What did you do to your deuce this week?

Full PM done today, everything went well OE filter canisters still in good working order, changed a leaky fuel supply line from the primary to the pump. Belts tightened, checked many bolts and clamps on motor, all OK. Greased entire truck, used 3 tubes. Acquired some "period perfect" grease, it's a 25 gallon barrel stamped "Exxon" date 05/22/67 was sitting in the back of the storage room in our shop.

Topped off rears, trans, transfer case. Used about 1 gal altogether. Not bad. Adjusted clutch and linkage, still plenty clutch left.

Changed my two American flags flying off the back. Put a new "I BOOBIES" sticker on

Working my truck for four straight days now....


So far managed to not submerge above the hubs..close, though. Burning about 3/4 of a tank of diesel per day, needed 2 quarts of engine oil this morning, running fine, no fuss, no issues (other than the darn wiper blade on the civvy conversion that twists on the too-narrow metal arm.

Tossing sand bags all day and wrestling the blood-pressure assisted steering in tight spaces time and time again sure makes for draining days.



Yup..that is a road, with a 5ft ditch on either side. Better stay between the markers. Same for many covered driveways I back into.
I have to be careful...truck runs entirely on my dime, and I don't want to bust tires on underwater obstacles or slide into one of the many totall invisible ditches.






People are grateful to get a load of bags, that's for sure.

Replaced the the right rear brake components,bearings and seals.

Got my new transmission physically to the truck, never said I got it in.... thats for another day
Then started looking at the springs I got for the 4x4 mod and the bottom leaf on one pack it broke
But then I just tore down a set of ford leafs and strangely enough the ford leaf was just as wide at 2 1/2" and a good bit thicker.
I'm thinking I might get longer pins and swap both leaf packs to the ford lower. Think it will work?

DB556 said:

Got my new transmission physically to the truck, never said I got it in.... thats for another day
Then started looking at the springs I got for the 4x4 mod and the bottom leaf on one pack it broke
But then I just tore down a set of ford leafs and strangely enough the ford leaf was just as wide at 2 1/2" and a good bit thicker.
I'm thinking I might get longer pins and swap both leaf packs to the ford lower. Think it will work?

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The Ford leafs are not the same curvature. Besides the broken leaf, what is it that substituting the flat Ford leaf for the curved ones in your spring pack will accomplish? My M105 spring pack has 12 leafs and I ended up with 11 plus an air bag. Are you making the truck shorter (bobbed) and will you be hauling a load mostly or empty? Even the angle of the shackle will affect your ride quality. What are the new (black) springs from and did you get the frame mounts?

tobyS said:

The Ford leafs are not the same curvature. Besides the broken leaf, what is it that substituting the flat Ford leaf for the curved ones in your spring pack will accomplish? My M105 spring pack has 12 leafs and I ended up with 11 plus an air bag. Are you making the truck shorter (bobbed) and will you be hauling a load mostly or empty? Even the angle of the shackle will affect your ride quality. What are the new (black) springs from and did you get the frame mounts?

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The ford leaf is actually upside down, you cant see in in the picture but is is slightly curved, when I was mocking it up and not taking pictures it seemed to match the curve of the bottom leaf while not exact but close.
Well if it evens up the packs that is what I'm looking for, it I have to to pull the bottoms and run bags go be it.
I will be hauling loads of bulky things, mulch, etc my skid steer is the heaviest thing that would be in the bed and its 2500lb
There M35a2 fronts there is a guy in ohio parting some deuces in the classifieds.

I'm not bobbing it. I'm keeping the full bed, I'm pulling one of the rear axles and going to 395's
What I'm going for is it to look like this once I'm done. Picture below,

You are doing what I am doing, using the full frame length. I had to position my axle because of using the M105 bed with wheel-wells. The bed rear overhangs the frame only 3". How much overhang are you giving yours? Mine made a 165" wheelbase and 47" axle center to back of frame. Yours will be a lot different due to the mounting but here is my spring pack w/bag. Get a bit of lift or your truck will sit with the front high. It can come from frame or from blocks on the axle, but you will need some. I used 3" on the frame and 2" on the axle and that put my M105 mounts bolting right into the radius of the old frame. Don't do that, use 2" or 5" but not 3" or 4".

Oh yea, if you want tapered blocks for the axle to bring it closer to the proper angle, I have some 2.8 degree taper blocks. I started with them then made taller ones for my perch. I think it brings the axle flange to 1.4 degree from flat. More than 2 degree will give driveshaft vibration.

You are going to have the same driveshaft issues also. Mine ended up 85" and having to be made into a two piece using some OEM parts and also the newer style 1410 u-joint. If you want heavier, you will have to go to the 1480 and 3.5" tube (and buy all new, none of the OEM will work).

Took it out to the desert and helped my dad mend some fences.

DB556 said:

...Then started looking at the springs I got for the 4x4 mod and the bottom leaf on one pack it broke
But then I just tore down a set of ford leafs and strangely enough the ford leaf was just as wide at 2 1/2" and a good bit thicker.
I'm thinking I might get longer pins and swap both leaf packs to the ford lower. Think it will work?

