My M1031 Contact Maintenance Truck project

[CUCV_ut]

Hello

I've been an occasional reader here for years but I think this is my first post. First off I would like to thank everyone who provides so much help to everyone, I've usually been able to solve any problem just by reading posts here. I bought a nice M1031 from a university auction several years ago and decided this year I would try and make everything right on it. The fire school added a hand throttle lever located under the generator control panel rather than sort out the governor issues. But before I tackle that I came across an interesting question. I installed a battery disconnect a couple years ago between the rear battery positive terminal and the 24 volt buss bar. I noticed that when the switch was off I would get 12 volts on the 24 volt buss. I was wondering if it was just a residual charge from a capacitor or something so I connected a trouble light to the buss and it lit up (half bright). I wondered if I have a problem with the alternators since if I leave the batteries connected they do run down. I guess my first question is, is that normal?

That seems odd to me so I took some measurements. On the driver side alternator with the key off I get 12.5 volts on the + batt terminal, 0 on both the terminals where the brown and red wires would plug in. On the plug end I do have 12.5v on the red wire and 0 on the brown. The passenger alternator (with the + wire off the back battery) has 12.5 volts on the - terminal, 12.5 on the + out (batt) terminal, 12.5 on the terminal where the brown wire connects (with connector unplugged), and 0 on the terminal where the red wire would connect.

Here's a picture of the battery disconnect I installed in the compartment above the welding tanks. I mainly put it back there so I could have a hefty 24 volt connection to run one of those surplus iris (xantrex) 1800 watt inverters I have mounted in the compartment by the generator control panel. I think it's the disconnect from a personnel carrier. I like it because it give me an old style slave receptacle I can use for jump starting generator or running 24v pumps and also has a bulb socket I can plug the trouble light into.



I'd really appreciate some input on the mystery 12 volt / alternator issue so I can move on and document the generator repair and several more projects I have in mind.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I just disconnected the front battery ground and noticed that the 12v was still present on the 24v buss. I tried disconnecting the - on the rear battery and the 12 volts went away.

 

[cucvrus]

Nice truck. It needs some OD reapplied. Does it have fancy wheels on it?

 

[eme411]

that panel is out of a M-113 APC, the socket is the IR power socket,

 

[NDT]

Great looking truck! I've been pondering your backfeed issue for a while now and I can't come up with a path ofher than the alternator. Check out the other SECM threads, one of our members figured out an easy upgrade for the governor control.

 

[iasc399ia]

Nice vehicle. Looks like a fun project. Please keep us updated on your progress. I'm interested in this one

 

[Skinny]

Nice M1031

I wouldn't repaint it. Looks like a car meat wagon with the official looking badge and stripe. I would get some kinda catchy slogan and paint it on the side.

 

[Keith_J]

Do not run the generator without proper speed control, the generator can be damaged by excessive speed.

 

[CUCV_ut]

Thanks for all the comments. I had been waiting for the comment about the paint job, but I had forgotten about the "fancy" wheels. I would like to someday paint it OD or camo again. When I'm working in the engine compartment I can see the original paint and can't help but think how cool that would have been if they left it. Interestingly the truck has run fine possibly for years this way, and it seems like if it were bad something would have smoked a long time ago. I did try disconnecting all wires from the alternators and the 12 volts was still on the 24 volt buss (with the back battery positive disconnected). I'm going to take some measurement with the truck off and see just how much current is being drawn to drain the batteries.

I did dig into the generator governor circuit a little more today and found that most of the time the engagement switch on the PTO wouldn't make a good ground. I couldn't find any current source for the original part number, but from researching some previous posts it looks like the part number should be 30M91113, can anyone confirm that? If anyone has used that switch, what kind of a connector does it have? Mine has a spade terminal. Some of the pictures on here look like a little pin sticking out. I also replaced the micro switch on the transmission shifter as mine was totally broken off. getting that flag thing that clamps to the shifter rod aligned looks like lots of fun. I have it all the way up and it still isn't quite high enough to hit the switch when I have it in drive.

I also installed a Golight spotlight on the roof. I assumed since they were surplus and 24 volts that they would be pretty rugged, it's good but not quite as rugged as I had imagined. The little black unit behind it is a US Globalsat GPS. When I installed the GPS I was actually installing a dome light and decided that would be a good place to hide and access to the roof for mounting the GPS. It actually worked quite well for installing the spotlight as well. Now I just have to decide where on the dash to mount the controller for the spotlight.

