M1031 - the first 10,000 miles observations, questions and lessons

[bimota]

Hey, I've rolled over the first 10,000 miles of putting an M1031 back to work in the civilian space. Lots of lessons learned and plenty of questions. Over the last year we fixed: burnt glow plug control board, glow plugs, three heater cores, death wobble from ****, bolts in front driveline, cab light, high beam switch, door keys, door seals, and a few I forgot. Oh yeah, the exploding fan belt, that was a colon cleaner.

Did the Tiny Tach and coming soon a new governor. What is the recommended hour run time for engine oil changes?

The toughest to solve were the heater core grounding and death wobble. As those issues are well known but not well articulated on posts.

Recently, she started dieing in the morning when I reach the first stop sign. After that no problem - maybe I've got the idle set to low? She idles at 550rpm. Fuel filter? Fan belts always squeal on first acceleration - again, maybe my idle is to low since the alternator don't excite till I hit the accelerator.

Key open issues are idle setting and how many hours between oil changes. Now that she has 38,000 miles on her - what else should I be expecting? So far no leaks

 

[Recovry4x4]

I can't help with hours. I know that is important too. Idle speed is another of those issues where many have opinions and I'm the same. I set mine high (800+ -) for a few reasons. It does keep the alts excited and it minimzes all the rattles. Subsequently it improves bulb life of all things.

 

[Keith_J]

Set cold idle, be sure to check free movement of the injection pump throttle shaft, on 1031s with the governor installed, the block attached to the throttle shaft can impede full range of movement. Also, some 1031s had the cold idle advance solenoid and cold timing advance wired up incorrectly to the governor's transfer case neutral safety wire, causing these two devices to be powered constantly.

 

[Skinny]

I noticed on mine that I had some adjusting to do with the idle as my GEN lights would not go out at initial start and flickered at idle. This and the steering was very difficult when at a stop with my foot on the brake. I agree, a small bump in the idle speed helps everything.

 

[Keith_J]

The alternators are self-excited from residual magnetism in the rotor laminations. They sometimes need a kick of speed to go into regulation mode as the diode trio doesn't generate enough current for the field.