Successful Deuce Recovery

[silverstate55]

Finished lots of little details today: ran the new horn wire & wrapped it for protection; installed the horn button in the new steering wheel; ran a separate ground wire from the flasher lever on the steering column to a good grounding point on the firewall; relocated the flasher unit from the fender to the firewall; soldered several connection points (all ground wires) that needed it; created a new ground wire for the driver's side BO light; wrapped the main wiring harness on the firewall in 3/4-inch heater hose to prevent rubbing/chafing on flasher unit; reinstalled compressor air pipe and related accessories; cut the required notches on the inner driver's side fender to clear the new P/S box & column, then reinstalled the fender & reconnected all wiring.

I also installed the Pitman Arm & Drag Link to complete the power steering conversion (using the kit from Waterloo Specialties). I supported the front axle on my 2 10-ton jackstands and bled the system with the engine off, by turning lock-to-lock 50 times. I used 4 quarts of power steering fluid total, which I thought wouldn't be enough...M-35Tom says 2-3 quarts will do the trick, and he's right. I just wanted a little extra in case it "settles in" over time and I don't want any surprises. There are no leaks at all, everything is cinched down nice and snug.

I reinstalled the left front wheel/tire and fired the engine up, then turned lock-to-lock with the front end off the ground for another 25 times. After removing the jackstands, I took it for a test drive around the neighborhood (and after obtaining a temporary movement permit from the nearby DMV so I can finally get it titled & registered tomorrow). The power steering worked immediately, and I am very very happy with it. I am also very impressed, it wasn't difficult at all to install and was well worth the effort. This is the single best improvement I've done to this truck, and makes it so much more driveable.

After the test drive, I checked for potential problems or loose nuts/bolts...finding none, I headed off to the local scrap yard to unload the back of the truck bed to hopefully generate some funds for registration tomorrow, then I went by the nearby truck stop across their scales (just in case, as long as this truck weighs in over 14K pounds it is smog-exempt in NV). It weighed in at 16,500 pounds!!! Holy mackerel!

The big super singles definitely slow the engine down RPM-wise as well as speed-wise. It doesn't get up to speed quickly at all, but once it does it drives well. There is NO wandering nor bump-steer, the power steering conversion really works very well for driving. I am impressed and happy to be driving my Deuce finally!

I do need to get a hard top though, and new insulation for the cab...not to mention a muffler. This sucker is LOUD! But I'm very happy, and now I can start troubleshooting all the remaining little problems: several gauges don't work, I have no dash lights, need to replace the flasher unit, etc...

 

[markmontana]

Great progress!

 

[bigbird189]

I like what you have done so far! I am in Panaca. Not to far from your neck of the woods.

 

[silverstate55]

I like what you have done so far! I am in Panaca. Not to far from your neck of the woods.

Thanks! I like Panaca, I would love to live in Pioche if real estate wasn't so expensive there....

Back in the early 1990s, I passed on a chance to pick up a home & lot in Caliente for only the back taxes owed; they were really hurting after UP pulled their shops & facilities from the area. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

You live in a very nice area, my parents & I really like it around there. Very friendly folks too. Next time I pass through with my Deuce I'll give you a holler, maybe we could meet for lunch or something.

Nice yellow Deuce you have! Been reading your progress on it too.

 

[silverstate55]

This morning when my wife & I were warming the Deuce up to take it to the DMV, I noticed a sudden gush of oil draining from the driver's side of the engine...I grabbed a drain pan quick and shut the truck down. It appeared to be coming from the oil filters. After removing the 2 oil filter canisters, I reseated the brand-new gaskets and reseated the filters & canisters. After some judicious manipulating & tightening, it appears that the sudden cold spell last night may have caused the gaskets to contract, and were still in that condition when I started the engine this morning, allowing oil to spurt out from under the canisters.

After the engine warmed up, no more oil leaks....time to convert to spin-ons, I hate canisters. The wife was right there watching & helping, so she instantly authorized the purchase.

So, we made the trip to the DMV office that was reported to be "MV Friendly." Technically, my Deuce is a 1975 AM General, but the California title lists it as a Kaiser-Jeep and an Unknown Year (the seller said after he bought it at auction, he had a CHP trooper do a VIN inspection, but since he couldn't find a date of manufacture tag, the CA DMV listed it as Unknown Year 0000). The VIN Inspector happened to be the primary MV inspector, and we had a very long chat about MVs. He approved the VIN (even though I took the time to sand away all the paint & rust away from the frame, he only glanced at it to make sure the last 4 digits matched the dash plate).

