M35 engine, transmission swap, & road gear

[miltruckman]

Hi,

A quick introduction.

I live in Birch Run, Michigan, Am a member of the MVPA & GLMVPA(Great lakes Chapter) and currently have only one Military truck, an M342. (M35 dump truck) and an ammo trailer. I am relatively new to the steel soldiers website but have been an avid restorer of m-series trucks for many years. I used to be active on some of the email lists but life is busy and My time and collection was greatly reduced by getting married, having kids, and totally rebuilding an old (1935) house.

I try to participate in club events in my area, but, as I am on call every other week, many of the events I don't attend. Each year I take many digital photos of everything MV related I can find, ask club members to send me their photos too. Then I burn them all on a cd. Around Christmas time I burn about 100 copies and mail hem to all the GLMVPA club members. some of you may recognize my truck (It's blue) from some of the many photos I have taken.


I am getting ready to pull the engine and transmission in my truck. I have had them both out a couple of times before for various reasons.(it's a long story) I currently have a LDS465-1A in the truck and really like it. But there is a persistent fuel supply problem that causes the truck to "run out of fuel" or act like it after the engine warms up. or in about 10 to 15 miles of driving.

I have tried everything but change the fuel injector pump itself. I have changed the electric in tank fuel pumps, primary fuel filter & housings, secondary fuel filter and housings, fuel lines, secondary fuel filter overpressure relief valve, injector pump overpressure relief valve, & gear driven booster pump mounted on the injector pump. Non of these have solved the problem.

As the truck is driven and the engine warms up the fuel pressure at the top of the fuel filter housings on the engine slowly drops off from about 70PSI at start up, to less that 5LBS. Then the engine stalls. It has been very frustrating! and has put my truck out of commission for about three years. And my kids, 5 & 7 years old can hardly remember the truck ever running!

So I picked up a spare engine from Gov Liquidation and hope to put it in this summer. Then I'll look at the problem in the engine out of the truck. Hopefully fixing it as a future spare.

I plan to convert the new engine I am swapping in from its current 5 ton configuration to a deuce version before pulling the engine out of the truck. So I am currently trying to round up the parts necessary. As I remember I'll need a flywheel, bell-housing, pressure plate, clutch disc, oil pump pickup tubes, Oil pan gasket, & bell-housing gasket.

Can anyone else think of any other parts?

Also, My brother tells me that someone was experimenting with a gear set to overdrive the transmission for higher road speeds. This would be a great addition as driving to events is sometimes quite a long haul.

Who was doing this conversion? Any info would be helpful.

Thanks,

Bill
Michigan

 

[FSBruva]

Old picture! That's DaveP's 5 ton in the background, right? And Lane, is that your M109?

I don't really have any troubleshooting advice, but I am sorry I didn't get to meet you and see your truck before I left Michigan.

I am sure someone here has dealt with this problem, and can offer some advice.

Matt

 

[Stretch44875]

Looks like you've done some serious work on the truck, like the crane. More pics! Looks really good for being blue.

I had a problem with the truck running out of fuel after driving about 5 minutes. Don't remember what is was, must have been simple.

Are you getting fuel back to tank at the return line?

Dennis

 

[miltruckman]

Not so old! From the 2005 fall trail ride. The last event my truck made it to! On the way home I barely made it, It stalled so many times. There were a lot of unhappy drivers behind me most of the way home.

Bill

I'll attach a couple more photos of the same event.

 

[gimpyrobb]

We have an LDS trouble shooting guide here in the TM section. It is easy to understand and very thorough. Probably should start there.

 

[miltruckman]

more pics M342

You ask for more pics of the truck, Hope I don't get in trouble for sending all these.

Bill
Michigan

 

[miltruckman]

paint color strata blue

The truck is an ex air force M49 fuel tanker. When I sanded off all the red paint it was blue underneath. And being as i am also ex air force I am also partial to Strata blue. So I went with it. Everyones truck is green. I thought it would be nice to be a little different.

Bill
Michigan.

 

[No.2Diesel]

RE: more pics M342

I don't think anyone has ever said "thats too many pictures."

The only thing I can think of is to trace all fuel, vent, & return lines checking for air leaks. Some on the board here have also discovered that some soft fuel lines will delaminate causing some interior layers to collapse blocking fuel flow. Good Luck. I really like the Strata Blue, Dump, Knuckleboom combo.

 

[gringeltaube]

Hi Bill, welcome on board Sir! I'm glad you finally came to the right place... so we all can learn from you!!! Seriously folks, Bill has a lot of experience and done a lot of nice upgrades to his blue beauty!

There sure is a cure for the fuel supply issue. Just to give you ideas: my first Multifuel (a Tooele rebuild) is running for over 12 years now and from day one on never had the primary pump on the IP since the little gears were frozen inside the pump housing and the small driving shaft broke at the very first turn of the starter. All it has is a Bosch high pressure/high volume inline lift pump next to the tank. (Actually two identical pumps since it was converted to a double tank system to burn veggie oil)
Still running strong!

