New Deuce owner and need help badly

Hi everyone, and Im glad to be apart of our unique group. I bought a 1971 m35A2 a year ago. I am just now taking delivery and having it shipped to my home. The great state of Florida. It's in Kentucky and will be shipped on a semi down this upcoming week. Ive flown up and started/ Driven it a few times before it shuts down (assumed overheating) I won't lie it needs work. many gauges don't work including temp and the idle pulley lever is disconnected. It is an SOB to start and requires about half a can of starting fluid. ( I know it's bad but gotta do what you gotta do) Previous owner put in a brand new Bosch injection pump and I bet it's not calibrated right. Once it fires it dies. this process repeats itself 4 or 5 times and then it idles between 200-800 Rpm and finally calms down and sits at 700RPM. Last time I went up I drained and filled with clean diesel all new filters (PITA BTW)

OK long story shortened. I need to get it started for the semi loading. It's now been sitting at freezing temps for months. Batteries aside I need a quick and dirty way to get it running. I'll fix it up once it's delivered to my shop. Here's the plan.
1) space heater to cook the engine and warm it up
2) crack it a few times, try to get the old crap oil running through it.
3) beat the hell out of it to get it started. load and go.

Now, I don't want to keep beating on the old girl when she is clearly injured. how bad is TBD. I read a lot of turning up the idle fuel thingy but I don't have time to dive into Manuels right now. I can't use the IDLE handle at all and starting it my (bad way) will take an hour, a can (or 2) or starting fluid and 2 people.

Does ANYONE have any ideas of ANYTHING I can adjust with a wrench or look at. Just something to get it running and drive less than a mile. Once it's loaded its my mechanics issue upon delivery.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

With just a flat blade screwdriver you can take the timing shutdown rod cover off and be able to see the position of the fuel control unit assembly. You can also check the timing without any tools and that cover off.

Could be just a giant restriction or air too. Any one of those and a non-op in tank pump would cause major start/run issues.

Just drag it off the trailer preferably slightly up hill with a long strap, chain, rope, or towbar and soldier B to hold the steering wheel and working the brake.

If you know what your doing and have a fairly heavy pickup, dragging it a mile might not be out of the question either.

Put some gasoline on a rag and hold it over the intake. Hold it tight so it doesn’t get sucked in.

Floridianson said:

With just a flat blade screwdriver you can take the timing shutdown rod cover off and be able to see the position of the fuel control unit assembly. You can also check the timing without any tools and that cover off.

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This is perfect. I will try this for sure thank you.

Jbulach said:

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If you know what your doing and have a fairly heavy pickup, dragging it a mile might not be out of the question either.

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Dude I would love if this would happen but I'm on my own here. My buddy has a 2500 but he's not around. Funny enough this thing has been parked in this backyard for 6 months haha

Elk1111 said:

Put some gasoline on a rag and hold it over the intake. Hold it tight so it doesn’t get sucked in.

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This actually works? Damn that's a rad trick. Im gonna try this even if it runs well haha

OK Also semi unrelated question. Once this fiasco is over with and it's at the shop... Im not expecting much out of a 50yr old Multi-fuel. Ive read a lot of your very helpful posts over the year ive had it and it seems to be a love/ hate crowd. Do any of you have much experience with issues? Reason I ask is as follows. Let's say just the engine needs 5K worth of major-ish repairs, well at that point it would almost make sense to just grab a lightly used 6BT and throw that bad boy in. Thoughts? Do you guys have a personal threshold? Or are you in love with the multi-fuel and would rather just fix it till the piston blows through the top? Im not going to drive this thing bouncing off redline every gear all day but I can't help my childish inhibition to make turbo noise..

Worst case scenario, put it in gear and hit the starter to move it.

**edit**

When Iost the power wire to the distributor on my M715 that's how I loaded it onto and off of the trailer and into the shop to work on it.

Don't do it all at once or you'll burn stuff up, but short runs will (should be) ok.

You can also use either a gas or electric portable winch to pull the truck on or off the trailer if your batteries aren't up to snuff. You need to read the TMs before you try to do any work on the deuce. The multifuel is a good engine.

