M1009 aka RED project under way

Heaven help us........

Way to grow up Colton. Not the little kid in AB Linn's chair anymore.

Happy Birthday

Time for a 3 month update.

Colton pulled the rear wheel cylinders, installed new ones, new brake shoes, adjusted and bled the brakes after he put on a new frame to rear axle brake hose last weekend. This weekend we put on new calipers and pads in the front along with new hoses to each. Plus we got rid of those stupid modified front springs. The stock ones Rich donated were installed. Huge difference. I drove it to work today and it no longer rides like a hobby horse. Thanks again Rich in Galveston!

Of course, the steering wheel was centered going down the road with the old springs on. Now it is 45° to the left going down the road straight. Was it the old springs which had the axle crooked or is it the new springs? We will find out tomorrow when I bring it into my class and do an alignment and front axle u-joints.

This truck has always been hard to start. When it does start, lots and lots of blue smoke. Even in the hottest of Texas summer it doesn't want to start. Since the engine would die when the cold idle turned off. I always figured it was the IP and we would live with it until we replace the IP. The more we have been driving it, the less it dies. Maybe that 3-5 year old fuel could have something to do with it?

Last night, we put in a set of 60G glow plugs. Only 4 of the 13G's that were in there were swollen bad enough to need persuasion to come out. The other 4 didn't look all that good either. We didn't test them to see if they still worked yet. We got them all out and the terminal ends swapped. It started up like my other 6.2's for the first time ever. This morning at 34° outside temp it fired up within a second on a single glow plug cycle and no smoke of any kind.

Once we get the front end parts replaced, the front aligned and the bearings with new grease in them. I plan to run a few tanks of fuel through it and then see how the IP is doing. Colton sure is learning a lot on this project. He knows his truck pretty good now too.

Glad to hear she's coming around. Last week marked the 3 year anniversary of when it crossed the LA/TX border. Just think what another 3 years will do

Wait till he starts dragging projects home and you have to share the garage with him!

We plan to drive it to the meeting next week Mark. That is why I finally brought in to work to finish out the time consuming stuff. He has a band competition Saturday and it wouldn't get done in time otherwise.

Chris I started giving him tools as he was adjusting the rear brakes, brake spoon, pulling the calipers, 3/8 hex and stuff like that. I have spares and told him he needs these tools with him in the future. I threw in a Snap-On rathet and he really liked the idea of tools coming his way. What scares me is what you suggested. I over heard him talking to somebody at a school event the other day "I have a convertible truck at home too." I asked him later what he was talking about and he said the M715. We clarified who had the convertible truck at home. But, he had that thoughtfull look of someone figuring out how to get one of his own. I will have problems I think in the future.

Once I got it on the lift this morning, I figured out the locator pins are just fine for the front springs. The stock springs are reverse arch. The LA VFD modified springs were flat. We basically lowered the front of the truck an inch or so by changing springs and that made the steering wheel move. I was glad to figure that out.

Barrman said:

But, he had that thoughtfull look of someone figuring out how to get one of his own. I will have problems I think in the future.

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No good deed goes un-punished!

Glad to see that the springs worked for you, It sounds like his project is on the same schedule as mine, I am a little over two years into my build at this time. It will be on the road soon but the build will probably last another two years.

Hopefully we can get both the trucks together at a meet soon, Colton can see what his truck would look like all grown up (5inch lift and 37 inch hummer tires).
Keep up the good work of raising a kid right and tell Colton to keep up the good work on the truck.

Hey Tim I'm back in the area the deputy that was killed today was a close friend of mine if you need anything to go north message me

Sorry to hear about your friend. I saw the news stories, but didn't know him myself. One of our teachers used to be the dispatcher over there and I am covering for her so she can go the funeral tomorrow.

We got ball joints, tie rod ends, axle u-joints, brake flush and a few other things done in the last week or two. We did drag link ends yesterday and got the steering wheel level close sitting in the shop. The only way to get it spot one was drive and adjust. Here he is doing a side of the road adjusting yesterday.

Today he drained and refilled the transfer case with new fluid. We plan to do the transmission and filter tomorrow after work. That will just leave the cooling system and probably an IP in the next few months as money becomes available.

He dropped the transmission pan, cleaned it, replaced the filter and put in 1.5 gallons of fluid this morning. While it was warming up to get the fluid level just right we saw what looked like coolant dripping from the front axle. Turned out to be fuel. The lift pump is leaking.

