What did you do to your deuce this week?

[Valley Rock]

Took the old truck on down to the local Dept. of Forestry and got it inspected, stickered and ready for another fire season .

1963 Studebaker M50 has been a water truck it's entire life, everybody loves it and so do I, getting paid to drive it and allow it to continue to do what it was born to do is a nice bonus !

 

[ToddJK]

Swapping out head gaskets on mine now. Was leaking oil really bad, would leak around a gallon per week and that's driving it three to four times around 120-140 miles/week. With the heads off, there was lots of build up around the injector nozzles, but the pistons looked great, the cylinder sleeves looked good too with no scoring or any signs of hard/abnormal wear. I did notice too, that it looked like one of the fire rings did not completely seal as I can see the soot mark on the head, which I'm wondering if that was contributing to my blow-by. Have the new gaskets on now and the heads are on but still needs to be torqued down and everything reinstalled. I have to say though, it's going by very smoothly unlike the first time I did it around 10 years ago when I melted a piston and everything in my other deuce.

 

[RedRiderBB]

I mounted two of my new ndt tires on the front and broke down one more wheel. Replaced a return spring that had broken on the throttle return.

I’m suspecting that I have a broken/missing throttle return spring, but I don’t see anything obvious, can you point me to where I can find it to verify it is ok/not ok? Accelerator pedal does not return to idle in fact it ramps itself up until the pedal is lifted an put in the idle position.

 

[cattlerepairman]

Throttle return spring diagram?

I started my deuce a few days ago and it was revving right up to about 2100 rpms when I would start it. Figured out that my pedal is sticking. I have sprayed the linkage with wd40 to no avail. I looked at the linkage and I cannot see where a return spring would go so I was wondering if anyone...

www.steelsoldiers.com

 

[mweidhaas]

Too hot to drive this afternoon so a good day to work indoors. Added some new LED headlights and brighter dash light bulbs. I also installed some refurbished newer style tailgate chains. Hoping these will eliminate the tailgate rattle.

 

[92ramaro]

It's been quite a long time since I've been here.

Life happens I guess.

I figured I'd add to this thread again for old times sake since I stopped in to dig through TMs.

A good friend and I traded dump trucks months ago, and I finally had time to run over there yesterday to throw some batteries in to see what I'm working with.

Used Daisy (my M35) as a service truck of sorts to air up some tires,blow out some fuel lines, and haul the various tools and fluids out there.

The plan is to flat tow the 2.5 ton with the 5 ton since naturally, the dump truck doesn't have brakes of its own after sitting for more than a decade by now. It's a 2 mile or less drive.

It's neat to be using a truck that was also driven out of the same ground 6 years ago to assist in the resurrection of another project vehicle.
Albeit a much heavier one.

 

[cattlerepairman]

I have a soft spot for dump trucks w/w. They are cool.

 

[Valley Rock]

I put it to work, we were on the Applegate fire for a week, old boy did good .
Needs rear springs very much badly tho

Here's a few pics, nothing exciting

 

[CommoChief]

That looks good. I bet performs much better too. I left the pneumatic wipers on mine but replaced the wiper arms with ANCO and ANCO wiper blades, so much better than the stock version. Only con, need to turn the air way up to get speed on the wipers as the new arms and blades have a lot more pressure on them vs stock, but wiper upgrades on a deuce imo, priceless!

which ANCO arms did you use? The 41-01 arms are apparently no longer available.

 

[Jeepsinker]

I thought about my deuce today. Think about it every day. I haven't laid eyes on it since June 2023, and hadn't for three years before that. Sure wish the time was right for me to come home.

 

[cattlerepairman]

Not even a "what DID I do" but "what I have to do" list.......

- drove Lola about 200km to get her appraised (for insurance purposes)
- the oil leak out of the bell housing raised its ugly head when she got really warm. She barfs a good half quart on shutdown and a has few drops when running. Appraiser did not see it. I may or may not have kicked some sand under, from the roadside....
- clutch started slipping on the way home, so that's it. She is sidelined.
- I think the rear main has given up. I had put a brand new one in when I rebuilt the engine a few years back, so that is annoying as ^&*(.

- received two new window frames from C&C, so those have to go on the truck
- ticking noise under acceleration and a bit at idle, none when coasting. I suspect exhaust manifold gasket leak. So that has to come off....

I was hoping to get away this summer with just driving her, alas, that is not happening!

