M998 HMMWV Rebuild/Repair Alexandria, VA

[Bulldogger]

I took delivery of my new to me 1987 M998 a week ago today and have already been fortunate to learn and be helped by your excellent site. Thank-you!

I look forward to becoming part of the obvious camaraderie I have seen in your threads and correspondence.

As I work my way through the lubrication order and other maintenance, I will not hesitate to search here for tips and tricks, and will share any insights I make myself.

Thank-you for this site and for those of you who have made it so useful and helpful.

Here is a picture of my old gal. Her doors don't match, since GovPlanet sold her to me without. But thanks to The Bay I found some, NOS rears and gently used fronts (had to restitch the zippers a bit is all).

I will give a shout out to McGuire's vinyl restoration cream, it worked quite well on the front windows. I have a few other bits to share, but will find the appropriate threads to add them to.

Alex

 

[theeDIZ]

Congratulations on your acquisition and welcome from MD.

 

[kblazer87]

Hello and welcome from southeast Indiana.

 

[MtnSnow]

Congrats on the contracting the green addiction disease...and welcome from Utah

 

[CGarbee]

Welcome from Raleigh, NC (where the day job is) and from Syria, Va (where the family is...).
If you aren't doing anything Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day Weekend, come over to Graves Mountain (in Syria, VA) and join a few of us as we: get ready for the Bluegrass Festival, watch fireworks and do trail maintenance, and host the annual trailrides/rally (in order).

 

[SignalNco]

Welcome from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia near Winchester.

 

[Landbarger]

Welcome from the southern end of the Commonwealth.

What all do you have planned for your M998?

 

[Tracer]

Welcome aboard from Nevada.

 

[ageregunner]

Welcome from PA.

 

[Gralmk]

Welcome from MA!

 

[WV New Guy]

Welcome from WV . I work right next to Alexandria on the north side where all the jet noise comes from.

 

[Bulldogger]

Thank you all. This seems like a very welcoming community, and a helpful one too.

As to the question of what I plan to do with my Humvee, for the moment I am just keeping her as is. I am replacing all fluids and will be doing an open-and-inspect of major systems.

Tonight while trying to figure out why the brake lights didn't work well, I let a spark out from under the instrument panel along with some magic smoke. So I will be doing an "unplug and plug in" of all electrical contacts up next. The brake lights won't work at all now, and the headlights cut out, while the instrument lights are always on if the light system is turned on. And this is with the panel light switch set to off. In comforting news, I pulled one headlight and it tested okay. So it is a connection problem, I didn't burn out my brand-new expensive headlamps.

So I have some work to do.

In the good news category, I replaced the fuel filter and strainer last night, having already drained and refilled the tank with fresh fuel.
I have run her for nearly an hour total with some injector cleaner in the tank, and she keeps running better and better.
I am very glad about this because the government planet listing indicated she wouldn't run above and idle and I think that's why fewer people bid against me. As I suspected, it was a combination of old fuel and moisture in the fuel.

I will continue to do the lubrication order and open, inspect and cleaning of all major components over the coming weeks.

Bulldogger

 

[Bulldogger]

Here's a question for Humvee owners : after start up the lights flicker a little and I can see the needle on the ammeter click back and forth between the yellow battery section and the green good section. This goes away after about five minutes . I slapped a voltmeter on the batteries while this was happening and noticed that it jumps between 28 and 24 volts while this is happening. I don't understand why it does this, though I am happy that it goes away once the engine warms up a bit.

This might get cured by me doing the unplug and plug back in maneuver, but I wonder if anyone else has noticed this?

Thanks,
Bulldogger

 

[DatGuyC]

Normal glow plug afterglow operation, five minutes seems too long though as mine only lasts for about 1.

 

[Bulldogger]

Thanks! I feel better, it is longer than one minute for mine, but probably less than five. I will reserve judgment until she is fully woken up. Since her drained fuel was brown I'm thinking she sat a while. I am running her every day to wake her up and clean the fuel system of gunk.
At least this "ticking" isn't cause for alarm. So now you all can tell this is my first diesel

As it stands, I will not be driving her anywhere until I finish the drain flush and fill of all fluids, including the hubs, and the electrical system inspection.

Bulldogger

 

[HMMWV Nut]

Welcome from central Illinois.

 

[AZK9]

Welcome from Arizona!

Best of luck with your MV!

 

[whatadeuce]

Welcome from the badlands of South Florida...Last Confederate holdout...

 

[Floridianson]

Welcome and I grew up in Alexandria just off of Braddock rd.

 

[Awol]

As said before, welcome!

I'm currently in the market for a HMMWV, so I'll be hanging around this area a lot more now!