• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

M923A2 came home with me today!

Ferroequinologist

Resident railroad expert
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,807
736
113
Location
Liberty Hill, SC
Hey Chris,
If you need any help with all that heavy lifting, send me a PM! Love to learn as I go. It may not be a deuce, but it is Navy and OD green iron....

I want a Navy Deuce as a keeper. Think I've got a chance to find one?
 

BKubu

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,760
1,150
113
Location
Gaithersburg, MD
Adam,
If you had posted this a year ago, I could have helped you. I recently sold the most cherry 1987 Navy M49A2C that I have ever seen (possibly the nicest original deuce I've ever seen). The Navy deuces are out there...but they are fairly rare.
 

Blake

Active member
322
61
28
Location
Opp, Alabama
Adam, i have a line on a real Navy Seebees deuce around our area. It is carc green with seebees stencils on the doors
 

steelsoldiers

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
5,259
3,975
113
Location
Charleston, WV
Got some more work done today. Just need a few more parts and a couple of new batteries and I should have it running and driving.

My brother, Chad, came up to help today. He tackled the wiring in the cab. He soldered on some new connectors where the engine run/start switch had been chopped out of the harness instead of being disconnected. He hooked up the switches for run/start and batt on/off, plumbed the front axle shift switch, and fixed the ABS harness.

While he was doing that, I worked on the front hub. I had to jump up and down on my 3/4" ratchet to get the lug nuts to break loose. Then, I about busted my guts carrying the hub and brake drum. I got the spindle/air brake spider torqued down and then spent about 30 min cleaning the rust and crud off of the spindle. I cleaned and repacked the wheel bearings and put on a new inner hub seal. Then, I hit a snag. The rust on the spindle was preventing the inner bearing from seating all the way. When I tried to take it back apart to clean the spindle some more, the bearing stuck and pulled out along with the inner seal. Now I need to get a long enough puller to get the bearing off so I can get it to fit. Arggghh.

Oh well, so I stopped that project for a while and moved on to trying to get the engine started. We filled the crankcase with 18 quarts Rotella plus 2 for the filter and filled the tranny with 17 quarts of Dexron III. Then we hooked the steering ram up and filled the steering pump with fluid. After that was done, we had the joyful task of lifting the 4 6TMF batts up 6 feet into the cab and hoking them up.

The moment of truth came. I flipped the main power switch on and the gauges moved so that was a good sign. I flipped the engine switch to run and the low air whistle started, the CTIS module lit up, the parking brake light lit, the control box clicked and the fuel shut-off solenoid moved. Great I thought, here goes, I flipped it to start and got nothing but a flurry of starter solenoid clicking. Crap, I flipped it again and the engine turn about a 1/4 turn and the more solenoid clicking. Frickin batteries! I checked them with a VOM and 2 were at 10v while the other 2 were at 12.5v. The low 2 I had difficulty charging so I'm guessing they have a dead cell or something.

So, I need to get 2 more 6TMF batts, the radiator mount and fan shroud, finish the hub, add a truckload of coolant and I should be good to go.

I'm going to try and finish a few more things tomorrow afternoon and then gather parts for next weekend. Overall, I am very pleased with the progress so far. I just can't wait to get it running!
 

cranetruck

Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
10,350
75
48
Location
Meadows of Dan, Virginia
Good progress Chris! Too bad about the bearing snafo.
Did you change the filter in the transmission?

I'm too awed by the multitude of technical features on my own 5-ton to even think about driving it yet. :)

Snow flurries here this morning....not the best day to get things done outside.
 

steelsoldiers

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
5,259
3,975
113
Location
Charleston, WV
cranetruck said:
Good progress Chris! Too bad about the bearing snafo.
Did you change the filter in the transmission?

I'm too awed by the multitude of technical features on my own 5-ton to even think about driving it yet. :)

Snow flurries here this morning....not the best day to get things done outside.
Hey Bjorn,
Yeah, the bearing is a PITA. I need to do quite a bit more polishing on the spindle before the inner or out bearings will slide on. Arggh. If only they would have left it in the cab instead of tossing it in the bed.

