Finally got our Deuce!

[ATPTac]

Well, we went and did all the title work and picked up our 1976 Kaiser Jeep M35A2 yesterday. I've been on the hunt for a Deuce for a little while now and finally decided on this one. Has a C turbo, White Multifuel engine, newer vinyl top, 11.00x20 tires (not in very good shape) and a few customized options the previous owner put on it.

We picked it up last night after work, and it was starting to get dark out, having never really driven one before it was a little nerve racking driving it for the first time in the dark (had a few brain farts on the shift pattern) during rush hour traffic. But it arrived safely at its temporary home. Definitely going to be upgrading the headlights in it at some point, they were ok, but not nearly bright enough for my taste.

Now, on to the "to do list":

The J-pipe has rusted out and has a pretty significantly sized hole on it, not super concerned with that right now but I will be addressing it at some point.

It has what appears to be a leaking wheel cylinder on the right rear. This is first on my list of things to do. I'm planning on going ahead and replacing all 6 wheel cylinders, the master cylinder, replace all the brake lines (hard and flex), and potentially replacing the air pack. Not 100% sure I'm going to worry about the air pack right now, but the rest is definitely getting replaced before anything else is done to the truck.

Both front axle boots are leaking. I haven't started looking into whats involved in replacing those, but I've heard its pretty straight forward.

I noticed tonight when I went by to check on it (and just sit in it and soak it in), it has a pretty steady fuel leak. Now pardon my lack of knowledge on the component names and locations, but its coming from the line running into the back of the 2 fuel filters towards the firewall of the truck. The line that's on it is a clear(ish) hose that goes into a fitting on the top of the rear filter. I haven't isolated exactly where the leak is coming from on the line being that it was getting dark, I just saw it collecting on the bottom of the line and dripping down. I'm also not sure if the line was routed correctly (I'm sure someone here will know), it ran between the filters and the engine block, which leads me to believe it might have rubbed a hole in it on the block. Not really sure either way, but I want to get that fixed ASAP as well.

Beyond those things listed it just seems to have the average "40 year old truck" leaks. When I was draining the air tanks (which is a complete pain to get to with the 11.00x20 tires) I noticed the inner most tank started having some kind of nasty looking sludge come out when it was almost done draining. Not sure what that's about, if anything.

Now onto the upgrades I'm planning on for it:

I plan on repainting it to either straight 383 green or 3 color, haven't really decided yet, and that's not going to happen until at least spring. Also when doing that I'm going to rhino line the bed and cab floor.

Remote reservoir kit. After checking the brake fluid in it, I now see why everyone complains about the MC location...

Going to single it out also with 395's. Haven't decided on wheels yet, I like the look of the MRAP wheels, but also am contemplating going with some of the custom wheels that enable you to not have to flip the rear hubs (i.e. the Eastern Surplus wheels, not really fond of the price though). I'll have to figure that out when the time comes.

Going to put spin on oil and fuel filter conversions on it.

I'm still undecided on the top. It has an insulated soft top on it right now, but I'm thinking about putting a hard top on it and insulating that. The truck is going to eventually end up the NC mountains, which get pretty cold in the winter.

I'm sure there's more I forgot to list, but I think that covers the majority of it.

To summarize, it definitely needs some work and upgrades, but I look forward to getting it back in shape. The biggest selling factor for me on this particular truck is that it has practically no rust on it. So I was willing to overlook a lot of the mechanical issues with it that can be fixed with time and $... Unlike rust.

 

[ATPTac]

Oh, and sorry for lack of pictures. That's the best one I have of it right now. I'll try to get more/better ones this weekend.

 

[wreckerman893]

Too bad you're not closer. I have HEMMT rims and adaptors to put them on a deuce. There is also a place close to me that sells super singles cheap. I also have some M35A3 rims (the kind you don't have to flip the hubs) with brand new 395's mounted on them, but I only have four mounted tires and one spare rim.

Anyway, welcome to the Green Iron Laughing Accademy. Start saving your money now and schedule your vaccation for the GA Rally next October.

 

[ATPTac]

Too bad you're not closer. I have HEMMT rims and adaptors to put them on a deuce. There is also a place close to me that sells super singles cheap. I also have some M35A3 rims (the kind you don't have to flip the hubs) with brand new 395's mounted on them, but I only have four mounted tires and one spare rim.

Anyway, welcome to the Green Iron Laughing Accademy. Start saving your money now and schedule your vaccation for the GA Rally next October.

