• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

Just got an M1009 with no batteries. Looking for photos of the cable hookups.

tim292stro

Well-known member
2,118
40
48
Location
S.F. Bay Area/California
There are military fixtures that don't come from the factory in civilian versions in that truck from the pictures. Get the VIN and post it up that's the only way to know the origin, but it looks like someone made a M1009 into a civilian truck (paint, new dashpad, grille, new bumpers... it's shame on the bumpers). When people paint these trucks, they often don't do the engine compartment or under the dash - you can see in the engine compartment the original 383 green, and I'd guess that under the dashboard the metal is still green also. Can't see if there is a 24V voltmeter in the dashboard upper right corner above the heater controls.

Be careful putting a 24V set of batteries in there before tracing out the circuits. In general the terminal block on the passenger side firewall is supposed to be 24V and ground (big one on top is +24V, small one on bottom is GND). The two-terminal block on the driver's side firewall is 12V, and that feeds the standard fuse block. Only the GP relay, starter, NATO slave port on the grille (missing on your truck), the voltmeter, and the radio power terminals behind the passenger front seat inside the truck are supposed to have 24V. Everything else is 12V just like in a civilian truck.
 

Loco_Hosa

Member
462
4
18
Location
Ethel, Wa
You can ignore the emissions sticker on the core support. That is not pertaining tro that M1009. They do not have catalytic converters. I would say the entire core support has been changed. Also I would get a breather oil cap on the engine. I know that one fits but it could be detrimental to the life of the rear main seal. I know all of them had breather oil caps. Other then that it looks complete. Good Luck. What are you plans for the vehicle? Keep it white or repaint in original colors? Keep us posted. I have one that someone bought from me and used hard for 20 years it is still running and used / played hard. That is my Terminus M1009.
I was more confused by the fact that the Emissions sticker mentioned spark gap, I would agree it is not the stock core support. Thank you for the heads up on the breather cap.

Plans is a good question. I set out to purchase a K5 because I really like them, this one popped up on Facebook. Unknown history and unknown problems, but diesel and affordable. I want something I can take into the woods, and I love military vehicles so I would love to put things, at least cosmetically, back to being CUCV like. Wife doesnt like the white, and there is quite a lot of surface rust starting. I think sanding it down and a budget 383 paint job is likely. Beyond that is anyone's guess?

Looks to me if that is a push button switch below the BO Switches
It's probably for manual glow plug control.
Need to verify.

Is that a serpentine belt crank pulley?
I think I see V pulley but not sure what else I'm seeing.
Tom
I wouldnt have even considered a push button for glow plugs! Awesome observation, I will check that out tomorrow and report back.

Wow what a mess. Starting to look like a 12 volt conversion not fully completed. Would explain the disconnected pass side alternator. You will need to peek at the starter and try and find a part number to look up to see if it's 12 or 24 volts.

The glow plug relay is the small can on the firewall to the right (as seated in truck looking forward) of the brake booster. Should be 6 wires on it. Large red wire from power. 2 large orange wires to the glow plugs. Might be a small orange wire connected to one of the bigger studs. Goes to GP controller for voltage sense. The smaller studs will be pink/black which is 12 volts. The other is lt blue which grounds through the controller to turn on the glowplugs.

If the big red wire goes to the buss bars on the firewall by the heater then that would provide 24 volts to the glow plugs. Which is too much as they are 12 volt. Now that is only IF the truck is still wired as 24 volt. If they had 12 volts going to the buss your GP circuit would be okay.

In the normal stock setup the front battery negative goes to chassis ground and the negative buss bar. The positive goes to the negative on the rear battery. There is a wire coming off this which goes to the 12 volt junction block. That is also near the brake booster. That provides all the 12 volt power for the truck. All comes from the front battery and I believe the drivers side alternator charges it. The rear battery positive goes to the positive buss bar. From there it would normally go to the starter, glow plug resistor pack and feeds a set of bus bars in the back of the truck to feed the military radios.

Hope this helps.

BTW where in Tacoma are you? General area. Don't need your address here.