Here's a picture of how I mounted the xantrex inverter I mentioned earlier In the compartment where the generator controls are. I've been using this until I can get the generator working.

 

[Keith_J]

Looks like you have al components for the governor system present, if they still work is a mystery. Most from the factory have a few errors in wiring like the wire to the engine solenoid is incorrectly connected to the cold start and fast idle circuit instead of replacing the pink wire on the injection pump.

the other issue is the use of a barrel fuse in a substandard fuse holder, mine melted the solder out. That was replaced with an ATC fuse holder and 15 amp blade.

 

[Skinny]

I would suggest going through each safety switch and clean it, adjust it, and verify proper operation with an ohm meter. Mine were all caddy-womp-uss from day 1. As far as the governor system...good luck! Mine was all present and barely worked. I've had some decent luck with it after getting the switches dialed in. Occasionally it just wouldn't do anything. Well the day arrived last week where it randomly died. I pulled the boards out and noticed a small burn mark in the printed circuit. I soldered a replacement wire with no joy. I think it may have ruined the IC chip. Who know...who cares. Time to kill the 30 year old boxes of magic.

I've got to start looking at the APECS 4500 that B4Thundr sells or an GAC EDG5500 (http://www.governors-america.com/products/governors/Digital/EDG5500-Series/EDG5500). Always a tough call because very little user feedback is out there and everything these days is made in China so quality is unknown unless you know someone who has one. My suggestion if you really want your genset working is to get your governor figured out because you are dead in the water without it.

Also, sweet Xantrex. Looks like the same one I have in my boat. Keep an eye on water leaks, my box needed some strategically placed silicone to stop some leaky rivets from dripping all over my electronics. I have a stereo amp mounted in that same spot.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I agree about the fuse holders being suspect and even more annoying, is having to carry glass fuses just for those. I changed out both fuse holders today and made sure the connections were solid. The military spent a lot of time and effort designing all these safety switches, so I do intend to keep them if possible. I'm slowly adjusting and repairing them one by one. I do think that Woodward APECS controller is pretty neat, I may check into that upgrade eventually (sooner if the boxes are broken).

I decided to finish the Golight today and was surprised to see that it didn't work. It would move a little back and forth using the wireless remote but wouldn't light up or respond to the wired remote. I checked the bulb and connections and everything looked fine. I ended up having to open up the whole light and could smell there was a problem. I noticed the bulb was 12v even though the box said 24v and had wondered if they reduced the voltage inside the light somehow. In the corner of the light there is a little voltage regulator board that drops the volts down to 12v for everything in the light. I will give Golight a little credit, they did make it plug in simple. I just unplugged the light from the board and plugged the power cord right into the light and hooked it back up to 12v and everything started working. So much for the cool 24v factor. Here's a picture of their little board.


How does anyone else handle lighting on their truck? Every time I've needed to repair or recover something with the truck it seems like it's dark. I've decided I want to add more lighting to it. I managed to find a couple of those big metal floodlights the trucks came with and they are really nice other than they get really hot, the bulbs are hard to find and expensive, and you have to fire up the generator and drag out the cords. Has anyone mounted floodlights or spotlights on the truck? I'm also working on some lights for inside the compartments, especially the main one. Most of the time I use the truck for recovering green toys or helping the in-laws with their tractors / towing around implements etc. That's the main reason I kept the amber lightbar.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Lighting on mine is in it's infacy but if you can give me until Tuesday Eve, I'll post some pics. I have 2 strips of LED lighting in the bed, 2 of 4 worklights on the body and a light tower that once up and plugged in, I can control the on/off function wirelessly. There is so much left to do with compartment lighting and the likes. Bear with me and I'll get you some good info.

Edit, I did find a pic of the light tower. Crude but ever so effective.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Here are a couple of more. Led strip lights in the back and in the day pic you can see the side area light. I chose these as they are super low profile. You can also see the light tower despite it's less than half extended. Pics are out of order but you get the idea.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I was able get outside for a few minutes again today and continue checking into the PTO indicator light not coming on. I got under the truck to double check the PTO switch because I've read so many different posts about it my head was swimming. The switch my unit has does have white on it, but I think that's because it was a much older style switch. The part number stamped on it is 30M13004 and from studying the schematic posted on here I am confident that it would be what Muncie calls the black NC ball switch. Here's a picture of my original switch, you can just see the 004 end of the part number stamped on it.


