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Photos of My M916

Castle Bravo

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I havent seen the 7 speed Allisons in the GL trucks - WHERE are these coming from?aua
As far as I know, there are 8 of these Allison M916s.

6 were sold out of Barstow, CA in September 2010
1 was sold out of Saginaw, TX in September 2010 (This one was scrap)
1 was sold out of Barstow, CA in February 2011

I don't believe that there have been any others, and I'm not sure why the one was sent to Saginaw, as they should have all come from Ft. Irwin in CA.

I knew where 4 of them were at one point, but I now don't know who owns the latest ebay one.
 

Castle Bravo

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Thanks for all the positive comments.

I still have a few things to do to the truck.

Add more mirrors
Fix the Jake Brake
Fix the winch
Get some 7/8" wire rope for the winch
Add some convoy lights
Refurbish the inside
Add air conditioning
Get a matching M870 trailer
 

clinto

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CB, that looks awesome.

How did you prep the more difficult areas (differentials, frame, etc.)?
 

Castle Bravo

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CB, that looks awesome.

How did you prep the more difficult areas (differentials, frame, etc.)?
It was in good shape when I got it, only some surface rust. I used a cup brush on an angle grinder (with eye protection, ear protection, and a breather mask, of course :p) to knock all the rust off what I could get to. I would then pressure wash it off to get it clean enough to apply Rustoleum rust converter spray cans. I used about 10 of the cans across the whole truck. The rust converter paint made it look terrible. I spent about 3 days cleaning it all up before painting it.

Some of the nooks and crannies were hard to paint and are still not perfect. While painting a truck the opposite color (tan to green) is nice for the contrast it provides while painting, it means that places where you missed painting or places where the paint soaked in are far more noticeable than if you were painting green on green or tan on tan. There were quite a few places where I'd paint it, then come back later and it would look like I almost hadn't even touched it with paint. CARC seems to be almost absorbent.

I took all the wheels off and painted the wheels and hubs as well, although I don't have any photos of that. The mirror brackets probably gave me the most headache.

I used almost two gallons of green paint, probably a 1/4 gallon of brown, and a gallon of black. I painted the whole thing green, then added the brown and black splotches by eyeballing it on the paint by numbers sheets in the painting TM. I thinned the paint with xylene. Rapco's spray cans are a perfect match to the gallon cans if you thin it with xylene. A few days later, I added all the stencils. I edited the Gadsden Flag snake stencil from one I found online. A buddy of mine is in the 253rd Engineer Battalion, so I did the truck up in those markings after going and looking at their M916A2s.
 

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Castle Bravo

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A few things that are different about these Allison 916s -

The transmission cooler is underneath the passenger side fender, above the front axle instead of in front of the radiator. There are two hoses come from the transmission going to the cooler and two hoses coming from the water jacket on the engine to the cooler. I think its less of radiator and more of a heat exchanger. The transmission is essentially water cooled? Hmm, interesting way to do it.

The transmission dipstick is behind the engine oil dipstick instead of behind the battery box. It is at least 6 foot long (Not kidding) and is difficult to use, to say the least. You can check the transmission oil level from the pushbutton controls inside the cab, though. :) (I know the outer air cleaner element is missing, I was cleaning it.)

The batteries are run through a battery equalizer mounted under the cab above the air tanks. The M916A3 uses this same transmission, battery equalizer, and battery cutoff switch. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe that it is wired up the same way as a 916A3. So far, everything has matched with what I have seen in the 916A3 TMs.
 

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NDT

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Castle Bravo, does your truck still use the 24 volt part of the 12/24 alternator? I can see it in the pic, but I do not know why you would still need it with the battery equalizer. Reason I ask is my alternator just fried and the replacements with the piggyback 24 volt rectifier are big bucks.
 

Castle Bravo

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Castle Bravo, does your truck still use the 24 volt part of the 12/24 alternator? I can see it in the pic, but I do not know why you would still need it with the battery equalizer. Reason I ask is my alternator just fried and the replacements with the piggyback 24 volt rectifier are big bucks.
Good question. I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know.
 

Castle Bravo

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Castle Bravo, does your truck still use the 24 volt part of the 12/24 alternator? I can see it in the pic, but I do not know why you would still need it with the battery equalizer. Reason I ask is my alternator just fried and the replacements with the piggyback 24 volt rectifier are big bucks.
Do these photos answer your question?
 

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Hey Matt,
That truck turned out absolutely beautiful. The sand paint just does not do justice
to these trucks! If you need more practice , my second M915A1 is begging for
3 color camo! LOL
 
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