goldneagle's M923 recovery and modification thread

[goldneagle]

Well I won a 1985 AMGeneral M923 at Ft. Polk, LA last week. We drove there Tuesday to recover it. It was a rainy day so no pictures of actual recovery. We arrived at Ft. Polk an hour early. We had to wait about 25 minutes before they let us through the gate. We drove out to parking lot in the back where the trucks were parked. I spotted the truck before the GL rep did. We looked it over and it needed a jump. We looked for the soft-top in the back cargo area (where I saw it in the GL photos). It was there but was not usable due to the missing plastic strip that attaches above the windshield.(that explained why it was not mounted over the cab) So it looks like I am driving a convertible home in the rain!

GL rep came back with the Humvv and jumper cable. Plugged the truck in and she fired right up. Rolled up the cable and put it back in the Humvv. We hit the road and traveled to the nearest gas station. There we topped off the tank on the M923 and Don's Land Rover. It was raining on and off throughout the trip. We stopped at a restaurant and Don ate while I added more air to my tires.

We hit the road again and managed to make it home in 5 hours total one way trip. I was fortunate that the air-dynamics of the truck at 55 MPH kept most of the rain off of me. I got slightly wet at Baton Rouge when we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic. The rest of the trip i was doing over 55 MPH at 2100 RPMs. I am glad we made it home safely and fairly dry! The truck is a gem and runs great!

I tried to start the truck today, now that the rain has passed. It was dead as a door nail. Was able to start it with a jump from my Deuce. I checked the voltage at the outlet on the passenger side and got 24.9 volts. I even tightened the battery clamps but no start. The batteries as well as the cables, clamps and hardware are all brand new looking. Batteries are dated April 2010. Will remove clamps and test each battery separately.

The only odd thing I saw on the truck was the steering wheel was all cracked like it was from 1940's. The rest of the truck looks like brand new.

Here are some pictures of the truck I took today at home:

 

[Trailboss]

Really nice looking truck - better than most that come from Ft Polk. Did you get a chance to preview it?

 

[swbradley1]

Good looking truck.

 

[goldneagle]

Really nice looking truck - better than most that come from Ft Polk. Did you get a chance to preview it?

No I only saw the pictures and video on the GL site.

 

[sandcobra164]

Looks like a recent rebuild. Nice looking truck. My buddy has one like that, open the driver's door and look in the bottom right of the opening. You will probably find an RRAD tag indicating the month/year of rebuild. His truck also had the G177's and they were fairly new as are your's. I need to start saving up some, I can see one of these in my future.

 

[Trailboss]

GE,
You were having problems registering a 5-ton awhile back with LA. Did you ever get that resolved? I surprised myself and found that I won a M931 today and will have to register it also (if it runs).

 

[goldneagle]

Looks like a recent rebuild. Nice looking truck. My buddy has one like that, open the driver's door and look in the bottom right of the opening. You will probably find an RRAD tag indicating the month/year of rebuild. His truck also had the G177's and they were fairly new as are your's. I need to start saving up some, I can see one of these in my future.

I saw a bunch of those triangle plaques on the truck on the drivers side door panel. They say 2005. There is also a Red River Plate riveted on the dash by the passenger side. The date is missing. the date on the batteries is April 2010. So we know they last messed with the truck in 2010.

 

[goldneagle]

GE,
You were having problems registering a 5-ton awhile back with LA. Did you ever get that resolved? I surprised myself and found that I won a M931 today and will have to register it also (if it runs).

Yes it is all settled now. If you call DMV special tags unit and ask for Tabatha, she is the one who did mine once we got the approval from the DMV lawyer. We pay a 1 time registration fee and we get lifetime tags for the 5 ton trucks. The M931 will probably cost you a few hundred dollars to register but you only have to do it once! The lifetime registration is transferable for $8 if you sell the truck to someone in our state.

 

[BKubu]

Nice truck. My only question is...your thread indicates that you will be restoring the truck, and it looks like none is needed! That truck has had what I believe is termed a "limited overhaul." I have two such trucks. They basically replace anything that needs replacing and only reutilize the parts of the truck that are deemed suitable (not sure how that is defined). One of my trucks had a new motor, the other did not. One had a new transmission, the other did not. Both had rebuilt t-cases. One had new G177s, the other had new Michelin XLs (it was an M928A2). Both had new hard tops, new insulation in the cab and under the hood. Both APPEARED to have new wiring...new batteries...new alternators...new radiators...and a lot of other new stuff. A good friend has two of the rebuilt trucks, and neither has a new motor, though. Both of my trucks had apparent damage to sheet metal that had been fixed (no rust, just dents that were fixed). They did a really good job repairing things, but you could still tell that they fixed things. Good luck.

 

[BKubu]

I should also add for the benefit of those who may not have experience with these trucks that my rebuilt M923 has a tick in the accessory drive that runs the compressor. It is nothing that will compromise the mechanical ability of the truck, but it sounds like a valve tap (it is not). Another truck I saw listed indicated that the transmission was bad. While MOST of the rebuilt trucks are cherry, some have their issues...like all of the trucks, but probably to a lesser extent.

 

[wsucougarx]

Beautiful truck!!

 

[goldneagle]

I looked over the truck some more this afternoon. Looks like there is a oil leak below the balancer on the front of the engine. I did not see where specifically it is coming from. It might be where the large hydraulic hose attaches. I will look another time once i get the batteries fixed and the engine started.

I also noticed they left one small section of 2' wood slats on the passenger side of the cargo body. All the rest of the troop seats are fiberglass. (I hope Wreckerman will find me some short fiberglass slats to replace the wood ones.

As I mentioned before the steering wheel is all cracked up and will be replaced as soon as it gets here.

I am also waiting for the repair to be done to the hard top I gave to my friend Allen to restore. Once we have the hard top in place I will replace the springer seat with a nice air ride seat I was going to install in my M931.

I also took the cargo cover out of the back of the cargo area. it was dirty on both sides from reddish dirt. We washed it out and it looks like it is in good to very good condition. Needs new rubber rope.

I need to find some nice bows for the cargo area. None were in the truck.

 

[Ord22]

Congrads! Nice looking truck!

 

[juanprado]

Looks great. My daughter now wants me to paint mine "camo" after seeing the pictures

It does look cherry!

My super rope literally has rotted and broke in 2 dozen places in the last 6 months and it was a brand new cover. Must be the almighty sun and all the chemicals here in the air from the chemical plants
I saw that WW Grainger sells the 5/16 (that is what mine has) edmp and will be ordering from them soon:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Rubber-Cord-Stock-6RRX1?Pid=search

Joecapplr has some bows/corners in the classifieds reasonable.

I look forward to meeting you down the road..........

 

[Scarecrow1]

Well it looks like you have a winner . I hope you enjoy the truck as much as I do mine . The only thing I wold change is my tires I really think I would have been happier with 10 instead of 6 . Mine like yours is missing the front strip on the soft top I have mine taped on to keep the rain out . It's a shame to have to buy a new top just because of one little strip if anyone knows where to get one please let me know ......Again you have a great looking truck......

 

[goldneagle]

I got the hard top installed last Friday. Came out pretty good. I need to add some anchoring points in the front corners to pull the top down more. There is light coming from the those corners because the top a dipping towards the middle of the windshield. This causes the corners to go up.

I did spray some Scotch 77 on the foam insulation in the ceiling and added 1/4" aluminum bubble insulation to the top. Once I go the insulation installed I also installed the latticework to the ceiling (after spot priming and painting it green) I used 3/16" aluminum rivets to attach the latticework.

 

[goldneagle]

Yesterday I decided to tackle the battery installation as well as a cut -off switch and Battery Equalizer installation. Since they all involved wiring the batteries I think it was best to do them all together -so I don't have to redo any of the work involved.

I started by going to the welding supply and getting some 1/0 copper welding wire with eyelets crimped on the ends. I need 3 lengths to do the remote shutoff upgrade. I also got some eyelet connectors for #2 copper. Will need 3 cables for the battery equalizer installation.

I started by installing precut pieces of 3/4" rubber horse stall mats at the bottom of the battery box. Since the Group 31 batteries i am using are taller by 1/2" than the stock military batteries that were originally installed I had to remove the 1-1/2" boards that were at the bottom of the battery box. I used the boards as templates to cut the rubber mats for the battery supports.

After installing the batteries in place I measured the location i was going to mount the Battery Equalizer in. The compartment where the Solargizers are installed by the passenger door was a perfect location to mount the Equalizer. I drilled 4 holes and used 1/4" stainless steel bolts to attach the Battery Equalizer.

Next I drilled 2 holes on the battery compartment wall facing the driver's seat. I got some super strong shrink tubing from the local electrical supply house. I cut it down into short lengths to use in insulating the crimped ends of the cables I had fabricated for the cut off switch. Using my trusty heat gun i shrunk the tubing on all the cable ends to prepare them for installation. I attached the cables to the terminals on the back of the switch. I then installed the switch in place and secured it with the threaded nut provided. These cables were only about 2 foot long. Two of them were to extend the existing cable coming from the negative of the NATO receptacle and the chassis ground. I slipped a long piece of shrink tubing over the negative cables. i then used 3/8" short bolts, washers, split washers, and nuts to splice the 2 cables to their extensions. Once they were joined I slid the shrink tubing and heated it into place.

There are 2 wires on one side of the cut-off switch (1 from the NATO receptacle ground and 1 from the chassis ground) The other terminal of the switch has 1 wire going to the battery negative terminal.

After installing shrink tubing on the #2 cables to prepare them for installation on the battery equalizer. I ran one #2 cable from the 24 volt terminal on the equalizer to the positive battery clamp . i ran a 2nd #2 cable from the 12 volt terminal on the equalizer to positive clamp on the 12 volt battery. Last i ran a #2 cable from the negative terminal on the equalizer to the negative terminal on the truck battery pack.

I tightened up all the connections on the batteries and tested the system. Truck started when the kill switch was on. There was no power to the dash at all with the kill switch off.

That was all i did yesterday.

 

[goldneagle]

Today I decided to tackle the battery supports. Since the original supports will not fit I decided to make new ones. I wanted to use the j-bolts that came with the battery supports. Upon close inspection i came to a conclusion that I could use the center j-bolt location to attach the new battery supports. After checking my inventory I found some scrap angle and other iron to use for the new supports.

I cut 2 pieces of 1" C-channel 16" long. I cut 4 pieces of 2" x 2" angle 6" long. I cut 2 pieces of 2" U-channel 6" long. I welded one 2" angle on each end of the C-channel. I welded the 2" U-channel to the center of the 16" C-channel. Duplicated the setup for the 2nd battery support.

Since it was getting late I only had a chance to prime and paint the brackets. I am posting some pictures.

 

[Scarecrow1]

Very nice looking job.....

 

[goldneagle]

Thanks Mike!

OK today I finished the battery support brackets. I had to cut openings on the edges of the angles so they don't block the vent tubes on the sides of the batteries. I took some pictures of the side view to show the cut grooves. I could have welded the over-cuts but I don't think it has to be that perfect, just functional.