• 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.

LMTV Alternator Disaster, engine now catastophic

Aernan

Member
510
19
18
Location
San Jose/California
FWIW if anyone cares; the type joints recommended by the study to use with driveshafts to highly reduce vibration issues transferred via driveshafts, was Rzeppa style joint(s), but then again that refereed mostly to rear shaft studied which has steepest angle. Thus the Double Cardan type may be just fine for the front... Choose your Poison I guess.
Is it possible to get custom shafts with that joint?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 

DOUBLE ALT

New member
56
0
0
Location
Loris SC
The minor change of the battery cable makes it a lot easier to maintain. The current way it is wired is more difficult. Several have converted and they are having no problems. They now have 2 volt gauges to see that the charging of the 12 volt and the charge of the 24 is working. Someone in the Military got a real sales job done to them.
17.5 Million cars sold in the US in 2016. None with reverse polarity. None with load control. If all that extra expensive electrical parts are so good, why is it giving so much trouble? Just saying.
KISS Keep It Simple Stupid.
 

aleigh

Well-known member
1,040
52
48
Location
Phoenix, AZ & Seattle, WA
I don't think it's fair to compare 17.5 million cars sold with 1 battery to a tactical truck that had a lot of program design requirements that cars do not. There's nothing wrong with the battery setup. There's something wrong with the alternator bolts backing out and something wrong with the alternators only sometimes having bushings to somewhat isolate from the mount.

I have not actually gone and measured but I would not be surprised of the long bolt was just the wrong size. Has someone done this? It almost seems like double alt was suggesting this was the case.

Like they went metric but someone drilled a SAE hole. Or the bolts are not shouldered properly and the mount is resting on threads in a way it shouldn't. Just a hunch. We saw this same thing in Jeeps with track bar mounts on the JK. The track bar mounting bolt between the track bar and the front axle, the holes in the bushing and axle were 9/16th but someone came along and ran 14mm bolts through and wacked on a bunch of torque. For bonus points the shear surfaces are resting on threads. Works for awhile until predictably you bang it down enough roads and the hole rounds out.

Whatever SAE bolt we fit in there seemed to fit better than the old bolt, anecdotally. Like we had to lightly tap it in.
 
Last edited:

frank8003

In Memorial
In Memorial
6,426
4,984
113
Location
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
I just watching all this go by, being from a time in the past.
Just thinkin of a Deuce which was designed with these
to get it right with what was known, by people dedicated to that last little
thousandths or tenths.
IMG_5981.jpg
IMG_5980.jpg

LMTV was designed beginning late 80's, with all the people and puters
workin to judge what would be a new truck the new people could drive.
 

Suprman

Well-known member
Supporting Vendor
6,860
693
113
Location
Stratford/Connecticut
The niehoff alternators are used in the majority of military vehicles with good results. The reverse polarity box protects against incompetent battery installers. That function is irrelevant of the alternator used. Civilian owners can choose to eliminate this function, the military will not. A lot if the lmtvs have 20 plus years of hard military service. Components like alternators will fail eventually. The military knows this and chooses to get rid of that trucks rather than dump a ton of money into them. If the dual alt functioned like the niehoff and was an easy direct replacement it would be an easier sell.
 

coachgeo

Well-known member
5,113
3,436
113
Location
North of Cincy OH
Is it possible to get custom shafts with that joint?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Yes. Basically any driveline shop that has done shafts for Big Rigs, yet as well has someone on staff that has done some dabbling in High Angle Drivelines for offroaders. Think exploring shops in that direction will net you a better price than going opposite direction and starting by looking for an Offroad driveline shop with lots of experience in high angle drivelines .... that has dabbled with some big rig shafts. Would bet either should be able to build you a good shaft with RZeppa.
 

Awesomeness

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,813
1,518
113
Location
Orlando, FL
something wrong with the alternators only sometimes having bushings to somewhat isolate from the mount.
Which bushing are you talking about? The large steel "roll pin" / split sleeve bushing in the rear bottom ear of the alternator? That's the only bushing in any mounting holes on the alternator or brackets on mine. If you were missing it, you would have big problems. It not only makes the hole smaller so that the alternator doesn't move around radially, but it also slides in the ear of the alternator so that the long bolt tightens down axially to clamp the front bottom alternator ear tight against the curved cast bracket.
 