I'm assuming shipping on rims/tires of that size wouldn't be worth the money? I'm interested in the A3 wheels... I didn't realize you could use those without flipping the hubs. I'm not sure when we're going to have the money together to do the single conversion, but its next on the list after the brakes are done. The tires on the truck are of varying tread depths and one of them is almost bald. I'd rather not have to put any money into tires unless its putting the singles on.

We'll definitely be coming to the GA rally next year. We almost came this year but my wife and I both got some kind of bug, and didn't want to be out and about feeling like crap.

 

[VPed]

If you think it is a PITA to drain the tanks with 11x20's, wait till you have 395's on there. I put in cable operated drains with the cables extended to outside of the frame just behind the left front mudflap. Really easy now and cheap to do. I have the remote reservior and can say that is a really good move as well. I have 395's on stock wheels which some don't like but they suit me just fine. I did have the two front wheels widened by three inches (using two stock rims to make one wide one). This gets the tire away from the inner fender some cause if you off-road, they will kiss without this mod. My engine supplies copious amounts of cab heat but it does take ten minutes or so of driving for that "heater" to work.

Congrats on the new truck. I just picked up a M927A1 to go with my deuce so watch out for the cravings for more.

 

[ATPTac]

I do plan on putting the cables on the air drains... I don't even want to think about draining the tanks with 395's in its current configuration. I did notice the heat soak from the engine through the firewall was pretty significant, good thing when its cold, probably not so much in the summer. I'm sure there will be more MV's in the future, but we definitely need to get this one done before I even think about another one.

 

[VPed]

Oh yeah, I also got some of that black goo out of my tanks at first. I say, use her regularly and it should clear up.

 

[ATPTac]

Yeah, I've seen it a few times with air compressors, but they weren't mine so I didn't pay much attention to it. I kind of get the impression the previous owner didn't drain them that often.

 

[Another Ahab]

Nice looking Deuce.

Welcome, from Virginia.

 

[Nationwide 63s]

Awesome truck!

Welcome me from East TN,

 

[Nationwide 63s]

Auto complete got me.....

Welcome from East TN, LOL!

 

[rrrr]

Welcome to the club !
They are definitely a labor of love. Give it time and you'll be happy with your truck and all the mods. It took me two years to get my deuce the way I wanted it.

 

[DeucesWild11]

I like the color.. but I am biased.

Best of luck with her..

 

[ATPTac]

Well, finally had a free day to go do some minor work on the truck. Wanted to address the fuel leak mentioned in the first post, as well as get the cover back on and take her for a spin and put some fresh diesel in the tank. Turns out the fuel line coming off the secondary filter going to the IP just needed to be tightened a little bit and that took care of that leak. Once we got that taken care of we took it down to the gas station and put some fuel in her and went on a short drive and then came back. Once parked while letting the engine idle I noticed ANOTHER fuel leak coming from the primary filter. I went to tighten up the line but couldn't get the wrench I had with me in the space at the right angle. Upon further inspection that line actually has a few dents and a pretty decent sized pinch in it, so I'm going to have to figure out a part number and order a new one.

After finding the second leak, as I was coming up from under the truck I heard a high pitch whistle/whine. I initially thought it was an air leak (found a small leak coming from one of the lines off the compressor after we picked the truck up, I was able to tighten it and fixed it). Upon further inspection, we discovered it was coming from the radiator. I know the area its coming from, but couldn't find any pin holes. This also led me to find the coolant appears to be extremely low. I'm not sure exactly how low, but when I went to relieve the pressure to check the coolant I could hear it boiling in the radiator but none came out of the cap. I'm hoping it just lost coolant due to the small hole in the radiator and isn't a head gasket (although I don't think the hole is big enough to warrant that much coolant loss). So now I need to start hunting down a reasonably priced radiator and hope I don't have any other issues.

I also checked the oil and discovered it was 8qts low. So I put 2 jugs of Rotella in it and brought that back up to normal. I'm not entirely sure when the last time the oil was changed in the truck, the previous owner said approximately 2k miles ago. I'm hoping I don't have any major issues with oil consumption and its just a combination of leaks and burn off. I was able to check the exhaust for oil (pretty sizable hole in the J pipe as mentioned in first post) and didn't see any. Being that the truck isn't going to be driven a whole lot over the winter, I'm probably going to hold off on the oil change for a while until we can afford to put a spin on filter conversion and do it all in one sitting.

I knew going into this there were going to be a lot of leaks and a lot of work to get it back in shape. But it seems like we bought the truck and it decided to just let go... Not getting discouraged, just worrying about sourcing parts and more so worried about finances.