I didn't change the filter yet. It is a spin-on so I should be able to get it at NAPA. I just topped off the fluid levels to see if it would start. I'll change all of the filters before I let it run for any period of time. I think I need to buy 12 gallons of gear lube for the diffs too! I never thought I would be buying lubricants in 5 gallons pails. Fluid changes were pretty cheap in my CUCV days ;)
 

steelsoldiers

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
5,259
3,975
113
Location
Charleston, WV
Woo-hoo, got the bearing off! My regular 3-jaw puller was WAY too short to reach the bearing so I had to improvise. I went to the Ace Hardware and bought 6 metal straps that were pre-drilled and cut to 10" for repairing barn doors and such. I used 2 of those to extend each jaw long enough to reach the bearing at the back of the spindle. It took a couple of tries and then finally it began moving. Big relief. I took the bearing to NAPA and they had the exact one in stock! Cool. Now, I need to get that sucker polished up with the emory cloth so this doesn't happen again. "Why not just buy a new spindle?" you may ask. Well, it is a 939A2 part designed for the CTIS system and would be major hard to find and $$$.
 

Attachments

BKubu

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,760
1,150
113
Location
Gaithersburg, MD
Chris,
You can start that truck on two batteries. The two bad/low batteries must be dragging the others down. I only have two batteries in the camo M925A2 and you heard that one start when we were down in NC. Don't get me wrong...if it is bitterly cold, two batteries won't be enough, but the 8.3L motor is not a big motor, especially as compared to the NHC250.

Bruce
 

steelsoldiers

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
5,259
3,975
113
Location
Charleston, WV
Bruce, I may try that later this week. I just ran out of daylight on saturday and was tired so I didn't want to screw anything up. It is interesting that there is a 12v circuit coming off of the batteries. I found that when wiring the batt. switch. It sends 12v to the control box, to the heater circuit and one other thing. Interesting...

Joel, I'll get a few shots of the spindle set-up for you and post a few line drawings too. It's pretty neat the way they did it.
 

BKubu

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
4,760
1,150
113
Location
Gaithersburg, MD
I was told that you get low on the heater blower by running only 12 volts to a 24 volt motor (I believe that is how it was described to me) so this makes sense.
 

steelsoldiers

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
5,259
3,975
113
Location
Charleston, WV
I finally tracked down the last of the important bits today. I found a take-off lower radiator mount, a fan shroud and a power steering cooler. That should be all I need, aside from some the occasional NAPA part, to get it on the road. Hopefully it'll arrive in the brown truck before the weekend. Woo-hoo.
 

ida34

Well-known member
4,120
33
48
Location
Dexter, MI
BKubu said:
I was told that you get low on the heater blower by running only 12 volts to a 24 volt motor (I believe that is how it was described to me) so this makes sense.
This is how most all cars get the different speeds on the heater fan. There is a resister with a matrix of several resisters that provide different voltages to the motor based on the switch setting used. When the blower motor will only blow on high usually the resister is bad. I am pretty sure the M35 heater kit has a resister to get low speed for the fan and I am not sure if the M900 series has it also. I would think it does.
 

Rattlehead

Member
645
3
18
Location
Michigan
The wiring diagram for the 900 does show the heater fan running off the 12v tap from the batteries. As far as I can tell from that eyechart, the fan is the only thing that is center tapped.
 

steelsoldiers

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
5,259
3,975
113
Location
Charleston, WV
Here's the pic of the batt switch from the wiring diagram. The 569 terminal gets 12v from the batt. box. 81A taps into 81 which goes from the control box to the starter solenoid and then branches to 81B which goes to the diagnostic plug. 369A goes through a circuit breaker and then to the heater switch. 459 goes to the A terminal on the control box. So it would seem that some part of the control box and the starter solenoid see 12v as well. Hmmm.
 

Attachments

Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks