M1009 from Wyoming to Colorado with a bit of a detour.

[spectre6000]

After quite a bit of very meticulous searching and research, I finally found my truck. If you are or have been selling an M1009 just about anywhere in the country over the last month or so (excluding only Hawaii, as I've done that before, and it costs more than I care to sink into this particular project at this phase), and it's in the top 80th or so percentile condition-wise, you've probably heard from me.

I've bought an '84 M1009 that currently resides in Idaho, was bought 2 years ago (as I recall, I looked at so many I'm not 100% sure on that specific detail, the paperwork will set me straight) at auction out of Arizona, and never saw a winter road. Typically I would write this off as a dubious claim (never trust a PO), but the photos bear the story out in spades. There are some minor dents (I did not see a single one that didn't have at least one), but nothing a paintless dent repair place couldn't handle in an hour or so. It's been partially rebuilt mechanically (with receipts and photographic proof), and is just as clean as they come. It has a dash pad and seats/center console out of a contemporary Suburban that I'm not super stoked on, but other than that I'm pretty pleased. The seller claims to have every ounce of confidence in its ability to drive to Florida and back, so it'll hopefully do fine to Denver. All the same, I did every bit of homework that my experience doing these extractions has told me is necessary, and I'm bringing a giant duffel bag full of parts and tools, my laptop (with manuals saved as PDFs), and picking up fluids, a fire extinguisher and a box to lay on should it prove necessary upon arrival. A number of parts have been recently replaced (belts, lift pump, glow plugs, etc.), but I'm bringing extras of everything I can get my hands on just in case. I also just got off the phone with a friend of mine who used to be a diesel mechanic in the Marines and worked on these, and double checked all of my preparation and expectations.

My wife has accompanied me on a number of these sorts of trips, and decided to take a few days off work and make a mini vacation of it, so we're going to take a minor detour and spend a day at Yellowstone. There is the understanding that things could go wrong in some way, so our expectations are such that Yellowstone may be a miss should any issues arise, and an extra day or two are available if necessary as well as a budget/insurance policy for towing and/or shops. I've dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" in regard to the truck itself, and have every confidence that this will be a fairly uneventful trip, but all the same, we're preparing for the worst.

We'll be starting in Jackson Hole, WY for pick up, prep, a quick shakedown/familiarization, and anything that I think needs to be done before hitting the road, and then heading up to Cody, WY by way of Yellowstone, then going from there straight down to Denver. Not a ton of miles, but enough to warrant the extra prep considering the location. Wish us luck!

 

[nyoffroad]

I hope you don't need it, but GOOD LUCK! Sounds like you have a plan and a good grasp on what to do if a problem pops up, so you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[spectre6000]

Thanks. I've felt welcomed for the most part. M1009 NEWBIE 2013 has been especially awesome bringing me into the fold. I hope to meet more SS people soon!

 

[MakersTeleMark]

Have a great trip. Good to see another one come to Colorado.

 

[Sharecropper]

Make sure you visit the Silver Dollar Saloon on the square in Jackson. It is about a 175 mile drive from Jackson to Cody. If you drove it straight through it would be a 4 hour drive, but you want to plan on plenty of photo stops, so plan to leave early in the day. You will be driving up past Jenny Lake with the Grand Tetons in the distance. Maybe one of the most beautiful places in America. Plan on stopping at Yellowstone Lodge and watching Old Faithful shoot off. It's another 500 miles from Cody to Denver, so in order to stop along the route and sightsee, plan another overnight stay, maybe in Douglas or Glendo. The Wind river range is breath-taking. I have relatives living around Laramie Peak, and if you have time, you will enjoy a side trip to Esterbrook. I have hunted all over that area for the past 45 years, and can say without reservation that it is the most beautiful I have ever witnessed. Be forewarned, however, if you break-down, it will be a long way to help. Back in the 1970's I have actually driven all day on the highway in central Wyoming and never seen another vehicle! Good luck, and enjoy the trip.

 

[spectre6000]

Silver Dollar Saloon is officially on the docket! Thanks for the suggestion!

