My new 1992 M998 Avenger

[springer1981]

I just picked up a 1992 M998 Avenger. I live in Maine and was concerned about registering and insurance etc. Insurance went smooth and was less than expected. When I went to register it they were lost. I have it listed on all the documentation as 1992 AM General M998 Pickup. She eventually found "AM GN" as the maker but had to call the state to get an MSRP cost. Whoever she called knew right away what I was registering and gave her the information. Took about 20 minutes.

The next task was getting an Inspection. My regular mechanic is about 15 miles away. Of course I didn't want to drive on the 55 mph high traffic road yet. I took the back way and it was a bit of a challenge. At the very least I have to address the play in the steering. It has about a 3" side to side free movement before the wheel start to turn. On bumpy back roads it's a handful.

The tech inspecting it was a little miffed that I drove it into the garage, he definitely wanted to drive it. Once up on the lift they were amazed how clean it was under it and the overall condition. He poked and prodded around and didn't find anything to pick on. Yeah, it's inspected! After it was stickered and he was getting out I said to him "You want to back it out and bring it around?". The enthusiasm was evident. It was his reward for putting the sticker on.

While I was at the inspection station I got a call, my spare tire carrier had arrived and I needed to pick it up. So I was on to my next 15 mile journey. I had it shipped via Fastenal. If you need to ship large heavy and bulky stuff I highly recommend you check them out. Got to the Fastenal store and the Humvee ended all work for about 15 minutes at that location. Tons of questions and compliments.

Last leg of the journey was the ride home, about 20 miles. I decided to try the 55 mph smooth road. I was able to maintain 45 mph with relative ease. I did hit 50-52 mph at one point but knew that I didn't want to sustain that speed. When the dump truck caught up to me I put the blinker on and moved into the break down lane and let him pass. I did the same a couple of times for other cars.

Overall I did about 50-55 miles in a couple hours time with stops. I would go as far as to say I felt like I was pushing the limit of what I would want to do with it.

Story continues....

 

[Bulldogger]

Welcome to the club!

The steering play is a common fault, and almost certainly related to your drag link losing its grip on your right ball joint. I replaced my steering with H1/A1 components, to include the idler arm (all but the steering box itself), and am pleased with the improvements.

Definitely drive carefully, and get to swapping all the fluids and inspecting the hubs.

BDGR

 

[springer1981]

I have a couple of questions. My air filter meter has a red line at the top of the gauge, I believe it says "20in". So I am wondering if that is good or bad? The reset button doesn't seem to do anything. I don't know if it even works. Any suggestions would be helpful.

When I start the engine my "Battery" gauge pulses with a sort of clicking. Lit starts off in the yellow and clicks and drops to the red. It doesn't for about a minute and during that time the needle seems to creep up until it is in the green. After about a minute or so of this is smooth's out and stays steady in the green and lines up perfectly with the little point on the gauge. I drove it to dinner after my journey and when I was leaving it was dark out. It started right up and went into its clicking routine. I had my light on at this time and they were dimming in sync with the clicking. After about a minute of so when the gauge went to normal the lights were solid as they should be.

I have the dual voltage 200 amp generator, is the above description normal? Is it a known issue or something that has a fix? Any help would be appreciated.

Attached is a picture of an original Avenger....

 

[Retiredwarhorses]

That play in your steering wheeel is your Pittman and idler arm...I wouldn’t drive it at all until that fixed. If your Pittman fails, your done for...I’ve seen these literally almost separated from the center link.

 

[springer1981]

The prior owner did all the maintenance and fluids and kept it in good care. The idler arm was already replaced and he gave me some paper work on something he called a steering gear. I will have to look into what exactly he had done. Prior to him it was in a collection of private Humvee's for some years. From what I can tell it was not a recent auction site Humvee. I believe it has been privately owned in excess of 5 years.

I picked up Mile Marker 10,500 winch for the front. As previously mentioned the original spare tire carrier. While looking at the mounting for the spare tire carrier I noticed the rear "Air Lift" bumper has a bit of a tweak in it. It will have to come off and be straightened before the tire carrier is installed.

Currently it has the 6.5 GEP NA engine and 3 speed. I picked up a 2002 Chevy 3500 with a Duramax 6.6 LB7 engine, Allison 5sp TD with 89,000 miles. It is the long term goal, maybe in a year or two. Short term goal is to mount the winch, make it happy with the current brush guard and fabricate a Fisher plow frame with a Minute Mount 2 plow. Fix the rear bumper and mount the spare tire.

