G749 preservation

[Mullaney]

You are 100% right. Now, in my older age, I can see this. I freely admit, I was pretty stupid, until I hit about 24 years old. And, it thought me a lesson. Don't mess with mother nature.

.
Yessir!

And I freely admit to doing some pretty stupid stuff as a kid...
I was married at 23, had a kid at 25, and I smartened up considerably!

.

 

[Another Ahab]

You know @Guyfang , I'm thinking that you kinda got what you deserved. I have bees here at the printshop.

Well, Guyfang, what Mullaney is saying here is that day -long ago- was the day that you got yourself a first-class lesson in Karma.

You can Bee certain of that!

 

[m1010plowboy]

Plowboy, your posts?

They're like poetry sometimes.

It makes me want to Twist and Shout

Do it. Take video but twist and shout while you still got it. I appreciate the kind words, thank you. It's hard work being entertaining and informative with lots of .....backspace....backspace....going on.

Not many pictures today but you would have heard some poetry watching me with a multi-meter, following wires. Took a few leaps forward after cleaning contacts, flipped the key on and the 'add on' external fuel pump came a buzzzzzin' to life. I nearly gave up on the light switch when it started getting dark but that's when the lights came on. The light switch doesn't work like the book says but a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. This is freakin' amazing.



Flipped the convoy light switch and this uber rare convoy light started to glow. Not sure the American trucks had these convoy lights with the white plate but our Canadian boys have some rough stories about following the white plate through the fog. There are a few stories of the lights being removed and used as 'trouble lights' by creative mechanics so having one working from 1952 is sassy. Onward!

 

[msgjd]

And I freely admit to doing some pretty stupid stuff as a kid...
I was married at 23, had a kid at 25, and I smartened up considerably!

Also had a penchant for getting into potential "exploratory trouble" , but never to harm anything or anyone .. It's easy for the combined IQ of a group of teenagers to reach negative digits, more-so when some alcohol is involved

other dumb moves I have a mixed feeling between regret and "would do it again" ,,

Admitting I actually liked the G749 XM211 I owned
Enlisting at 17
Virgin until 19 (although several GF's)
Married at 21
Divorced with son at 22
Remarried at 30
Another son at 31
Divorced at 47
Met a younger hottie at 47
..... hmmm, correct sequence of the last two items?? been almost 20 years ,,,, oh hell..

I am stopping right there !!!

 

[msgjd]

Flipped the convoy light switch and this uber rare convoy light started to glow. Not sure the American trucks had these convoy lights with the white plate but our Canadian boys have some rough stories about following the white plate through the fog.!

View attachment 915889 View attachment 915890

never ever seen one on a US Army vehicle anywhere at any time in the last 50+ years, let alone any upon G749's

 

[Another Ahab]

Also had a penchant for getting into potential "exploratory trouble" , but never to harm anything or anyone .. It's easy for the combined IQ of a group of teenagers to reach negative digits, more-so when some alcohol is involved

other dumb moves I have a mixed feeling between regret and "would do it again" ,,

We got to gender-qualify your IQ comment, msgid (which is spot-on):

- teenage ladies don't seem to possess the knucklehead gene as much (if at all)

The circle of buddies I hung with during the knucklehead years (off-season from our ice hockey connection) explored:

- Bullwhips, roof-climbing, snake-catching, train-jumping, double-bit axes, and making pipe-bombs (among the whole mix)

AMAZINGLY (other than one), we all came out unscathed (more or less)

 

[msgjd]

We got to gender-qualify your IQ comment, msgid (which is spot-on):
- teenage ladies don't seem to possess the knucklehead gene as much (if at all)

you never met my younger sisters and their friends ,, nor my GF ... All farm girls, all tomboys, and all into any kind of fun havoc and multiple mayhems including everything on your list.. (do firecrackers, M80's, and quarter-sticks (dynamite) suffice in leiu of pipe bombs?) .. But you are correct, most in that species getting into fun mayhem don't seem to possess the gene you mention because they don't get caught nor mess with guyfang's honeybees ! !

