M1010 for my daughter the field biologist

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Well, I now know how to change out a freeze plug. I managed to do it without removing anything but the throttle return spring. I had to hammer the snot out of that thing to get it to turn. A quick test run, long enough to allow the cooling system to come fully up to speed, and now the top of my engine is dry, including the area around the new freeze plug. Thanks guys!

 

[Tow4]

Well, I now know how to change out a freeze plug. I managed to do it without removing anything but the throttle return spring. I had to hammer the snot out of that thing to get it to turn. A quick test run, long enough to allow the cooling system to come fully up to speed, and now the top of my engine is dry, including the area around the new freeze plug. Thanks guys!

This is why your daughter would be better off with a new Toyota or similar newer truck. You have had several things break that she probably would not be able to fix in the middle of no where.
Even if you don't consider her personal safety, it would be difficult to get this truck fixed in a remote area. Sometimes its hard to get them fixed at all unless you do it yourself.

 

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This is why your daughter would be better off with a new Toyota or similar newer truck. You have had several things break that she probably would not be able to fix in the middle of no where.
Even if you don't consider her personal safety, it would be difficult to get this truck fixed in a remote area. Sometimes its hard to get them fixed at all unless you do it yourself.

Right. The thought has occurred to me. Right now, she drives a Subaru Outback. It doesn't get her nearly as far back into the old logging roads as a CUCV would, and it doesn't have nearly the accommodations of an M1010. But it's not 30 years old...

I've toyed with the idea of building her something like an M1010 on a modern chassis-cab. With all the complexity of computer-controlled everything, I'm not sure what would be more reliable... She'd trade the hassle of fuel additive for the hassle of exhaust fluid.

The good news about everything that's failed on the M1010 is that I've been able to fix everything in my driveway, or on the side of the road, with the tools in the truck. The collection of spare parts on the truck has grown and evolved as I've learned. It now includes freeze-out plugs, for instance. Whenever I buy parts, I buy spares for later.

When the freeze-out plug failed, I put RTV on a stainless sheet metal screw and drove it into the hole. That kept the truck running while I waited for parts. I don't have the sense that a modern truck would be amenable to such temporary work-arounds. When the computer goes, you're dead in the water until you can get a new one. And you need another computer to diagnose problems.

The thought was to refresh the M1010, get it reliable, and teach her how to maintain it. So far, it's not reliable yet.

I have a road trip scheduled later this week. A cousin (Navy pilot) and his son (Marine) are being interred at Arlington with my Aunt and Uncle (both Navy). I leave time in the itinerary for CUCV issues. If I can't get it reliable for trips like this, I can't get it reliable enough for my daughter.

Wish me luck!

 

[Recovry4x4]

Fear not, takes time for all the bugs to surface. Just got back 90 minutes ago from a 1500 mile trip to GA. Granted, I've had the truck 7 years working out the bugs along the way.

 

[tim292stro]

This is why your daughter would be better off with a new Toyota or similar newer truck. You have had several things break that she probably would not be able to fix in the middle of no where.
Even if you don't consider her personal safety, it would be difficult to get this truck fixed in a remote area. Sometimes it's hard to get them fixed at all unless you do it yourself.

...The good news about everything that's failed on the M1010 is that I've been able to fix everything in my driveway, or on the side of the road, with the tools in the truck. The collection of spare parts on the truck has grown and evolved as I've learned...
...When the freeze-out plug failed, I put RTV on a stainless sheet metal screw and drove it into the hole...
...I don't have the sense that a modern truck would be amenable to such temporary work-arounds. When the computer goes, you're dead in the water until you can get a new one. And you need another computer to diagnose problems...
...The thought was to refresh the M1010, get it reliable, and teach her how to maintain it. So far, it's not reliable yet...

I have a comment and a story on this line of thought... vehicles are machines. The world is tough on machines, especially when the world is not human tuned for vehicle survival (i.e. roads). Is your daughter involved in any of the repair work? This stuff is just as important to learn as how to change a tire or oil. Learning how to think outside the box with what tools and supplies you have available is important to getting you home.

