M43 Resurrection

[zout]

GD - read where you were hoping to fire the beast up today !!!!

Hopefully as well the pictures or VIDEO of the throbbing heatbeat of the 6 awakens and purr's like a kitten for you. I alway enjoyed the "fireup" after a rebuild - there is just something about that feeling.

Seeing the socket pic just made me giggle - thinking of all the stupid little chit I have done over the years - just part of the game when you mind is on something else and trying to do something else in the meantime. No we realy cannot do two things at once - its either one or the other.

Great pics and looking forward to more - like you tooling outta the garage driving it for the first time.

 

[1943ht]

GD .. posted a video of our start-up today on the "Another One Bites the Dust" Thread ...

 

[Ghostdriver]

I am a bit behind due to scheduling conflicts, but still working on it. The PCV valve is stuck, so Dad has been diligently trying to get it to free up. When that sort of thing happens, my usual response is to start smacking it on the workbench. Not effective.

Did not get it ready to take to the Homes for the Troops function today, but got to ferry a couple other trucks up instead (including the 5 ton and a deuce, which I had never driven before). Had a great time with the club members, and hopefully we helped raise lots of money.

 

[steelandcanvas]

GD, At your suggestion yesterday, I found your rebuild thread and read all 11 pages. It was a pleasure yesterday to see your work in person and put your project into perspective. Keep up the good work, you have a couple of good instructors to guide you along. Please....no more flipflops. PM sent.

 

[Oldfart]

The PCV valve is stuck, so Dad has been diligently trying to get it to free up. When that sort of thing happens, my usual response is to start smacking it on the workbench. Not effective.

Dad has been banging it on the work bench when GD was not looking. She is right, not effective. We are making some progress with getting the crud out. We have one end unthreaded and we have picked our way down to the inner works as well as cleaned out the tubing in the rest of the PCV set up. So far we have soaked it in lacquer thinner, Acetone and Xyleen. Xyleen did more than any other solvent we have tried so far.


Our motor shop sent the rebuilt engine back with crankshaft flywheel bolts installed backwards. Our options were cut them off or pull the pan and rear main to make clearance. Going to cut them off.

GD is testing for a more Marine paint color (actually trying to match one of the interior cab colors.) The rear interior appears to have been white and then it got a sea foam green brush paint job. The more we sand and look, the more we think this truck was second hand to the Marines. Might have been a navy or Sea Bee truck first. Anyway, GD is using a 1943 USMC gas can as a test pallet for paint.

 

[steelandcanvas]

Our motor shop sent the rebuilt engine back with crankshaft flywheel bolts installed backwards. Our options were cut them off or pull the pan and rear main to make clearance. Going to cut them off..

Shouldn't your motor shop correct the error? I'm just sayin'.

 

[zout]

Beating something senceless like a bench does not help - fisrt thing ya know you smacked some little part and that richochets and hits something else - and that part falls and knocks a nick out of your paint job - or whatever.

At least I seen that happen on TV ()

Proabably would do the same as you are doing OF - just move on and correct it. Let GD know its easier to move the fuel can EMPTY than drag it FULL

 

[Oldfart]

Shouldn't your motor shop correct the error? I'm just sayin'.

Yes. And they would have, except that we are dealing with a 12 year old rebuild that never got installed. In the ensuing time frame, the shop owner managed to roll one of his super high performance engines in one of his super fast vehicles off a rural dirt road and into an irrigation lake. It took a while for him to recover, but in the end he just was not well enough to run his business. He had crack/sharp guys working for him, but the whole business fell apart. We have the correct bolts off the take out engine so all we will lose is a set of special flywheel bolts and some time to get them out of the way.

 

[steelandcanvas]

Yes. And they would have, except that we are dealing with a 12 year old rebuild that never got installed..

Roger that, I forgot about the major time delay.

 

[Oldfart]

Beating something senceless like a bench does not help - fisrt thing ya know you smacked some little part and that richochets and hits something else - and that part falls and knocks a nick out of your paint job - or whatever.

At least I seen that happen on TV ()

I have been tempted to go to our parts trucks to see if I can rob one there. My guess is anything we have on hand would likely be in the same shape. The test on those is if they rattle when you shake them. Most folks miss that there is a PVC valve in all that plumbing as it sort of looks like a pipe coupler.

 

[Ghostdriver]

Now you guys are just making me laugh. The visual of Dad smacking the PCV valve on the workbench is just more than I can bear. Probably with a furtive look over his shoulder first. Or not.

This truck has more colors of a greenish sort on it somewhere than you can shake a stick at. Sooo, do I go with the medium jungle green that we uncovered from under the rear wheel well, or do I match the hiding-in-the-Black-Forest green that is in the cab? I have formulated paint to match the jungle green, but I am still working on the forest green. My discussions of chroma and value are lost on people with a red-green color deficiency. We actually got going on how to mix yellow drab out of bright yellow. I told them to put a little purple in it, because the complementary color dulls the chroma (vibrance). Got that what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about face out of both Dad and bro.

