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WSUCougarx's M561 Gama Goat Acquisition and Build Thread

wsucougarx

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Location
Washington State
Driveshaft-hub bolt gasket and boltlock

Today I got around to replacing the copper washers and bolt keeper tabs for the main axle bolts at each hub. I got the copper banjo bolt washers at our local NAPA. Needed 12 washers, they only had 11. Luckily I had a washer I could reuse. Before I fold the tab over to lock the bolt, I need to take her out for a test run.
 

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wsucougarx

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Washington State
License Plate Bracket

Yesterday was an outstanding day to get things buttoned up. In my final push to get this Goat done, I addressed the license plate mounting issue. Though not an issue to some, it was for me. The last thing I wanted to do was mount a big white rectangle on my truck. After sitting there with the plate in hand dry fitting a good location, I finally settled for an area"outside" the truck. So I headed into the garage trying to figure out how I was going to mount it. As I swept my garage, my eyes spotted a spare tailgate bumper bracket. Luckily the bolt holes lined up with the Truck-Lite license plate mount and light perfectly.
 

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wsucougarx

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Location
Washington State
M792 Tailgate Step

Also got the M792 ambulance tailgate step mounted yesterday as well. Nothing special here. Just dry fitted the stereo to the rear of the tailgate to ensure were where I wanted them and just drilled and bolted. You want to make sure you seal the hole as it is full of foam. A water logged foam interior on a steel tailgate...not so good.
 

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wsucougarx

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Location
Washington State
Got the cab put back together...sort of... To be continued

Partially finished putting the cab back together. Before porting the doghouse back on, I verified the transfer case oil pump was working. Everything went smoothly and now I'm really getting excited to finally get her on the road. I also painted a set of those little window panels. I wasn't going to install them but one thing went through my head. I didn't want to take a corner and have something on my dash slide out into oblivion.
Funny thing is once everything is good to go on the road test, I need to tear the cab apart again. Maybe I'll wait until winter time to install the winch kit I have sitting in the garage.
 

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wsucougarx

Well-known member
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48
Location
Washington State
Weight Classification Bridge Plate

Through my perusing I finally located the correct bridge plate for my '83 themed Goat on E***. I have been looking for the past 6 months. All the ones that have come up are were either the Vietnam era (Yellow) or the modern era ones (CARC'd w/bright red "C"). The ones I have been looking for are painted Forest Green, black numbers, and a flat faint Orange-Yellow "C". Funny thing is I did locate one two months ago. It was a NOS kit. There was nothing fancy about it. However two bidders obviously wanted the kit more than I did. The kit ended up selling for $320!!!! No joke! I guess if you're a purist, you're going to pay especially when you're up against another purist...hahaha. I did pay about double than I wanted to but now I don't have to search.
 

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Al Capone

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Pearl river la
i just found a set of those cab window things, one has center busted out. u canted see thru other one anyway. they were stuffed in area on top of hood. any pics of them mounted
 

wsucougarx

Well-known member
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Location
Washington State
i just found a set of those cab window things, one has center busted out. u canted see thru other one anyway. they were stuffed in area on top of hood. any pics of them mounted
The bottom of the window thing just has a 1/4" bolt going from the inside of the bracket and through the metal rail thing. Sorry for sounding so official, I'm not sure what those "things" are called exactly. The top bracket has a half moon bracket that clamps onto the bow top rail to secure it. As far as the clear vinyl, there are many listed on ebay. I need to restore a set of doors I have with new vinyl. Just find a Marine UV treated clear vinyl. Not sure how thick it is but I'm going to use the 40 gauge stuff. Simply use some HH-66 Vinyl Cement to glue it on or sew it on if you have the proper sewing machine.
 

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wsucougarx

Well-known member
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Location
Washington State
First Road Test....SUCCESS!!!!!

Tonight, my son and I took the Goat out for it's first ever road test since I've owned it. I've owned this truck since October 2015. So, I've had this truck for about 10 months. I have always had this numbing doubt in the back of my mind. What if this truck is not roadworthy? So tonight, all these doubts were thrown into the drink. The truck ran outstanding! The transfer case didn't bump out of gear once. I think the issue may have been a priming issue on the transfer case. I noticed that the issues arose when the oil pump on the transfer case wasn't pumping. The previous owner didn't know anything about this process. So, everything seemed to check out tonight on my short 2 mile run around town. I checked the hubs when I got home to check my brake clearance job. I had one hub that had to be different from the rest. Using my IR temp gun, the temperatures where as follows:
Port bow: 129
Port amidship: 74
Port stern: 72
Starboard bow: 83
Starboard amidship: 77
Starboard stern: 70
I'll jack the front axles up tomorrow to see if there is any rubbing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L_3DAZfqt0
 

wsucougarx

Well-known member
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48
Location
Washington State
First Road Test Video #2

My wife got our IPad out and filmed our departure. Man, did she smoke!! I guess there are a few years of crud that need to work it's way out of that screaming 353. Man, those front marker lights are bright!!! I better check the bulbs. I may have some 12v siting in there. You can hear my wife saying a prayer for us.
6546
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj2NJ1Mxggo
 
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Amer-team

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Centralia/WA
Great stuff team. Since it is downloaded, you must have had a successful completion and return to base. Is hearing protection an upcoming must for that beast.

That is one thing that most of the guys that drove those, tell me. Very neat.
 

Another Ahab

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Location
Alexandria, VA
My wife got our IPad out and filmed our departure. Man, did she smoke!! I guess there are a few years of crud that need to work it's way out of that screaming 353. Man, those front marker lights are bright!!! I better check the bulbs. I may have some 12v siting in there. You can hear my wife saying a prayer for us.
6546
The Goat sounds great!

And I loved the prayer. :jumpin:
 

wsucougarx

Well-known member
6,951
67
48
Location
Washington State
Backed off the warm brake hub brakes by 3 clicks. Got better readings today.
Port bow: 81
Port amidship: 80
Port Stern: 79
Starboard bow: 84
Starboard amidship: 86
Starboard stern: 74

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
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wsucougarx

Well-known member
6,951
67
48
Location
Washington State
Hi there, thank you! I still have my 5 tons. Just can't get myself to sell anything. Hard to sell something that you sirens so much time getting it the way you want it.
 

wsucougarx

Well-known member
6,951
67
48
Location
Washington State
DD353 slobber containment bottle

After cleaning out the engine bay of oil, pine needles, and grime, I was convinced quickly that all that air box drainage needs to go somewhere other than the engine bay. I looked around the garage and found two brass fittings and a metal container that onced had denatured alcohol in it. I just repurposed the container to catch all the oily 353 drippings. It fits perfectly between the bulkhead and steering shaft tunnel.
 

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