 

[Valley Rock]

My fuel pump died in my M50A2 when I was out on my last fire, luckily there is a lift pump on the injection pump that got me through but it makes for longer starts and makes me nervous because if that fails I'm obviously dead in the water, no pun intended

So I bought a fuel pump from Seco parts on eBay a couple weeks ago, it has a few things dinged up that they could have mentioned that were hidden, I would have bought it anyway it's nothing I can't remedy

To pump itself is a little different, and in the way that the wiring attaches, I wish I had the little piece that locks in and holds that feed wire on, but I'll figure something out

So I got the pump out today and it's soaking in a utility tub of soapy water, it's around 100° here today, I'm half bent over in pain from an ulcer and I have a naked (in potty training mode) two year old packing off my tools and parts as I work

I shall see if I can make some more progress this evening when it cools off a few degrees, and the mosquitoes come out which is always a nice bonus

Here's a few pics ...


Edit: so the new pump didn't have any place to hook the ground wire and it was a couple of things different and some weather started to come in while our stinkering with it and I heard thunder which means lightning which means fire and I didn't want the truck down, so I took the old pump completely apart and cleaned everything and now it works just fine, so I put get back together with the old pump .

 

[ToddJK]

which ANCO arms did you use? The 41-01 arms are apparently no longer available.

I just googled it and tried a few different sites until I found one that had them available. First one I tried refunded me because it said it was available and took my money but then listed it out of stock. It wasn't super easy to find I can tell your that!

 

[Valley Rock]

I drug my M50A2 Deuce around yesterday (hope that counts) with my Superduty with a tow bar .

I have hauled a Deuce before on a trailer behind one of my pickups, bet never with a tow bar .

The tow bar makes it a different animal, it will push you thru the turns differently, and of course you now have no brakes on your load, which is approx 4-5k heavier than my 8600 lb pickup .

I had about a 1/3 tank of water on as well, which adds another 3800 lbs, not to the total weight, I'm just saying it wasn't empty .

I started out easy in 2 low, driving in a loop around the property which is mostly compacted granite with loose granite on top, so basically like driving on asphalt that's covered in tiny marbles, about the worse case scenario you could possibly encounter .

There is a light climb, a couple turns, and then a slope back down, as I drove around I went a little faster each time .

Eventually I engaged the front lockouts putting it in 4x4 because I was spinning the rear tires trying to take off .

On my last round I was going pretty good, had switched to high range, and it shoved the ass end out from under the truck on the downslope turn, nothing I couldn't handle I was ready for it and kind of expected it, I was basically just drifting for a moment and then I gathered it up, no big deal, not something that would happen on a good hard pack road or asphalt by any means .

But still, if you were going to do this, it's doable, you'd need to be fully aware and careful, a panic stop or tailgating would be out of the question .

The reason I did this is because I have a Deuce that I've purchased and I was thinking about just dragging it back with my pickup and I wanted to see what it would feel like and do a quick feasibllity/ possibility study for my own knowledge, 1st hand experience, there's just some things you can't take someone else's word for or learn off the internet .

But, I think I'm gonna use my 5 ton .

I wish I could have gotten some video of this for you guys, but it was just me and the baby, and I haven't taught him how to use the camera yet .

Edit: and a huge thanks to @Kaiserjeeps for the tow bar, and @glenn715 for getting it to me !

 

[msgjd]

I was thinking about just dragging it back with my pickup and I wanted to see what it would feel like and do a quick feasibllity/ possibility study for my own knowledge, 1st hand experience, there's just some things you can't take someone else's word for or learn off the internet .

But, I think I'm gonna use my 5 ton .

bet you are glad you tested it beforehand , and yeah, you are gonna feel things going a lot smoother doing it with the 5-ton...

Long ago before I owned MV's i towed my CJ5 with a Ramcharger and it didn't know it was there .. But one day the ramcharger lost oil pressure and i had tow it back home with the CJ5 .. Power-wise it did okay but that ramcharger pushed and pulled that CJ all over the road , even at 35-40mph .. Tight 90-degree intersections were interesting.. Glad it was only a 6-mile haul !

 

[msgjd]

spent much of the afternoon cussing, fighting, struggling, bending, shaping, and welding the rear doors of the M49C(A2) thanks to an employee of PO who decided to either back the truck into something , or back something into the truck ..

there was no adrenaline-fueled excitement though.. the tank has not held any mogas since its army days, only fuel oil the last three decades

Before:



After:



Not perfect yet, but at least this is the 1st time the doors have been able to close and latch since some time before the 20 years i have owned it ..

Oh, and yeah, i also replaced the damaged hose compartment doors courtesy of a forest service tank .. Do you like how they painted the reflectors black ???

 

[LowTech]

Do you like how they painted the reflectors black ???

That's for stealth.

 

[Valley Rock]

@msgjd I have 2 pairs of those doors, in Oregon ...

 

[msgjd]

@msgjd I have 2 pairs of those doors, in Oregon ...

NOW ya tell me !

shipping would be expensive but less than the struggle i went through , but it kept me off the street corner

 

[Valley Rock]

NOW ya tell me !

You didn't ask