 

[msgjd]

And the sky turned black with bees!
And I could not get the damn rope untied from my waist.

your story sounds like something i could've done with a certain pack of kids, given the opportunity (and insect netting) ..
With the track record of one of the packs I hung with, we ALL woulda been stung to bits the very first time

The XM211 I had years ago ran out of gas in the middle of a former pasture meadow that had grown thick with goldenrod.. Being a late-august day, it was too hot for much else so I decided to carry some cans back to the truck with a tractor (no cab) having a sicklebar on it and mow the meadow while out there .. Round and round and round I went for a good hour .. As I got within 15ft of the truck the cutterbar caught a hidden ant hill so I backed several feet to clear the bar and reposition the mower.. My neck was bothering a lot so I only watched the end of the cutterbar out of the corner of my eye.. Next thing ya know it was sorta like what a fella called Guyfang described, a sky full of black things.. In panic, mine looked the size of Sikorsky H34's but with supersonic speed.

A big round silver nest came into sight from underneath the tractor's mid-section as I was backing up, it was in the swath I had dropped seconds prior.. I gunned the throttle to make distance, still in reverse.. Ripped off my boonie hat and flailed the air fiercely.. The chinstrap "knot" hitting me in the eyes, face, and ears was probably about as painful as the few bees stinging me at the moment.. Anyway, to ensure an "easier" recovery of the tractor later, I killed the ignition at a point about 20ft from the nest and demounted, only to have my pants cuff snag on the anti-slip tab at the outer edge of the clutch pedal !! On my face i went with one leg stuck up in the air, the cuff remained snagged long enuf for the vast majority of the stings to be gotten, until i finally ripped it free.. This old fool promptly qualified for varsity track that day..

Most of the heat-seeking missiles didn't follow, they stayed with the hotter tractor ..

Final score of that game was not good .. I was left with 2 stranded vehicles and I stopped counting after the 40th sting .. Neck, head, arms, face, ears, back, front, and only a few on the legs... Let's just say their sights were certainly zeroed... Went to town for some benadryl which helped the pain and swelling but was grogged-out a few days, slept a lot.. Then the itching started.. When I went to get the truck and tractor a week later, the nest had been obliterated and all was quiet.. The mowing of that meadow was never completed, and has not been done since

 

[Another Ahab]

your story sounds like something i could've done with a certain pack of kids, given the opportunity (and insect netting) .

Next thing ya know it was sorta like what a fella called Guyfang described, a sky full of black things.. In panic, mine looked the size of Sikorsky H34's but with supersonic speed.

The nest came into sight from underneath the tractor's mid-section as I was backing up, attached to the swath I had dropped seconds prior.. I gunned the throttle to make distance,.. The mowing of that meadow was never completed, and has not been done since

Plowboy has done woken a LOT of good old memories here it sure seems!

Mine was while bush-hogging a cattle pasture in Potomac, Maryland back when that area (no more), was equally rural-and-suburban:

- The blade cut into a ground nest of bumblebees; they were PROMPTLY airborne and bouncing off of me like golfballs

- I hit the ground running and like you, msgjd, I turned Varsity Track right then and there -WHOOSH- gone!!

- That fine old Ford had no deadman pedal, and it just low-gear continued on a straight-arrow track out into those open hilly acres

I caught up with it -once all the smoke cleared and the dust had settled- but yeah, for a while there my adrenaline was ON!!!

That's it. The END.

 

[msgjd]

- The blade cut into a ground nest of bumblebees; they were PROMPTLY airborne and bouncing off of me like golfballs
- I hit the ground running and like you, msgjd, I turned Varsity Track right then and there -WHOOSH- gone!!

