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Converting M923A0 to M923A1

sandcobra164

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Leesburg, GA
Had a great time with my friends Atomic and Riddle today. Riddle got this wild idea that his M923 needed to be an A1. After some horsetrading, he came up with some 14's that were not mounted on rims but he came up with those to. Anyhow, he left the wheels and tires with me to mount. I took care of that for the most part with Atomic. Riddle brought the truck down to do the conversion and after 8 hours of getting our tails kicked, it's an M923A1/2. It has 14's on the front and on the passenger side rear axles. The driver's side rear axles are singled on 11's at the moment.

We arrived at my former employer's shop (we parted on good terms and that man would give you the shirt off his back so I'm still welcome there) around 1200. We had 3 tires to inflate and my aircompressor couldn't do it. We got that done and headed home for some lunch around a mile down the road. Now back to business. I take my my trusty Roboimpact electric impact wrench and it won't budge a nut on the truck. No worries, we switch to shop air and we're cooking. Riddle and Atomic are whipping some tail on this job and we're on track to be done by 1600. We swapped the aforementioned tires and made our way to the driver's side rearmost axle. Outer wheel fought some but got the nuts loose and we're back into the good. Riddle goes to take the inner tire off and two Budd Nuts do not want to come. We went manual and destroyed a pry bar and Budd socket, now scrap metal. We decided that the 3/4" impact just wasn't strong enough, we needed to fire up my 1" impact. That involved sending Atomic to town to find the proper fittings. In the interim, Riddle and myself decided we needed to go ahead and get the intermediate axle swapped over. Got the outer tire off and 6 of the Budd nuts were stuck on the inner. aua Atomic gets back with the fittings, we fire up the 1" impact gun and get 3 of the 6 off with quite some effort. We got the 2 stuck on the rearmost axle as well. That 1" gun is strong. Well, we wanted to get those last 3 so we were determined to give it our all. The result is we busted the top of a Budd nut off!! I've never seen that happen but that was the breaking point of the day and we called it a night. Riddle drove his truck the 1 mile back to my house. Thanks to open diffs and both problems being on the driver's side. He took it slow and easy and it's now parked in my back yard. We likely have to use the white wrench and will be changing out some studs soon. This truck was rebuilt about 3,000 miles and 3 years ago, somebody at RRAD who puts wheels on the driver's side of truck likes to "Ensure" they don't come off!!! Oh well, that's the gamble you take working on this stuff. Hope you enjoyed the read. CAMO Leesburg is done for the night. Next weekend, hear about how we torched some studs and removed a hub to replace what got torched.
 

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sandcobra164

Well-known member
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287
83
Location
Leesburg, GA
Riddle got a tire repairer out today to remove the broken budd nut and the two remaining stuck ones. Truck is complete. We did have to pull the fronts back off to tighten the schrader valves on the back side of the stem as they were leaking. Now ready for the Leesburg Christmas Parade along with the CUCV and Deuce. I added a few more pics as Riddle hasn't really posted much on this beautiful truck.
 

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patracy

Administrator
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Buchanan, GA
I'll be upgrading my M931 to a M931A1 soon as well.

Well a M931A1.5. M931A1 specs, but with a turbo...
 

Csm Davis

Well-known member
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Location
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
I'm debaiting this as well... please post a build thread for the rest of us:grd:
Ya'll do know it won't be this easy on a tractor, don't you? The rear fenders will have to be moved. Here's pics of a0 and a1. Note the rivet in the frame and how far you need to move the fender
 

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jdknech

Active member
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Jeffersonville, Indiana
Ya'll do know it won't be this easy on a tractor, don't you? The rear fenders will have to be moved. Here's pics of a0 and a1. Note the rivet in the frame and how far you need to move the fender
hummm, thanks for the heads up! so the mud flap mount just needs to be re-drilled a few inchs farther forward?
 

Csm Davis

Well-known member
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376
83
Location
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Yeah the mud flaps need to be moved back some I think, and the rear fender mounts need to be moved forward on the frame as well as the lower piece that bolts to the tank saddles will need to be redrilled.
 

RIDDLE1

New member
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0
Location
Americus GA
Thanks for posting the pics!! I'm not sure how I missed this thread.

Let me tell you guys, you don't find better guys than Sandcobra and Atomic. If not for them, I would still be trying to get the things on. Atomic did find out what standing up a 14.00 and combat will do to your lower back though! It turns out those things are heavy!
 
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