We had planned to debut the truck to the entire family tomorrow as we tour Houston eating and visiting with relatives. He was kind of bummed but I reminded him it was much better to have it let go in the shop at home than on the road in the middle of the night. He agreed. We will drive the Bomber instead.

Nobody in our town has the Delco pump. Lots of Airtex, but we only want the Delco. It is on order and we can expect it in 5-7 business days.

We also tested the vacuum control valve. We can feel and hear the 1-2 shift at about 5 mph but have yet to hear or feel the 2-3 shift, ever. We can move the shift lever down to 2 at 20 mph and feel it down shift, but we can't ever tell when it gets to 3rd. There was 16 in hg at idle no matter where we turned the control valve to. I had a spare, we put it on and now have 6 with it all the way forward. We discovered the fuel leak about this time and didn't want to run the engine anymore to fine tune it to the specified 8 inhg.

So far the engine oil level has not changed and this is the first drips this truck which has been parked on concrete since we got it on the road has dropped. I printed out the pages from the -20 about changing the lift pump, gave them to Colton and said to have fun.

For the throttle position have him make the block of wood adjuster like I did.

Sounds like you guys just about have it all wrapped up.

Soon it will be time to start working on the bomber.

It took him almost 3 hours, but he did the lift pump swap and has a greater appreciation of jobs that look simple now. We put a few hundred miles on it this week and are getting right at 18 mpg for two tanks. We put in a new spin on filter as part of the lift pump bleeding process. There sure was some nasty stuff in the old one.

The only trouble now is Jennifer. With the insulation, radio and our cool outside temperatures. She really likes driving or riding in it. I used the M715 to pull a civilian K5 into my class this morning and she drove REd to work. She called a bit ago asking how mad I thought Colton would be if we kept RED and gave him my M1009? I think she was joking....We plan to put as many miles on it as we can the rest of the winter and see what else is going to fail or cause us issues while he saves up money for an A/C system.

I went looking for this thread to put down something about front wheel bearings. I didn't realize it has been more than 2 years since anything has been written though.

Colton has been daily driving it for almost 2 years now. He and a friend took it on a 1200 mile spring break mountain bike tour of Texas a few months ago and plan to do 900 miles this coming week with a mountain bike trip to central Arkansas.

The spring break trip had them down to 53 mph for a few hundred miles with a vibration. We first thought it was a rear drive shaft u-joint. It was loose and new ones made it better, but the vibration was still there. I had never turned the rear drums on that truck but had on my M1009. We swapped them between the trucks and his was better and mine was still smooth as before. Shackle bushings on the back of the front springs were really bad. New ones of those had it steering much better and vibrating less, but still vibrating. Mostly 62-67 mph.

We found a little slop in the front wheel bearings. Tightening them up enough for no wobble had them really, really hot after just a few miles of driving. But, no vibration! We were going to put new bearings and seals on last night. However, his job at the airport kept him at work late so I did the drivers side myself. We had pulled the bearings, cleaned them and packed them a few years ago. I never had a reason to check the races in the hub for anything except that they looked ok.

The new bearings came with outer races. I went to drive out the outside race and it basically fell out. I just plopped it back into place. Then I saw all the marks on the hub where someone had tried "staking" it in sometime in the past. I tried the new race and it just fell in and bounced around. Bad hub. Thankfully, between Warthog, Sermis and Gerry over in Tomball, I have a few extra 10 bolts on the property. I went and pulled the best looking rotor hub (I really hate that outside ring which holds in the lock out stuff. 100° high humidity working in grass trying to get that thing off is not fun), cleaned it up and everything fit perfect. I really had to drive the new race into that one.

I ran out of time to even start the passenger side but it drives much, much better. Just a little wiggle sometimes at 63 mph is all I could feel. I am going to make him do the other side before he leaves on his cross country trip. If he ever comes home that is. His job helping a few A&P's at the airport let him save up enough to start private pilot lessons. He got to solo this morning! They gave him a key and he can work as long as he wants. Which means the more he works, the more he flies. He came home after I went to bed last night.

I found this old thread to discuss the vibration and how the wheel bearing race was loose in the hub. We had adjusted them by the book and thought all was well with that part. One more thing to look at if you have a vibration and everything seems ok.