Brushhogs sure guarantee immediate results !! Any brushhogging I do is late-fall and winter, snow permitting.. A properly-adjusted and sharp sicklebar mows faster in grasses and weeds thus it at least gives you a chance of getting away unscathed if you spot them right when it happens, or if you spot them the next time around before you reach them .. But no 100% guarantee on the latter.. One time I spotted a "heat-wave" at ground level in the distance on top of the fresh-mown swath during my next time around , so I stopped about 40ft short of them.. Wasn't sure if i was seeing what i thought i was seeing, too far away.. So i dismounted and walked towards the "waves." It was a hot day and heat waves were prevalent but this one seemed localized and caught my eye... At the 20 foot mark i saw they were small in-ground hornets and sure enough right then a bunch started coming right at me !! .. I was in my 40s or 50s then, I was fast enough they decided to nail the running tractor instead of continuing farther to catch the speeding chicken... Unfortunately, it was a quoted job at a building lot and I had about 2 more passes to complete the job for the builder.. Had to pack everything up on the trailer and go back there when a chilly morning finally came.. There went the profit margin. ..

Bumblebees, yeah, got hit between the shoulder blades by one clinging onto my t-shirt while i was mowing hay ... I swatted and swatted but it hung on and kept stinging .. I kept on mowing to make distance if I had hit a nest, i wound up having to take my shirt off, that's when i saw what was nailing me... I tossed the shirt to the side but a gust of wind caught it and there it went bee and all, right into and through the haybine .. Murphy says the bee was unscathed.. The shirt wasn't as lucky .. Many other stories, but no others involve G749 trucks

My dad (and his father) had plenty of horse stories about bee-induced high-speed rides on horse-drawn equipment .. Bee leave me !

 

[m1010plowboy]

I'm not a mechanic. Could someone dare explain the purpose of the two vacuum lines that run into the side of the distributor? Use small words so I'll understand.

They are D and E coming to and fro at different locations on the carb and distributor. I'm anticipating instead of assuming one sucks and one blows and when one is blowing harder something advances so the spark speeds up.....but....talk to me. I poked through the manuals to see what I broke but now I must know how it works.







That's right, I broke something fixing something... I play 7 musical instruments but this mechanic inn thing takes a special talent. This may be a great trouble-shooting tip when whispering a deuce. Removing the distributor cap to peak at the spark trail may uncover brittle rubber. These lines on the side of the distributor could easily break and not be noticed. Following the 'replace it if it's rubber' meme should be expected. I need to figure out how to test vacuum to be sure the fix was right. 302m TM has not revealed the answer yet.



Doing the least amount possible to get to transmission testing is always the goal. Once I had fuel, i knew I had to break the vacuum line to get at the distributor. Hoarding or storing parts is such a bonus so spare parts were on the shelf.




Everything is oil/dirt/poop caked so I grabbed a Wagner steamer that should help maintain our image as MVironmentalists. With no water on the farm and the fact it's the middle of a +10 C winter, this seemed MV iron mentally friendly thing to do. Cleaned up what I needed to swap the vacuum line and heard Ol' Piglet come to life. She's a Runner fellas! Did a lot of rurr rur rurr rur rur rurr in the past but today she went rur rur rur, rur rur phlughm plit plt plit plit plit. That's the sound with no muffler. plit plit plit plit plit plit.... do it with me, plit plit plit plit.

 

[topo]

I was thinking vacuum line D is for the Governor.

Maybe it breaks the vacuum to the distributor when the motor is over-revved.

 

[M37keppy]

The 2 lines are for the governor on the carb. It has nothing to do with spark advancement

 

[m1010plowboy]

The 2 lines are for the governor on the carb. It has nothing to do with spark advancement

See there we go.....a description. Thank you. This is the answer to the question "How are we going to keep the engine from over revving when 18 year old kids are driving"...... . I can chase the holley manual now if it turns out we need to trouble-shoot more. Awesome.

