Utah HMMWV recovery, Helmet Hard top install, and build.

[Wire Fox]

Y'know, I was about to go out and get this tow package upgrade because it looked like a nice stopgap between stock and the airlift bumper; however, it looks like airlift bumpers are about to get a lot cheaper again... No comments about specific auctions or where, but there's probably 200 of these bumpers across different lots with the gavel about to drop...the price is very low and I'm hoping that the re-sellers keep the margins reasonable so the little guys like you and I can afford to put them on our HMMWVs.

 

[CUCV_ut]

The HMMWV was down for over a month this summer. I was having problems with the power steering that I thought was air in the system from when I removed the cooling stack. It was hard to turn but even the brakes stopped working right. Back when I put the cooler back in I filled up the power steering with ATF, it never really ran dry or anything. I topped it up a little then just as I was pulling back in the driveway it squirted some out all over the ground ( I guess out the cap vent). That's when I noticed the brakes were not power assist any more. I tried bleeding it a couple times like the TM says but it never got better. I pulled out the a power steering tester I had for GM vehicles, but none of the fittings would fit. I found a surplus power steering test I had bought, but on first glance it looked like it wouldn't fit the HMMWV. Then I realized the two adapters were screwed together. Here's a picture of what the adapter for the HMMWV look like.

I hooked up the power steering tester according to the TM (you have to install a bypass hose as well as the tester) and followed the troubleshooting procedure.

During normal operation is showed only about 50 psi and maybe 1 gpm. When I closed the valve the pump only got up to about 600 psi. According the TM the pump was bad. I finally found a NOS genuine military part. I followed the TM and got it installed and bled. It was amazing how much better the truck drove with a good pump. I did notice with the new pump when starting the truck if you have your foot on the brake the pedal will jump back up at you when there's pressure, with the bad pump it did not anymore.

I've been wanting to add some switched to the HMMWV for lights and accessories. The boxes that mount near the fording valve look nice but I didn't want to get in the way of the valve when I get it installed. I found a neat 4 switch plate on an auction site that mounts by the door.

I found out the hard way that you should install the switches after you mount it otherwise it will not fit. There's a groove machined into the plate that keeps all the switches aligned straight. I didn't use the switches that came with it, they were nice but I wanted sealed military grade switches so I went with the cutler hammer brand. I soldered on some pigtails with packard connectors on them.

I've been experimenting with different dome lights for the truck. I ordered some BA15S led bulbs that fit in a standard dome light socket. They were advertised as 12-24v bulbs. Before installing them I hooked them to my power supply and tested them out at 26 volts to simulate the alternator charging the batteries in the truck. The current on them jumped up to .4 amps (according the power supply) by the time I got up to 24+ volts. It only took a couple seconds for them to start smoking. I guess the voltage range of 12-24 volts was a clue.

I tried them again on 12v after they stopped smoking and they actually still work. The next ones I ordered only say 24 volts, so hopefully they will actually work in a 24v vehicle.

My in progress projects now include- mounting a 24v inverter in the helmet hardtop (one of those surplus 1800w units), installing the Harris offset heavy duty antenna bracket (the hardtop was in the way, having to use spacers on the back), rear flood lights, switched 24v fuse panel (from ignition or ACC position, using a relay), switched 12v accessory power panel to run a vhf radio and CD / stereo, adding a 12v Tekonsha prodigy electric brake controller and relay box for 12v trailer receptacle, a spare tire mount for inside the hardtop that holds the tire vertical, a roof rack for the hardtop. I've installed two of the armor dome lights in the front with some simple brackets, just need to get some pictures.

I'd like to install some 24v outlets inside the truck. I was thinking about the mini twist lock kind that the CUCV ambulance has. I've also seen some that look like a light bulb socket, usually used for trouble lights and the pouch style MRE heaters. I'd like to be able to use the outlets for the hot water MRE heater, a surplus 24v electric fridge / freezer (originally for blood / medicine transport), work lights, a laptop power adapter, etc. Any suggestions? Anyone know which prong on the CUCV ambulance outlets is positive (one is silver the other is brass color)?

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Y'know, I was about to go out and get this tow package upgrade because it looked like a nice stopgap between stock and the airlift bumper; however, it looks like airlift bumpers are about to get a lot cheaper again... No comments about specific auctions or where, but there's probably 200 of these bumpers across different lots with the gavel about to drop...the price is very low and I'm hoping that the re-sellers keep the margins reasonable so the little guys like you and I can afford to put them on our HMMWVs.

