A M931A2 Story

[73m819]

In may of 2014, GL had a live auction in Atlanta which I should have gone to but did not, BIG MISTAKE,. A guy from NYC brought three m1070s and two m931a2s, In August I get a call from Atl. GL that NY was going to call me about the trucks, It seems that he "thought" he could leave the trucks at GLs yard till he was ready for them, needless to say GL had other ideas about that, told him he had 10 days to get them out of the yard or he would forfeit them as abandoned, so I get the call, I agree to move then and store them for a "short" time as his request, so I move them (1070s started with a double jump) to a yard in ATL about 2 miles from GL for $375 a month (yards fee), so for a few months I pay the fee and invoice NY, still thinking "short" time storage. Then I get a call from NY (NY does NOT speak ENGLISH very well so is hard to understand), he says he wants to EXPORT all five trucks to a GOD forsaken 6th world country, I say the two 5ts do NOT run, the m1070s ALL need batteries at least, he says ok no sweat, now here comes the BIG question, HOW DO I GET THEM TO FORSAKEN LAND, CAN YOU HELP ME GET THEM THERE, all I said was WHAT, then said I will see what I can do and realized that we were no longer talking SHORT TIME, at the same time I also realized he THOUGHT the a2s were RUNNERS and maybe need batteries like the m1070, he paid runner price, I had to tell him that one a2 needed a alt., the other needed a starter. This is where things stayed till may 2015 when two friends and myself moved them in convoy to LULA GA, about 1/2 hour from my house, each 1070 pulled a a2 or my pickup. Another year goes by, I get a email, FORSAKEN no more a go, "can you up help in selling trucks" I send a estimate on what it would cost to get ALL five up and running, do not here anything for a year or so, in may of 2016 I found a outlaw dirt track owner that needed a better water truck that would never go on the road, his old one had died years ago but still in some use, contracted NY to get one of the a2s up and running then sell it, or sell to me as is at his paid price, he sent back NO HE WANTED TO SELL ALL FIVE AT ONE TIME, there went that deal, AGAIN asked about getting all five running and sent him the price to achieve that. In may of 2017, GP contacted me about selling at action FIVE military trucks, I had to tell them that of the five, three needed batteries at least (the 1070s ), the other two the a2s needed more then just batteries and had never been run as far as I knew since before may 2014, get a email from NY, tells me to get 1070s going and he is thinking about a2s as GP told him he was not going to get much for the non running a2s, I offered to buy both a2s for what he paid for them, first NO, he wanted more, told him fine, your trucks, you figure out you are going to do with them because I am DOME with this crap. In about a week I got a YES, so then I owned two non running a2s, had planed to take parts from one a2 to get the other running, then from the donor a2 put the air axles under the 819 and use the cab to make a xm933, then sell all of the extra parts, well as we all know, not all plans happen.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story

 

[lindsey97]

One thing for sure with this situation: Nice guys finish last.

 

[73m819]

A 931a2 story pt 2

First of all this IS NOT A AD and will not talk about these trucks as price or selling till they show up in the classifieds, the ONLY exception to this is GA. ralliers because one a2 will be posted in the buy/sell thread in the near future once I have paper work in hand.

Now the rest of the story,

About three weeks ago, I dragged both a2s home, aired up just the tires needed to get them home, First I pulled all the 1400s off truck b, put 1100x20s on, then replaced 4 flat 1400s on truck a with some from b, so I ended up with 5 flat and two that hold air that need to be sold, then pulled all 4 batteries, replaced them with two new 31s, then took the alt from b and installed it on a, then checked the oil, the oil looked like it had been changed 100 miles ago, it was so clean that even with a bit of soot , I could read the marking on the stick THOUGH THE OIL (first surprise) and the oil cold was DEAD ON THE FILL MARK, then checked the trans. it had fresh, clean DEXRON (second surprise), went in the cab, used the jump wires (was missing start switch, had 3 wires in place of it), flipped on the master, got the fuel valve wire hooked up, shorted the start wire to power, the truck STARTED in about a revaluation ( my third surprise), NOT what I thought was going to happen, using old truck fuel, had not been started since before may 2014, thought there would be no prime, thought there would be bad valves, hoses, fuel, ect, ect, ect., this thing STARTED like I had shut it down seconds ago NOT 4 1/2 years ago, I would have lost money on this start. The next day I checked the air gauges, they were at 40 lbs, I left both at 120 lbs the day before, I then uncaged the rears, then tested the brakes, still NO air leaks, set the spring brakes no leaks, took it out on the road for about a 15 mile round trip, (first own powered roading since before may 2014) got to 55 fairly good, think a filter and new fuel would help), trans shifted right at 2000 every time, downshifted nice and smooth, WOW< WOW< WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

The engine is newer then the truck, it is Cummns graysh tan, has a bunch of green parts bolted to it, the drivers seat cushion and the passenger seat has been redone, the drive line looks like it has been greased a week ago, do not see any leaks (air/oil) underneath, all gauges work, all lights work but the head lights (think ground), the ctis had been disconnected, VERY CLEAN underneath, in cab.

The only things I have done is fix/replace left mirror, replace rear tail light, straighten mud flap bracket, install a start switch, replace alt, only other thing that needs to be done is straighten left end of bumper (tomorrow), I can not think of anything else. New owner will need to replace wiper blades and window seals also deal with some rust on the hood and that is about it.

I would rate this truck on a scale of 1-10 for a running auction truck at least a 7 1/2, at this point I am a VERY HAPPY CAMPER, this is after when I first told my wife that I was going to buy the trucks, she said "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS" we ALL KNOW what that means.