You will spend more than 5k transplanting a B into it. Fix the multi if it needs it or find a take out. I know where there a re a bunch, but on the opposite coast.

You guys won’t believe it. The old girl fired up. After sitting all night below freezing. Granted ran like crap but fired up none the less. Now just wait for the shipping truck and drive her on. I can see why people get attached to these things. It felt like trying to coax a granny out of bed

Pgeese said:

I can see why people get attached to these things. It felt like trying to coax a granny out of bed

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Wait til she sings to you while you're grabbing 3rd.... Attached is an understatement . Glad it fired, don't be afraid to sink money into it. High HP is cool, burning whatever hydrocarbon you can find as fuel is cooler.

biscuitwhistler37 said:

Wait til she sings to you while you're grabbing 3rd.... Attached is an understatement . Glad it fired, don't be afraid to sink money into it. High HP is cool, burning whatever hydrocarbon you can find as fuel is cooler.

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Yes it is! The whatever fuel part. I used to get diesel and gas mix thank to FedEx package car drivers. The drivers were responsible for fueling their vans. Well, 2 or 3 times a month, we would have one towed to us because the driver accidentally pumped gas into the van. We used to have our waste oil guy suck it out to the tune of 400 bucks EACH, but after a while it dawned on me that I could use it! I told my ops mgr that I would take care of the trucks when they came in. I sucked it out and then "borrowed" clean fuel from another FedEx tractor to get the van back in service and would take the "dieselgas" home. I also got around 150 gallons of brand new hydraulic oil complements of Orange County Transit Authority because they decided that they didn't want to use that type any more, so it sat at the shop. It needed to go, so I volunteered to get it off the premises. All those years of Dirtbag events and the miles I drove it were all free fuel. If the gas/diesel was too heavy toward the gas side, I added hydraulic oil. The truck loved it! When the truck and I parted, the new owner got about 100 gallons of free fuel.

I do miss that truck, it was a runner! Good times!

Pgeese said:

It is an SOB to start and requires about half a can of starting fluid. Once it fires it dies. this process repeats itself 4 or 5 times and then it idles between 200-800 Rpm and finally calms down and sits at 700RPM. Last time I went up I drained and filled with clean diesel all new filters

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quite indicative of an inop in-tank fuel pump if truck sat a long time.. you should hear the pump run at the tank with acc switch on and hear the return fuel spilling back in .... there is a fuse on top of the tank underneath the square cover .. if fuse (and power there) is good and still no noise, your tank pump is bad or stuck, or tank has a bad grounding path .. When a truck with bad in-tank pump is started and finally stays running, it doesn't need that pump to keep it going as long as you have no vacuum leaks in the feed line connections.. If no leaks, a truck will start okay with an inop pump as long as it doesn't sit weeks or more..

And about the gas-soaked rag trick :::: No need to remove the mushroom cap to do that,,, okay?

Pgeese said:

grab a lightly used 6BT and throw that bad boy in

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IF you have a shop capable of doing a swap (you'll need space (covered) for longer than you'll expect and something like a forklift or a tractor, and at least 1 helper, though not all the time), expect to spend a few (or several) thousand on top of whatever your 6BT engine cost is because of recommended upgrades/modifications to that engine (ie: manifold, etc), and you're capable of providing all the labour and expertise, then a 6BT swap can make sense. You'll also need access to a machine shop capable of machining a few new parts, and you almost certainly will have to build custom engine mounts. If you lack some or all of these, a swap can get very expensive, $20k+.

As to your start problems, how's your in tank fuel pump? If that's broken, the injection pump will do double duty and eventually breakdown. You can attach a simple external pump between your tank and engine if you don't care about keeping things stock.

Also, check your engine tag for date of manufacture. I got curious and found out my engine is 30 years newer than I thought it was. Hope things with yours are going well

I call mine the smile generator.

The basic truck is an 80 year old design. Sticking with the parts designed to work together and proven to work together normally causes less issues.