Awesomeness

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
1,813
1,518
113
Location
Orlando, FL
Is that a bolted on part?
Technically yes, however I don't know how hard it is to change. I haven't messed with these axles, but when I rebuilt the rear 1-ton Chevy axle the nut on the yoke was very difficult to get off (it's like a 1" nut on the back of the pinion, and it's torqued to an incredibly high value, and there is no good way to hold it still). I also don't know what other things that might affect (e.g. does the pinion have a crush washer in it that would affect gear alignment or need to be replaced by taking apart the axle/gears?).

There is also the question of whether an off the shelf yoke (is it still called a yoke at that point?) for that style of u-joint is available, or do we have to have one custom made? The military testing reports don't elaborate about where it came from, how it was made, what parts were used, etc.

This has kind of been a topic in the back of my head for a while. Ironically I haven't had a lot of time to research it because this year I spent so much time replacing the engine.
 

Aernan

Member
510
19
18
Location
San Jose/California
Well when Aesomeness get around to more research on this please do share it. I'm not looking forward to getting my drive shafts rebalanced or rebuilt every 15k miles.

I did notice that my truck has 16k on the odo and it's starting to play up like one of the previous posters.
 

aleigh

Well-known member
1,040
52
48
Location
Phoenix, AZ & Seattle, WA
So just an update but as soon as I limped it into my friends place and then made it up to Bellingham, I was done - made the seahawks game and then came down with a whipper of a cold/flu/whatever. I've been down all week, and haven't even seen the truck. Couldn't get out of bed for the first few days. I am still feeling poorly but I am going to try to get down today to get started on it, hopefully at least get the rad out to see what can be done about it. Have the new water pump from Erik's. I wish I had known I was going to be sick when I ordered it overnight shipping!
 

aleigh

Well-known member
1,040
52
48
Location
Phoenix, AZ & Seattle, WA
Just as predicted, one of the blades threw a chunk into the rad. Another blade has a little tear in it. Kind of looks like it just hit some FOD but wow talk about bad luck. Got a garden hose in the radiator and it streams right out of the hole.

Screen Shot 2018-01-06 at 7.30.56 PM.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-06 at 7.31.14 PM.jpg
 

wandering neurons

Active member
249
113
43
Location
Fallon, NV
Just as predicted, one of the blades threw a chunk into the rad. Another blade has a little tear in it. Kind of looks like it just hit some FOD but wow talk about bad luck. Got a garden hose in the radiator and it streams right out of the hole.

View attachment 714802View attachment 714803
Thought: A nearly foot long bolt came out of the alternator toward the front of the motor. What's the possibility that it got flung into the spinning fan, damaging (then breaking) the blades?

All of this would explain the missing bolts on my alternator when I picked up my M1081, as well as the three holding the compressor and power steering pump. Reinstalled all, but will check, recheck, and think about safety wiring. And get drive shafts (and head) examined. I did check, I've got the stamp for the upgraded shafts too.
 

aleigh

Well-known member
1,040
52
48
Location
Phoenix, AZ & Seattle, WA
When the bolt came out, it was the old fan. I had the alt repaired, then the new fan was put on. Then drove the truck more and had this failure the next day (and hundreds of miles) later.
 

DiverDarrell

Member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
629
24
18
Location
Port orchard, WA
Guess I should diagnose my new found vibration at medium speed. I think it’s from a tire, but while I’m at it I may as well test both drive shafts, check the alt, check the fan clutch while I mount the a/c drive pully. Glad you made it to the game in the next few weeks if you need any bushings made for your alt I should have my lathe up and running if I can ever find an affordable d1-6 4 jaw chuck.
 

aleigh

Well-known member
1,040
52
48
Location
Phoenix, AZ & Seattle, WA
So in terms of getting the radiator out (it's an assembly with the charge cooler), 160 lbs, I realized that... I have the LMHC crane. Turns out if you put that in the front corner pocket of the bed and remove the air intake stack it swings nice over the engine. I don't know if the weights work out but it almost looks like it could pull its own engine. Either way the rad came out super easy.

It also turns out that the upper bolts for the alternator mount are integral with the water pump, so my water pump replaces them, which means I can get back to the stock bolt sizes (since they were screwed up when they snapped off and the mechanic drilled them out and tapped a larger size). So there's that I guess. The engine is real easy to work on when the rad is out and you can just stand in the hole.

Something clearly hit the fan, to look at the blades. At least I'm satisfied that is what happened.


Screen Shot 2018-01-16 at 2.08.07 PM.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-16 at 2.08.00 PM.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-16 at 2.07.47 PM.jpg
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks