Working On The M561 Gama Goat

[mkcoen]

I got part of it figured out. Most of one set of wires are obviously coming from the old turn indicator and most of those go to the bottom part of the distribution box. Unfortunately there are other wires from the main loom going to both the top and bottom sections of the box. Also the tags on the wires aren't matching up exactly as they do in the TM. I'm going to try matching the 6 wires on the new section to the loom, covering anything loose, hooking the batts back up and see if I cause any magic smoke or not. I guess as long as I can get it to start I really don't need any other electronics. If I melt the whole thing I'll just buy Warthogs and start over. At least his engine is the right color.

 

[Barrman]

Mark, I did the solid state blinker conversion on my M35 Gasser. Should be the exact same number and letter wires you are working with. Do you have a pin out diagram of each wire from the blinker switch? I found that my best resource. I will look around for the one I used. It might say M715 on it, but again. The wires and letter are the same. At least they should be.

 

[m38inmaine]

I tried looking up the schematic in the -34 here on the site but it's all jumbled up. If you can post a good schematic from a -34 it would help figure it out.

 

[mkcoen]

Mark, I did the solid state blinker conversion on my M35 Gasser. Should be the exact same number and letter wires you are working with. Do you have a pin out diagram of each wire from the blinker switch? I found that my best resource. I will look around for the one I used. It might say M715 on it, but again. The wires and letter are the same. At least they should be.

I tried looking up the schematic in the -34 here on the site but it's all jumbled up. If you can post a good schematic from a -34 it would help figure it out.

I'm actually using the conversion directions from the -20. You'd think they'd be correct. However...

Being the eternal pessimist that I am (how I knew the Goat would never get MV of the month for May - maybe I'll get a couple of pity votes now) I figured I better not feed the new loom behind the dash until I got everything working correctly. All the wires are connected to, I guess ballpark, correct wires (there were none I could locate labled that had letter designations after the wire number), the loom hooked into the solid state flasher and into the wand. What we have are working, correctly I might add, front signals and the flasher on the wand is working. What is not working are the rear flashers. I know I have 1 bad brake bulb (actually missing as I took the wrong bulb out) but not sure if that would affect the rear turn signal or not. I've got new bulbs ordered but don't know how soon they'll arrive.

At least I'm half way there.

 

[Barrman]

I emailed to your gvtc account. It is a pdf and I can't seem to get it to load here.

 

[m38inmaine]

It very well could be bulbs or the connection between the carrier/tractor and you might try checking for power at the carrier trailer plug with a test light to see if power is making it from the tractor to the carrier harness.

 

[mkcoen]

It very well could be bulbs or the connection between the carrier/tractor and you might try checking for power at the carrier trailer plug with a test light to see if power is making it from the tractor to the carrier harness.

I am getting power to the carrier as the tail light with the correct bulb in it works. After taking the bulb out that was incorrect one of the upper bulbs lights up. That's one of the reasons I'm thinking I have to have working bulbs in the correct spots for it to work. After this I have to figure out why the tail lights work but the brake lights don't. Have I mentioned I hate electrical problems?

 

[m38inmaine]

You might also want to eliminate the chance the brake light switch is bad. If you have a multi meter(you should)disconnect the two leads to the brake light switch and while you hold the two meter leads to the switch, step on the brake and see if you have continuity confirming the switch works. With a couple of inexpensive test aids, a multi meter and a test light you can figure out 99% of all electrical problems.

 

[Another Ahab]

Started working on the blinker change over today. As noted earlier I did find some additional yellow paint and more of the beach has washed ashore.

Anyone done this before? Do I just lop them off and tape them over? Try and unspool them from the entire wire loom? Say "screw it! Who needs turn signals?

 

[AMGeneral]

You might also want to eliminate the chance the brake light switch is bad. If you have a multi meter(you should)disconnect the two leads to the brake light switch and while you hold the two meter leads to the switch, step on the brake and see if you have continuity confirming the switch works. With a couple of inexpensive test aids, a multi meter and a test light you can figure out 99% of all electrical problems.

I really hope you don't have to change the brake light switch Mark,super cramped under there!
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?136975-My-new-to-me-Gama-Goat/page4

I ended up having to take the rubber "boot" off the old switch and use an impact gun to get mine out,while holding the brake line with a wrench!

BTW,someone in the past had installed a Deuce airshift front axle indicator light switch instead of a brake light switch,that was the problem on mine.

 

[mkcoen]

I have a question about the photo on the left, where the Goat is on a trailer. That appears to be a car-hauler trailer. I am in dire need of a trailer to haul my Goat around. According to my tape measure, my Goat is too wide by about 4 inches to load onto a standard car-hauler. My tape measure says I need a trailer that will haul about 8000 lbs, no less than 8' wide, and about 18' long. (Oh yeah, I need a tongue pull as well.) Every standard car-hauler I've measured isn't wide enough to fit a Goat between the trailer fenders. (And the trailer fenders certainly aren't near strong enough for me to drive the one axle over, without crushing them!) When I go to trailer selling businesses, they all want to sell me a heavy equipment trailer, with a load rating of usually 20,000lbs!
How did you get the Goat onto a car-hauler?

I know I answered this back in May but didn't really have any good pics of the Goat on a trailer. Since I had it out today I thought I'd get some better ones to give you an idea. This is on a 20' long 7' wide car hauler. There's not a lot of room between the fenders but enough to fit. Where I have the front is the sweet spot for tongue weight on this as most of the weight (engine/tranny) are just ahead of the axles.

 

[mkcoen]

Got the tires!

 

[Another Ahab]

Got the tires!

Are you worried about running out!?

 

[mkcoen]

Are you worried about running out!?

Not now.

 

[combat32]

Get any other treasure?

 

[mkcoen]

Get any other treasure?

Believe or not I got 4 sets of lifting shackles. Also got 3 sets of tow shackles and a whole box of rope tie down points. Luckily the tie downs were used on loads of vehicles. There is also at least 1 correct style tail light. There are several lights but I didn't look at all of them. He was really trying to get me to take the engine but we were lucky to get all the tires on.

 

[combat32]

Where is he located if you don't mind saying

 

[mkcoen]

Where is he located if you don't mind saying

Cheyenne, WY

The engine and a set of fuel tanks were the only Goat parts he has left. He's got an M54 W/W but that was the only other MV he has.

 

[AMGeneral]

Got the tires!

Nice looking load of tires there.

 

[mkcoen]

Nice looking load of tires there.

There's a mix of OE and retreads but they all look pretty good. I didn't have time to inspect them closely as we were trying to get back on the road but all of them looked very useable.