1967 deuce rescue.......what to bring?

[lucydeuce]

I am going to look at a truck for sale roughly 45 miles from my house/shop. It is listed as a 1967 model and seller says it runs great but has a leak in the air tank. I would like to attempt to drive this truck home if it is as described. What are some suggestions as far as what to load my pickup down with aside from the usual tools and a spare tire/wheel?

 

[BKubu]

How bad is the leak in the air tank? Since it is only 45 miles away, I'd go to inspect it first and the plan to drive it back another day. I, personally, wouldn't drive it if it is leaking a lot of air. If you burn up the compressor, you will be in for a few hundred dollar replacement cost (a friend of mine tried to drive an M923a2 a good distance with a badly leaking air line, and he burned up the compressor). With that said, if you can swap it (CLARIFICATION: the air tank) out, then I'd do it.

If you drive it home, I would suggest changing the fuel filters before you leave. Bring a good tool set, a jack, jackstands, a wooden block (for under the jack), a breaker bar and lug wrench, a couple of gallons of coolant, a few quarts of oil, and a five gallon can of fuel (the fuel gauges are notoriously unreliable). I also would add a good amount of diesel conditioner before you leave.

 

[cattlerepairman]

Good advice. 45 miles is not far but it can be, if you are stranded in the middle of an intersection.

Consider getting a replacement air tank and switch it out on site if that is possible. Likely the wet tank....never drained and now pinholed.

Next check has to be the brakes, if you want to drive it. Is the master cylinder full? Visible leaks from the wheel cylinders? Lines, hard and soft, in reasonable condition? Pedal free play ok? Do the brakes work and does the pedal feel good? If it goes way in...brake adjustment and bleeding time.

I am quite a cowboy when it comes to some aspects of driving big rigs, but a 6t (empty) truck without reliable brakes must not be on the road.

Sent from my SM-G991W using Tapatalk

 

[Mullaney]

I am going to look at a truck for sale roughly 45 miles from my house/shop. It is listed as a 1967 model and seller says it runs great but has a leak in the air tank. I would like to attempt to drive this truck home if it is as described. What are some suggestions as far as what to load my pickup down with aside from the usual tools and a spare tire/wheel?

.
Yeah, a leak in the air tank can definitely be a pin hole in the bottom of the tank. I would carry a spare tank. I would also take a bottle of 25% Dawn and Water and spray down the area, and watch for the bubbles. I had one on a M936 and it was rusted through to bottom... It was a bummer. There really is no fix for a leaky tank - even if you are a welder. Gotta find enough good metal to weld to.

Maybe it will be easier. Maybe only a leaky air line.

 

[NDT]

I drove a self tapping screw into a deuce air tank pin hole once, it's still there like 10 years later and holds air still.

 

[tommys2patrick]

Do you know the seller well? a lot is depending on a third party assessment of what is wrong. does the road there have good shoulders? take a heat gun and stop every few miles and check it. plan on taking cool down stops. rig up a cheap harbor freight air tank, lines and fittings to bypass the bad one. check the weather and traffic be prepared for a very long 45 miles. this project could save millions of lives and shorten the war by years( sense of humor)

 

[glcaines]

45 miles isn't that far. Brakes are the most important. I would also make sure you have the telephone number for a towing company local to your destination that can handle your truck, in case you have problems on the way home that you can't handle on the road by yourself.

 

[williamh]

Bring another Duce with a tow bar.

 

[Capt Pat]

Bring another Duce with a tow bar.

we always make sure there's a back up plan like this. Always another fried/club member with the club's 'recovery kit' waiting for a call tht usually doesn't come but if it does, its a WHOLE LOT less than a recovery wrecker. (a deuce doesn't fit normal roll backs)

 

[eaw46]

Make sure to give us an update on how the Recovery went please.

 

[734]

I just made a 110 mile recovery on a second deuce yesterday. I spent 3 days over three weekends going over the truck where it sat (highly convenient to have a loose timeline). It was listed as running and 'needs brakes.'
Did the following on site after purchase:
Full brake bleed with Dot 5 and a power bleeder. The Master Cylinder had a small puddle in the bottom, had sucked air and it had lost all brake pedal.
Sloppy minor adjustment on all brakes with the bottle jack and spinning the wheels until the shoes kiss and backing off ~1/8 turn.
Verified no brake fluid lost during the next three visits and really cranked on the brakes after the bleed and adjust to make sure I wasn't going to blow a wheel cylinder or rubber line.
'Unstuck' the parking brake with a hammer, hopefully I can free it up and salvage the shoes remaining
Found / fixed fuel leaks: 3/8" DOT line without the inserts, injector return lines leaking as well, fuel filter orings leaking
Fuel filters and gaskets (these had transformed from rubber into some sort of space age plastic super glue I had to cut out in chunks)
Engine oil and filters and gaskets
Checked / added coolant
Checked differentials/transfer case/transmission for fluid and state of fluid (drained and filled the front. Draining/pumping 80w90 in 4F temperatures=misery)
Aired up tires and checked pressure after a week, again before leaving
Multiple 'around the block trips' to check out my progress after getting it safe'ish

For the drive:
Ear pro
Bottle jack / wood block / 6 ton jack stand
Lug/budd nut gear wrench set with pipes
Standard wrench set, 1/2" socket set / 3/4" breaker bar with adapters to abuse the 1/2" sockets if need be
Hub nut socket
Magic wrenches (crescent): pocket, small, medium, huge
Volt meter
Vice grips, pliers, wire cutters (found a constant hot 24v wire dangling off the heater switch... that could have been sparky)
Drain pan, funnels big and small, long and short neck
DOT airline from trailer repair shop: 1/2", 3/8",1/4" with inserts and ferrules
5 gallon bucket oil, Walmart has T4 cheap and there's rebates currently
5 gallon bucket of transmission and transfer case fluid
5 gallon bucket of diff fluid
3 gallons coolant, 3 gallons distilled water
1 gallon DOT 5 with power bleeder
Grease gun w/a few tubes of grease
Pail pump
Fire Extinguisher (large)

Most important:
Plenty of time, absolutely no expected arrival time to try and make
High limit credit card
Insurance that provides free towing within 100 miles (I had to make it 11 to get into my radius)
Friend available for pickup/delivery/helping hand if Mr Murphy shows up

Lots of stops to check up on hub temps, look for leaks, listen for noises, etc. Great time to just look and it and smile as well as see the country side. Guess I'll probably copy the first 1/4 of this and make a new thread for the new truck

 

[cattlerepairman]

@734 that is a very sane approach. Giving yourself time reduces a lot of stress. If you can get the important systems on your truck working fairly reliably (fuel, brakes, axles, cooling) the truck will soldier on, even if other (minor) things need fixing later.

 

[734]

If you can get the important systems on your truck working fairly reliably

That was my thought process. Start with the showstoppers and work back from there. If the brakes really were shot, it wasn't driving home. After that resolve the fire hazards. Then get it running decent. Then invest the money in fluids and filters. Continue down that path until I was confident in the current status outside any unscheduled catastrophic scattering of spinning bits or gears. Of course, having a first deuce really enables having the parts and pieces on hand already.