I was able to get a few more pictures of the truck:

 

[porkysplace]

Well, finally had a free day to go do some minor work on the truck. Wanted to address the fuel leak mentioned in the first post, as well as get the cover back on and take her for a spin and put some fresh diesel in the tank. Turns out the fuel line coming off the secondary filter going to the IP just needed to be tightened a little bit and that took care of that leak. Once we got that taken care of we took it down to the gas station and put some fuel in her and went on a short drive and then came back. Once parked while letting the engine idle I noticed ANOTHER fuel leak coming from the primary filter. I went to tighten up the line but couldn't get the wrench I had with me in the space at the right angle. Upon further inspection that line actually has a few dents and a pretty decent sized pinch in it, so I'm going to have to figure out a part number and order a new one.

After finding the second leak, as I was coming up from under the truck I heard a high pitch whistle/whine. I initially thought it was an air leak (found a small leak coming from one of the lines off the compressor after we picked the truck up, I was able to tighten it and fixed it). Upon further inspection, we discovered it was coming from the radiator. I know the area its coming from, but couldn't find any pin holes. This also led me to find the coolant appears to be extremely low. I'm not sure exactly how low, but when I went to relieve the pressure to check the coolant I could hear it boiling in the radiator but none came out of the cap. I'm hoping it just lost coolant due to the small hole in the radiator and isn't a head gasket (although I don't think the hole is big enough to warrant that much coolant loss). So now I need to start hunting down a reasonably priced radiator and hope I don't have any other issues.

I also checked the oil and discovered it was 8qts low. So I put 2 jugs of Rotella in it and brought that back up to normal. I'm not entirely sure when the last time the oil was changed in the truck, the previous owner said approximately 2k miles ago. I'm hoping I don't have any major issues with oil consumption and its just a combination of leaks and burn off. I was able to check the exhaust for oil (pretty sizable hole in the J pipe as mentioned in first post) and didn't see any. Being that the truck isn't going to be driven a whole lot over the winter, I'm probably going to hold off on the oil change for a while until we can afford to put a spin on filter conversion and do it all in one sitting.

I knew going into this there were going to be a lot of leaks and a lot of work to get it back in shape. But it seems like we bought the truck and it decided to just let go... Not getting discouraged, just worrying about sourcing parts and more so worried about finances.

I was able to get a few more pictures of the truck:
View attachment 461752View attachment 461756View attachment 461754View attachment 461755View attachment 461753View attachment 461751

A daily pre-trip inspection go's a long way . Hopefully you have checked the brake fluid.

 

[ATPTac]

A pre-trip inspection is how I found the oil was low as well as most of the problems with the truck thus far. And yes I've checked the brake fluid.

 

[DieselBob]

Nice looking truck. A follow up to the "J" pipe rust be sure to check the elbow that comes off the turbo as they tend to rust on the back side where you won't normally see it.

 

[ATPTac]

Ah, thanks for the tip... I wouldn't have thought to look there. I tried to put some of that muffler tape on the hole in the J-pipe as a temporary fix, aaand that held until I fired it up and went to drive it. I got back from the drive and the tape was completely gone, haha.

I did top off the coolant, it ended up being almost 3 1/2 gallons low... I'm starting to get a bad feeling about that. I guess we'll see how it does for a little bit and go from there. I also noticed the truck, after running for a couple of minutes, goes to a high idle of around 1k +/- rpms. Sometimes if you blip the throttle it goes back down for a little bit and slowly climbs its way back up. I'm hoping it isn't a serious issue with the IP or something.

 

[SCSG-G4]

When you change the brake master cylinder, make sure you have plenty of tools, a concrete pad to be working on, and a plan. Did I mention tools? You will find the manufacturer installed the MC first than built the rest of the truck around it. The best way of getting to the top, outside bolt is to have a 9/16 deep well socket, a six inch extension, a universal joint extension, a second six inch extension, and a ratchet to thread through the frame hole where the back of the MC is connected to the line going to the air pack. That, and taking the rubber boot off the front of the MC while removing/installing it and it's "easy". And check your wheel cylinders to see if they have a cup inside the rubber boots, or just the spring. DO NOT discard those cups if you have them. Learn to search the threads here by finding what others have said on their behalf.

 

[Nationwide 63s]

Our operators in Korea used to tell us the Deuces were leaking all of the time. We kept telling them to bring them in for service when they stopped leaking. They would ask why.....we told them...BECAUSE ITS OUT OF FLUID! LOL!