My New toy

[91W350]

I never had the front end of a M37 apart, but that set of three flathead screws centers the drum on the hub on a M715. The drum should slide over the hub. The big nut inside retains the bearings and I have purchased several of those sockets at Auto Zone over the years. That brake drum looks a lot like a M715 drum, wonder how close they really are....

 

[pwrwagonfire]

More progress on the truck today! Girlfriend's little brother came over and we finally got the brake drum off....took a few hours. The three bolts spoken of here were all chewed up, and after much frustration we got TWO off with an impact driver, and then the driver broke trying to take the last, most chewed up, and cross threaded bolt out.

Ended up drilling it out. Went to the local have-everybolt-ever hardware store and got exact replacements so I will never have to deal with THAT again (hopefully). Brake shoes actually look ok, and everything else came apart ok.

The joints in the steering weren't worn down, and had no slop in them, checked them with the feeler gauge to .007" like the manual suggests. Got the grease and mineral spirits to clean out the whole mess, and this Friday we will be replacing those brake lines, wheel cylinder, repacking everything with grease.

Tomorrow night, me and the girlfriend's brother are sandblasting the brake drum and wheel to get all the loose paint off and priming them up.

I gotta say, I'm having the time of my life doing this....reaching in there and pulling out that axle covered in grease felt so good. MY question is this....it may be dumb, but I apologize. Black runny liquid comes out when I pulled the joints out. Was I supposed to drain the differential and this is what I get? Is it burned down grease? Is a seal bad?

 

[91W350]

My connection is very slow tonight for some reason, but your photos look good, even if I did not get them all opened. Again, I have not been into an M37 front axle, but I would imagine they are similar. There should be a bearing and seal in the end of the axle tube. When you pull the axle, it allows the differential grease or oil to run out. I have seen all sorts of lube used in front differentials. I would go ahead and drain the front differential and check the fluid for any chunks or shiny particles in the oil. I am not even sure what the recommended oil for the front axle on one of these is. It could very well be separated from sitting many years and the thin runny stuff will be off set by some thick goo residing in the bottom of the differential pumpkin. From what I can see though, your truck appears to be a very nice one and solid. Glen

 

[pwrwagonfire]

My connection is very slow tonight for some reason, but your photos look good, even if I did not get them all opened. Again, I have not been into an M37 front axle, but I would imagine they are similar. There should be a bearing and seal in the end of the axle tube. When you pull the axle, it allows the differential grease or oil to run out. I have seen all sorts of lube used in front differentials. I would go ahead and drain the front differential and check the fluid for any chunks or shiny particles in the oil. I am not even sure what the recommended oil for the front axle on one of these is. It could very well be separated from sitting many years and the thin runny stuff will be off set by some thick goo residing in the bottom of the differential pumpkin. From what I can see though, your truck appears to be a very nice one and solid. Glen

Thank you very much! Will try that tomorrow

 

[emr]

NDT I could not agree more, all the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice truck !!!!!!!

 

[AN/ARC186]

Great thread, I've always liked the power wagons.

If you haven't done so already I'd remove the Corp of Engineers logos, otherwise the engine might be susceptible to flooding...............

 

[pwrwagonfire]

Great thread, I've always liked the power wagons.

If you haven't done so already I'd remove the Corp of Engineers logos, otherwise the engine might be susceptible to flooding...............

already did! This spring my backyard was under two feet of water! haha


So thanks to the advice from m376x6, I went down to my grandfather's shop this evening and we were able to successfully remove all 6 wheel studs in preparation for the new locking hubs. Put a bit of white silicone grease in the threads, and cleaned up the bunged up ones with a fine file.

The new oil seals for the front axle should be here tomorrow or the day after...I think next project will be to get the hubs ready for service (scrape off some paint, etc.).

My girlfriend's little brother is still working on the sand blasting for me, so while that is happening I will be roughing up the break shoes with a hasp, cleaning everything with mineral spirits, and putting in a new wheel cylinder.

Thank you everyone for all the positive comments so far!

 

[rwbrown72]

This is a really nice truck. I look forward to seeing it on the road again. Keep the pictures coming.

 

[pwrwagonfire]

Alright gentlemen, the last few days I've been priming and painting the out side of the brake drum, the brake drum support (which holds the shoes and wheel cylinder, and hub assembly with high heat paint. I wanted to give them a little more protection from the elements and corrosion. I also cleaned all of the disassembled parts with mineral spirits as the manual suggests.
Today, I got the new wheel cylinder in, roughed up the brake shoes with a hasp so they would grab better. Greased the steering joints, installed a new bearing oil seal on the inner wheel bearing, and bolted the whole thing back together! I went out and got a good torque wrench, and torqued everything to mil specs as well.

I will be getting my wheel back from my girlfriend's brother Tuesday, and will be picking up new bolts and lock-washers for my new lock out hubs!

So hopefully Tuesday I will be putting on the hubs, wheel, and adjusting the wheel bearings....

For pictures....first I have the drum support and steering knuckle all bolted in place, a close up of the new oil seal installed in the hub, and a shot of the whole assembly on the truck!

Sorry for the lousy pictures this time round guys, I was trying to handle the camera while covered in bearing grease! I think it's all coming out pretty decent.....

 

[CajunM35A2]

This looks like a great project that is coming together nicely!!

 

[dcbrown]

Great truck. The later photos were helpful. Thanks for sharing those!

