Photos of My M916

[Castle Bravo]

M18 Hellcat on a M172A1 trailer.

 

[R Racing]

Now that will get the neighbors attention lol!! Very nice !!!!

 

[Artisan]

The tank looks tiny compared to that truck!

 

[Castle Bravo]

The tank looks tiny compared to that truck!

I think its the perspective.

 

[Castle Bravo]

A while back I did a little writeup of my M1070 BII and it was well received, so I figured I'd do one for my M916.



Tool bag (general)
SAE Combination Wrenches (1" - 5/16")
Zip ties (2 sizes)
Slave cable 2-to-1 pin adapter
Slip joint pliers
2x Vice grips
12" crescent wrench
8" Crescent wrench
2x Flat head screwdrivers
2x Phillips head screwdrivers
Utility Knife
Gloves (not pictured)
Reflective vest
Bailing Wire
100' Measuring Tape
Teflon tape
Razor blades
Schrader valve tool
Spare glad hand seals
Spare dash light bulbs
Square stock for axle plugs
Spare schraeder valves
First aid kit



Tool bag (tire)
1-1/2" "Porkchop" tool
Wire brush
Air pressure gauge
Air inflator
3/4" Drive slide bar handle
3/4" Drive 13" impact extension
Impact gloves
3/4" Drive 1-1/8" impact socket (For spare tire retention nut)
3/4" Drive 1-1/4" deep well impact socket (For M870A1 trailer lug nuts)
3/4" Drive 13/16" square deep well impact socket (For thimbles)
3/4" Drive 1-1/2" deep well impact socket (For lug nuts)
3/4" Drive to 1/2" drive adapter
1/2" Drive 3/4" extra deep well impact socket (For air brake cage bolts)



General and tire tool bags
20' Slave cable
2x 50' 3/8" air hose
Jack ground plate
3/4" Drive air impact gun
12v Work light
Work light power cord
First aid kit
Reflective road triangles
12 Ton bottle jack
Bottle jack handle
Cheater pipe
Lug wrench bar
Lug wrench
Pinch/pry bar
12 Pin 24v trailer electrical connector (not pictured)
7 Pin 12v trailer electrical connector (not pictured)
2x Fire extinguisher (not pictured)
Roll of paper towels (not pictured)
Wood block (not pictured)

What I've done is augmented the TM's BII with additional or different items that make sense to me. Mostly what I'm after is the ability to change a tire and fix various roadside problems. It evolves as I find new problems that need different tools.

Unlike the M1070, the M916 is pretty lacking when it comes to storage and there is really not too much room for more stuff than I have listed here.

 

[Castle Bravo]

This video of my 916 was actually filmed back in January, but I just found it on youtube -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Riu1AMuSQr8

 

[General Hood]

Very nice

 

[R Racing]

When I clicked on the video it said it was disabled by the owner ??

 

[clinto]

When I clicked on the video it said it was disabled by the owner ??

When you clicked on it and the line "playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner" showed up, the sentence "watch this video on youtube" is above it. That's a link to the youtube page with the video.

Some video owners do not want their videos to be viewable when they're imbedded in another website, so they lock them in this way to force viewers to their youtube page.

 

[Castle Bravo]

A while back, my 916 radiator was leaking from the seam between the tank and the core. So it was time to dig in and see what the issue was. Its not a problem - its a "maintenance opportunity."

Removing the hood on the M916 is a pain and a half. With some careful forklift operation, I removed it more or less safely and without incident. The brush guard removal is pretty straightforward and the brush guard is light enough to be moved by hand. The grille is a bit much for one person, both in weight and size. I had to have help removing it. The two brackets on both sides of the radiator aren't too difficult to remove. The radiator itself is too heavy to move by hand, so once again, forklift assistance was used. The radiator went to the shop to get fixed and in the mean time, I figured I would do some work I had been planning for some time.

Installation of a new fan clutch, new fan clutch actuator, new belts, new alternator, and new water temperature sending unit and water temp light switch. I also installed a fan on/off switch as well as an indicator light for when the fan was on.

The new fan clutch is a Kit Masters 104878GTN Gold Top Fan Clutch, which is supposed to be a top notch setup. Kit Masters makes a two speed fan clutch in this model also, but that was too pricey for me, and probably unnecessary for my application. Like the M915A1 fan clutch, this one is spring actuated and connects the fan to rotational power when you take the air away. This provides for a more failsafe type operation, where if the fan clutch fails, the fan should stay on. The stock fan clutch shutterstat actuator is not setup to run a fan clutch like this, so I decided to go with an electric option. There are many ways to do this, but I chose what I felt was the most failsafe route - using a normally closed thermal switch and an air electric solenoid set up in the normally closed config. A toggle switch set in the dash allows for manual fan operation and an indicator light shows when the fan is spinning. I also installed a dual needle air pressure gauge to make room for a 24v voltmeter.

