M35A3 Owners unite

[lonegunman]

Nobody ever said they did not want help from "A2 owners". Everybody seemed to say that they did not want the devisive and snide comments that you call help. That's different.

Good Luck and Best Wishes to you as well.

 

[EXITNOONE]

POWER STEERING ADJUST-

with great help from ACEHIGH and LONEGUNMAN, i was able to get the power steering to work at a level that at least seems functional. it still requires a full hand and some strength to turn, but now i can hear the air cylinder expelling pressure as i turn the steering wheel from left to right. there's a lag at center, but once the steering wheel turns about 5º to 10º either left or right, the air system catches up and reacts with good control.

attached for everyone's general reference are photos of the steering air pressure regulator, which is tucked on the inside of the frame opposite the drag link on the driver's side of the truck. one photo shows the regulator with the screw cover on, and the other shows the actual pull out twist knob which is marked + and - with an arrow that says pull to adjust.

i also found the power steering adjust components in the tm on 2-28.

if the regulator acts up again, i may decide to remove it. so far so good. i took the A3 out on the freeway and scorched the pavement at a blistering 50 mph !!! at that speed, the humming xl tires are actually louder than the engine... and somewhat meditative in a civilian non combat readiness kind of way. i might up my tires to 46" xzl for all the road driving i'll be doing.

the petcock on the driver's firewall is actually a shut off for the steering system in the case it sustains some kind of leak or failure and can only run manually. that's good info to know if you hit a rock out in the middle of nowhere and start to lose air pressure due to some kind of damage to the steering components.

i'm glad we have this A3 specific thread to answer useful questions !!!

 

[ClarkeF]

Looking at the post from EXITNOONE and I don't see any pictures? I too have an A3 with poor performing air-assist. I can hear small bits of air as I move the wheel, but the effort is still very high.

I have a separate issue. There is a fitting on the top of the engine, drivers side, that looks like it is missing a hose or connector. I can see cat yellow paint on only part of the threads - like it was covered by a fitting at one time. Wondering what I am missing here. Stupid forum keeps telling me that my <100k 500x500 JPG and GIF are not valid formats. Let me post and try again.

Forum must be broken again.

Direct links:
IMG00188-20100604-1624 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
and
IMG00187-20100604-1624 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[EXITNOONE]

CLARKEF- i'll have to go through my tm to see what part your flicker photos are showing.
hopefully somebody will answer back with more info for you.


there's some kind of server problem on the forum right now... i don't see any attachments on any posts. however, the photos i uploaded were there originally and all i see now are the empty attachment boxes.

maybe the site is doing some maintenance or something ??

when i log out, i can see the attachment lists, but not the photos.
when i log in i see no list or photos, just an empty attachment box.
my albums arent showing the photos i've uploaded either.

 

[AceHigh]

Clarke, no problem, mine is the same. They used this engine in trucks, buses, boats and so on. We do not need whatever Cat plumbed into this.

 

[lonegunman]

That was for the original Caterpillar fuel filter that was high mounted on the engine. It is unused on the A3 set-up. The engine is bought as a unit from Cat and installed by AM General. It has fittings and attachments that are not used in every application. Like most truck builders using Cat products they use a combination of Cat supplied parts and their installed parts.

 

[EXITNOONE]

REPOSTING power steering petcock and regulator:

 

[EXITNOONE]

Egr flex tube

EGR FLEX TUBE QUESTIONS:

the A3 egr flex tube which runs between the intake stack and the exhaust stack,
is weathered to death on my A3.... it's shredded beyond repair.

anybody know where to get that type of spiral wire reinforced heat resistant canvas tube from ?

and while we're on the subject, has anyone noticed any engine performance differences with the egr tube removed from their A3 ?

oh how i hate useless emissions control additions !!!!

i haven't registered my A3 yet, but it will require an initial smog check, according to the dmv, because it is an out of state vehicle. the visual inspection requires all smog control parts to be in place. after passing the initial inspection, it will be smog exempt, because it is a diesel made before 1998. california is full of useless laws like this...

if i can't find that tubing, i'm thinking heat resistant tape by 3m, spiraled around the tube will look just about original, and function the same.

 

[aztec]

duece more MPH

m35a3 read about people wanting to change out allison auto to 2000mod for more mph or add overdrive gearbox all 2 much time money why not change axle gears std are 6.72 oemaxle.net has 4.90 bang job done

 

[lonegunman]

If you could swap gears in the axles I think that would be the way to go as well. The tires really are intended for about 60mph and the wheel would need some real balancing as well.

 

[EXITNOONE]

EGR TUBE ??

see above question

 

[Maverick1701]

If I asked nicely would one of yall A3 guys mind taking some measurements for me?
I need measurements of the A3 headlight bracket (M35A3 Headlight Mounting Bracket, 12448988 Left / 12448989 Right)
Im going to install them on my A2 so I can throw on some extra lights w/out looking like a ghetto fabulous install

I thought it might be easier (and MUCH MUCH cheaper) to fab these instead of dishing out $230 per bracket...OUCH! My future father-in-law is a welder/metal worker and Im going to see how many cases of beer it will take for him to fab me a set.