I drove a 1993 Toyota pickup for about 20 years. It had an ECU, but it still had fuel, exhaust, oil, moving parts. Things broke on it all the time after it hit 200K on the odometer - one memorable experience was driving up Highway 108 in California towards the California/Nevada border where the MCMWTC is. There is no cell phone coverage up there, and on a rainy day with no traffic, a little plastic hanger under the truck decided it had enough. The wire harness that it was holding up and away from the exhaust pipe, it happens that this wire harness contained one of the O2 sensor cable bundles and the power wire for the sensor. in short order the hot exhaust pipe melted its way through the sheath, electrical tape, and then wires... eventually the O2 sensor power supply wire jacket melted through to the bare wire and the ECU's + power supply had a direct path to the ground. This blew the ECU's fuse, so no more power to the fuel injectors or trigger pulses to the ignition coil. Engine stopped dead and we (my then girlfriend) coasted to a stop, right outside the Brightman ranger station which was closed at the time for the season.

With no insight other that the Check Engine light not turning on I had to start troubleshooting the truck. There weren't any cars going by, and there were zero bars on the cell phones (and it had been that way for some time). First thing was digging out the fuse box and finding out that the ECU fuse had in fact popped. Next thing was discovering that I did not have a spare 10 amp fuse for the ECU. But the dome light ran on a 10Amp fuse... put that one in the fuse box to see if it was just a nuisance blow, turned the key - nope, fuse popped again. Pulled the ECU out of its cubby and opened the cover - it was now raining very hard outside. Nothing burned or broken so the cover went back on the case and the ECU back in its cubby. Next I had to trace out wires coming from the ECU under the hood - in the rain. Nothing under the hood looked burned, hot, or damaged, but I saw one bundle fan off from the others under the truck. I pulled out a plastic sun visor to use as a drop cloth to keep me out of the large pool of water that was now forming under the truck due to the rain. I started to smell burning plastic once I got under the truck - I followed my nose and the harness until both met at the top of the exhaust pipe.

Once I found the wire harness had melted down to the copper, I needed to think about how to insulate the various wires in the bundle from each other, then I needed to think about how to keep the wire off the exhaust for the rest of the trip back down the hill. I didn't have a roll of electrical tape, zip ties, or any repair parts handy... I did have a car stereo and a first aid kit, and some ear plugs with a keeper between the two plugs. I pulled some of the used electrical tape off the car stereo and used that to insulate the wires from each other. The e-tape didn't have any stickiness to it any more so to keep it in place on the wire harness, I used a band-aid wrapped around the harness. To keep the wire harness off the hot exhaust, I tore off the ear plugs leaving an 18" length of rubberized "string" - which I tied to the remains of the plastic hanger.

I only had two more fuses that were 10Amps, the turn signals and the brake lights. Since I only expected to make one turn off 108 into Longbarn and I figured getting rear-ended was worse than not having turn signals (especially since I can use hand signals). I swapped the turn signal fuse in and tried the key again, success!

Point of this nearly meandering story is that I was in a situation without communication to the outside world, and I was at least two days walk from the closest phone (either hike up to the MCMWTC, or hike down to Strawberry). I didn't have much in the way of supplies, but understood how most of the systems worked, and what wires and circuit boards look like both good and bad - I knew what I could safely cannibalize from other systems on the truck to get the critical motive power.

Here having an analytical mind and knowing enough about the systems to find a problem and fix it in the field is what got me home. It would have been a very long, wet, cold walk.

 

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Well, I made it the 450 miles from Boston to Arlington National Cemetery without incident. The service was awesome.

Afterwards, all the kids wanted to ride in the M1010 from the grave site to the reception at the O Club.


For the occasion, and given the 15MPH speed limit, we dispensed with the usual seatbelt requirements. (We had 16 people and 11 seat belts.) The truck was a hit. It was also useful, since many folks flew in and needed rides.

Successful road trip so far...

 

[cucvrus]

If only they knew how you were driving that M1010 just a few short weeks ago.

 

[JUNKYARDJOHN]

41 pages & 407 posts... I am extremely impressed with the comraderie & helpfullness of this group of people. MY HATS OFF TO EACH & EVERY ONE OF YOU. John

 

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Wed night I prepared the CUCV for the funeral. I stowed what gear I could, and moved the rest into the hotel room so the benches would be clear for passengers. It was 01:30 AM by the time I headed to bed. As I passed the front desk, a young 20-something male was asking for a jump. I *really* we wanted to hit the rack, but I drove him back to his girlfriend's car. She was standing there alone in the dark. They had been "talking" for a long time, evidently with something draining the battery, so he went in search of someone with jumper cables.

I took one look at her battery and decided jumper cables would be unwise. This was a little 4-door import and the battery hardware looked like it would melt if I hooked it to the CUCV batteries. Mine are commercial Penn batteries rated for 1100 CCA at 0 degrees. It was 60 degrees, and I didn't remember the rating at that temperature, but I know it was higher. I had visions of her battery melting down completely.