Good deal. i bought a few trucks at DRMO years back and the wheel bearing were never serviced. I had an M1009 that I drove home from Augusta GA and it had no (0) gear oil in the front axle and the front wheel bearing were about as dry as they could be. All the bearings were blue. the truck had 12K miles and I think the front differential never had any oil in it from new. It was dry and all burned up. I put a complete new front axle from a crate in the truck and I still have that vehicle sitting in my barn disassembled. I bought it in 1995 and it is a 1984 M1009. I believe it has original 12,674 miles on it. I have been keeping it on the back burner for the past 20 years. I felt the vibration the whole way from Georgia.Some day. I do start it and drive it outside once or twice a year. Still has the original tires and wheels and the original inner fenders I sent and had powder coated. Nice mobile storage unit. I did put Quad shock on it. i couldn't help myself. It had to have that option. Should have been on every M1009 IMHO. Have a great day. I must get back to work on a HMMWV and a 1996 CUCV Cadillac. I looked at the pictures and I wondered why I had primer on both rear quarter panels. Then I remembered that I welded the antenna bracket holes shut. I am not into the antenna thing when I have a cell phone.

Barrman said:

He got to solo this morning! They gave him a key and he can work as long as he wants.

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He SOLOed without you being there? How rude.

RED went to college this morning. I never would have thought that when this project started almost 7 years ago.

We followed in the Cowdog to help him move into the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. Then came on home.

Well RED did great at college while he lived in the dorm and only did a few miles each week. This summer though, instead of coming home and working at the airport. He went and found a much better paying office job in College Station. He found it right before the spring semester ended. So, he was way too late to get a place to live for the summer.

He benefited from the always amazing and generous MV community. AGENGR, who redid his M715 at my house back in 2007 while he was a college student, is now married with a year old daughter and lives 20 miles from where Colton has a job. They invited Colton to live in their guest room for the summer as soon as he mentioned his summer plans at the Texas Rally. Thanks again Joseph!

Life was good until he started commuting 40 miles a day in stop and go traffic while paying for his own fuel. I got a text before the first week was over saying basically he doesn’t like the real world of putting fuel in a full size SUV that can’t get out of its own way. I had him make up a list of what he needed from a vehicle. After he was looking at used 4Runners and Tacoma trucks. Both of which don’t do much better on fuel and have an amazingly high buy in.

With his mountain bike trips, commuting, college campus living and just being a 20 year old living an adventure. Not many vehicles new or used met more than a few items on his perceived needs list. One we kept coming back to as a likely candidate was a 1999.5-2003 TDI Jettawagon with a 5 speed manual. Enough room, amazing fuel mileage, bulletproof drive train and maneuverability in traffic.

The only problem being that they are hard to find. Much less one with less that 300k miles that isn’t trashed. There were 3 for sale on Craigslist nation wide Memorial Day weekend. We did find a 2005 gasser automatic with all the luxury stuff, tinted windows and supposedly a bad transmission for about nothing. I suggested he get it as a parts car for possible TDI 5 speed swap target since wrecked TDI cars did show up for a few hours that weekend.

It ran great with cold A/C but was stuck in 3rd gear and had a working reverse. He got it. We trailered it home behind the Cowdog. Research showed that despite the previous owners $3,200 repair estimate. Stuck in 3rd was actually the computer commanded limp home mode. We Ohm checked the shift solenoids and found a few way out of range. A new internal wiring harness, fluid and 6 solenoids had it working perfectly. The fluid almost cost more than the parts. That was last weekend. I got it inspected and tagged during the week.

Which all leads up to him driving home in RED yesterday afternoon. Swapping all of his gear into the wagon and then heading out to see his girl friend in the hill country 100 miles away last night. He made it home to get a few hours of sleep and then headed back in the Jetta this morning to work on his summer physics class.

RED has dropped from daily driver status after more than 4 years and around 30,000 miles of basically trouble free use by a teenager. Pretty darn good for a 30plus year old truck. But, as he pointed out to me. He got into the Jetta for less money than would have been spent just putting the already collected turbo parts on RED. Thinking head gaskets, exhaust and head bolts. Not to mention adding a Vintage Air A/C. He did good. It was hard to see him driving away and leave RED behind this morning though.

This thread needs an update.

Colton has graduated, got married to an amazing woman and they live about 60 miles from me in the College Station area. He also got a job in his major!

RED has been living here in semi retirement the past 5.5 years. I use it for trips to town enough that I have to buy fuel about once a year. But now Colton and his wife could use a truck for around the house projects. They thought of RED and drove it to their house last night after we rode around to relatives together in the Cowdog yesterday.

I went looking for this thread to reconfirm to myself what all we did to RED over the years. Maybe Colton will chime in with updates as RED gets to do domestic projects.