So I was just looking for a Chevy Pickup...

[JakeM211]

Again thanks for all the info. The pedal would come back but the internals in the cylinder were jammed. Sorry for the confusion. That cylinder you show looks almost identical just that little rounded silver tin piece is different than what I had in mine though I see no reason the cylinder wouldn't work fine as a unit. The cylinder I ordered worked great and I could tell right away the spring was much stiffer in it than the original. Bled the air pack and all wheel cylinders then hooked up an air chuck to one of the tanks and aired up the tires to a more road-worthy PSI. I have one inner duel that has a bad leak at the valve stem so it wouldn't stay up but I have 3 other fully inflated tires so it's fine right? Checked tranny oil and started moving.
This is where things don't go as well as I had hoped. The transmission has that wonderful problem these trucks seem to develop of having high range act like a parking brake. When shifting into high you can feel it give a little jerk like it wants to move but it's stuck tight. Low range works great and shifts through all gears and reverse. Without many other options and not wanting to pay another month or longer of storage fees we made the decision to slowly make our way home with the wounded beast.
I went around the storage lot a few times and she ran pretty well. Has a bit of a miss at times but nothing terrible for something that has been neglected for several years. Pulled out of the gate and got halfway to the gas station and she putters out and gave a few coughs when I tried to start it.. So I get out and look in the tank. The tilt in the road had taken the 8 gallons of gas I had in her and drained it all the way to the right lol. Sooo I had to go buy a new can as I had forgotten to throw them back in the car before I left home and stick 5 more gallons in and she fired back up lol.
Got her to the gas station and as soon as I jumped out I had 2 guys swarming me asking all about the truck lol. Gassed it up and off we took at around
10 Mph. It was a long slow drive but as we passed houses along the road anyone who was outside was waving and yelling with at least 1 salute. Even had a Sherriff and a city cop go the other way with big smiles on their faces as I made my way down the side of the road.
After 3 hours we got home and parked and my son, his friends, and his boss, who were out for his birthday party all had to come climb on the big green jungle gym.
I changed out the oil in the motor and transmission yesterday and checked the distributor. Looks like it has all new parts in that but whoever put it together lost a couple of screws and didn't get the top of the gasket lined up so it let a bit of moisture in. I cleaned things up in there and she idles and generally runs better though she has some hesitation when you first hit the gas and wants to cough. Pump the gas in a few quick bursts and she revs right up and drives.
Got home today and checked the oil bath and found the oil looking almost new with a couple of acorn shells floating around in it. Replaced it and got it all hooked back up before it started raining on my head.

So back to the main problem. I see one thread where they say the rear band gets stuck from sitting too long and to try getting the truck moving and then shift into high in an attempt to break it free. I tried but again high range is a good parking brake. In another thread, they say " If the transmission works properly in one range (high or low) but the truck will not move in the other range, the wavey release spring in the reduction unit has broken. This is a very common failure." I have started looking through TM's but either I have missed seeing anything about this part or just have not found the right section yet. Can anyone point me to the right picture? I'm confident if I can just see what I need to tear into I could get her fixed but I'm not going to just start pulling a tranny apart willy-nilly looking for the broken bit lol.
Anyway here's a pic of her with her new herd mate (The Bird is getting a new power steering pump this week).

Oh and I almost forgot. It looks as though something was welded to the back 2/3rds of the bed from the two long weld beads on each side that have been ground down. Hoist or something maybe? But that might explain why the bed itself is in such good condition. It just wasn't being used as a normal bed I think.

 

[NDT]

How fast were you going when you did the "shift to high" trick? When it lets loose it will be a deafening bang. Removing and taking the transmission apart to fix this is no fun.

 

[m1010plowboy]

That's just awesome.......the museum piece is home.

TM 9-8024 page 163....pdf pt.1.... is a trouble trans section. They claim Z, e or h to be the issues to check. That section covers a lot of solutions with the most difficult decision.............. report to ordnance maintenance personnel. I tried, the OMP guys don't answer their phone anymore.

More M135 TM's

The 9-8024 in 4 parts.

www.steelsoldiers.com

The best scenario is when moving the gear selector to high range the linkage isn't pushing the lever far enough......that's e, ....Manual Linkage. Watching the linkage move to high range then putting a hand on it to see if it will travel farther is a quick start. We found that after stiffening up loose pins and linkage, shift selection got better.

Z and H don't sound as fun being the reduction unit control valve or linkage.

 

[JakeM211]

How fast were you going when you did the "shift to high" trick? When it lets loose it will be a deafening bang. Removing and taking the transmission apart to fix this is no fun.

Well unfortunately the speedo is one of the few things that isn't working just right at low speed (that and the fuel guage) sooo guessing 10 or 15. About as fast as I wanted to push low range judging by how the engine sounded. I took it out on the highway again tonight and gave it another couple of tries and did manage to leave some nice little duel rubber marks along the way No joy on the high range, however getting the engine up to some higher RPMs seemed to help it a bunch. When I got back home she was idling just as smoothly as you could ask for and I also noticed that she was shifting much smoother through the low-range gears and not trying to give me whiplash on the first couple of gear changes this time around. I'll keep working with her and see if I get lucky.
On a side note, it got dark enough to check all the lights and every one of them works from the dash lighting and the high-low beam indicator to the blackout light.
The truck is in damn fine condition if I can lick this transmission issue.