I have a little jump box, left over from the days when the M1010 still had a DUVAC. I keep it charged, and I used that to jump her car with no problems. We had a little chat about battery life expectancy, load testing, and battery replacement.

I figure this earned me some karma, but I didn't realize I'd collect on it this morning.

Last night, in the wee hours of the morning, an idiot driver forced me off the road. The CUCV didn't mind being off road at near highway speeds, but I had to thread a narrow opening that cost me my passenger side mirror. I got myself together, got off at the next rest stop, and slept a couple hours, to allow the drunks to clear the roads.

This morning, as business hours approached, I chose an Auto Zone that wasn't far off my route. I figured I'd put one of those adhesive convex mirrors on the small vent window, and angle it so I could see to change lanes to the right. I had to pass through New York City traffic, and without a passenger side mirror, there was no way to maneuver the M1010 in that kind of traffic.

As I poked through all the generic stick-on mirror options, I saw a dusty box on the bottom shelf. Karma is real. It was a 1974-86 Chevy CK pickup mirror! It's shiny chrome and looks ridiculous on a CUCV, but it allowed me to maneuver in NYC traffic with confidence. What are the odds?

I also picked up and stowed a couple of stick-on mirrors, just in case. They take up no space to speak of, and would serve in a pinch if I find myself without mirrors again.

 

[JUNKYARDJOHN]

Wow... I've said it about a zillion times.... whatever you do.. either good or bad will come back to you 10 times over. It's not just an opinion or belief of mine. (I've got a bunch of those & try really really hard not to push them on anybody.... sometimes I fail ) I've witnesses it & had it happen to me & just about everyone I've known over the last 58 years. I'ts as much a fact to me as anything. John

 

[Another Ahab]

Wow... I've said it about a zillion times.... whatever you do.. either good or bad will come back to you 10 times over. It's not just an opinion or belief of mine. (I've got a bunch of those & try really really hard not to push them on anybody.... sometimes I fail ) I've witnesses it & had it happen to me & just about everyone I've known over the last 58 years. I'ts as much a fact to me as anything. John

Karma is like Pascal's Wager, you got nothing to lose in going with it.

So, why not go with it!?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager

​

 

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Truck has been running well. Heat and A/C need work, but work and life have been keeping me busy.

A college friend of my son just qualified to guide white water rafting trips in the Berkshire Mountains. They don't allow paying customers on the first 2 trips he leads, so he has to get friends and family to come take the trip with him for free. So with college kids in the back of the M1010, we took off for the mountains.

We registered the truck as a camper, so open container laws don't apply in the back. We'd stocked up the back, so the kids had a party as I drove. While they were on the water, I hit a local grocery store and got some of those prepared meals that come in a plastic envelope. I also got some pre-cooked bacon, and lots of chips, salsa, and bean dip. I put the envelopes, and the bacon in it's envelope, into the MRE heater. By the time the kids came off the water, the food was thoroughly heated. It was actually too hot to eat at first. You had to wait a while, for it to cool. Grocery stores are now carrying enough pre-cooked foods sealed in these envelopes that you can feed a crowd out of an MRE heater.

While the food was heating, I drove around a bit. I encountered some long, steep grades where the M1010 could only manage 20MPH. These were narrow mountain roads, not major highways. It was a little discouraging to sit there at full throttle, maybe 2500 RPM, at 20 MPH. So I didn't have enough power to get out of first gear. On one long grade, I was like that for a solid 20 minutes.

The Berkshires are not high enough for altitude to impact performance much. These were just steep grades. I had plenty of time to contemplate how one might improve this up-hill performance, but I didn't come up with much short of an engine swap. I don't think a blower or different gearing would have helped much. Weight reduction would certainly help, but I was the only passenger. There were several hundred pounds of tools, supplies, and and gear in the back, but that was just the basic load.

I guess I just need to resign myself to using the "slow vehicle" lane on steep grades. If there is no such lane, that sucks for the people behind me.

If folks have any suggestions on how to make a CUCV more mountain-capable, I'd be very interested to hear them. As for cooking with the MRE heater, it will definitely make food hot. You can put any food you like in zip-lock bags. Actual cooking skill is still on my list of things to learn, but the tools are in place.

 

[Another Ahab]

Truck has been running well. Heat and A/C need work, but work and life have been keeping me busy.

A college friend of my son just qualified to guide white water rafting trips in the Berkshire Mountains.