 

[M-37Bruce]

Looking Good

Come a long way so far, so good! Your gonna like them locking hubs!

 

[STSCSS]

Thanks for all the pictures!!
The brakes are my project for this weekend as the tires and rims are comming off to be replaced/redone. Since the master cylinder was dry when I got my M37 it was no surprise that as I bled out the Brake lines it was full of rust!

Your pictures will be a great help this weekend
R/
STSCSS

 

[Capt.Marion]

Nice!

 

[pwrwagonfire]

So last night I finally got the tire and hub on...

Last few days I've spent sanding, priming, and spraying the rim... doesn't look PERFECT, but the main point of it was to protect it more then it was, when I do the body work I will repaint it again. A little overspray on the tires...but they are so dry rotted I'm lucky they are holding air- so I can live with that for now!

So I put the wheel on, and followed the manual's instructions for adjusting the bearings, I think I got it right. Put some grease on the end of the shaft, then got around to putting on the first hub.

This week I got enough 7/16 grade 8 bolts and lock washers to do both front hubs (thanks again M376x6 for the help!). Coated the gasket with gasket cement (thin layer), and put on the first part of the hub. Coated up the second gasket with the cement, and got the locker on. Over all I think it came out great!

Thank you to everyone for the help so far, this week I'm gonna start doing the same process to the left front wheel, hopefully it goes as smoothly. Then onto the rear axle, then I'm replacing the brake hoses and lines (I have all of these, waiting to go in)!

Ultimate goal? To have brakes by the end of July.

 

[M-37Bruce]

Looking great, Bryan Sage has done all of a lot of favors & lent a bunch of hands where they were really needed!
Keep pluggin' away, you might be earlier than the end of July?

 

[m376x6]

Isn't it always so much fun to work on old iron and bring it back to life. You're doing great. Check the gear oil in the differentials. If it is black and smells kind of peculiar you'll need to drain and replace it and in all the gear boxes as well. I have an extra wheel nut socket if you need one. maybe we can do some horse trading if there's some things you need. I have plenty of transmission PTO opening covers.

One thing to pass on to folks who are looking into installing a PTO. There was one basic PTO for the U.S M37's and variants. They will bolt up to either early or late style transmissions. There are two different drive gears that can be installed in any given PTO. There was only a few thousandths difference in the size of the gears. This was done to make backlash adjustments easier and assure that at least one gasket could be used to get correct backlash. What is backlash. This the gap in the meshing of the input PTO gear and the gear on the cluster in the transmission. How important is backlash you ask. CRITICAL! Not enough gap between these gears and you'll ruin a transmission and a PTO. The backlash is set by the number and thicknesses of the PTO gaskets used between the PTO and the transmission opening. Too much gap is almost as bad. Setting the backlash can be done with the transmission installed, it's just not as conveinant as when the transmission is sitting on a bench.

Pwrwagonfire if you have a PTO that you wouldn't mind selling I would be very interested. I have a 1964 M37B1 I'm about to restore and it has a winch on it but the transmsission is missing. I have a transmission I can rebuild but no PTO to go on it. Please let me know if you're going to part with it.

Thank you for the kind words Bruce, as always, you're a gentleman and a friend. It does my heart good to see you pop up on these forums.

Regards,
M376x6

 

[pwrwagonfire]

M376x6, thank you much for all of the information!

Unfortunately I only have one PTO myself...have yet to retrieve it however. I'm sure I will come across parts, etc extra I will definitely let you know.



So guys, nothing too interesting to report this time...had 4 friends come over this evening and with their help (and the tranny and transfer case in neutral) we were able to roll it into its new parking space. Jacked it up, blocked the wheels, and began disassembling the left side of the front axle.

New bearings on this side as well, however someone has DESTROYED the outer bearing adjustment nut. Here is a picture after I finally got it off; I had to wipe out all the extra grease around it and file down the outside (TONS of large burrs on it), then use a rubber mallet to tap the spindle wrench into place. It looks like somebody didn't have the correct tool, so they used a flathead and a hammer to turn the nut off.

I'm not sure if you can tell how rough it was from this picture, but here it is. I took out the outer wheel bearing, lock washer, and inner nut and cleaned them in mineral spirits, and packed them away for now. I wanted to get the bearing out now that the hub flange is off, to try and reduce rust....

Sorry for the lack of interesting pictures this time, I will let ya'll know when I get to the rear axle, or if anything more unusual happens!

 

[pwrwagonfire]

So, without meaning too, I ended up stripping the other side of the front axle tonight. Everything came apart smoothly... until I ate two holes in my father's lawn with the grease


So, with these two pictures, I've got a question. Obvious oil contamination of the grease; possible bad inner seal?

 

[91W350]

That axle actually looks like a big mess, but the grease is pretty good. What you have there is somebody pumped the steering knuckle full of grease to protect and lube that joint. I used to do it too when the felt seal on the steering knuckles was in need of replacement and I could not find the parts. That was a Chevrolet application and not a Dodge, but the same basic design. It looks like the axle shaft going to the pumpkin is nice and clean, that is where your axle seal will be. You have a mess to clean up there, but I am betting you have a well preserved joint inside that ball of grease. Was that steering knuckle packed solid? I am betting it was.

I am not familiar with that axle joint, but where is the stub axle that goes out to the hub? I take it we are looking at the long axle between steering knuckle and differential.

The nut is pretty common damage. A lot of shade tree guys will use a chisel or large screwdriver to tap those flats because they did not have the right socket. Glen