Good luck finding the plug!

Gerhard

 

[Recovry4x4]

RE: Re: more pics M342

Welcome aboard Mr Preston. Nice to see your truck again!

 

[SasquatchSanta]

RE: Re: more pics M342

Hello Bill,

Take a look at this thread --- it should walk you right through the swap.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=13265&postdays=0&postorder=asc

I ended up going to Memphis Equipment for the oil pan plumbing tubes. When I spoke with their foreman he referred to what I needed as "Reo plumbing". The oil pump doesn't have to be changed --- just the sump plumbing.

Hope this helps.

 

[miltruckman]

starting the project.

Thanks everyone for the welcome and advice,

I got a chance to start a little work on the project this afternoon.

I pulled my rebuilt 1A engine and an old 1C parts engine I had out of their cans today. I started disassembling the parts engine to get what I needed for the swap and being curious as to what made the parts engine knock so loudly, I took it a little more apart than I had planned. Inside the oil pan was a strip of mechanics sandpaper?? and some curls of metal that look like what a drill bit makes. And it looks like there is way more slop in one of the lifters than there should be. I bet it has a cam lobe wiped out. I'll have to resurface the flywheel and pressure plate because of rust but the rest of the parts for the swap look pretty good. Anyone know a good place to get a new clutch disc and multifuel engine gasket set?

I took some photos today and will post them as I get the time.

I'm also still hoping to hear who was experimenting with an overdrive gear change for the M35 transmission. I have a spare transmission I could experiment with and like the idea of some more road speed with lower engine speed. I think running these engines at max RPM that kills them.

 

[Recovry4x4]

RE: starting the project.

M-35Tom is the resident overdrive gearhead. I'll try to find the link to the thread detailing it.

 

[jasonjc]

RE: starting the project.

Some one had a bad in tank fuel hose the other day you mite look at that and or the hard line that goes across the front fram has been known to get smashed. Nice truck by the way.

 

[Recovry4x4]

RE: starting the project.

Bill, check out the details on the OD gearsets HERE

 

[miltruckman]

Well, I swapped out the truck's engine once again.

In went a rebuilt LDS465-1A I purchased from GovLiquidation. I drove to Alabama to pick it up earlier this year. It took about a day to pull the old engine, a day to convert the new one to LDT465-1C configuration and install the fittings from the old engine, another day to put it in and reassemble the truck, and a final day to adjust everything to match the new engine. Clutch linkage, throttle linkage, etc. It tapped a little when I first started it, but a valve adjustment and about 20 miles on the road cured that.

I think 14 years in a can is not so good for a new engine. It looked really clean, but when I removed the valve covers there was some rust on the inside of the covers from condensation. I think after they opened the can to take photos they never bolted the lid back on. And it sat for months that way, outside, in Alabama, while they worked on my paperwork, I found four bolts in the can lid without even nuts on them when we got down there. Good thing I brought my own bolts for the lid as it rained a lot on the way back from Alabama to Michigan.

I have a story about picking up the engine too. We drove down there, Went through the security at the gate, they searched the van and let us on the base. We did all the paperwork at the GovLiquidation office, then they couldn't find the engine. They finally decided it must be way out in the "secure" storage yard. We drove over there following the forklift driver, went through another level of security, they weighed the van, and we filled out more paperwork so they could issue us ID tags for our shirts and the van. We found the engine, and the forklift driver was all ready to load it when he looked at his watch and said "Break Time!" So we had to leave the secure area, surrender our ID tags, drive all the way back to the Govliquidation office and wait for him to take his break. Keep in mind, al;l this is happening at a snails pace. Then we had to go through all the paperwork again, They issued us new ID tags, weighed the van again and we finally got it loaded. The forklift driver was then very unhappy that I insisted on putting the bolts in the can lid before driving away. I guess he was in a hurry!

When we got home I found all the old bolts inside the can. They had just thrown them in there after the photo.

Bill
Michigan


And its done just in time for the fourth of July parade. I'll post some pictures.

Bill
Michigan

 

[miltruckman]

Here are a couple more photos of the swap I couldnt get in to the last post.

Bill
Michigan

 

[nattieleather]

Bill, Nice shop....I wish I had it...I have a packed 2 car garage...lol.

Looks like you did a nice job on swapping the motor. If I'm thinking correclty you should get a little more speed out of the five ton motor no? Doesn't it have a bigger turbo and injector pump than the duce?

Birch Run....Is that on I-75 right in the middle of MI? I stopped at a truck stop I think it was called Tony's or something like that when I went to Camp Greyling.... I thought it was Birch Run....The food there was plentifull and excellent!

 

[clinto]

Love your truck-the methodcal cleanliness, the organization, it all shines through. Very nice.


I have considered that HF gantry-let me guess, it is about 4" too narrow to go over the rear of the truck?

I'd love to be able to load mine with the gantry but I think it's too narrow.

 

[Alredneck]

Sweet truck, great pics, like the toys and tools to, must be nise to have a clen place to work!