The guys that thought of, designed, drew, then wrote about the 825 governor......around 1950?....., were sitting there saying......." In 70 years the landscapers are still going to be trying to figure this out...... ha ha, .....ha ha ha.......ha.

Once again, in the description, the writers make things sound simple......."It's just a spring and a piece of rubber over a hole that gets smaller when the 18 yr. old steps on the pedal to the floor, with a slight hesitation to push the pedal all the way to the floor" Love it..... love that mechanical brain. "It's just nuts and bolts"

The fuel system has been a blast. Obviously the fastest way to get fuel is to hang a jerry can and run a hose but there was already an external pump on Piglet and lines ran when they moved the tank to the Wrong side.

Never assume the pump pumps even though it makes the wirrrr sound.

Never assume any lines are clear.

Never assume something didn't plug the new filter you put on last year.

.......and never assume the original pump is still in the tank.

We tried all the farmer parts that are on the truck but eventually cashed out for a new pump, lines, filters.....and tomorrow a new regulator. I'll post specs soon.

Did everyone hear the story about the $10,000.00 leaf? Generally, It's about a new truck owner that kept taking his new truck back to the dealer because it would fart, bark, pop and stop running.........sometimes. They spent thousands on pumps, lines, filters.......before they took the tank off to look inside.
The culprit was a big leaf that would float around in the tank sometimes partially plugging fuel flow, sometimes shutting the truck off.



Knowing eventually I need to use the tank, I pulled the pump housing. Stan L. must have talked to these farmers because Stan knows, if you hook up an external pump without modifying the intank intake........she won't suck. The internal pump had been removed some time ago.


The surprising find was the feather partially stuck behind the filter 7412717.
This could have been the 'several hundred dollar' feather had I hooked the external pump to the tank and sucked this in.
Never assume the Pig farm didn't have Chickens.

 

[Another Ahab]

I'm not a mechanic. Could someone dare explain the purpose of the two vacuum lines that run into the side of the distributor? Use small words so I'll understand.

That's right, I broke something fixing something... I play 7 musical instruments but this mechanic inn thing takes a special talent.

Plowboy, you are a hoot.

Hope you get everything fixed up right!

 

[marchplumber]

I LOVE those old manual pictures!! Memories!

 

[m1010plowboy]

Let's talk pump, regulator and gauge. What are the latest and best valued parts to deliver fuel to our 302's @ 3-5 p.s.i. ?

I always prefer seeing Made in the U.S.A. on a product but the Performance-World parts showed up at the local Hot-Rod shop so I'm giving them a try.
The catalogue is extensive. They have sound deadening cab foam and engine heads so expertise in all fields I guess lol. https://www.performance-world.com/



Performance-World claims to be a Canadian manufacturer but maybe they only manufactured the words, then import the parts. I don't see a lot of negative reviews and they claim 30 years of survival so here's what I bought for $120.00. I see the regulator on Aim a zomb cheaper than the store price so it pays to shop.



One of the boys bought a few 24v pumps when he saw them on sale but once again no location of manufacturer on the box so who knows how long it will last. It's always good to find Brand names that have worked for others so let's chat options.

 

[m1010plowboy]

Piglet pooked Pink ! Who says you can't put lipstick on a pig. I was fighting the rubber connectors and knew at some point they'd need to come apart. All I had was lip moistener and it worked like a charm.



This fuel pump/ pressure set up worked great. Allowed me to dial up the fuel pressure then drop it to 3 psi to keep piglet happy. Regulator, gauge, $110.00, Pump borrowed from a buddy with a filter in the front, priceless. The first fitting I gently fastened to the carb leaked so I jogged to the junk pile and found a nice braided fuel line.



After Piglet fired the first time I decided pink anti-freeze was next so we didn't get hot. I wasn't filling the rad until I knew the pig would run and today I knew it would run. As soon as I filled the rad the first leak appeared from the back of the top cooling line. A slow jog to the parts pile and found a replacement.