Yeah I saw that right after I paid $500 for mine...Happens everytime.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I've been busy at work, but finally got a chance to work on the HMMWV again. I have a heavy duty antenna mount that mounts on the back and has a side support that I wanted to install so I could add an HF antenna that need some good support. With the helmet hardtop on, it wouldn't quite clear the back. Rather than notch out the lip of the top, I finally found some nice aluminum 3/4" thick spacers that were large enough I wouldn't worry about them ripping through the aluminum body. I used them to space the antenna mount out from the back of the truck, on the back I used some huge fender washers to distribute the load on the aluminum. I seems very sturdy now.



My next project was the civilian trailer connector. I mounted the 7 way flat trailer jack on the back on the opposite side of the pintle hitch using a regular L bracket from the trailer store. They also sell a 7 way RV style connector by Bargman that has a cable pre-attached with a couple foot long molded pigtail. I've been using those for a while and they seem to hold up much better than the cheap jacks you run your wires in the back of. I ran the pigtail to a Tectran 667-7050 trailer wiring box. Bargman also makes a similar box. It has a metal bracket that you can snap circuit breakers into. The breakers are from the "short stop" line and come in various sizes. For the turn and tail lights I used 8 amp breakers, I'll probably put a 20 in for the 12v feed to the trailer and another in for the output of the brake controller (once installed). I made up Y cables with a male and female Packard connector that plugs in line with the rear tail lights to get the right turn, left turn, and tail / marker light signals. Keep in mind the right turn signal will have to come from the right tail light, I forgot and had to make a longer cable. I connected those to 3 separate 24v relays that switch a 12v feed to the new trailer receptacle.


My next project will be installing a Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller. I will use the same relay for the signal from the brake switch to feed 12v into the brake controller.

I upgraded the rear tail lights to LED lights because I found them for a great price. I also added some 24v Grote led lights to the back of the hardtop so I can work at night.

 

[911joeblow]

Looks good neighbor...��

 

[CUCV_ut]

I've been working on the CMT and neglecting the HMMWV a little, but the CMT has been waiting for about 7 years to get the arctic heater installed. The last drive I took the HMMWV for got a little interesting. The turn signal wouldn't flash, but stayed on continuously when I had the brake pushed. I figured it had to do with the 12v trailer wiring I had installed. I'm wondering if the relays I installed had a diode or resistor inside in parallel with the coil, maybe I hooked the + and - up backwards (most cheap relays don't care because they don't have anything wired with the coil). Our car was in getting an alignment so I had no choice but to drive the HMMWV so I unhooked the 12v trailer wiring from the truck for now. It was pretty cold driving with 3 windows open because of the classic zipper problem. I got the speedy stitcher and the optional thin needle and thread. The driver door took about 2.5 hours, the next one took about two hours. The only problem I had was the window on 2nd one looked pretty awful.

Many thanks to the users on here that posted about the Plastx from Meguiars. I never knew they sold a big bottle of it and never would have thought to try it on the windows.

I've got one more door to fix, this one has a small tear / crack in the clear window vinyl. Hopefully I can patch it up enough to get through the winter. Up next I'll probably finish the fording kit install.

 

[juanprado]

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View attachment 703539


View attachment 703543

Looking good! Fyi, that fellow member ,General Hood, has the Harris rubber insulators for your HF antenna set up on the right and I would add- very reasonable.

 

[damarius]

Hey man I'm also renovating a helmet top. My choice was also to ensure my kids could hop in. I'll post pics of mine as well.

Mind if I ask did your top come with any braces or roll bar? Just seems like allot of weight to just be bolted down. Would you mind providing interior pics of your top setup?

 

[603hellmutt]

Hey man I'm also renovating a helmet top. My choice was also to ensure my kids could hop in. I'll post pics of mine as well.

Mind if I ask did your top come with any braces or roll bar? Just seems like allot of weight to just be bolted down. Would you mind providing interior pics of your top setup?

They just have the windsheild clips, the b pillar bolts, the mid l brackets behind the rear seats and the rear l brackets behind the side boxes. I feel mine is plenty secure. The b pillar remains in place so i figure thats enough rollover protection for me.

 

[Terra1936]

Will a helmet top fit over a c pillar and side rails with the soft top removed?

 

[603hellmutt]

No, C pillar and rails must be removed.

 

[CUCV_ut]

It's been quite a while but I've finally gotten back to working on the truck. We drive it around town regularly, but went to take it for a nice slow ride up through the mountains last week. It made it a few blocks before I started smelling antifreeze. I pulled it back in the driveway and it was shooting out of the lower radiator hose.