For the record, the blame for any and all difficulties and delays is being lain solely at the doorstep of my ex. After all, had I done this 12 years ago when I had the engine rebuilt, and bought all the gaskets and little pieces parts, and probably still had a PCV valve that wasn't corroded together, I wouldn't be wasting time and $ buying new gaskets 'cause I can't find the old ones, we could have had the motor shop crack the engine open and put the bolts in the right way, and Dad wouldn't be spending hours smacking a xylene-soaked PCV valve on the workbench. And that's all I have to say about that.

 

[Oldfart]

Zout,
We might understand your Cripple Creek thing. We have been known to play the "Wolf of Wolf Creek Pass" on the stereo while driving the pass. My father was born in Wiggins, a town mentioned in CW McCall's Wolf Creek Pass. Wolf of Wolf Creek Pass was a ditty written by Pete Smyth who was a long time local Denver radio and then
TV personality.


Ghostdriver usually plays the sound track from "Memphis Belle" on the shop Hi-Fi system while twisting wrenches

One of our MVCC brothers read this post and sent us "the Wolf of Wolf Creek Pass" from his files. I had to add pictures to make a movie so I could post the song. I found some shots of Moosetracks M37 and a boom I built for filler.

 

[Gamagoat1]

Great stuff!

 

[steelandcanvas]

I told them to put a little purple in it, because the complementary color dulls the chroma (vibrance). Got that what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about face out of both Dad and bro...

I felt my whole face do the "deer in the headlights thing" when I read about your paint mixing/matching Ghostdriver...But, as long as you know what you want, why are we to understand? I do recall taking an Art Class at one time, maybe they said something about chroma and vibrance then, probably too many years ago.

 

[Oldfart]

Todays work photos

 

[Oldfart]

More photos -- Lots of time spent getting the PCV apart and then lots more repairing the bent guide pin. Dang thing works now!!!

Missed getting photos of the portable bandsaw hacking off the flywheel bolts AND the transmission pilot bushing install because I was screwing around with the PCV.

 

[Ghostdriver]

Spent all day today doing what felt like not much. Dad kept fiddling with the PCV valve and finally got it apart. There is a little pin at the bottom of the insert for the PCV valve that indexes into the hole in the bottom of the housing. Well, that pin broke off. After a lot more fiddling and trying to figure out how to attach another piece onto the broken end, we finally decided to grind the remainder of the pin off the bottom, drill a hole in the insert, thread the hole, and put a little machine screw into it. Then, we ground the head off the machine screw. Fit perfectly. The last picture in the second group shows the brass fitting where the entire elbow with the PCV valve attaches.

THEN, bro got his Milwaukee band saw and cut the flywheel bolts off, which had been put in backwards from the motor shop. Hated to do it, because I only had six out of the old engine, and the new flywheel (which is the correct one) has eight holes. Sifted through all the little boxes, bins, and piles in the back of the parts trucks to find some more, but no luck. So we'll be trottin' up to the local arcane vehicle parts store tomorrow to get two more. While I was digging around in the back of my truck looking for parts, I happened to locate the complete set of gaskets that I bought 12 years ago and couldn't find. That hacked Dad off something chronic. I told him that the upside was that I had learned how to tap gaskets, since we couldn't find them.

Formulated a paint color I really like today. I have test painted a number of sections on the side of the truck over the last few weeks, so it is slowly becoming patchy green camo instead of that horrible desert camo. Bro allowed as to how he couldn't wait for that desert camo to go away - it is pretty fugly.

Hopefully we'll get the clutch, bell housing, and transmission put back together tomorrow so we can paint the engine.

 

[zout]

Great job - except when that bald guy sticks his head in the pic - My glass transition to sunglass's .

I thougth for sure that little PCV valve would kick someones butt and be the end of it all - but - wisdom over smashing things ruled.
Sure looking forward to seeing that baby fire up and run and GD in the seat with a big A grin on her face - and the old man saying "I TOLD YA IT WOULD" in the background.

Very Very nice job and looking forward to seeing your paint you chose as well.

 

[Oldfart]

GD and I spent the bulk of the day chasing a few small parts. Finally found someone who could order us the 3/8" pipe by 1/2" flare elbow and we can have it by late today. But more than $11 kinda blows an old man away. The two crankshaft to flywheel bolts turned into another matter. We were at the end considering some close to the same size 7/16" x 20 bolts that we could modify to fit. Our NOS old car parts house was a bust and their effort to find some in a salvage yard failed. The MOPAR speciality house was no help either.

Tomorrow is another day.

 

[Oldfart]

Today’s work was stripping a couple of flywheel bolts out of one of our parts trucks. We started to pull the pressure plate so we could get to the flywheel bolts and we discovered the engine was frozen and we could not rotate the flywheel/clutch assembly to reach the top bolts. Plan B erupted where we pulled the engine and took it to the shop where we could have some air and the ability to pull the bell housing. Discovered someone had the wrong depth on the alignment pins for the bell housing and it would not slide off when unbolted because it was still on the pins. GD learned how to drive pins into the bell housing so things would clear the block. Lots and lots of work just to salvage two bolts.