Next job was to keep it running and pull the stick to Low Hilly. The transmission fluid was a clean/clear pink color when Piglet arrived and there's always hope it's Hy-tran or some fluid with a good track record. After Piglet idled like a champ, I pulled it into drive, reverse, drive, high, low, slow,..........nothing. A quick peek at the dipstick showed Strawberry Milkshake. We thought Piglet was a man truck, hauling manure and smelling like......well.....manure. Piglet likes the pink. Pulling the trans trans mission plug labelled "oil" released all the pink goo. Looks like the cooling lines that run to the trans to keep things cool will put us on a transmission mission. I guess it's possible it was "auto matic" transmission fluid and the rubber in the TM's doesn't like it.



She's a runner but not a roller.

 

[m1010plowboy]

I don't like long stories so I'll abbreviate. George the BATUS M135 came in a 5 truck deal with parts. The Previous Owner PO had a NOS crate engine and said if I bought the engine, I took the trucks too. The PO was an incredible 'mechanic mentor' MM, working around the green stuff all his life. Robert the PO was a legend, MVPA member, MV collector and good friend. He passed away not long ago and I think about him more often than every time I touch one of his trucks. I have a small pile of his MV photos we'll get posted one day.



George and Gracie were the best trucks in the sale from the PO but my attention was on Gracie. I walked around George a few times, took pictures to sell it, but never laid underneath to look at the Pillow Block PB on top of the diff.



George was sold to a New Owner NO years ago because he's a purist and rebuilt a Jeep as pure as pure can be. I'm storing it until the NO is ready to transport it. We just arranged with the NO to pull the exploded engine and unknown trans because he has a Power Pack PP for replacement. Selling the truck as a complete body with an exploded engine, unknown drive-train, mostly complete, for the correct price, went well, un-sight unseen........but.....I didn't know someone cut the PB off. When I laid underneath to start pulling the PP, there it wasn't, the PB. Now I need to call the NO tell him, when I started to pull the PP, I saw the PB was missing. I knew I had a solution because the Home Owner HO across the road pointed out a spare Rear End RE the PO put in the back of a truck.

Can anyone tell the condition of the NO's new RE by looking inside? That's a pretty clean RE.



I contact the NO to show him pics of his new RE that the HO found from the PO and asked him to follow along over here on SS. I hope he joins but I thought it'd be easier if I post the PP removal over here so when he gets the truck home he can install his PP in George and has photos to follow. I followed the TM procedure in the book, made labels and put the bolts in some Easter man bags. The step by step process is fairly easy for a landscaper to follow. Just loosen the nuts, pull out the bolts, remove the engine.



The book doesn't cover getting out rusted, hard to get at pins. If you lube them, then work them, lube, work, wiggle, grab em real hard, wiggle, lube, soak them, wait a week, they pop right out. The shift tower only has a few bolts, one pin and a nut holding it on...... it took me a week to get it off. If I'm able to show how to do it in a week and someone can do it quicker, we've all gained experience and learned together. If the shifter pin looks jammed in against the floor pan and impossible to remove....it's not. Just move the shifter lever after a week and the pin moves to a spot that's easier to get at.



The work in the TM to remove the PP is divided into three parts. In the cab, engine compartment and under the truck. It's the under the truck part where I discovered the moral lesson. Selling a truck to a NO when you think there are three working RE's then laying underneath to pull the PP and not seeing the PB is the lesson. It means you get to read the TM to do an R&R on a RE.

 

[Another Ahab]

I don't like long stories so I'll abbreviate. The PO was an incredible 'mechanic mentor' MM, working around the green stuff all his life. Robert the PO was a legend, MVPA member, MV collector and good friend. He passed away not long ago and I think about him more often than every time I touch one of his trucks. I have a small pile of his MV photos we'll get posted one day.

Raising a glass to your departed good friend, Robert the PO.

If you liked him and thought him fine, that's good enough for me.