We ended up taking a different vehicle. When I got the new part it was very hard to put on. Does anyone recall if that lower radiator hose is the same size on both ends? I got a NOS one. It went on the lower pipe no problem but the water pump seemed larger and took every trick to get it on. The hose I got was the same size on both ends.

I got back to working on the 12v trailer wiring today. I had it unplugged since last fall because with it connected when you put on the right turn signal it would stay on solid. I basically used a Y fitting to tap into 21c for the tail lightsm 22-461B for LT and 22-460c for the RT. Those each feed a 24v relay which switches 12v to a 7 way RV trailer jack. Sounds very simple but is giving me fits. I actually undid everything and put it back to normal to see what would happen and discovered something weird. When I have service drive lights (headlights) on the brake lights are always on too. If I unplug the 22-461B wire the light goes down to just running lights like it should. When I check the 22-461B wire it's showing at least 10v without the turn signal or brake pedal pushed. When I have the main light switch set to just service (no headlights / running lights) the brake lights work normally. Any ideas what may be at fault? I did notice my turn signal lever has a problem with the emergency flasher function and won't turn on. I hope I can get this sorted out so I can move on to putting in a prodigy brake controller.


Could it be the turn signal switch? Not sure how that the drive lights would cause it.

I finally managed to get the Airlift bumper installed. It took months of piecing it together but I'm pretty happy with it. I definitely second the advice to leave all the bolts pretty loose until you get all of them in so you can align all the holes. I had the brackets bolted to the frame rails and the body mounts back on before I noticed one of the tubes for the old shackles stuck out too far and the spacer didn't push the bracket out far enough. I had to pretty much remove everything on that side and support the bed again so I could grind it down a little. That difference made it so the bracket was crooked and the bumper was out from all the other brackets.



I also got the tachometer mounted. I used rivnuts and mounted it at the top of the window near the wiper motor.

I noticed when the wipers are on, the motor rocks a little bit. Does everyone elses rock a little when it's on? I hope the rivnut or bolt isn't interfering with the wiper linkage. The bolt is only 3/4" long.

 

[FKAM]

I noticed when the wipers are on, the motor rocks a little bit. Does everyone elses rock a little when it's on? I hope the rivnut or bolt isn't interfering with the wiper linkage. The bolt is only 3/4" long.

My motor doesn't move, but it use to, until I realize the mounting bolts were just slightly loose. Just a thought, not trying to be a smart aZZ.

I've been trying to find a mounting cup for my tach and have not been able to find one deep enough to hold it. Where did you find yours?

 

[CUCV_ut]

Good guess FKAM, I looked at the windshield wiper motor and the two screws on the right side were coming loose and one was gone.

The cup I used for the tachometer is an autometer 5204 for 3-3/8" gauges. I drilled two holes in the back to allow the two studs on the back of the tachometer to stick out, then I just put the nuts on them to hold the tachometer in the cup. The gauge still does not fully seat in the cup by less than 1/2", but I just painted the cup and part of the gauge that was exposed. Over all it went together fairly well.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I got around to working on the Red dot AC unit this week. I was waiting on the hoses, I had already gathered everything else by going through the packing list that comes with the kit and searching for the part numbers. I have a helmet hard top and didn't want to mount the red dot condenser up on top since it would make it super tall. I finally opted for a 18" X 26" Parallel flow high efficiency condenser on the radiator stack.

I found some 24v fans from a MRAP condenser and mounted them to the condenser with those plastic kits that poke through the fins. The condenser is about the biggest you would want to use, if it was any taller it would stick up fat enough to hit the hood. If the fans were any thicker they would hit the hood. On the botton of the fan mounting ties they have a square base. I used the stick on foam pads on the bottom of all 8 of those so it has them resting on the oil cooler. Hopefully that will provide some wear protection so they don't rub. I also put two foam pads on the bottom of the end tubes where it might rest against the power steering cooler. Then I went all out and secured it down with some zip ties along the end tubes.

The compressor is pretty standard mounted just like the kit shows.

Back before I found some hard doors I installed a 4' long tool box from tractor supply in the bed along the right fender. I decided this would make a great place to mount the the evaporator unit, just behind the rear seats and a little towards the passenger side. I found some angle brackets and bolted it to the top of the tool box.

Routing the hoses was a little tricky. I decided to go out through the fender and down between the frame and body. I used some nice coated clamps to secure it where I could.

I decided to keep the receiver / drier near the evaporator so I mounted it on the side of the unit. The harness was about 6" too short to reach the switches, so I had to extend both so they would reach.

The harness for the switch panel wouldn't reach with the evaporator that far back and up, so I had to improvise and mounted it on the radio tray / shelf.

