tim292stro's M1009 (formerly math1960's)

[o1951]

Even less than that scrubs the heck out of the tires in 4wd. If nothing else, much shorter tire life.

 

[tim292stro]

New shoes today (4 + spare).


Hydroboost and master cylinder rebuild, plus a new high pressure power steering hose in two weeks. Then I can, with a sound mind, start replacing engine mounts, shocks and leaf spring bushings. No point in replacing rubber when leaking power steering fluid - that stuff eats rubber and polymer like water on table salt...

I did remember to take some sound measurements before I did the tires in case there was any effect (subjectively I didn't notice much, but that's why they make calibrated instruments). Just a quick picture at idle of the test rig, an AudioControl SA3052 1/3-octave RTA. I have the A/C weighting filter for the calibrated microphone - it has 6 memory slots, so I did unweighted and A-weighted: idle/standing, 25MPH (before 1st/2nd shift, peak RPMs), and 50MPH samples - windows up, fan off, and windless without other traffic - and the cracked dashpad off while I dork with electrical wiring, and no carpet or padding (as received from Wally).


At idle/standing the M1009 was at 70-71 db-A (as seen above), which was actually lower than I expected. Mids and lows were obviously going to be my focus for idle volume. I'll do another measurement outside with the hood opened and closed and at various RPMs, I can do that one standing still thanks to Neutral and Park . So I almost have all of my "pretreatment" baseline.

 

[tim292stro]

On the line of discussion that this truck is my daily driver, I'm currently helping move a friend with it. Much quieter when the truck is full of stuff, so it shows that reverberation in the cab is a lot of my trouble.

The rear bench was reluctant to fold down, it took some persuasion to get it to flip - I'll have to service that too...

 

[tim292stro]

And this morning... glow plugs. Didn't start on the first try, and I had the key turned to start for 10 seconds. Batteries and starter (12V 27MT) spun the engine strong but it just didn't want to take. Took out my multi-meter and got under the hood. GP relay had 12.7V at the battery side lug (this is a 12V converted GP system). I heard the GP relay click on and the wiat light ran until there was a "thunk" of the relay relaxing before the crank - turning the key to on again showed that both sides had 12.7V on the GP relay big terminals.

So... that left me with glow plugs or the wires form the GP relay on the firewall to the glow plugs. This is where my morning started to get long... The first GP connector I pulled off, the wire and the insulating boot came off the terminal and the terminal stayed behind (aww fiddle sticks). GP tested good, but now I had a corroded wire that had just snapped at the GP terminal. Next three were the same failure of the cable even when I used Gerber pliers to remove the terminals directly (not even touching the wires or where the crimp was done). Three of those glow plugs tested bad - two were totally open, one measured at 279Ohms. The one good one on the passenger side measured at 1.8Ohms.

Driver's side didn't go much better with wires, but the glow plugs were in better shape, only one out of four was dead - so I'm down half (4 of 8 total). That explains the hard starting for the last few days (hoped I'd get to the weekend to troubleshoot).

The terminals that were on the wires going to the glow plugs are not original (not the skinny ones), and it looks like the wires were cut to where the wire was good in order to put them on - this made them very short and hard to work with. So having looked in the face of this problem and read the writing on the wall, I resolved to construct a new GP distribution harness. Off to the local hardware store to get a 50 foot spool of 14-gauge wire, and some terminals (since I'm out - of course!).

A box of 8Gauge ring terminals and a box of .25" insulated fast-on females. I measured a bit long for all of the wires so that I can split the loom and tuck them in there over the weekend - 5 " between the glow plugs so I just measured the longest runs:

Passenger's side (front to rear)
66" longest near radiator
(-5) 61"
(-5) 56"
(-5) 51" near firewall behind battery

Driver's side (front to rear)
42" longest near radiator
(-5) 37"
(-5) 32"
(-5) 27" next to hydroboost

Did the same as the factory, two separate banks of wires, each received its own 8-gauge ring terminal which I crimped with the Greenlee K09 crimper (nice clean hex-crimp), and for good measure I ran some solder into the terminal crimp to block atmospheric gasses from corroding the high current terminal connection. GP ends got their new terminals.

Yeah, you're reading this and saying: that's great, now what about the glow plugs? Didn't have time to do that this morning, I was already late for work getting the new harness built since I couldn't just leave bare wires hanging in the engine compartment. So I did the old 2-stroke trick. Crank for a bit to warm the cylinders with compression, then let it "soak" in that compression heat for 30 seconds, then crank again. Without the GP relay running (I pulled the GP card), it fired on the third crank. Luckily it's not too cold today, I parked the M1009 in the sun so the engine wasn't an ice cube, and the compression is good in all cylinders.

