M816 Wrecker Won't Start

[swbradley1]

Just go to Harbor Freight and buy one of their battery load testers. I use mine all the time. Just hook it up to each batteries +- ONE at a time, no need to disconnect any cables.

Voltage should be in the green the flip the switch left or right and hold for a few seconds or until the massive resistor inside looks like it going to melt and see if the gauge drops to the left. If it does it is bad. If it stays to the right the battery is most likely good. I just checked my second Deuce yesterday and both are bad......

 

[Lawrence of Arabia]

So I decided to load test the batteries even though I had one of my employee's do it, who assured me all the batteries passed. Guess what? One failed. Guess if you want it done right do it yourself. So I will be swapping out batteries and I'm sure I will have a running wrecker once again. Needless to say, I am one less employee, long before I figured this out.

 

[Lawrence of Arabia]

4 new batteries and starts great every time. Should have known better. Now my next issue is my clutch is out. Has about an inch of travel and I can get it into gear to move it, but the clutch does not engage enough to shift it and pull it out of gear once I get it into gear. Feels like throw out bearing? Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[porkysplace]

Pull the cover off the bellhousing for a inspection , then most likely pull the tranny for a new clutch assembly. I wouldn't pull one apart and not replace everything.

 

[73m819]

4 new batteries and starts great every time. Should have known better. Now my next issue is my clutch is out. Has about an inch of travel and I can get it into gear to move it, but the clutch does not engage enough to shift it and pull it out of gear once I get it into gear. Feels like throw out bearing? Anyone have any suggestions?

The only thing you can do is drop the trans and take a look, should not take to long, I can do it by myself in about 3 hours, quicker if I do not let myself get side tracked.

You DO NOT need to pull the stick, pto or the cover to drop it.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

Before you drop the transmission etc., have a look on the opposite side of the bellhousing from the clutch operating rod. There you will see the setup for controlling the clutch from the back deck. I have seen *several* of these that have gone out of adjustment and have caused the clutch pedal to operate undesirably. Basically make sure that the foot-operation of the clutch works fine (free pedal travel/ full travel to floor etc.) and adjust back-deck operated portion of the linkage *afterwards*.

That said, the M816 and 800 series cargo I have at work have both had clutch failures and both were release bearing failures that went on to take out the pressure plate, and the symptoms are exactly what you describe. As others have said...change everything. The last one I had nuked so completely that bits of broken pressure plate were jamming themselves between the remaining portion of the pressure plate and the clutch disc face which caused some really weird pedal feel when trying to operate the clutch. I have another here that's gone the same way I've just stuck at the very bottom of the job-jar because I'm sick of doing it