Very Strange.... M1008's being operated without alternators

[lilymonster]

Guys, I recently acquired some M1008's that showed up without alternators. In fact the wiring for the alternators was neatly taped off and loomed. I believe these trucks were possibly used by PSA in Texas for some period of time from the traces of markings on the doors. Anyone encountered this before when buying M1008's from the gov't?

Needless to say I was confused and pissed when I open the hood and saw this. What the heck? Were these trucks canabalized? Alternators stolen? Weird.... But as most of you i'm sure know, Diesels don't need alternators/charge to run like gas engines. So I figured what the heck, lets put a real strong charge on the batteries and try cranking them over to assess the condition of the engine. They fired right up. In fact upon close inspection under the hood, I noticed they have new filters, hoses, oil change, gpr's, etc.... you know the usual CUCV stuff. In fact they are in great running order.

Anyway, its no big deal, I have put alternators into them and put the charging system back in tact and everything is good. But, What the heck is up with this!? Has anyone else heard of CUCV's being operated without alterntors regularly by any agency or army installment? Obviously they won't have operation of heater, lights, etc. but they can run and drive just fine. Do they just fire them up using a NATO Slave or jump pack at the beginning of the day and turn them off at the end? Its so odd.

Anyone ever heard of anything like this? I'm just curious what the heck the deal is with it.

 

[HAWKMAN]

News to me...all the trucks I encounter w/o alts have been scavanged. But could be, not much surprises me anymore.

 

[Roger.Olson]

I am considering a 1009 that the dealer says will only run for a few minutes before it dies because the charging system needs fixing. I posted that question because I thought that a diesel will continue to run with no electrical. A reply indicated there is a low voltage issue that will shut the engine down. Is your truck running with good batteries and no alternators? Are you charging the batteries when the truck is parked?

 

[Phantasom]

Ther is also the electric solinoid on the fuel cut off .

 

[lilymonster]

Nope, they ran great without the alternators. I did have to charge the batterys of course to get them to crank. But once running they ran and drove perfect for hours. As I mentioned, I have since installed alternators and restored them back to original configuration. But this one just really dumb founded me... The alternator connections were taped off and the tape looked old and dirty suggesting it has been that way for a long time. No other signs on the truck of any scavenging....interior perfect, many new parts, newer tires, etc. Could it be they just ran them without alternators for some reason?

 

[doghead]

Are you saying that both alternators were removed or just one.

 

[lilymonster]

Actually one did have a single alternator. I thought maybe it had been converted over to 12V but such was not the case. It still had 24v starter, resister on fire wall still in use. etc. Any ideas on the one with one alternator? Can you run a CUCV with 24volt still in tact on 1 alternator?

 

[doghead]

You should be able to run it on one alt, if it's the number 1 alternator that is still installed and operational. Obviously, your rear battery will go dead eventually. Depending on how often you start it, I bet you could go a week or so, like that. Maybe they(wherever it came from) had no support parts available.

 

[K9Vic]

Can you post a picture of your truck, last sale I was at they had one just like you described with no alternators with batteries in the bed. They also had one with only one alternator as well. This sale was in Texas, so I doubt they are the same trucks, but if your came from Texas then it probably is trhe same truck.

Attached are pictures I took of the two, one is a M1008 and other M1028.

 

[hobie237]

I lost my #1 alternator back in mid-November. Finally got it rebuilt three weeks ago or so (preparation for snowfall around here). Ran the truck occasionally (not my daily driver by any stretch, but still use it once every 1-2 weeks for whatever). I didn't run any 12v accessories (using the truck in daylight) and just left it idling once it was going to avoid having to restart it (well, I do that anyway). Figured I could swap the working #2 over to the #1 spot if I *had* to run it at night or whatever. Anyhoo, it was still starting after a couple of months without a #1 alternator. That said, it wasn't that many starts.

The #1 can, of course, be replaced with any alternator of the correct amperage and clocking and mounting (isn't it a Delco 27SI?, I just can't remember but I have it jotted down somewhere...) usually available for around $120 plus core (at least around here). I considered this option but got the rebuild done for $55 so I came out way ahead.

In the case of missing alternators on an otherwise well maintained truck, I suspect that somebody swiped them. Since the truck can easily be run off the batteries for a long time (like all the time that it's sitting waiting for auction) and a lot of them are sold at auction with dead batteries anyway, it's doubtful that anybody would notice the alternators' disappearance until long after the thief was gone with them. Not to mention that so many units are scavenged nobody would really think much of it if one or two trucks had them missing. They are kiddie stuff to pull out (one 15mm socket and a pair of needlenose pliers is all you really need if you want to be fast and don't care about tearing up the nuts on the ground/output wires) and you can sell them for $100 or so pretty fast on ebay or whatever, and they're all but untraceable. So get both alternators off of a half dozen trucks and you have $1200 easy bucks for about an hour's "work," including time to remove and list on ebay/craigslist/whatever.