M46A2C Brutus lives on

[TB58]

It has been a busy week between packing up the house and getting Brutus ready for the trip.
I started with the Parking brake. Though there was obviously plenty of pad left on the shoes, i figured I would swap them out anyways. Once I got the shoes swapped out I attached the lever end and got it all adjusted. It is nice being able to park on sloping ground now.

Next I started on the wheel bearings and brakes. The brakes are in good shape and only took a little bit of adjustment. The wheel bearings on the other hand were in serious need of grease. only one out of the four had anything that resembled grease. they all had what looked and felt to be heavy weight gear oil instead of grease. All of my hubs were dry so I had no reason to think I had bad seals. After cleaning the bearings I inspected them and they were all in good shape. So other than lack of grease they were good.


This was the rear right wheel, the warmest of all of the hubs. I hadn't cleaned anything when I took this picture.

When I first disassembled the hub my first reaction was that oil at this point was a bad sign, but I believe it is normal

this was actually as I was disassembling the above hub

The front hubs appeared to be freshly greased so no pictures. After a 10 mile drive this morning at 50 MPH all hubs were between 80-90 degrees.

I swapped out both windshields. Both were cracked with nasty corrosion on the frames. All of the hardware had to be drilled out. A few of the Bolts didn't have much of their heads left. The rest of the truck has so little corrosion it was surprising to find it so bad here. Also Installed the Alnico wiper arms. I am having trouble with one of my wiper motors. It was sticking so I serviced it. Even with the control valve fully open it will slowly move to the outside of the cylinder and return. The button also doesn't pop out when it runs.


The Two speed transfer case love had been modified to be a lot longer. The knob was right where my elbow wanted to be while shifting. I ordered a stock stick and swapped them out. So much more comfortable now.

While the tires were off I serviced the trunion bearings. I know the LO says only to loosen the cover bolts but I wanted to see what was in there. It was full of nasty baked grease. I cleaned it out and started pumping into the zerk fitting. On the R/H bearing grease never came through the cover side but instead came out the other end. Should I have filled the cap with grease? With the seal on this side of the bearings it didn't seem that it would help anything.

 

[TB58]

A few more pictures of the spindles. This is the R/H center axle. Looks to be old damage. It appears to be old, no burs or sharp edges.

same axle before I wiped it off

A question about he Air Compressor. The TM says there should be a filter in the intake but I can't find a type of filter. My intake is empty which is probably bad. Is there a local purchase filter that fits or do I need to scour the web for the P/N out of the TM?

I did the Spin on filter mod for both oil and Fuel. He seems to run a bit smoother now and old press comes up nice and quick now. The install was stupid easy, except where I had a bout of lazy. The instructions say to tq wait 15 min and tq again. I skipped the second step on the second filter. After starting on my final walk around I looked under to see a nice stream of oil pouring down. Sure enough, the second filter was leaking from below the adapter. Pulled the filter tq again and no more leak.



I didn't take pictures of it, but I also installed a longer tube on the slobber tube.
Still need to finish installing the upper console that had to be removed for the windshields, I need to degrease the engine to track down remaining oil leaks and that should get Brutus safe and ready for the trip.

 

[rustystud]

Good preventive maintenance is always the best hedge against possible breakdowns. Good job !

 

[TB58]

Thanks. I would much rather do the work in my driveway than on the side of the road some where.

Looks like I will need to adjust the wheel bearing nuts, three hubs were about 140 after about 20 miles of 50mph driving.

 

[TB58]

As Brutus is sitting in California awaiting my return my step dad is doing some work on him.

He pulled the radiator which had a bit of a leak from one of the seams. The radiator shop pressure tested it and apparently the core is really badly deteriorated and was on the verge of failing. I have been looking through the parts houses to find the least expensive N.O.S. source.

The alternator will be going to a rebuild shop. Had issues with it arcing and the drag was causing havoc on belts. The bearings spin nice and smooth so guessing it is something in the windings. Really hope I won't have to replace it, they are not cheap at all.

As far as the transmission, I am going to find a set of bearings and seals to keep it from dumping all the fluid again. Figure by the time I am done with it it should almost new.

Not sure where to begin on the transfer case. It started running at over 200 Degrees, fluid didn't drop and up until the transmission problems it was running at about 130 degrees.

I have been searching the forum for info on people their bearings as an oil bath rather than grease. It seems to me that they would run cooler and be a little bit more simple to work on. I am going to keep researching this.

Lots of things to get done. I am very lucky that my step dad is doing a bunch of work for me until I get back. Once I get there we will finish up the transmission and a few other things. As things progress I will post up. Also once Brutus is back on the road I will continue the road trip thread. Still working on getting the pictures from the wives camera from the trip.

 

[TB58]

I still have a few weeks left in Alabama so haven't been able to do any work, but I have been quite busy spending money. New radiator, hoses, belts, thermostat, heater valves, alternator, clutch kit, transmission bearings/seals, axle seals and some other miscellaneous things that I can't think of right now. We are going to have a busy time once I get there and get to work.

I am feeling slightly hopeful that after all of this I may have a slight chance of making the drive from California to North Carolina, which is my follow on duty station.

Another thing I am looking to spend money on is tires. I have been reading through all kinds of threads on tires and have decided I want 11.00r20's and continue to run duals in the rear. The problem is finding really any tires for 20" wheels. There were a bunch of 11.00r20 on the liquidation site the other day but I had no way of picking them up.