Inside, I presented the printed-out article from David Doyle about years & manufacturers of Deuces, with appropriate areas highlighted. The DMV clerk took the CA title with Unknown Year back to her supervisor, who summoned the VIN inspector back inside. He looked at the article, looked at the title, and said "Yup, it's a 1975 truck alright." WOO-HOO!

So I was able to get the title corrected and issued in my state (NV) and got nice USMC Veteran license plates for it with no hassle whatsoever.

If any Southern Nevada MV owners need a MV-friendly DMV, go to the East Sahara DMV (the original one, still looks the same all these years later!). The old NHP office is long gone but the DMV is still the same...the National Guard Armory is still there too.

It was a good day all in all! I made a custom rear license plate bracket, I'll get photos of it later.

Tomorrow I'll be driving my Deuce in the Veteran's Day Parade through downtown Las Vegas, along with some MVPA members locally & from Kingman, AZ. Should be fun!

Happy Veteran's Day everybody!

 

[bigbird189]

Thanks! I like Panaca, I would love to live in Pioche if real estate wasn't so expensive there....

Back in the early 1990s, I passed on a chance to pick up a home & lot in Caliente for only the back taxes owed; they were really hurting after UP pulled their shops & facilities from the area. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

You live in a very nice area, my parents & I really like it around there. Very friendly folks too. Next time I pass through with my Deuce I'll give you a holler, maybe we could meet for lunch or something.

Nice yellow Deuce you have! Been reading your progress on it too.

Thank you yeah its a nice place to live yeah next time you come up we will meet up.

 

[silverstate55]

Had a great time in the Veteran's Day Parade yesterday through downtown Las Vegas. We brought up the rear, and it was headed by a fellow named Jim McGeachy with his restored & running MULE (it had electric start, so I'm not sure what model that was). A group of 5 or 6 Jeeps from the Kingman, AZ MVPA chapter drove up to join us, what a great and friendly group they were! We had about 12 vehicles total in our convoy, including another Deuce owned & driven by a fellow named Kelly (he owns the Machine Gun Kelly's shop near McCarran Airport, this is the Deuce some members have reported seeing parked by his shop). It was a great amount of fun, I didn't know convoys & parades could be this much fun!! We were invited to join the parade convoy for the 4th of July and in Kingman, so we're gonna have to start making some road trips.

 

[silverstate55]

[Double Post] Now I can't find the Delete Post feature.....

 

[silverstate55]

WOW, the new time-out feature is even shorter than it used to be...type a quick paragraph, and you are already signed out & Auto-Save does NOT carry over.

Auto-Save doesn't work for beans for me either. But now I figured out I can type a few words and post it; after several "Server Not Found" errors I can repost the few words, then when it finally takes I can use Edit Post to add what I want.

The Jeeps from the MVPA group in Kingman, AZ, featured all period-authentic equipment and uniforms. They mounted replica weapons that use propane to simulate firing. Neat stuff!

The 1942 Kubelwagen is local, as is the Dodge ambulance. The Kubelwagen featured an MG34 with a well-disguised dummy receiver; the rest of it was authentic. Another neat vehicle was a fully functional 6x6 M151 MUTT from Kingman.

My wife the camera rookie took 126 photos, but all were blurry except for these. She had some nice detail shots of the Jeeps & Mutt, as well as the Kubelwagen & MULE, but oh well...

 

[silverstate55]

I just love the new driveability of my Deuce...the power steering conversion makes a HUGE difference & is well worth the expense. But now wiring & electrical problems are driving me crazy.

The fuel level, oil pressure, temperature, and electrical charge gauges don't work, so I thought I'd follow the Troubleshooting instructions in the TMs. These are excellent ways to work through problems, it's amazing more people don't go to these first.