Other short term goals are to find the source of air flow that negates most of the heat in the cab. Sound deadening, insulation, better driver seat (with heating if possible). By next winter I want this to be my plow truck. I only plow my own driveways, not commercial.

Steering is a priority short term goal as well and first on the list.

 

[Wire Fox]

I have a couple of questions. My air filter meter has a red line at the top of the gauge, I believe it says "20in". So I am wondering if that is good or bad? The reset button doesn't seem to do anything. I don't know if it even works. Any suggestions would be helpful.

When I start the engine my "Battery" gauge pulses with a sort of clicking. Lit starts off in the yellow and clicks and drops to the red. It doesn't for about a minute and during that time the needle seems to creep up until it is in the green. After about a minute or so of this is smooth's out and stays steady in the green and lines up perfectly with the little point on the gauge. I drove it to dinner after my journey and when I was leaving it was dark out. It started right up and went into its clicking routine. I had my light on at this time and they were dimming in sync with the clicking. After about a minute of so when the gauge went to normal the lights were solid as they should be.

I have the dual voltage 200 amp generator, is the above description normal? Is it a known issue or something that has a fix? Any help would be appreciated.

Attached is a picture of an original Avenger....

That air meter measures the resistance to airflow in the air intake. If you want to test it, lock the throttle at a high idle and have a soldier B wrap a towel around the air intake...you can watch that gauge climb up...the reset button will allow the plunger to fall back to zero.

The battery behavior is also normal. They call that afterglow around here...it's the glowplugs continuously cycling for about 1-2 minutes after initial engine start. So long as they glow plugs work properly for engine start and don't continue to cycle after than 2 minute period, everything is working normally.

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[Wire Fox]

The prior owner did all the maintenance and fluids and kept it in good care. The idler arm was already replaced and he gave me some paper work on something he called a steering gear. I will have to look into what exactly he had done. Prior to him it was in a collection of private Humvee's for some years. From what I can tell it was not a recent auction site Humvee. I believe it has been privately owned in excess of 5 years.

I picked up Mile Marker 10,500 winch for the front. As previously mentioned the original spare tire carrier. While looking at the mounting for the spare tire carrier I noticed the rear "Air Lift" bumper has a bit of a tweak in it. It will have to come off and be straightened before the tire carrier is installed.

Currently it has the 6.5 GEP NA engine and 3 speed. I picked up a 2002 Chevy 3500 with a Duramax 6.6 JB7 engine, Allison 5sp TD with 89,000 miles. It is the long term goal, maybe in a year or two. Short term goal is to mount the winch, make it happy with the current brush guard and fabricate a Fisher plow frame with a Minute Mount 2 plow. Fix the rear bumper and mount the spare tire.

Other short term goals are to find the source of air flow that negates most of the heat in the cab. Sound deadening, insulation, better driver seat (with heating if possible). By next winter I want this to be my plow truck. I only plow my own driveways, not commercial.

Steering is a priority short term goal as well and first on the list.

Missed these...be sure to personally inspect all that yourself and get it figured out. Things fixed once can certainly break again. I agree that it's priority 1 and should make your HMMWV undrivable until it's sorted out. Instant loss of control is no joke.

For heat loss, check the easiest thing first: there's a louver control on the passenger side. You'll notice on the outside that there's an intake vent near the front passenger footwell. Just inside, you'll see a small metal louver. All the way forward is closed. All the way back is closed. That can make a huge difference. After that, it comes down to insulation. There may also be a need to clean the coolant system and check all of the controls, as any cable disconnect or bind may be affecting the expected settings from the driver seat. Last is sometimes the actual ducts get trashed. The crossover duct to the driver footwell is a common failure point.

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[1 Patriot-of-many]

That play in your steering wheeel is your Pittman and idler arm...I wouldn’t drive it at all until that fixed. If your Pittman fails, your done for...I’ve seen these literally almost separated from the center link.

Get it fixed. Now. Mine was as bad as yours, Now it's tight as a drum. That's not normal.

 

[springer1981]

That air meter measures the resistance to airflow in the air intake. If you want to test it, lock the throttle at a high idle and have a soldier B wrap a towel around the air intake...you can watch that gauge climb up...the reset button will allow the plunger to fall back to zero.