So I get to do glow plugs this weekend (tomorrow). It was quite the smoke screen until all 8 of the cylinders lit off though.

 

[Another Ahab]

The rear bench was reluctant to fold down, it took some persuasion to get it to flip - I'll have to service that too...

Were you getting worried you might run out of things needing to get fixed, repaired, or replaced on your MV!?

 

[tim292stro]

No, once I've finshed the first pass, it'll be time to start the second

 

[o1951]

A 30 year old vehicle is sorta like an old house. Never ending. I have both.

 

[Assel]

check my "members rides" post for what I did in 2 yrs just to "keep it on the road" , these old ladies need some love

 

[Drunkle Scuzzy]

Wow, somewhat disappointing results on the miles per gallon tracking on my M1010. It looks like I'm averaging 11mpg city driving, with some big hills mixed in because its unavoidable living in San Francisco. This is after two tanks to verify that I was correct. I was hoping it would be better.

Yes, that baseline reading would be interesting to know.

I mean, as long as you're not doing all your driving up and down Filbert Street:


View attachment 609365

 

[tim292stro]

Did plugs this morning - took an hour. Nothing swelled or broke, so count me lucky. I put in AC60G's in all 8 holes, used anti-seize, and torqued to 10ft-lbs (14Nm). Fired right up afterwards

Wow, somewhat disappointing results on the miles per gallon tracking on my M1010. It looks like I'm averaging 11mpg city driving, with some big hills mixed in because it's unavoidable living in San Francisco. This is after two tanks to verify that I was correct. I was hoping it would be better.

Yeah that does seem low for MPG. To take out some of the day-to-day "noise" in your MPG measurement, you should look at the last 5-tanks-worth of fill-ups. It's called a moving "Window Average" - and is useful also for catching early service needs. For example near 3500 miles on an oil change there will start to be a critical build-up point in your oil soot load that will translate into 1-2MPG worse economy. If your driving style is more severe (like in a city with lots of hills), looking for this drop in your averaged MPG can tell you when it's time of an early oil change. Some weeks are bound to be worse than others (if you have construction along a route you normally use) and other times there are likely to be events that are unseen that'll affect your milage by causing more traffic (and thus stop-and-go). When I started looking at the milage on mine, it was terrible (right around 11MPG), but after a few months the average started walking upwards. Some of it was picking at deferred maintenance items and stopping leaks, some of it was tuning my commute route to relax my driving style (and becoming more comfortable with the performance characteristics of the Blazer).

I have never enjoyed driving in SF, you are a braver man than I for taking a truck without rear windows into a place like that - I guess you just force your way in when required and let everyone else figure out how to deal with you. That's what I had to do with a box truck I drove through there to help a friend move OUT.

 

[tim292stro]

Speaking of low MPG... today after parking the M1009 in the rain while eating lunch, I came back to the smell of diesel and a rainbow sheen of runoff from under the engine compartment. Popped the hood and it looks like the injector return lines are wet with diesel. I'm not sure if I nudged them while doing the injectors (very likely given the proximity), but by the look of them - it's time to change them. I couldn't get the driver's side front return line coming down from the IP to stop dripping. Since I won't have time to climb in there again until the next weekend (April 2nd/3rd) I have instructed my mechanic that the hydroboost rebuild will have to be delayed in order to change out the last of the fuel lines under the hood.

 

[o1951]

Speaking of low MPG... today after parking the M1009 in the rain while eating lunch, I came back to the smell of diesel and a rainbow sheen of runoff from under the engine compartment. Popped the hood and it looks like the injector return lines are wet with diesel. I'm not sure if I nudged them while doing the injectors (very likely given the proximity), but by the look of them - it's time to change them. I couldn't get the driver's side front return line coming down from the IP to stop dripping. Since I won't have time to climb in there again until the next weekend (April 2nd/3rd) I have instructed my mechanic that the hydroboost rebuild will have to be delayed in order to change out the last of the fuel lines under the hood.

Good, you found a reason for slightly low MPG before your truck caught fire from fuel leaks. I think getting that squared away will make you happier with MPG>

 

[tim292stro]

Well it became more interesting after I left for work. I was headed to a friend's apartment to help him do more moving, and I noticed in my rear view mirror about a mile from my office that I was doing a good job mosquito fogging with the Blazer.

I pulled over and found myself sitting in a white cloud that smelled like diesel (uh oh...). Popped the hood and I found two more return lines had separated from the injectors - if you imagine what a cartoon gun looks like after it was fired while someone had their finger in the end, that's what these hoses looked like on the ends. Fortunately there was enough length left on them that I was able to slip up the clamp some, and cut off a good inch from the ends and stick them back on the injectors. Ran the engine for a while on the side of the road to make sure it wasn't leaking from any other points and let the engine compartment clear out a bit of smoke.

