- 8,527
- 2,728
- 113
- Location
- Monrovia, Ca.
After messin' around with the M901 yesterday, we had a chance to do some work on a M106 Mortar carrier. It has not moved or ran since before it was put in place 20 or so years ago. It needed u-joints for the dif to RH final drive, so I did some research and found a local company that had the correct configuration of wing bearing. I got those in a month or so ago and did the inspection of the unit to see what it needed. The books said there was an oil leak at the diff that was repaired but the oil hadn't been replenished. Also found a kinda major failure, the engine cooling fan belts aren't on it. Found the reason, the fan is locked up! A few weeks ago, a bunch of us went to the Fontana scrap yard...guess what I found? Yup, a complete fan assembly for a 113 varient and it was the correct rotation 
! Craig had another fan assy. if the back 40, so yesterday, I took the two damaged units and made one good unit. Of course I forgot to snap some pics of the teardown, 
but I have some of the failed part and the assembled unit ![[thumbzup]](https://www.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/icon_smile_thumzup.gif "Thumbs Up [thumbzup]")
. After it was all together, Craig asked if we could put some life back into the carrier. Went over the unit again, all looked good, put some batteries in it and had the CO2 extinguisher handy. Powered the unit up, all the lights work, the horn works, interior lights work. Bumped the starter, engine was free, cranked with the shutdown pulled out a couple of times, the pushed it in an hit the button. Fired right up like it had ran the day before 
. We let it sit there a bit and build some temp and it took a bit of throttle, but it moved out of it's resting place of 20 years under it's own power. Got it about a vehicles length forward, excersized the tailgate, got all the hatches open and gave it a bit of cleaning then backed it back into place onto some matting so it won't be directly on the dirt. After the M901 gets shipped out, we'll motor this one up to the shop and get the fan swapped out and rebuild the track tensioners and there will be one more sweet running tracked vehicle at the Museum!
! Craig had another fan assy. if the back 40, so yesterday, I took the two damaged units and made one good unit. Of course I forgot to snap some pics of the teardown, but I have some of the failed part and the assembled unit . After it was all together, Craig asked if we could put some life back into the carrier. Went over the unit again, all looked good, put some batteries in it and had the CO2 extinguisher handy. Powered the unit up, all the lights work, the horn works, interior lights work. Bumped the starter, engine was free, cranked with the shutdown pulled out a couple of times, the pushed it in an hit the button. Fired right up like it had ran the day before . We let it sit there a bit and build some temp and it took a bit of throttle, but it moved out of it's resting place of 20 years under it's own power. Got it about a vehicles length forward, excersized the tailgate, got all the hatches open and gave it a bit of cleaning then backed it back into place onto some matting so it won't be directly on the dirt. After the M901 gets shipped out, we'll motor this one up to the shop and get the fan swapped out and rebuild the track tensioners and there will be one more sweet running tracked vehicle at the Museum!
...every couple of weeks, let the people who are visiting the museum see, hear and feel the vehicles drive. Advertise it and maybe that will increase visitors.
