1976 Canadian 5/4 ton - New acquisition

[charlietango]

Hey guys,

The fleet is still growing slowly. This is one of the Canadian pattern simply called the 5/4 (nicknamed "fivequad") commercial pattern vehicle. It's a 1976, has a gas 350 in it and the AWD system Chev had back in the day.

Enjoy

 

[11Echo]

Good for you!
Great find and addition!

 

[eme411]

Looks very nice , that's the one sold out west? I hope for your sake the gas prices stay down , have fun,

 

[rustystud]

Looks very nice , that's the one sold out west? I hope for your sake the gas prices stay down , have fun,

Actually if you take out the 6.2 diesel and replace it with a 350 or "383 Hi-Torque" like I did you will increase your mileage to 18mpg on the highway.

 

[eme411]

learning curve here, the 76 5/4 were all 350 gasser trucks, the only way to improve mileage on these trucks would be to install the 6.2 or change your axle ratio with front hubs and maybe a overdrive trans, he is lucky he lives where he does , trucks out west are normally very clean as far as rust goes, our Regt association stayed away from the gasser for our fleet due to the restoration cost of the trucks in Ontario and the high operating cost (fuel),

 

[CUCVLOVER]

Good looking truck. So Was this a Canadian military truck?

 

[oboyjohn]

Nice Find! She appears to be in fantastic shape and kitted out too.

 

[blueblaze]

hey! nice truck, wish I saw that 5/4 for sale. We're almost neighbors being 2 1/2 hours away in Kenora. Had 5 cucvs now just have the one M1008. You ever wanna sell the 76 you let me know! haha

 

[rustystud]

learning curve here, the 76 5/4 were all 350 gasser trucks, the only way to improve mileage on these trucks would be to install the 6.2 or change your axle ratio with front hubs and maybe a overdrive trans, he is lucky he lives where he does , trucks out west are normally very clean as far as rust goes, our Regt association stayed away from the gasser for our fleet due to the restoration cost of the trucks in Ontario and the high operating cost (fuel),

How did you come by this information on the mileage ? I actually own a M1030 CUCV which had a 6.2 diesel engine. I removed it since it was such a pain in the butt and replaced it with a "383 Hi-Torque" . Now my mileage is 18mpg on the Free-ways. I can almost get 20mpg if the road is perfectly flat. When I have driven over to Eastern Washington going to Spokane, on the stretch from "Martha" (yes Martha Washington) to "Spokane" I can get 19.89mpg. So what proof do you have that says this cannot happen ?

 

[eme411]

I spent years driving and maintaining these trucks in the Canadian Army, the gasser's would burn a hole in your wallet, my experience , and have owned CUCV's for the last 16 years, please note the "OR" in my post, we do not have those nice cheap fuel prices you guys have down south, before the drop in the oil prices we were paying $1.25 a litre for gas , that's $5.00 per gallon, bottom line here is he has a nice truck and that these truck are different,

 

[rustystud]

I spent years driving and maintaining these trucks in the Canadian Army, the gasser's would burn a hole in your wallet, my experience , and have owned CUCV's for the last 16 years, please note the "OR" in my post, we do not have those nice cheap fuel prices you guys have down south, before the drop in the oil prices we were paying $1.25 a litre for gas , that's $5.00 per gallon, bottom line here is he has a nice truck and that these truck are different,

Maybe if they went with modern "roller cam" engines with good cam profiles on them they wouldn't suck so bad. Just saying.
So what kind of mileage did your 6.2 diesels get ?
I forgot to mention I bought my first CUCV in 1998.

 

[eme411]

I drove the 76 5/4 while in the Military , the 81 Chevy 1 ton with stick and a 350 and the CUCV's, and owned the latter two types , I never did mileage per gallon calculations , I just gauged my fill up points on my normal long trips , normally my runs to PA, steady highway driving at a set speed , the 81 I never ran faster than 55mph and the same for my CUCV's other than my 1009, I run that one between 60-65mph, almost all my driving is highway, and I'm very happy with my diesels,

 

[eme411]

now back to what this thread was about, the 1976 Chevy 5/4 CDN, the museum I am part of in Oshawa Ontario is restoring one at this time , out of 4 trucks there is almost no good sheet metal or even hoods , the troops were never taught not to walk in the middle of the hood when setting up the cam nets, if you look at the photos of his truck you see the cam nets on the cab roof , this was the standard location for them when on a road move , all the 76's had footman loops in the 4 corners of the cab roof for that purpose, one down side of the CDN cargo tarp was that is stripped the paint from the box where it made contact, it also had a fixed ridged frame work made from aluminum with mounting plates for AMU's in the corners,

 

[charlietango]

hey guys! To answer a few of the questions - CUCVLOVER Yes this was Canadian military. Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 2nd Battalion was listed as the user on the CFR search. EME, BLUE this unit was not advertised for sale, rather a club transfer of ownership once both caught wind of interest to buy / sell.