I replaced all the hoses on the engine, including the very hard to get to pair of hoses on the passenger side rear, behind the oil cooler. I put new belts on the truck, and had a heck of a time getting alternator belts that fit correctly. I installed the air conditioner compressor along with its bracket. I dropped in a new water temperature sending unit and engine temperature idiot light thermal switch. The resiliant mounts that the radiator sits on were pretty shot on my truck, and so new ones I acquired some new ones to replace the old ones with. As part of the fan clutch control wire harness I made up, I included a wire for the new alternator ignition excite. I also added a relay to create a keyed ignition 24v source, which the truck did not have. I did not install the new alternator yet, as I have a few other electrical things to sort out first, and I didn't want to have too many things taken apart on the truck at one time.

The radiator came back fixed and I reinstalled it. I had to take the radiator back off and on a few more times to figure out whether or not to use some spacer plates that were present on my truck. I ended up not using any spacers and getting the correct radiator height. I put a new coolant filter on and added 16 gallons of new coolant as well as a new radiator cap. Chased a few leaks and am happy to say that I think it all turned out correctly.

Next is the new alternator installation and an oil change.

 

[M35A2-AZ]

Looks like nice work!

 

[Old Lincoln County Iron]

Love that truck! We're you able to get the winch operational?

 

[Castle Bravo]

Love that truck! We're you able to get the winch operational?

Its on the list, haven't done it yet.

 

[Castle Bravo]

Because 15 amps of 24v is not enough to run my A/C unit and several other 24v accessories that I want to run, I decided on changing the alternator out to a Leece Neville 24v 130 amp alternator.

The stock alternator on the M915/M916/M920/etc is a 100 amp 12v unit that has a 15 amp 24v transformer rectifier piggybacked onto it. The truck runs on all 12v, except for the starter and the trailer lights through the 12 pin military electrical cable, which are both 24v. Since having a 24v alternator on a 12v truck would result in the batteries becoming imbalanced, the 12v loads are handled through the 100 amp battery equalizer. Basically, the truck is set up electrically just like the M916A1, A2, & A3. I added two 125 amp fuses, one on each leg to the battery equalizer to protect it.

The 24v wire from the alternator to the starter is sized for the 15 amps that the unit puts out, and so I decided to add a set of 4 ga wires instead, since it is possible that the existing wires may not be large enough to handle the additional current demand under certain circumstances. The alternator is probably closer to the batteries than the starter, but there is no good path between the two that does not pass too close to the exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe, and the stock wiring is done this way.

The new alternator requires a 24v exciter circuit that doesn't exist in the stock configuration, so one must be added for the alternator to work. The 916 has no keyed ignition 24v source, so I made one using a relay to provide an ignition activated source of 24v power. I added a 24v voltmeter also, and it gets its power from the same relay. I kept the 12v voltmeter in place, and having both should allow me to keep an eye on the electrical system.

Time will tell, but so far everything is working correctly. I have a spare alternator and a spare battery equalizer in the truck, so hopefully neither of those will strand me anywhere. I was pretty confident this arrangement would work correctly after seeing that the elecrical systems on the Freightliner 916s are set up in this same manner.

 

[NDT]

Thanks Castle, I do believe this is how I want to go as well having suffered through a transformer-rectifier ugly failure. Did you use the alternator and equalizer from the M916A1's -20P, and if not, what p/ns did you select so we don't have to reinvent the wheel? Thanks.

 

[Castle Bravo]

Thanks Castle, I do believe this is how I want to go as well having suffered through a transformer-rectifier ugly failure. Did you use the alternator and equalizer from the M916A1's -20P, and if not, what p/ns did you select so we don't have to reinvent the wheel? Thanks.

I used a Leece Neville 4827JB, which is a 24v 130A and a Cooper Bussmann 21100E00 100A battery equalizer.

I am slightly mistaken, the 916A1, A2, and A3 don't all use the same alternator. -

M916A1/A2 Leece Neville 2511A 24v 90A
Early M916A3 Leece Neville BLP3312 24v 140A
Late M916A3 Leece Neville 4964PA 24v 200A

The A3 alternators are PAD mount alternators, but the 2511 from the A1/A2 are J180 alternators and should work with the NTC-400 in the M916.

There are other products that would work in this application, probably almost any J180 mount alternator that fits within the space envelope in the M916 would work and there are several different high quality battery equalizers as well. I probably didn't need a 100A equalizer, but thats what I had, and its nice to have the "expansion" capability. Same with the alternator, I probably didn't need 130A, but I figured using the same alternator that was in my M1070 would afford me the luxury of having 1 spare for both trucks. Plus, NOS surplus 4827s are relatively inexpensive and readily available right now.

Even with the A/C, you could probably get away with a 50A equalizer and a 75A 24v alternator.

 

[Castle Bravo]

A more accurate version of my wiring diagram.

 

[emr]

NICE !! First time I saw this, This is what this site is about ))) Man that is the real deal )

 

[ArizonaGasMonkey]

looks like one from Reno

 

[Castle Bravo]

A photo of the Allison HD4070 transmission ECM & relay box.

Also moved a M931 5 ton last weekend.