Nice thing about diesel is that it has a very high flash point (>58°C/120°F) , so a just-warming-up exhaust manifold is only enough to vaporize the fuel and the wind of the radiator fan and road air pulling through the engine compartment is enough to keep it cool. Having the same problem in a Gasser would have had a different outcome...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LeRSPuA5Z4

 

[Another Ahab]

In connection to your post tim292stro, I had read somewhere that the M-4 Shermans were referred to during WWII as "Ronsons'; and doing a little homework found this link that says it's partly myth (just for the record):

http://tanksandafv.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-m4-sherman-ronson-lights-first.html​

 

[Drunkle Scuzzy]

San Francisco driving is so much stop and go and hills I'm not surprised its that bad, just disappointed.

People often comment that I have a lot of nerve behind the wheel... I suppose driving a dump truck in Seattle for ten years landscaping didn't hurt. A rear view camera is on the to do list, right after the engine work, suspension, and tires I have in mind. The nice blind spot mirrors I picked up at a truck stop make easy enough to change lanes in traffic, if something is in them it is next to me, if it is in the side view mirror it is behind me. I got the biggest square ones I could find that mount to the OEM mirrors. My catch phrase when backing up is "well, I guess its clear" I like to have the windows down when reversing so I can hear the crunchy noises easily. I have to admit that every now and then someone watches me park in front of their rig, and gets real offended with my bold use of the bumper. They never seem to understand when I respond that this is what bumpers are for. Its not my fault yours are so shiny. So far I haven't gotten my tires slashed, but folks in San Francisco are easily intimidated by large bearded men with out a lisp.

I have never enjoyed driving in SF, you are a braver man than I for taking a truck without rear windows into a place like that - I guess you just force your way in when required and let everyone else figure out how to deal with you. That's what I had to do with a box truck I drove through there to help a friend move OUT.

 

[Another Ahab]

My catch phrase when backing up is "well, I guess its clear" I like to have the windows down when reversing so I can hear the crunchy noises easily. I have to admit that every now and then someone watches me park in front of their rig, and gets real offended with my bold use of the bumper. They never seem to understand when I respond that this is what bumpers are for. Its not my fault yours are so shiny. So far I haven't gotten my tires slashed, but folks in San Francisco are easily intimidated by large bearded men with out a lisp.

I used to tap bumpers myself when parallel parking. I could get into amazingly tight spaces; even enjoyed the challenge. But I don't do that anymore:

- I was jockeying my car once into a tight squeeze, and admittedly using the bumpers front-and-back AS bumpers (but not being aggressive about it), and the driver of the rear car showed up and didn't like the idea. I wasn't hesitant to explain that low-impact bumpers are fine with the contact; designed for it even, but she took exception to the cosmetics.

I thought nothing of it. She insists on exchanging insurance information. I figure it's going nowhere, and make the exchange gladly.

Got the surprise when her claim went through, they gave her a new bumper (or the paint job anyway), and my premium takes a hit.

My approach to parallel parking is no longer the same. The End.

 

[CUCVLOVER]

You know how I deal with that? I don't parallel park. I just wheel in and get out where ever I please like I own the place.
Also I get passed, honked at, and just generally complained AR by other drivers when I'm plugging along at 45 or (when it's the speed limit), but I don't pay them any attention. I'm in a 6500 lbs truck with a big steel flatbed what are they gonna do?? NOTHING.
Embrace the turtle power.

 

[Another Ahab]

Embrace the turtle power.

 

[o1951]

I used to tap bumpers myself when parallel parking. I could get into amazingly tight spaces; even enjoyed the challenge. But I don't do that anymore:

- I was jockeying my car once into a tight squeeze, and admittedly using the bumpers front-and-back AS bumpers (but not being aggressive about it), and the driver of the rear car showed up and didn't like the idea. I wasn't hesitant to explain that low-impact bumpers are fine with the contact; designed for it even, but she took exception to the cosmetics.

I thought nothing of it. She insists on exchanging insurance information. I figure it's going nowhere, and make the exchange.

Got the surprise when her claim went through, they gave her a new bumper (or the paint job anyway), and my premium takes a hit.

My approach to parallel parking is no longer the same. The End.

When EPA put in restrictions on metal plating, auto manufacturers went with plastic facings over steel bumper. They are so soft, they nick, ding or crack if you look at them wrong, and Very expensive to fix.

 

[Another Ahab]

When EPA put in restrictions on metal plating, auto manufacturers went with plastic facings over steel bumper. They are so soft, they nick, ding or crack if you look at them wrong, and Very expensive to fix.

I'm not arguing that point with you (and now you know how I know).

It was a few years back, and it doesn't sting so much now. But I still don't like remembering.