Alrighty! I have my kit fully rounded up... All 80 pounds of it! The duffel bag I got was just barely too small, and it's probably for the better as it caused me to remember that there are weight limits as well. All the better. Two 40 pound duffel bags will at least balance each other out versus having to lean 45° to one side trying to lug one big bag! The only parts I can foresee needing that I haven't been able to locate are a starter bracket and an IP. If the starter or either alternator goes out, I'll be converting to 12V roadside, and I'll have to trust that the starter won't tear too much up without that bracket for the one or two starts it may have to endure... I'm given to understand that some people just run without them (I'm not one of those sorts of people), so hopefully it'll be fine. As for the IP, based on what I know of the truck, I should have nothing to worry about. However, if the IP goes out, it's a tow and a shop bill. About all I can do at this point. The PO installed a stereo system of some sort, so my wife and I have sourced some fun podcasts to listen to (once I've heard the engine enough to feel comfortable). Hotels are booked, cash is withdrawn, pretty much everything is ready to go save packing a few days worth of clothes and toiletries into some small carry on bags, and then we're off!

 

[hndrsonj]

I am in Cheyenne if you have issues in SE WY.

 

[spectre6000]

Thanks! Hopefully I don't need it, but if I do it's nice to know there's someone to call in an emergency! Especially out there. Wyoming is pretty open and empty. I took a new-to-me 50 year old vehicle through Death Valley several years back and wasn't as concerned about the potential for not seeing a soul for hours or days should we have an unplanned stop!

 

[cpf240]

 

[spectre6000]

There will be plenty when we get back. Here's a teaser in the meantime:

This shows the worst part of it (a few light dents that a paintless dent shop will sort out very quickly):

This shows the best part of it (zero rust of any sort):

This forum doesn't allow external photo links inline... Boo... Link out I guess... Does anyone know a nice clean way to include photos that displays inline and doesn't require an annoying pop up box?

 

[T. Highway]

Good luck on the trip, that truck looks clean. I look forward to seeing the pictures of this road trip.

Bert

 

[spectre6000]

Back safe and sound with minimal issues. Writeup coming soon!

 

[spectre6000]

Allrighty! Here's the writeup!


As stated, I spent the week and change prior to going out to get the truck planning, gathering parts, and generally trying to prepare for any and everything that could go wrong. Saturday morning, my wife and I grabbed our bags, and our neighbors who were dog sitting for us drove us to the bus stop down the road so I wouldn't have to carry all 80 pounds of car parts the 1/3 mile or so. This plan became especially pertinent when I picked the brand new "mil-spec" duffel bags up for the first time, and the strap on one all but exploded. So much for that... We took the completely loaded bus to the airport, and caught our flight.


Upon arrival, I discovered that "Bush's Best" were especially frisky this time. They always go through my bags on these exploits, but these guys were especially rough. Not only did they rifle through everything, they opened all of the parts, and all but destroyed a number of the boxes... These were sealed back up with "TSA" tape... Hopefully I'm able to return the parts I don't end up using... I'm sure it won't be a problem one way or the other. I still haven't inspected carefully enough to know if anything was all together stolen, but I'm not super worried about it. We met the seller at the front door to the airport. The Jackson airport is currently under construction, and it took us a while to find the white erase board attempting to tell the recently arrived that their checked bags would be placed on tables by the curb out front... Different. We met the seller there, and walked out to where the truck had been parked.

I had looked at a million and a half trucks, and this was by far the cleanest as well as one of the most reasonably priced. The seller seemed to know the vehicle well enough, was very forthcoming with information (photos, video maybe, phone conversations), and I was feeling pretty good about the truck. All that said, I've always said, "Never trust a PO". I went in expecting it to be pretty bad despite evidence suggesting it would be pretty good. Seneca would be proud (look him up). I looked the truck over. The backup plan is always to buy the next cheap-ish ticket back home if it's not up to snuff; it's not a great option, but it beats getting stuck with a lemon. I found a few things that conveniently didn't appear in any photos, not everything worked as described, but on the whole it looked like it would at least get us home (the only requirement beyond being solid and mostly free of rust) and the issues it did have seemed manageable. The front suspension is totally collapsed (a lift would be nice anyway), the lights don't all work, there are some rust holes in the passenger floor patched with a pop-riveted sheet, the tires were all ages, and it was down on power (even for a 6.2L) to name a few. We did the deal all the same, and went on our way.


Jackson was having an antler festival of some sort on the square as we arrived. Unfortunately, we got there just in time to watch the sidewalks be rolled up and had business to attend to aside. We checked into our hotel, went to the NAPA down the street to load up on non-flyables (liquids and a fire extinguisher), then went back to the square. We had no real plans at this point save to check out the Silver Dollar Saloon on suggestion, so I walked up to a man in uniform (it turns out it was a boy scout uniform, but all the same) and asked where he would suggest we eat, and what he would do were he there for the day. He informed us (as did several other people by the time we left) that we were a week early, and that all the fun started the following weekend. Turns out there's not much to do in a tourist town during the off season. Every person we talked to suggested getting drunk, and as fun as that would be, it's really not how we wanted to spend our vacation. We walked around town, had a nice dinner (made twice as nice by the off season pricing), tried to find the Silver Dollar Saloon (there was nothing on the square by that name, and the closest thing we found was the Silver Dollar Bar in a hotel a few blocks off the square), and had some ice cream on the square. After this, we went to the Albertsons down the street from the hotel to stock up on water, snacks, and a cheap lunch for the following day's drive. Then we called it an early night in favor of an earlier start.

The next day we hit Yellowstone! The park had just (mostly) opened up. Snow was walled up along the side of the road as tall as me, traffic was relatively light (and interestingly almost all Mandarin Chinese from what I could gather), and not everything was fully accessible. It was a very different experience from the last time I was up there. It was about this time we named the truck "Lumberbeast" due to its lazy and loud temperament. It has quite a bit of character. We pulled over at a few places for my wife to take some photos, and I convinced her to get some forum fodder of the truck.


Here's what you came for:

We took in the standard faire in the middle of the park, and having walked up just in time to see Old Faithful do its thing, day hiked a bit around the geysers. We've both seen pretty much all the steam coming out of the ground that one could justify given only a day in the oldest National Park in the country, so we had our lunches and hit the road to see some of the park's other sights.

Due to a noticeably inaccurate speedometer, I was doing my best not to speed without being too much of a drag on other people's day. Despite my best efforts, however, I was at the front of a short line of cars coming around a blind corner when these guys showed up and gave me a wonderful opportunity to fully test the brakes for the first time. Fortunately, they passed muster.

They were close enough to the truck on either side that I could smell the bovine stench through my vent window, and were the door windows down, we could have reached out and touched their matted fur.

I won't bore you with the remainder of our non-vehicular Yellowstone vacation photos, but there were waterfalls, wild life, and we managed to get in far more than I thought we would be able to... All while getting 22 mpg! We left the park ahead of the setting sun, and rolled into Cody for the night.


The last day consisted primarily of Wyoming. We laid down the miles, listened to pretty excellent podcasts, and enjoyed each other's company.

Somewhere about an hour outside of Casper, WY, we saw a Suburban on the far side of the road and a man standing on the near side. I've been that man a time or two in the past (and undoubtedly will be again), and I feared this stretch of road more than I did Death Valley a few years back in a new-to-me '62 VW bus. I didn't hesitate to pull over. Who knew how long it would be before someone else did out there. My wife has been with me for a number of the aforementioned times in the past, and didn't bat an eye. She never even dropped her foot to the floor from its relaxed perch on the seat. These guys had a flat, and their spare (which apparently had never seen an occasion for use) wouldn't clear the brake calipers.

Now, I'm still very new to Chevies, but I have a pretty good idea about how parts interchange across these trucks. It just so happened, my PO had seen fit to stretch a 0-mile-sticker-still-on-the-tread tire on the spare rim. The Suburban had 16" alloy rims, and it didn't seem likely my 15 inchers would alleviate the issue. Fortunately, steel rims and offset can make for a world of difference! My rim wouldn't fit, but it was much closer than what they had on hand, and seemed close enough that a little filing on the meatier parts of the caliper might have done the trick. We worked at it for a while using dirt and grease to mark where the rim had rubbed the caliper as it turned. In the end, the same offset that seemed would be their salvation meant that my rim, though it would clear the outside of the caliper, caught on the face before being able to be torqued flush. This was a bit of a blow. We discussed trying to swap tires on rims by driving onto them to break the bead, but then didn't have any way to air them back up (we didn't have or feel comfortable with the flamable exploding stuff trick). The father of our friendly duo asked whether the front calipers might be any different from the rears, and therein lied the answer! My rim would fit on the front, while that tire could be rotated to the rear. We had our solution, and a short time later were on the road.


It didn't last. Wary of the starter relay issues inherent to the '84 M1009s, I left the truck idling through all of this. "What harm could it do?" I thought. As we got back on the road, the truck was pretty clearly not too happy with me. It sporadically lost power in minor surges. Light enough that it wasn't noticeable by my passenger until I pointed it out, but it steadily got worse. I flashed my brights at our friends limping ahead as I started falling further and further behind, and they pulled off to the side of the road. I relayed the issue, and it turns out the son is a diesel mechanic with newer Fords. He had heard it missing a bit while we were futzing with the wheel situation (I missed that in my focus on clearancing the rotors), but figured I seemed to know what I was doing and probably already knew about it. Nope. New truck. New issue. We stood there for a while with the engine off talking through various probable explanations for the errant behavior. We settled on heat, a clogged filter, and a dying injector pump in order of likelihood and whether or not anything could be done with the resources at hand. Since it had had some time to cool, we figured we'd test the heat hypothesis and try to at least limp two lame birds to Casper. Fortunately the issue did not completely resurface (more on this in a bit). We followed them to a tire shop, where they had the good tire swapped over to the good rim in exchange for the ill-fitting rim, then they offered to treat us to a late lunch; an offer we were more than happy to oblige.

As we continued on, things were fairly uneventful. At some point one of the tires began to delaminate a bit, but only enough to make it feel like the road was a little washboardy. Additionally, the 75 mph speed limit (which I didn't even attempt to maintain) did a number on our fuel economy figures. We did eventually make it back to our home state.

And the time spent helping our new friends was karmically rewarded as we came into view of the Rockies right at sunset.

Arriving home just in time to hit the sheets at our usual bed time.


THE END.

 

[spectre6000]

AND.... As requested:

How it now sits on its new 33X10.50s.

 

[Ridgeback]

Great adventure and well documented! Karma is amazing.... and paying kindness forward always returns on the investment.

 

[MakersTeleMark]

Nice recovery report in many ways. Congrats on the M1009. Now spraypaint those wheel weights and feel free to stop by and chat if you are ever in Eagle County.

 

[M1009 NEWBEE 2013]

Congrats Spectre 6000, Glad you finally picked one up. I missed your text, before the trip, I was out of cell phone reach for a week and you left the day after I got back and saw the text, didn't blow you off on purpose. Glad it worked out and you made it back safe.
Cant wait to see it. Let me know when you are ready for weekend run about. Cant wait to see what you have planned.

 

[spectre6000]

I've spent the past week or so working on it. Right now it's pretty much torn apart. IP, injectors, and filter base are all at the Bosch/Stanadyne service center here in town. Radiator came out today, and I'm working on getting the heater core out to get them to a radiator shop (it looks like Carlsbad Caverns in there!). I should have done the harmonic balancer first while I had compression and belts to work against, because now I can't get enough torque on it to get the pulley off... Oh well. I'll see if I have the appropriate sized sockets for my impact, and that'll get 'em off.

Finally, I got almost all the military kit I don't plan to retain off. I still need to cut out the gun racks and such, but aside from that I've got a bunch of parts for people in need. Hit me up if you're looking for something. Alternators may be available and the 24V starter will be as well.

Here's the engine compartment as of this afternoon:

 

[M1009 NEWBEE 2013]

Id be interested in starter and anything else you take off. (I have 2 extra alts already) Just let me know what you have when your done and Ill come up to see you and take some of it off your hands.

 

[spectre6000]

Well... today was not so successful. The truck has been amazing to work on with every nut and bolt coming out without much trouble. Today I was dismantling the cooling system, and it finally started to fight me. A bolt sheared in the crossover at the thermostat.

I drilled it out and tried to use an extractor, but it broke. I knocked it out and tried from the other side. The second extractor also broke... 0 for 2... Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the hole perfectly centered, so drilling it out and pulling out the threads like a spring isn't going to work for me. I either need some creative way to get that sucker out of there, or I need to locate another crossover... Any advice?