I studied your pics. There are wires missing from the buss bars. Warthog made a great observation. We have a partial 12 volt conversion here

Warthog made a good observation regarding the 12 volt power wire. In looking at your pics the 2 buss bars are missing some wires and have definitely been modified.
Wait, the glow plugs are never supposed to receive 24 volts? Military or civilian Glow plugs are 12 volts? Or does the GP controller want 12 volts and the GPs themselves want 24?

Tomorrow to truck is moving to my buddies house off of 72nd st S in Tacoma. He has a larger shop and a lift so once the truck is running again we can service the brakes and such easier.

This is really helpful, thank you.

I am also wondering about the wiring.

The wire on the MAIN terminal bar should not be there unless they attempted a 12v conversion. It looks like it goes to the 12v terminal block
View attachment 620221
View attachment 620220

Please confirm where it goes.

Again verify your wiring before hooking up the batteries.
Very specific, thank you so much. I will be able to investigate this tomorrow.

There are military fixtures that don't come from the factory in civilian versions in that truck from the pictures. Get the VIN and post it up that's the only way to know the origin, but it looks like someone made a M1009 into a civilian truck (paint, new dashpad, grille, new bumpers... it's shame on the bumpers). When people paint these trucks, they often don't do the engine compartment or under the dash - you can see in the engine compartment the original 383 green, and I'd guess that under the dashboard the metal is still green also. Can't see if there is a 24V voltmeter in the dashboard upper right corner above the heater controls.

Be careful putting a 24V set of batteries in there before tracing out the circuits. In general the terminal block on the passenger side firewall is supposed to be 24V and ground (big one on top is +24V, small one on bottom is GND). The two-terminal block on the driver's side firewall is 12V, and that feeds the standard fuse block. Only the GP relay, starter, NATO slave port on the grille (missing on your truck), the voltmeter, and the radio power terminals behind the passenger front seat inside the truck are supposed to have 24V. Everything else is 12V just like in a civilian truck.
The military origins are interesting, even still has the Military ID plate in the door jam. To me the bumpers are a shame, but not as much as the AXLES. Im so sad that it is back to six lug axles.

I thought one of the buses on the passenger side firewall was 12 volt and the other was 24, knowing that one is ground makes me that much more confident this is a 12 volt truck.

(24 hours ago this was for sure, in my mind, 24 volts. This piece of the puzzle tells me it most likely is 12)
 

cucvrus

Well-known member
11,473
10,427
113
Location
Jonestown Pennsylvania
Im so sad that it is back to six lug axles.

Back to 6 lug axles? It came from the factory with 6 lug axles if it is a K5 M1009 Blazer. They had Corporate 10 bolt rears front and back.

I have a local guy that swears all the M1009's in his unit had 8 lug axles. I beg to differ. Good Luck with the project. What is a shame about the bumpers?
 

cpf240

Active member
1,479
5
38
Location
Free in Northern Idaho
The glow plugs in the CUCV trucks are 12v parts. In the HMMWV they are 24v parts. In the CUCV, the glow plugs are supplied with 24v that passes through a voltage divider network made up of the glow plug resistor bank on the firewall and the resistance of the glow plugs themselves, thus they only see 12v.

As for the core support emissions sticker and other discrepancies under the hood, I'm guessing that at some point someone replaced the entire front clip. This would explain the core support sticker as well as the missing rear battery tray, etc.

With regard to the axles, the M1009 came with 6-lugs, not 8. All the other CUCV's came with 8-lug axles.
 

tim292stro

Well-known member
2,118
40
48
Location
S.F. Bay Area/California
Yes as has been said repeatedly, the stock M1009 was different than all of the other GM CUCVs, 6-bolt 1/2 ton axles and a 3.08:1 axle ratio.

The tecnical manual for the CUCVs is posted on this site if you click the button towards the top of the webpage. The "-20" manual has the full wiring diagram from the factory in it - much better than a Chiltons, and free by the way [thumbzup]
 

Loco_Hosa

Member
462
4
18
Location
Ethel, Wa
Ran today! Turns out the starter and glow plugs are all 12 volts, and the engine runs great.

I had gotten confused by the grounding buss, leading me to believe this was 24 volts. Felt pretty silly after I realized.

May have a leaking freezeplug, still needs brakes, oil change, etc. However, it ran!

Looks to me if that is a push button switch below the BO Switches
It's probably for manual glow plug control.
Need to verify.
You called it, that button does indeed activate the glow plugs. How long should they be run for before starting the truck?

