First Recovery on Monday

[Seth_O]

I just arrived in Salt Lake City in preparation for my first ever recovery on Monday. I'll be picking up an M35 from Clearfield, and driving it back to California.

Even the attempt would not have been possible without the help of a local SS member. He previewed and reviewed the truck for me, arranged for a tow to his shop where he is letting me borrow his tools and parts, and perhaps most importantly is lending me his knowledge and expertise to help me get it on the road safely. As much as I love the vehicles, I think the best part of the MV community is the people you get to rub shoulders with.

With the week I have available to me before I head back to Cali I am planning to get it safely street worthy, single the rears, install a pyro and turn up the fuel for the drive home.

I'll post up the progress/results (with pic's!) on Monday after the truck is in my posession. Fingers crossed for a smooth recovery, and 650 mile drive home.

 

[gimpyrobb]

You'll do fine. Keep us updated.

 

[Speddmon]

Good luck to you sir.

You are correct, this is a wonderful hobby and not just because of the vehicles. The people in our "little" community are some of the most friendly and helpful folks I've never even met!!!!!

 

[Heavysteven]

Sounds like your covered. Take your time fixing the truck. I would focus on pm's, brakes, fuilds, belts, etc...and leave modifications for later.

650 miles is like 14-16 hours of driving. Your going to get a work out.

 

[glcaines]

I agree completely with Heavysteven. Forget the mods until later. Make sure the brakes are in good order. I drove my Deuce ~700 miles home from Fort Indiantown Gap, PA to Hiawassee, GA last year with no problems. I was lucky in that all fluids were fresh and topped off, good batteries, and brakes were good. I didn't shut it down the entire trip as I was afraid it wouldn't start again, even during refueling. Along with checking brakes, make sure the parking brake works properly, but by all means do not trust the parking brake, ever. Take chocks with you.

You will have fun on the trip.

 

[Seth_O]

Tks for the comments guys. PM is absolutely first priority, the rest of the stuff is 'nice-to-haves.' Preview's suggest it's in great running order (fired right up) but needs the front wheel cylinders rebuilt at a minimum (fluid on the tires, and brake pedal to the floor, hence the tow off the base.) I have access to new wheel cylinders, hoses, and brake fluid.

Current plan is to get it safe and driveable and take it to my in-laws place ~45mins south of the base. Once it is safe and in good running order I'll start doing medium-length runs on the truck to familarize myself with it and get it lubed back up and running smoothly (think ~50 miles each.) Then the looooooong drive home. I do have one pit stop to make on the way, more on that later....

Tomorrow's the big day, less than 24hrs.

 

[Heavysteven]

Fuild on the tires could mean inner axle seal failure. If its gear lube you will need to replace the axle seals. This could be caused by a blocked axle vent. Hopefully you will have a friend to help remove the wheels and brake drums (there heavy).

Good luck post some pictures of any problems.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Fuild on the tires could mean inner axle seal failure. If its gear lube you will need to replace the axle seals. This could be caused by a blocked axle vent. Hopefully you will have a friend to help remove the wheels and brake drums (there heavy).

Good luck post some pictures of any problems.

Not on the front. It COULD, but there is alot of stuff that has to go wrong for it to reach the tires. Sounds like he is on the right track.

 

[harleyrkc]

Good luck.

 

[wreckerman893]

I'll try to keep Murphy busy while you're on the road.

He has taken a keen interest in the new riding lawn mower I just bought.

 

[greenjeepster]

I'll try to keep Murphy busy while you're on the road.

He has taken a keen interest in the new riding lawn mower I just bought.

Maybe it is not so much the lawnmower as it is the operator that Murphy has an interest in?

 

[markmontana]

Here are some pics of seth_o's truck. He's putting in the new brake cylinder. The old one had leaked ALL the brake fluid. He also took care of a serious air leak, and the truck looks good to go- Salt Lake City to Sacramento.

 

[Seth_O]

Wreckerman - tks for keeping Murphy distracted today. Recovery went very, very well. Met at Markmontana's place this morning ~8am (sweet shop, if you're ever in Ogden, worth it to swing by Impact Guns.) We picked up the tow truck and headed up to the base.

Having never been at a GL site before it was an amazing thing to do. 5-ton wreckers, snow cat's, gensets, trailers, A3's, aircraft components; parts for acres and acres. Very, very cool. We drove to the truck (one in a long row of trucks, right next to a VERY nice water truck) and got it hooked up to the truck. Body was a little rougher than I had hoped, but under the hood and the drive train looked great.

20mins later we were back at the shop. One wheel cylinder was clearly bad, but the truck fired up and ran like a champ. It wouldn't build pressure past ~60 psi though. We tackled the brake issue first, and with a tremendous amount of direction & help had the new wheel cylinder installed in short order. The pressure bleeder made short order of bleeding the brakes, and after lunch we tackled the air pressure problem.

Turned out to be a pressure regulator mounted up inside the dash on the firewall. After removing, cleaning, lubing and reinstalling, the problem was fixed. Shortly after lunch the truck was ready to roll.

The drive home went great, no problems at all (once I found 2nd gear - accidently jumped from 1st to 5th.) I am definitely going to have to get used to the far right-hand lane though. It was strange getting passed by the big rig's. I found that holding the RPM's ~2300 gave me ~52mph - assuming the speedo was approximately correct.

Huge thanks again to Markmontana, without his tremendous help this recovery would not have been possible.

Next up is to get a few more miles on it. I have a week to run it around and get comfortable with it before the loooooong drive back to cali.

Uploading pic's now........

 

[Seth_O]

here's the pickup at the base:

 

[Seth_O]

The truck performing his first piece of labor, we loaded some stuff for Markmontana in the bed as it was getting towed out. Also 2 pic's of the truck parked in my in-law's driveway in Salt Lake City:

 

[Seth_O]

Here are some pics of seth_o's truck. He's putting in the new brake cylinder. The old one had leaked ALL the brake fluid. He also took care of a serious air leak, and the truck looks good to go- Salt Lake City to Sacramento.

Tks for posting the pic's! BTW, I ordered the turn signal switch from Erik this afternoon, they got it in the mail for me today

 

[Flyingvan911]

Nice pics. Congradulations.

 

[airmech3839]

nice...... I love it when a plan comes together!!

 

[davidkroberts]

very nice, when are you planning on making the trip home. Things look like they are coming together so far.

 

[RAYZER]

Very nice looking truck! I bought my truck from a private seller and didn't get to do the whole gl recovery thing,it seems like going on base and looking for and finding your truck in a huge yard of many other trucks and equipment would greatly add to the excitement factor! I may have to buy my next deuce from GL.