The ball is just kind of squishy in the switch and I cannot get it to pop out any, it acts like the spring is broken or gummed up. It never makes contact and is always open. I'll call and try and get another ordered tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the ideas on the lights. I hadn't thought about LED strip lights for the interior, that looks really good and lights up the full length of it. I've got some surface mount dome lights with clear lenses I was thinking about mounting a couple of back there. The down side to those is that they would hang down and could get broken easier. I've been known to haul large items in the back, one time I hauled the air compressor out of a lube trailer and it was pretty close to the ceiling. I like the pole lights you have mounted on the outside of the truck. Do you have more information on how you made the mast for them? I've seen the commercial models they put on fire trucks and they are nice, but very pricey.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Pics forthcoming the next time I'm home in daylight. Right now the mast is supported by a temp piece of PVC. I had to press it into servicing ce early for a cubscout event. I toiled with a way to create something small scale like the engines have. I have a 24V hydraulic pump and really wanted to use that but in the end it was just too costly. Right now I'm using a Sureline telescoping paint pole. Colors suck but function is great. At the top I simply used a paint roller handle to mount the lights on. I can screw it right off the pole for storage. On my truck there was a junction box on the front right side of the bed. Since I have no 110 back there I converted it to a marine 12V power plug thats controlled wirelessly. I can simply extend the light and plug it in. Upside is that I can also leave it on to charge phones and such. Cool thing about the marine plug is that the ground is isolated from the body. I ran this off the back battery so that I can save use of the front one. It really works quite well.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I finally had some time to work on the M1031 this morning. I was able to track down the switch for the PTO. I was researching the number when I ran across a reference to a compatible replacement on the six states website. They crossed the switch to a Chelsea 379652 NC ball. From previous posts I knew that the switches out there were using a pin type connector instead of a spade like my old one so I researched a little more and found a booted connector part number 379640 from Chelsea. They had them both in stock so I went picked them up.

I installed them both this morning and now the PTO indicator light comes on the and relay in the back clicks. The engine still wouldn't speed up so I continued troubleshooting. I pulled out the manual for the governor I found here and went through the steps to find that I have a bad governor box. I could get the actuator to move so at least that still works. I noticed that when I had the linkage in the top hole of the actuator it didn't move the throttle, there is a lower hole that does seem to exert enough pressure to move the throttle. I though from pictures I had seen here that the linkage was usually in the top hole. Here's a picture of how mine looks. When I bought the truck they had it in the lower hole and a throttle cable jerry rigged in the top hole. You can still see the throttle cable along the top edge of the actuator. Can anyone tell me where the linkage should be?

On a side note, does anyone happen to have a governor controller box laying around?

 

[Skinny]

Someone with more generator knowledge may chime in and trump what I have to say...

Personally, after getting all the safety switches adjusted and getting the M1031 into generator mode, check for 12v at the governor box. Without power, you are dead in the water. Also check your ground connection as well. One thing I also would do is check for a signal from the PTO speed sensor when it is spinning. It has something like 140 teeth or so which simply generates an AC voltage when spinning. Spin it up, check for AC voltage and Hz, spin it faster, both should increase. With power and a speed signal at the governor box, nothing should be stopping you at this point. Now you could have another control box interfering so I would also check for operation with the Ramp and Overspeed disconnected if nothing happens.

Realistically, with power/ground and a speed signal at the governor...no operation means bite the bullet and get a controller built within the last decade

 

[CUCV_ut]

When I checked out the governor I found 14 volts on the input to it (with engine running), there also about 4 volts AC coming from the speed sensor. According to the manual the sensor should be working. I could not get the actuator to move when I jumpered terminal 2 and 3, but I did confirm the actuator works by powering it as the manual suggests. I also didn't get any voltage on terminal 6 or 7 or the controller, which they say indicates that the controller is shot. I've been looking for a used controller, but ultimately I'm putting the funds together for the Apecs 4500 replacement.

I've been working on getting my original work lights back in the truck. There's been plenty of posts on here showing them mounted to the wall inside the main compartment. Does anyone have any picture of how they are mounted to the wall? Is it just a couple bolts through the wall with wing nuts on them? I'm also looking to put an original air compressor back in mine. The welder and compressor were removed when I bought it. I've looked around locally and there are plenty of cheap 3 phase compressors but no small ones that would work in the truck.

 

[eme411]

I have to say that I'm very happy to have one of the early bodies on my 1031 ,just start the gen and no problem, I'll post some photos soon,