My plunger is all the way to the top and doesn't seem to want to move at all. The reset button doesn't do anything. I'll have to investigate more. I assume, based on your reply, the red line/plunger should be at the bottom of the gauge/cylinder when operating normally.

The battery behavior is also normal. They call that afterglow around here...it's the glowplugs continuously cycling for about 1-2 minutes after initial engine start. So long as they glow plugs work properly for engine start and don't continue to cycle after than 2 minute period, everything is working normally.

Great, thanks I feel better about that now. With no prior experience with these things everything is a learning curve.

 

[Bulldogger]

The prior owner did all the maintenance and fluids and kept it in good care. The idler arm was already replaced and he gave me some paper work on something he called a steering gear. Other short term goals are to find the source of air flow that negates most of the heat in the cab. Sound deadening, insulation, better driver seat (with heating if possible). Steering is a priority short term goal as well and first on the list.

If the replacement idler arm was a gen 1 M998A0 part, it could have easily blown out again. They are NOT robust. Definitely inspect your steering soonest. Easy way to see and diagnose issues is to put the front on jackstands and wag/wiggle the tires hard by hand while looking at the steering components. Should be easy to spot. Hopefully not your steering box, being the most expensive component. Hummer Parts Guy is great to work with to get your steering sorted, in my experience. He's very helpful and open with information and advice.

As to the prior owner's maintenance habits, I still replace all fluids when I get a new-to-me vehicle, but that's your prerogative. Definitely open and inspect where that is do-able, like the inspection/fill hole in the hubs, and similar in the transfer case and differentials. Be sure to be on level ground, of course. If you don't get a tiny bit of fluid when you pull the inspection cover bolts, I'd consider draining and refilling just to be sure.

Bulldogger

 

[NDT]

Why do you call your truck "Avenger"? Was it an Avenger platform?

 

[springer1981]

Why do you call your truck "Avenger"? Was it an Avenger platform?

It originally had a Stinger Missile launcher on it as in the picture attached in the second post. Based on my research and what I was told by the previous owner they were called "Avenger's". I don't believe it was an official classification of vehicle but you can find many official video's about them on Youtube. There were 1004 made and they were all 2 door hard tops. I suspect it was because they didn't want them to catch fire while launching missiles. If you search on hmmwv Avenger there is a ton more info.

Besides any of the standard deployments the Avenger was deployed to the pentagon and white house after 9/11 to protect against any other aircraft that might be used to attack, or something like that

 

[NDT]

But those were on 1037 shelter carrier trucks not 998s?

Edit: apparently there were 998s as well

 

[springer1981]

But those were on 1037 shelter carrier trucks not 998s?

I am not an expert on this subject. I have done a little reading. If you would like to know more about them I would suggest doing some research and not relying on anything I say. However based on a quick search and a result from Wikipedia here is a quote from that page.

Two variants were deployed based on the Humvee chassis: M998 HMMWV Avenger and M1097 Heavy HMMWV Avenger.

Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/TWQ-1_Avenger

I do not know the validity of the source but it looks knowledgeable to me.

 

[Crapgame]

Are you building a mock up of the Avenger Air Defense System for your truck?

 

[steelsoldiers]

Cool truck! I have always liked the Avenger hard top. Welcome to Steel Soldiers!

 

[desmodromic]

But those were on 1037 shelter carrier trucks not 998s?

Not true. I have an M998-MOD that once housed the Avenger platform.

 

[springer1981]

Are you building a mock up of the Avenger Air Defense System for your truck?

I was joking with a buddy of mine, I said we need to build a truck cap with a mock Avenger missile launcher on it. PVC missiles that launch out like the old fake guns that had a flag that said "Bang" on them. Put "Bang", "Pow" and "Boom" on them. It was a fleeting though after I thought about how many police I would likely get to meet for driving it around my town LOL.

 

[Mario]

I was joking with a buddy of mine, I said we need to build a truck cap with a mock Avenger missile launcher on it. PVC missiles that launch out like the old fake guns that had a flag that said "Bang" on them. Put "Bang", "Pow" and "Boom" on them. It was a fleeting though after I thought about how many police I would likely get to meet for driving it around my town LOL.

it would be so worth it

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[SCM35A2]

Nice!