 

[red]

Depending on your budget the 11r20 is a fairly common size used for commercial trucks.

 

[TB58]

I have found a few places that have a few for 300+ per tire. A bit out of my price range at the moment.

 

[srodocker]

Brad says to give him a jingle if your having problems with your transmission.

 

[red]

Forgot that your truck is in Cali, 100dollarman carries the 11r20"s for a good price. http://www.100dollarman.com/tires.html

With the Hubs I'm running Primrose 327 grease, armor plate with Moly D. During my trip from Midland Texas-Hill AFB, Utah (total about 1500 miles) the hubs never got over 72F in mid May, cruising at 54mph on 395's. Cost a little more at about $9 a tube, but it's one of the better greases in my experience. I've put a little over 4,500 miles on the hubs since being repacked with this grease. Make sure to wear disposable gloves because it will not clean off your hands easily. The usual hand cleaners will not get it off haha.

Looks like you will be going through all the main systems, including what you worked on during the trip before.

 

[TB58]

srodocker, I hope I haven't given the impression that I think I got a bad deal from Brad. Quite the opposite. I knew the transmission was a pulled from a truck and not rebuilt. We both looked it over before installing it. Also, I couldn't have imagined the help I got from him installing it at his shop. Even with everything including driving back from Alabama I think I am money ahead on a reman transmission. I may give him a call on Monday to see what he thinks about the high temp on the transfer case.

Red, Thanks for the tip on tires, looks like I will be going by there on my way back, will probably stop by to see what they have available.

 

[srodocker]

Nope didnt think you were saying that. I told brad how you had more transmission troubles and he was baffled so he was telling me to tell you to give him a ring and maybe figure something out with it.

 

[TB58]

Talked to Brad today, he thinks the input bearing probably is going on it allowing the oil to come out the front. I have the parts on the way so I think we are good there. On the transfer case running so hot, he said first thing to try is new oil. I checked the level when i got the truck, didn't drain it so it could be pretty old. If it starts to pop out of gear then I'll know I have real problems. He is great source of info and stories if you get a chance to go by his yard.

 

[TB58]

I just realized how bad the MV addiction is.....All this started with me looking for a trailer to pull behind my car for a move and camping. That got me looking into the M416 trailers. While looking at those I came across Brutus. Now I am thinking I should find a M38 to pull behind Brutus so I have an around town car every where I go. The dangerous part is my wife isn't necessarily opposed to all of this.....

 

[rustystud]

I just realized how bad the MV addiction is.....All this started with me looking for a trailer to pull behind my car for a move and camping. That got me looking into the M416 trailers. While looking at those I came across Brutus. Now I am thinking I should find a M38 to pull behind Brutus so I have an around town car every where I go. The dangerous part is my wife isn't necessarily opposed to all of this.....

OH OH ! If the wife is on board then look out ! Soon she will want her own deuce !
If only I was so lucky ! Lately my wife has started calling my deuce "the other woman ! " .

 

[TB58]

I got quite lucky with my wife, but having a real love hate relationship with my Deuce.

Made it back to California and today got to do some wrenching.....

Pulled the transmission and tore it apart with the intent of rebuilding it. found missing teeth on the 1st/reverse gear, 5th was badly discolored by heat and almost all of the teeth had damage of some sort. Decided to drop the cash on a rebuilt transmission. I have all the seals, bearings and gaskets for a rebuild if anyone is interested.

With the work stoppage on the transmission I started tracing lines under the rig. Some have been replaced and not removed so I wanted to know what they were. I followed the vent line from the master cylinder to the firewall. I found the line had been intentionally plugged. I had not had any issues with the brakes. No leaks, locked up when needed and released when I let off the pedal. I removed the Plug and pressed the pedal, all seemed normal until I looked under the hood and saw that I had sprayed brake fluid all over the engine. Now to order an Air pack.

We are also going to be moving the auxiliary air tanks from the left frame rail to the very rear between the frame rails. I will be looking into putting a tool box in the space opened up.

I have been looking around with no luck, Is there a larger fuel tank that can be relatively easily mounted up and plumbed into the fuel system? A replacement tank up to about 70" would fit easily in the place of the stock tank. Would be nice to have the extra capacity.

By the time I am done I think Ill have an entirely new rig. Still on a timeline, My report date is 6 Sept at Ft Bragg. All adds to the excitement. I will try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.

 

[red]

No need to replace your airpack. Cap that vent line, and run a external reservoir to the fitting on the master cylinder cap. Unless you are planning to regularly submerge the truck there is no need to introduce an air supply to the hydraulic part of your brakes (original design).

 

[TB58]

The fluid spraying out was from the master cylinder and not from the air pack it self? The air pack doesn't need to be vented?

 

[red]

That vent line coming out of the master cylinder cap, if it's connected, allows the air that is leaving the airpack to vacuum brake fluid out of the master cylinder reservoir.

There are 2 vent lines there that get tied together. One from the airpack, and a short (bout 12-18" long) T that runs to the brake master cylinder cap. Remove that short line that is running to the brake master cylinder cap. Still lets the airpack vent, but prevents it from sucking the brake fluid out.

Either install a plug in the master cylinder cap, or mount a external brake fluid reservoir and run a hose from the external reservoir to that connection on the master cylinder cap.

 

[TB58]

Ah I see what you mean now. That is a lot cheaper than replacing the the Air Pack. Thank you for the quick info.

Kinda confused why the vent would have been capped off.