View attachment 762813

Click to expand...

Dang! You looked at that spring pack too hard!

That Ford spring is the bottom over load, it’s only meant to contact the main pack when they are loaded down. But they wont quite work as intended with your pack, more or less just a 1/2” spacer. I would just ditch the bottom spring on the other one and see how it works to start.

Yesterday was the first day off during the 13 hour days/6 days a week shut down we have been required to work, so I tried to complete some more PM's on both Deuces. Greased everything underneath both trucks, finding that the 85 needed much more grease than the 87 since PM's in the Air Force were sadly lacking on the 85 truck. The E brake needs some serious adjustment on the 85 truck due to airmen driving with the E brake engaged & the emergency air line connect was plugged off(no clue why yet). I keep finding more odd stuff on this truck that needs repairs. The heater hoses were replaced with silicone 5/8" id hoses & the slobber hose was added with a 1 1/8" id hose since this one was missing too. Since the air filter box has a 1" od port on it , both trucks get 1" id hose that runs from the port to the air compressor intake to keep water, bugs & other FOD out of it, something learned from a SS member along the way. If I can remember, pictures will be forthcoming on this endeavor. Now, back to the grind @ work.

I changed the oil, installed my Jatonka spin on oil filter kit, and installed my Trucklight LED headlamps.

Replaced all the wheel cylinders, seals and that whole mess.

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Still hauling sandbags and supplies during the flood. Day 7 today. Went through water up to the hubs today...but new silicone boots, new axle seals etc. should be ok. I will check once the mess is over. A few interesting things...oil burn of about 2 quarts in the first two days. No noticeable oil burn since. I checked and smelled the oil. No diesel contamination that I can detect. Maybe really loading the engine helps seat the rings better?

I looked up the cargo carrying capacity on this site. I know what TM and data plates say. 10,000 lbs on the highway. As someone explainted very well, it is important to understand what the military meant by these terms. "Off-road" is any terrain a soldier might flog the truck through, thinking it could maybe make it. "Highway" just means you follow a dozer through the same terrain. The military did not envision today's road system in their definitions.

Form a component standpoint, the truck is about an 18 ton / 40,000 lbs truck. The limitations are the tires and today's traffic reality on the road. It is no longer being accepted that a heavy truck is slow to go and takes loooong to stop.

I have been loading 9 tons (about 18,000 lbs) regularly now and agree with the sentiments on this site. I checked the spring packs (do not appear to be at the limit) and tires (modern radials) and I remain well within their rated capacity . The brakes, however, are at their limit at that weight.

Not an issue for me because the majority of my loads is local. less then 5km and in low range only. Only some are about 30km and high range; I limit my loaded speed to 40 mph. I am not flogging her, keeping an eye on the EGT and boost and keenly aware of the fording depth for the axles/diffs.

I have a new found respect for the capacity of my truck, the reliabiltiy of hauling heavy day after day after f***g flooding day and the fact that she is happy with fresh diesel, a bit of oil and a dollop of grease.

And, man, does that LDS ever bite into it! I have the 0.69 Overdrive and it will do grades in 5th high, loaded as described above. I keep boost at around 10 (she will happily blow past 15 if I am not watching) and the EGT (pre turbo) at 1000. Respect.

Finished my sliding battery box. I also upgraded the cables to 4/0 - I really wanted about another foot of length to each cable and figured I'd move to 4/0 since I was replacing them anyways.

I had to go with 4 rails because each pair is rated for 148lbs. and with 3 batteries and the box itself, it's probably over 150. Nothing is square in the existing battery box area. I just attached the first rail on one end, and carefully lined each one up relative to each other.

I had to remove the running board during the project because my arms aren't long enough and every bolt was either bent, rusted or both - one snapped off trying to remove it.

The sliding rails I used were 14", and because of this you can see the ends poking out of the bottom. The next smallest was 12" and didn't think the box would fully extend clear. Also, the two inner bands that the battery box rest on are folded over in the back - I would've had to cut those and it just didn't matter that much to me, but if you're all about aesthetics...

One thing about these rails, they do fully extend. I scoured the web for hours looking for a slide that would work. The ones I picked, Accuride 301-2590 seem to work fine and cost about $60/pair shipped. They don't come apart which is good for operation but a little challenging for installation.

Nice set up,and thanks for listing brand/ part numbers for the sliders.

Made a trip up to go see Clinto and crew at the new location and get some badly needed parts for my Deuce yesterday. Nice people, nice place. And, my computer will NOT upload pictures to here anymore. Why, all of a sudden?

When I posted my post yesterday, I couldn't upload multiples, I had to upload one at a time.

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Wow....those are some huge front frame mounts. Very interesting. Do you use U-bolts? Do you have a provision for shocks?

That looks really interesting! You mean, you will get to keep ALL your fillings when you hit a pot hole with that suspension?