Wow what a mess. Starting to look like a 12 volt conversion not fully completed. Would explain the disconnected pass side alternator. You will need to peek at the starter and try and find a part number to look up to see if it's 12 or 24 volts.

Hope this helps.
This has helped more than you know. You called it, 12 volt conversion.

Im so sad that it is back to six lug axles.

Back to 6 lug axles? It came from the factory with 6 lug axles if it is a K5 M1009 Blazer. They had Corporate 10 bolt rears front and back.

I have a local guy that swears all the M1009's in his unit had 8 lug axles. I beg to differ. Good Luck with the project. What is a shame about the bumpers?
I was confused, thank you! I thought the M1009 was a 3/4 ton, but obviously my memory had failed me. Thank you!
 

MarcusOReallyus

Well-known member
4,524
816
113
Location
Virginia
Glad you got it running! :beer:


Just to clarify a couple of points:

I wouldnt have even considered a push button for glow plugs! Awesome observation, I will check that out tomorrow and report back.

It's a common modification. Some do it to replace the stock controller card, some as backup in case the card fails.

New cards are available from member antennaclimber, and are 100% American made.


Wait, the glow plugs are never supposed to receive 24 volts? Military or civilian Glow plugs are 12 volts? Or does the GP controller want 12 volts and the GPs themselves want 24?
In the stock system, the GPs are 12v. However, GM knew you would be buying a used, converted M1009 some day, so they decided to make it extra confusing just for you. So, the 12v GPs are fed from the 24v buss, through a resistor that drops the 24v to 12v. Fun, huh? :mrgreen:

(Actually, it's that way so you can jump the beast from a standard NATO 24v vehicle. ;) )


HMMVs have 24v GPs, so that adds to the confusion as it's essentially the same engine, so some people assume the CUCV has 24v GPs.

Clear as mud? :mrgreen:


I thought one of the buses on the passenger side firewall was 12 volt and the other was 24, knowing that one is ground makes me that much more confident this is a 12 volt truck.

(24 hours ago this was for sure, in my mind, 24 volts. This piece of the puzzle tells me it most likely is 12)

You probably should spend some time browsing the "Helpful Threads" sticky. You'll find a wealth of information there.

In particular, you should read up on the "Rosscommon Conversion", which is a standardized method for converting the original CUCV system to 12v.

Why does this matter to you now that you have it running?

Simple - your conversion is not stock CUCV, so if you have wiring problems, we can't help much. The TMs no longer apply. However, if your conversion was done according to the Rosscommon method, you now have a blueprint of how it's supposed to be, so if you have problems, you have a troubleshooting guide, and there are members here who have done the same conversion, so they can help advise you. You come on the forum for help, and say, "Hey, I have an M1009 with the Rosscommon Conversion", and presto - people know how your system is supposed to work, instead of you trying to describe a one-off.

If you have a one-off, you are pretty much on your own in trying to troubleshoot. So, I'm suggesting you read up on the Rosscommon and determine if you have that conversion, so that you know for future reference.


:beer:
 

PJL

Member
140
6
18
Location
Way south of Seattle, WA
Great news Loco! That must have been a great feeling not only when It cranked but fired off!

The glow plug button time depends upon temperature. Colder equals longer. I have discovered that my truck needs them for warm starts. I added the button and found 10 seconds for a warm restart is a good number.
 

Loco_Hosa

Member
462
4
18
Location
Ethel, Wa
Hey folks, made some kick ass progress on this thing yesterday. It's almost ready to get back off-road. For a truck that I purchased with so many question marks, I'm really pleased with how is coming together. Thank you everyone!

New air filter
Began the coolant flush and fixed the class 3 (is there a class 4?) coolant leak
Changed oil and filter (old oil was nasty)
Replaced the belts for the drivers side alt and power steering
Began brake flush

Someone had mentioned vented oil caps, where do I purchase such a thing?

Next big road block is electrical. Almost nothing in the dash is working, except the wait to start light and the oil warning light before I start it, and of course the key. I have no lights at all, the fuel gauge and the 12v voltage gage do not work, and it doesn't look the alternator is working.

Further investigation will be needed. I also wonder if I should start a build thread....
 
Top