EME if you're on MLU this was Derk Derrin's old unit, was originally a 2PPCLI Shilo rig. It has a bit of rough sheet metal here and there but over-all is in great shape! seats need lower covers. I have a complete box with cargo top that's all brand new ready to go on. Need to do a bit of welding in the footwell corners where they always hold dirt and rot out. It also came with every scrap of paperwork from the EME's, work orders etc. I have the original file with the CFR stamped plate, the electrical blue prints, and the service manual binder. She was kitted RIGHT out, I couldn't say no lol. I'll snap a couple photos of that stuff and post it up. Even came with the wheel winch kits

The thing that differs with these and the 80's CUCV's Rusty is the all wheel drive. There is no hub locks or 2wd option on this model so it's always turning the front wheels which makes them a pig on fuel and there's not much you can do about it. It has the 350 gasser in it, she's a bit tired and I see a bit of blue puff when you rev it out and let off the throttle. I heard they were famous for wearing out pushrods and cams so that will be on the agenda soon, probably add some newer technology to make it run more efficiently but I don't intend to drive it long hauls. My M1009 gets about 750KM per tank on the highway, drove from Winnipeg to Yorkton Saskatchewan on a fill. That's pretty decent mileage IMO with the 6.2 diesel, and a lot better than this beast will get.

The choke has been frankensteined over the years, was electronic changed to manual. It's no longer with the 24v charging system but that's okay with me.

 

[charlietango]

oh and Blue you're in a long line of dudes wanting to buy it "when I sell it" but I was thinking of heading to the Kenora car show if they still do that...?

 

[charlietango]

Good for you!
Great find and addition!

Thanks Ron! Sorry i've been awol again for some time. Seems every time I come back it's with a new toy lol

 

[eme411]

Hey Blue, if you want one really bad I know of one out of the school with 125 miles on the clock, now you can get hubs for the front , one of the trucks at the museum has them, I was pretty sure it was Derk's truck, there are not very many that have survived, the base truck's system was always 12 volt, do you still have the solenoid on the inner fender and the 24 volt generator on top of the engine? are those still OE Goodyears on the truck? just humming down the road, you could hear those tires a mile away, I had them on my 81 1 ton , they did not last long from new, I don't think I ever got more than about 20-30 thousand miles out of a set and they DO NOT help the fuel mileage, pack your cab corners with grease , no more rust!

 

[charlietango]

RE tires yes and he gave me about 3 extra sets of the tires as well. I don't know what to replace them with and want to keep them for the look. Rob Love found some Chinese knockoff's in the US for his, they dry-rotted after a year. Terrible things.

Yes there was a mod for the hubs, not super easy to do according to Rob and they apparently can cause other issues? The shaft still turns because the TC doesn't have a cut-off. I can't remember all he said but it wasn't just as easy as the hubs... you'd know the in's and out's.

The AC bracket is MIA for the second Gen. But all the hook-ups are there laying dormant, solenoid too. And yeah the base is all 12 same as the CUCV's. It'd be nice to have slaving with the other trucks but I can live without it. The 524 set needs 24v too unfortunately though... so just for looks ATM.

and I'll be greasing the **** out of this pig when I stitch it all back up. especially the cab corners and pockets! You'd think that trick would be a prairies thing with all the rusted hulls in the East.... You surprised me with that statement! How many ML's and Iltis were just rotten from every seam....

 

[MWMULES]

So just checking, the floor shiftier is just for High or low range and is the container on the hump a CDN decontamination sprayer? Also tell us more about this wheel winch kit you speak of.

 

[charlietango]

Floor shifter is TC high and high LOC - Neutral- Low and Low LOC.
There is a fire extinguisher and a decontamination kit both mounted pass floor.

I'll get a picture of the wheel winches but here's a video of an iltis using one
https://youtu.be/uJOeEaba__c

And https://youtu.be/uJOeEaba__c