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Picked up a M923 yesterday at Camp Beauregard in Pineville, LA, and thought it would be another simple drive home. I learned my lessons years ago to preview trucks before buying them, and only buy sight unseen if I want to risk it being a parts truck.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/general...-truck-gl.html
I had previewed the truck before the auction, watched the video of the truck running (they said it ran with a jump), looked closely at the photos on the GL site, and thought I knew what was wrong with it (ink pen used as throttle link bolt, low fuel in the tank, low air in the tires, blower control knob missing, etc.).
So, I bid higher than I normally would have to get a nice truck with minor issues - HAH! When we arrived, I replaced the trottle bolt, put 20 gal of fuel in the truck, and had the air hose ready to pump up the tires. Sgt Webb tried to jump off with a HMMWV, but we only got some clicks. We tried a HUGE Oshkosh PLS truck to jump with no better luck. I thought the starter or solenoid was the issue and gave a couple light taps with a hammer, with no joy.
I then went to the battery box and tightened all the connections, and found that the ground wire leading to the jump port was frayed and barely connected to the cable end. I wiggled the cable and got LOTS of sparks and smoke 
- this was the AH-HA moment, but it took about an hour to get there.
So, I pulled the ground wire (had to pull out the jumper plug to get it free) we tried Walmart, AutoZone, CarQuest, and a couple of other likely shops in Pineville and Alexandria before we found a huge NAPA store about 14 miles away that could build a new cable. That's when we found out that the 2 GA markings on the cable were meaningless, and that the cable is actually 2/0 in size.
It was a good thing I took the cable with me rather than depending on the markings. With my new $20 cable (and stopping for lunch) we headed back to the truck and installed the new ground cable (it goes from the top left battery to the jump port at the lower left in the photo).
Another jump from the HMMWV, and she fires right off and goes into a low idle
. I try to increase the idle speed by pulling out the Throttle cable - but it is not attached to anything - I think the cable is missing! Fortunately, the truck quickly smooths out and I can take my foot off the accelerator to do the tire inflation.
Everything seems to be ready to go, I turn on the light switch and the headlights and tail lights work, so I try to check the turn signals and all the turn/emergency controls are missing from the steering column! My buddy keeps trying to tell me to turn the signals on, and I'm keep trying to tell him they are missing. It was actually rather funny, but fortunately, there was no one there to laugh at us.
HOW COULD I MISS THAT?!!
I checked the GL photos later, and if you looked close you could kinda see the clamp was missing, but the photo was taken from the pass door, and it wasn't clear. I can't blame GL, because I sat in the driver's seat during the preview and didn't notice it was gone.
I told my buddy in the chase vehicle to watch for my hand signals, and we took off on a 127 mile trip home with no problems.
I cruised at 50-52mph by GPS at 1800 RPMs (speedometer read about 4 mph lower). Oh - the parking brake buzzer stopped buzzing after about an hour down the road 
, it was really nice when it stopped.
When I got home and shut it down, I waited a minute and hit the starter and it fired right up after about 3 hours of altenator charging. I put a 24vt charger I got from CMSDavis last week and left the batteries to fully charge (that's a real handy device, and much better than using a 12vt charger to charge each battery individually).
When walked around the truck for a post-op inspection, I found a slight oil leak from the right side of the engine. This morning, I found the source - a plate on the lower block that has four bolts, now only has 3 bolts, and with the engine running, it leaked a little. It's really hard to see the plate, even with the access flap removed over the RF tire. The whole plate could have been missing and I wouldn't have seen it during the preview! Thankfully, the oil pressure remained steady during the entire trip. Now I have to take one of the other bolts out to try to get a replacement.
Photo of the truck home the next moring. Overall, I'm still happy as the truck has a total new cab/doors and hardtop, and it drove as well as my pickup (seats still suck tho).
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/general...-truck-gl.html
I had previewed the truck before the auction, watched the video of the truck running (they said it ran with a jump), looked closely at the photos on the GL site, and thought I knew what was wrong with it (ink pen used as throttle link bolt, low fuel in the tank, low air in the tires, blower control knob missing, etc.).
So, I bid higher than I normally would have to get a nice truck with minor issues - HAH! When we arrived, I replaced the trottle bolt, put 20 gal of fuel in the truck, and had the air hose ready to pump up the tires. Sgt Webb tried to jump off with a HMMWV, but we only got some clicks. We tried a HUGE Oshkosh PLS truck to jump with no better luck. I thought the starter or solenoid was the issue and gave a couple light taps with a hammer, with no joy.
I then went to the battery box and tightened all the connections, and found that the ground wire leading to the jump port was frayed and barely connected to the cable end. I wiggled the cable and got LOTS of sparks and smoke - this was the AH-HA moment, but it took about an hour to get there.So, I pulled the ground wire (had to pull out the jumper plug to get it free) we tried Walmart, AutoZone, CarQuest, and a couple of other likely shops in Pineville and Alexandria before we found a huge NAPA store about 14 miles away that could build a new cable. That's when we found out that the 2 GA markings on the cable were meaningless, and that the cable is actually 2/0 in size.
It was a good thing I took the cable with me rather than depending on the markings. With my new $20 cable (and stopping for lunch) we headed back to the truck and installed the new ground cable (it goes from the top left battery to the jump port at the lower left in the photo).Another jump from the HMMWV, and she fires right off and goes into a low idle
. I try to increase the idle speed by pulling out the Throttle cable - but it is not attached to anything - I think the cable is missing! Fortunately, the truck quickly smooths out and I can take my foot off the accelerator to do the tire inflation. Everything seems to be ready to go, I turn on the light switch and the headlights and tail lights work, so I try to check the turn signals and all the turn/emergency controls are missing from the steering column! My buddy keeps trying to tell me to turn the signals on, and I'm keep trying to tell him they are missing. It was actually rather funny, but fortunately, there was no one there to laugh at us.
HOW COULD I MISS THAT?!!
I checked the GL photos later, and if you looked close you could kinda see the clamp was missing, but the photo was taken from the pass door, and it wasn't clear. I can't blame GL, because I sat in the driver's seat during the preview and didn't notice it was gone.I told my buddy in the chase vehicle to watch for my hand signals, and we took off on a 127 mile trip home with no problems.
I cruised at 50-52mph by GPS at 1800 RPMs (speedometer read about 4 mph lower). Oh - the parking brake buzzer stopped buzzing after about an hour down the road , it was really nice when it stopped.When I got home and shut it down, I waited a minute and hit the starter and it fired right up after about 3 hours of altenator charging. I put a 24vt charger I got from CMSDavis last week and left the batteries to fully charge (that's a real handy device, and much better than using a 12vt charger to charge each battery individually).
When walked around the truck for a post-op inspection, I found a slight oil leak from the right side of the engine. This morning, I found the source - a plate on the lower block that has four bolts, now only has 3 bolts, and with the engine running, it leaked a little. It's really hard to see the plate, even with the access flap removed over the RF tire. The whole plate could have been missing and I wouldn't have seen it during the preview! Thankfully, the oil pressure remained steady during the entire trip. Now I have to take one of the other bolts out to try to get a replacement.
Photo of the truck home the next moring. Overall, I'm still happy as the truck has a total new cab/doors and hardtop, and it drove as well as my pickup (seats still suck tho).