I was very excited to get the hoses all crimped and secured. I evacuated the system with an electric vacuum pump for about 1/2 hour. Then I started filling it up with R-134. It was slow going. I was shooting for a little under 4 lbs, but the last little bit went in faster and I got just over 4. The system seemed to operate pretty good at first but never got down below 60 degrees output. The system would cycle from around 50 on the low but the high side started going up to 400 then the switch cut off the compressor, it would drop fast and pump back up again and shut off. It repeated very fast, maybe 6-8 second of compressor on then it would hit 400 and shut off. It seems like the output air was up to 80 degrees when it was doing that. I recovered some R-134 back out thinking it might have gotten a little too much. I thought I had it about right so I went to unhook the gauges and the cheap china couplers on my gauge wouldn't disengage from the high side and it started leaking. I finally got it off, but now I have no idea how many pounds are in it.

I tinkered with it some more this afternoon. I pulled out the gauges with the couplers that have the knob to back off the schrader valve so I didn't have a repeat of earlier. I adjusted the pressure until I got about 45 psi on the low side and 325 on the high side. The compressor held steady and didn't go up and down like before. I got the air down to a little under 60 degrees. It was about 90-95 degrees outside. It seemed pretty consistent at least. Does anyone have any suggestions to fine tune it? It seems like it should get down to 50 or less on the output air doesn't it? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Action]

Do those fans run constantly? Even if the a/c is off. Or do they block air flow when you want the windows dpwn?

 

[CUCV_ut]

I too was a little concerned about inhibiting the flow through the radiator stack at first. I'll try driving around with the A/C off and see if the engine seems to get hotter. As it stands now when the A/C is on the engine fan runs much less, so I guess they do push a lot of air. I might just add a switch to turn the fans on manually as a means of cooling down the engine if necessary. I may in the future try the fender mount condenser or once I get the roof rack installed mount one up there. I think the fender mount would be the best way, but putting in both fender units would cost a lot.

 

[911joeblow]

I too was a little concerned about inhibiting the flow through the radiator stack at first. I'll try driving around with the A/C off and see if the engine seems to get hotter. As it stands now when the A/C is on the engine fan runs much less, so I guess they do push a lot of air. I might just add a switch to turn the fans on manually as a means of cooling down the engine if necessary. I may in the future try the fender mount condenser or once I get the roof rack installed mount one up there. I think the fender mount would be the best way, but putting in both fender units would cost a lot.

If you decide to go the fender mounted route, you will not need both sides. One unit is more than enough. As is a single unit has twice the capacity of a single radiator mounted unit.

We have a 24V advanced fan controller unit we are releasing which will control those fans nicely and is an all digital, WX sealed unit. It is Pulse tech so the fan speed is directly controlled so the fan noise is greatly reduced. The nice part is the nearly complete elimination of the mechanical fan operating. Should be done soon.

 

[CUCV_ut]

I was looking at the rifle mounts for the HMMWV. They look like they would make it even less comfortable to ride in. Since I have the hard top I got thinking about a way to put some mounts in the back. The kids love going out and shooting their BB guns and I've gotten tired of them banging around in the back.


I mounted the barrel clips to a plate bolted to the top of the compartment of the hard top. I bought two of the butt plate mounts and bolted them to a plate then bolted it to the fender and bed of the truck. The mounts look like they're out a ways but I wanted to be sure other rifles could fit in too.

I found that one of those carry bags for the camp chairs worked very well as a cover. They don't zip all the way to one end so you can hang it over the barrels and they pretty much wrap around the rifle. I don't plan on leaving anything in it full time except maybe the BB guns, but I bet you could make a chain or cable device to secure them. Anyone have any good ideas for a quick access locking gun mount in the front?

 

[CUCV_ut]

I finally got tired of all the room the spare tire used inside the back of the truck. I found a great deal on a rhino tire carrier locally. He had everything but the wrench / tool and the clips to secure it. I had to upgrade to 1/2" longer bolts to get it to fit. I also didn't see where anyone had answered the question of having the tire carrier with a helmet hard top. I was hoping there would be some room and I could open the top, but I'll have to swing the tire out each time.

I've seen pictures of trucks with the mud flaps and tire carrier and searched to see more details of how they installed both, but I could not find any details. It looks like you sandwich the mud flap bracket between the tire carrier and bumper. That leaves a gap behind the carrier and makes that side stick out a little more than the other.

Has anyone else noticed this? Did you install it differently? Would it matter that the mud flap side sticks out slightly more than the other side of the bracket?