still is not running, so the hydraulic head cleaning you posted is next.

FloridaAKM - Good luck on your upcoming hydraulic head repair. Hopefully you can keep from dropping and loosing stuff like I did (I should have put a tarp down under the truck).

I read the rebuilding hydraulic head sticky on this forum. That and a few youtube videos by the same guy helped me get the job done. I think he is also the person I bought my retaining clip and o-rings from.

I didn't actually have to tear down the HH. Mine was fairly clean and everything moved freely, just had to reattach the button on the bottom of the piston. Hope you get lucky, too.

Had a little time to work on my truck tonight. Safety wired the fuel shutoff and reinstalled the fuel line clamps. Fired it up again and this time got the air compressor to build pressure then cut out like it should. Found I had the trailer brake lever in the cab up instead of down, and it was bleeding off my pressure. I think this is only on tractors and not a normal deuce issue.

When I bleed my air tanks I only get anything out of one of them. I'll be replacing my drain valves soon and hopefully that's the only issue.

I went to put my intermediate driveshaft back in and was missing a bolt, so no moving under it's own power today. Hopefully this weekend (although I haven't even started on the brakes yet).

On a cool note, I found a lot of old registrations in the glove box and the newest one was 2006. So, truck hasn't been used in a while. Also found some weight tickets labeled "no bed" and "with bed". So, if it's still right, my tractor weighs 11260 lbs without the bed and 12740 with it. I have a scale at work and will double check it when I can drive it.

Great story, lot like my first, the '62. Really like the stubby deuces.

For future readers : make sure you block the small inner port on the air cleaner if you think you might need to suffocate the engine.

I learned where the port was on the backside of the air cleaner housing & ran a 1" hose around the end of the engine & over to the air compressor inlet. This allows you to also run in deeper water if a snorkel is attached to the air inlet of the air cleaner. It also keeps junk out of your air compressor.