G749 Trucks hard to come by

[1944mb]

Mother Nature decided last night to make it a challenge. As mr will anderson from the movie 'the Cowboys' said, "summer's over."

 

[Merle]

1944mb
Keep the snow up there, looking out the kitchen window at the Bitteroots, the snow is at 7000 feet. Have an M135, was planning on get her running this summer, but with knee operation and back went out the summer was a bust. The truck physically is in great shape but mechanically its not. Engine tore apart, airpack and master cylinder removed and air and brake lines full of mud dobbers. Cleaned some parts and took inventory this summer and seem to have everything. Had civilian carburetor and distributor on it, will put original back on. Will put engine back together so I can see what the problem is. Take compression test etc. Don't have any pics of my truck yet.
At 73 moving a little slow.

Will get up your neck of the woods next summer to see your truck.

Merle

 

[gentrysgarage]

It's been kind of slow making progress on the old m211. Pulled the lower pan and can see rust in #3 cylinder. The rest look good. Got tired of driving back and forth, so the troops and I moved it up to the shop. We discovered that it's a two woman job to steer a truck that is being pulled! Looks so nice in he driveway!!

Looks like we have a new generation of enthusiasts there!

 

[1944mb]

Merle, sounds great! Come up anytime. Are you sure you don't want some white stuff. First storm of the year and I'm a heating contractor, so things get a little intense. I actually don't mind the snow, hate the urgency of heat! Get some pics of that truck.

We we do have some new enthusiasts! It turned to open warfare there for a minute when one was turning left and the other right! Thank heavens the shift tower could keep them separate.

 

[1944mb]

Got the head torn off today. Much of the engine looks freshly worked on. Cylinder 2&3 are looking pretty ugly. Now what to do next, is the question. I was hoping to know how well everything else on this truck ran before having to go through the engine. Not sure my next step, but will look at it in better light. One thing about it, they are way easier to work in then the new age stuff.

 

[Merle]

You have got me worried now, I have got to do the same. That pitted cylinder wall, does the picture make it look worse than it really is? The previous owner of mine pulled the head off and had it redone, put the head back on, then did no more, the valve train just laying there, so really wont know the story until I get in it. Will be interesting to see what you come up against.

Merle

 

[1944mb]

No, the pics tell the truth, unfortunately. Why was the engine in need of a valve job? My thoughts/advice, I would pull the head back off if all the valve train is already off the engine. Id double check the condition of everything and then re-install. I would hate to see you re assemble everything and then find out the head wasn't torque right or there was some other deficiency. If you need a hand this summer, let me know

 

[Merle]

I agree with you, and may take you up on the help. Lets get back to your engine, what are your plans?

Merle

 

[1944mb]

First thing I have to do is get 2&3 Pistons out without damaging them, then I go from there. I don't necessarily need to overhaul it, but want to have whatever I do be a permanent fix. Especially not knowing the condition of the rest of the truck, it be nice to not get too much tied up in the enginr

 

[Merle]

Keep us posted on your progress, if you need an extra hand pm me and I will be up there in a heartbeat.

Merle

 

[1944mb]

So on page #3 there is a candian parts truck, with pictures of the dash...There is a convoy light switch. Anyone have any idea what the convoy light is?

 

[m1010plowboy]

Not sure exactly what year it happened but the feds made the lads add an orange triple bar to the roof as well as a red one to the rear. My convoy switch powers the mirror and roof lights. The truck on page 3 is missing the triple, light bar on the roof but I'm guessing it had one.

 

[1944mb]

Is this a feature unique to the Canadian g749? Roughly what year was it added, and also I was curious how long the g749 was manufactured in Canada? Was the speedos in km/h or mi/h? See there I'm full of questions today

 

[m1010plowboy]

G749 Canadian Production Numbers

These are all good questions that deserve better answers than I have. I first recall the metric system in school in 1977 and some folks putting stickers over the MPH gauges on the dash in their civi cars but I've never seen them in the deuces.

The rest of us just converted in our craniums. All that mattered to Goose today was...... 50mph.



is 80 kph.



We're still trying to nail down the number of the different variances on the G749 series built in Ontario from 1951 to 1956. I borrowed a picture from faceoffbook of the first M135 to roll out of the plant.



.......and we know Gizmo's date of delivery was November 1956 and it's listed as 113506074 so we must have made at least 6074 M135's. George was delivered on 11-7-56 and he's # 5503, Goose was a 56' March 16th baby and is # 4873. The earliest one I have was....and I say was because it's a parts truck hoping to be a tri-cab, Cat driven 6x was 12-8-52 and it was truck # 1174. We had a chat with an MVPA boy today and stoked his curious side so he's game to call GM and find out, so we can convince David Dunlop to write another book.

As for the legislation on when convoy lights were required, well that has been a futile search on DOT upgrades and changes. Internet searches for "when did Alberta regulate convoy lights on commercial vehicles" takes me to the last page of the internet and it does not end the way you think it would.

Once I actually have any solid answers I will share my new found knowledge. Until then, you keep asking as many questions that I can't answer as you want.

 

[1944mb]

I remember people bringing trucks back in the 90s and have to convert odometers/speedometers.

 

[1944mb]

Not able to play with the 211 today...Weve had 2' of snow and now 30-40mph winds. Snow Drifts galore! Where's a Plowboy when you need one?

 

[1944mb]

So I need some help from the g749 geniuses-been reading the TM 8024 and on pages 375 and 380 it states that the front and back bellhousings are matched to the engine and they should be kept together. Matter of fact they show that a serial number tag is present in the front and back ball housings and that it matches the engine sn tag. Anyone have an opinion as to why they are matched and what to do if you possess an engine that all these pieces don't match. How would this affect engine replacement where they aren't all together? This strikes me as most unusual cause to remove the back bellhousing from the transmission one would have to remove the fluid coupling and then separate the rear bell housing from the transmission. Just curious as I have an engine I'm gonna drop into my truck that only has the front bellhousing.

 

[NDT]

As to why the bellhousing halves are matched together and to the engine, that tells me that the final machining of the bore where the transmission input shaft goes was done with the three components assembled, assuring the crankshaft and transmission axis are properly aligned.

 

[1944mb]

That would make logical sense to me as well, I'm not sure where that leaves me however with an engine with only front half of the bell housing. I could see military personnel and arsenal rebuilding depos having the correct service procedures, but it would seem very abnormal to me that you would ever pull the torus from the tranny, and keep what would typically be considered the bell housing with the engine...even with it cast in the back of the back bell housing with instructions basically saying so. There is instructions in the TM pages 275-280 basically checking the run-out of the torus to flywheel connection, however at the end of the explanation it re-iterated keeping the bellhousing halves with the engine. Perhaps I should re-read this section and see if by checking the run-out it clears the two halves to mis-matched, however I do not believe so. To me this suggests if you bolted a tranny to mismatched halves, even after checking the run-out, you could have a misalignment issue with the crank and tranny input shafts which could ultimately lead to tranny pump failure, I am assuming.

 

[USMC 00-08]

We missed that detail when we found the engine. I wonder what would happen if you used the halves off the other engine?

Looks like the crate engines in post #40 in this thread have both halves.

Surely it was only the halves that were machined together and not those and the engine.