 

[NDT]

Maybe try this, drive the truck up against an immovable object like a tree, put in high range, engine a little over idle, and crawl under the truck and beat on the reduction unit with a sledgehammer. If you get killed doing this, sorry in advance.

 

[JakeM211]

Thank you for the link Plowboy. I'll play with the links next and see if I get that lucky.

And NDT you just gave me the biggest laugh I've had all day! " If you get killed doing this, sorry in advance. " That one is gold, my friend.

 

[m1010plowboy]

That truck is in such nice shape it needs to be out pickin up'. There may still be NOS trans stuff in a crate up here if it's needed. I'll meet you in Lethbridge for a steak and ginger ale. Keeping premium trucks rolling is a noble goal. I still wonder if this fella here at Precision Transmission wouldn't love an old hydromatic to put together on his show. He seems to source parts and fix anything just like the M133CDN owner that rebuilt his hydromatic, not too far from you. Rebuilds can still be done. https://www.youtube.com/@PrecisionTransmission

When you get a chance, could you put that truck in a pose position and snap more pics, please. Front, quarters, sides, rear,.....close up pics of any markings. I'm almost embarrassed to ask for pictures of your box but it might tell us more of a story. If it was welded while still in service, someone may recognize the pattern. Canada went nuts utilizing the G749 but the U.S. wanted to shift gears. Why a 1950's American deuce didn't get beat to smithereens is a bit puzzling.



An interesting number to see would be the serial number. The 1952 models were into the low 5 digits already. If your truck is later than 1952, the serial number should tell us how many units were punched out by the time your truck was built. I saw 40,000+ in one article Butch posted years ago and there's a data-base here to compare truck numbers. https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/g749-vin-military-registration-database.134364/

 

[m1010plowboy]

It snowed so I'm thinking out-loud today. Do you see any heat indicators around the Reduction Unit?

Over here on Jatonka is some more trans trouble shooting info....... http://www.jatonkam35s.com/jatonkaM135-211sTMdownloadpage.htm

It's 9-8025-2 down at the bottom. The descriptions are more thorough and troubleshooting goes a little deeper. There is a ton of work that can be done with the transmission in the truck and that TM will help.

Flat towing these trucks has created a few negative stories. I have pics of a transmission attached to a blown motor. We made some assumptions if the engine is blown the trans may still be goin'. After the towing stories from Mattech and others of boiling, exploding oil and burnt smelling transmissions upon arrival, I grabbed some pics. It looks like this reduction unit took some heat at some time so just wondering if your transmission paint might indicate if she got hot.
The oil in this trans was almost particle free with no smell of burning. Let's hope you have the same luck.



For those G749 transmission guru's...... is burnt paint around the reduction unit something common? Does towing cause this?

The control valve on the transmission side was the piece guru GW had apart lots. The galleries can get plugged up so it's worth a look into.

 

[JakeM211]

Thanks for all the interest and helpful suggestions guys. I really appreciate it. Now onto the news. IT FINALLY BROKE FREE!!!!!!!!!!
I was tinkering on it after work tonight and checking out the linkages but could find nothing wrong. Everything is super tight and shows no signs of wear that I can see. So I put the floor back in and started shifting her around and noticed that if I backed her up in low and then shifted to high it started to move forward just a bit before stopping. Got me thinking that maybe my attempts to break it loose last night might have done some good. So I ran her down the highway in low (being passed by a pickup with a kid waving his little arm off at me out the back window) to a less used road and after the second try, she gave a little pop and started driving normally.
Don't think the carb is acting just right but she shifted through all the gears pretty smoothly. Feels kinda boggy in high and I just have a feeling it should be showing a bit more spunk than she does in that gear but at this moment I'm not going to complain about it as right now other than not having it registered I could drive her to town safely and at normal speeds.

I will absolutely get you some more pictures. For now, the serial number is 30867 Date of delivery is 3-54 Contract number is DA-20-018-D-11943 Numbers painted on the truck are 41222213 with HQ 85 on the right rear bumper and 42-2 over I-108 on the left bumper at least it looks like 108 its a bit rusty. And there are several places where TP 45 is painted on it.

 

[NDT]

Whoo- hoo! What great news! I knew you’d get it loose.

 

[NDT]

Looks like 42 nd Infantry Division (New York National Guard), 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, Headquarters company, 85th truck assigned to company. Very storied history to this day. TP45 is of course tire pressure.

 

[NDT]

As far as “boggy”, the 302 doesn’t have a lot of azz under 2500 rpm. You can force high rpm shifts by using “hilly”. The 302 is ok with 3400 rpm all day, she’s screaming but that’s how uncle ran her back in the day.