 

[goodguyzy]

actually I'm going to do the same thing to my bobber soon, kind of a half breed PM me if no one gets back to you, I'm away from my A3 till Monday

 

[motomacguyver]

On that EGR tube question, I would look into inboard boat engine exaust tubing. (west marine) for starters.

 

[shovelheadmike]

My A3 was sold by GL as an 98. However, when I registered it in NC, they (DMV) decided that it was a 93. Later I discovered the axle tags say 95. I'm happy to leave it a 93.

 

[glcaines]

My A3 was sold by GL as an 98. However, when I registered it in NC, they (DMV) decided that it was a 93. Later I discovered the axle tags say 95. I'm happy to leave it a 93.

My A3 was sold by GL as a 93. Carmac looked it up and came up with 97. The rear axel tags say 1/23/98 and 1/26/98. The Allison transmission also has a 98 date on it. The engine says 93. I believe mine has a serial number reserved for 97, but was not built until 98. I'm registering it as a 98 in Georgia if I can ever get my SF-97.

 

[EXITNOONE]

MOTOMACGUYVER- thank you for trying. i'm actually to the point in my build now where i cut off the egr tube attaching points on the air intake assembly and the exhaust stack. i've welded the holes over with sheet metal and they'll be unnoticeable once i paint. i haven't ran my A3 flat out yet, but in my opinion, the engine should breathe easier without the egr hot oxygen-less gasses being sucked into the cool air intake. i'm figuring that over time, it will also reduce carbon build up in the cylinder heads of the engine block and reduce wear.

the egr tube inside the exhaust stack is an elbow that blocks about 50% of the exhaust clearance. in addition, it creates a vacuum that sucks exhaust gasses into the air intake. although it may reduce emissions to a degree, i don't see any benefit to the performance of the A3 when exhaust is prevented from exiting the stack, and worse, sucked back down into the stack.

i'll be posting some specialized A3 only pics of intake/exhaust set up soon. i think the other A3'ers will find it a good subject to debate.

MAVERICK1701- i'll try to have those bracket measurement posted for you by Tuesday.

SHOVELHEADMIKE- a bobber shovelhead harley sitting in the bed of a bobbed m35a3 would be perfect !!!

 

[motomacguyver]

One thing I found on my A3, was that the fan belt was torn, it only had 4-5 ribs on it and the tensioner was hopping all over the place.The belt is supposed to be 7 ribs. No big deal I thought, get a new belt. So I did, ( it's 64 and 5/8 inches long 7 rib, ordered at the local auto parts house, apx 28$, BTW.) and installed it. Started the truck and thought all is well. However I still had the hood up and looked at the belt path over the alternater. Not good.... the belt had slid forward 1 groove. Turned the truck off and looked closer. Turns out the alternater bracket was set-back about 1-belt groove from where it shoud be. Obviously the alternator itself had to be moved forward about 1-2 "belt grooves" So I removed the alternator and the bracket and milled off about 1/8" from the back of the bracket and added two washers to the front. (all of this was on the lower mount) then I bent the uppper mount to match. (using my hand). Reinstalled everything and now the belt tracks correctly in all the grooves. Sorry no pics, Just an FYI...if you have a hopping tensioner or skinny belt.

 

[EXITNOONE]

all the more reason to go electric fan if you have the time and resources. that's one upgrade i'd like to do for sure !!!

 

[mktopside]

MOTOMACGUYVER- thank you for trying. i'm actually to the point in my build now where i cut off the egr tube attaching points on the air intake assembly and the exhaust stack. i've welded the holes over with sheet metal and they'll be unnoticeable once i paint. i haven't ran my A3 flat out yet, but in my opinion, the engine should breathe easier without the egr hot oxygen-less gasses being sucked into the cool air intake. i'm figuring that over time, it will also reduce carbon build up in the cylinder heads of the engine block and reduce wear.

the egr tube inside the exhaust stack is an elbow that blocks about 50% of the exhaust clearance. in addition, it creates a vacuum that sucks exhaust gasses into the air intake. although it may reduce emissions to a degree, i don't see any benefit to the performance of the A3 when exhaust is prevented from exiting the stack, and worse, sucked back down into the stack.

i'll be posting some specialized A3 only pics of intake/exhaust set up soon. i think the other A3'ers will find it a good subject to debate.

MAVERICK1701- i'll try to have those bracket measurement posted for you by Tuesday.

SHOVELHEADMIKE- a bobber shovelhead harley sitting in the bed of a bobbed m35a3 would be perfect !!!

That's interesting that the EGR blocks so much of the exhaust. I wonder if deleting the EGR would help smooth out the cold idle any. I don't have to pass emissions with mine in my state, so I can't really see any down side to doing this.