If folks have any suggestions on how to make a CUCV more mountain-capable, I'd be very interested to hear them. As for cooking with the MRE heater, it will definitely make food hot. You can put any food you like in zip-lock bags. Actual cooking skill is still on my list of things to learn, but the tools are in place.

90% of it is this:

- Use fresh ingredients (nothing from a box).

There is no rocket science involved. You can do this.

 

[ODFever]

jpg - Time and time again, you have proven that you know how to read TMs, follow directions, and improvise solutions to complex problems. All of those skills help in the kitchen. A recipe is a framework. The ingredients are your 'consumables'. The pots, pans, spatulas, and spoons are your tools. Have your ingredients ready, the tools ready, and follow the recipe directions. The best part about cooking is getting to eat the rewards of your hard work!

I taught myself how to cook, starting at age 10 out of necessity. Since then, I discovered the joy in creating masterpieces in my own kitchen. I develop recipes from scratch, and perfect them through trial and more trial (I won't say error, because every change leads to another learning experience).

Fear not the skillet, the Dutch oven, or the crock pot! Conquer them just as you've conquered the many challenges with your M1010!!

 

[cucvrus]

Steep hill capable is not going to happen in a CUCV. Even empty the M1009 is a grade finder. You only have 135 HP to deal with not a lot of top end speed on hills. The M1010 that compounds the issue. No aerodynamics and heavy. You did good on steep hills off road. I was impressed. Still I came to a few off road that I had the traction and the hill was that steep it would not complete the climb in 4 LO.

 

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Some random updates:

Blending in with the other vehicles in a Boston parking lot.


For the M1010 owners out there, these tool boxes fit perfectly. I get them at Home Depot. These are grub boxes, containing the kitchen, pantry, and coffee mess.
\
You can see the jump box behind the passenger seat, and the cup holder behind it. This and another cup holder on the other side of the ramp are held in place by a rubber tarp strap stretched between them and running under the ramp. Works great.

Ration heater cooks well, using Sous-vide recipies.


Here's the connector I used:
http://www.amazon.com/Hubbell-HBL746.../dp/B002FYKAF4


And here is the other end:

http://www.newark.com/amphenol-industrial/ms3106f16-10s/circular-connector-plug-size-16/dp/85C4054

newark.com Got a question? Give us a call. (800) 463-9275.

Stock No:	Manufacturer Part No:	UOM:	Quantity:	Price:	Extended Price:
85C4054	MS3106F16-10S	Each 1	1	$21.81	$21.81
Description: CIRCULAR CONNECTOR PLUG, SIZE 16, 3 POSITION, CABLE; Military Specification:MIL-DTL-5015 Series; Circular Connector Shell Style:Straight Plug; No. of Contacts:3; Circular Contact Type:Solder Socket; Coupling Style:Threaded

 

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The kids asked me to drive them to a concert. It was 3 hours of tailgating before, and 2 hours after. One old man and a few dozen college kids, many of whom I had coached when they were in grade school. Without the truck, I would never have been invited. As designated driver of the prime tailgating vehicle, I was welcomed with enthusiasm.

Another unanticipated benefit of MV ownership.

 

[Another Ahab]

The kids asked me to drive them to a concert. It was 3 hours of tailgating before, and 2 hours after. One old man and a few dozen college kids, many of whom I had coached when they were in grade school. Without the truck, I would never have been invited. As designated driver of the prime tailgating vehicle, I was welcomed with enthusiasm.

Another unanticipated benefit of MV ownership.

 

[joshuak]

The kids asked me to drive them to a concert. It was 3 hours of tailgating before, and 2 hours after. One old man and a few dozen college kids, many of whom I had coached when they were in grade school. Without the truck, I would never have been invited. As designated driver of the prime tailgating vehicle, I was welcomed with enthusiasm.

Another unanticipated benefit of MV ownership.

And you took the time to listen, . Well done.

 

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Jumped in the truck to head to work, turned the key, wait light went off, and nothing. ****. Worked from home today. Didn't really need to be in the office today anyway.

Over lunch, I reviewed the TM, replaced the ignition fuse, and it worked like a champ. When I pulled the old fuse to inspect it, the plastic part came off, leaving the metal behind. Note that the fuse isn't blown. The metal parts are still connected. I'm guessing the connection wasn't happening in the female fuse socket in my fuse block. I wish there were a way to upgrade that thing...

I never gave much thought to whether the fuses were of high or low quality... If I knew where this came from, I'd avoid that brand in the future.