Anyway, I pulled the gauge cluster off the dash and found that NONE of these 4 gauges are even hooked up. WTF?!? That explains why they're not working...before I could disconnect the speedo & tach I had to run an errand, so I'll pull those tomorrow & test the resistance of all the guages, then start testing & tracing wires/leads. The power lead for the dash lights (#27) was connected directly to the lead for the fuel level gauge (# 28 ...so that explains no dash lights, but WTF is it doing connected to the fuel level gauge power lead? Guess I'll never know. But at least the dash lights lead puts out a clean 24.6 volts.

So I have NO flashers/parking lights either...I purchased a new flasher unit that is LED-compliant, but before I installed it I thought I'd do a quick test of the leads to see if the lights would come on when bypassing the flasher. I jumped leads "A" and "B" on the flasher plug, but no joy at all...the multimeter shows NO voltage at all on either lead. Hmmm, that's not good...guess I have to start some serious wire tracing tomorrow. Dangit.

The horn doesn't work either, and everything appears to be hooked up correctly.

Thanks to Clinto for linking to help in the thread where someone's flashers weren't working; it's a lot of help.

Wow I have my work cut out for me.

 

[silverstate55]

Been very busy with little fixes since my last post. I reinstalled a new 5-wire harness for Wire #27 to power the gauges & dash lights; it all works now! The fuel gauge is the only one I need to replace, I've ordered a new one from Erik's. I installed some new bulbs and all the dash lights work just fine now. I also installed a new flasher unit (made in 2010, LED-safe) and now all my turn signals & marker lights work. Whew! Just to be on the safe side, I installed separate ground wires connecting each gauge to each other, and then to a good grounding point on the cab firewall.

I wanted to increase the visibility of my truck while driving, so I fabricated some rear marker light holders for the many Grote 24-volt LED marker lights I had purchased earlier. I wanted the 5-light marker strip in the back, and on each side I wanted a parking light on top with a turn signal on the bottom. I used some scrap steel to fabricate the light boxes for each corner, then drilled a bunch of holes and bolted everything together. I made sure to use good star-type lock washers and ensured that each light was sufficiently self-grounded. Then I created power leads from 14-gauge wire & Packard plugs from Erik's, all soldered & heat-shrunk where necessary. Everything powers up great! I found a 24-volt LED license plate light from an online vendor, and installed this by plugging it into Wire #21 (same for the marker lights). I'm not real happy with the rear side turn signals; they light up & barely blink when the turn signals engage, and light up every time I press the brake pedal (I tapped into Wires #22-160-461 & 22-460-461). So later I will tap into the left & right turn signal wires near the flasher unit, split these, and run extended power leads back to each rear turn signal side marker light (all LEDs). I'll also split these near the rear of the truck for my upcoming civvy trailer wiring project, using relays.

I wrapped as much of the wiring into wiring looms and used rubber-coated wire wraps to bolt to points on the frame & bodywork to keep the wires secure & safe from chafing. I'm quite happy with it all now; all I have left to do is replace the fuel level gauge & horn button, and install my 24-volt electric wipers. Then I can start working on my receiver hitch & civvy trailer wiring.

 

[silverstate55]

God I hate this new website format...it's soooo much more difficult to upload photos, and I get timed-out after about 30 freaking seconds. This sucks A$$.

I'm soooo stupid for renewing for another year....

 

[silverstate55]

 

[silverstate55]

 

[silverstate55]

Holy crap, now I'm getting told I've been limited on how many photos I can have per thread...apparently I've exceeded my 10 photos per thread...so much for condensing all I've done to my truck in one thread. Change indeed.

 

[silverstate55]

 

[JCKnife]

Wow--now there's a modification that looks very "stock." Nicely done!

 

[m-35tom]

warren, you already have a left and right turn wire at the rear, problem is it is also brake light wire when the turn sig is off. simple solution is to cut the wire at the brake light switch, not the power one, the other one, and run it to the rear. then you have a dedicated brake light circuit.

tom

 

[bigmike]

Your truck is looking great. You've done some amazing improvements and updates to your truck. Keep up the good work.

 

[clinto]

Thanks to Clinto for linking to help in the thread where someone's flashers weren't working; it's a lot of help.

That's just how I roll

Holy crap, now I'm getting told I've been limited on how many photos I can have per t
hread...apparently I've exceeded my 10 photos per thread...so much for condensing all I've done to my truck in one thread. Change indeed.

So you're saying that there is a maximum amount of pictures you can upload per thread, not just the 10 pics per post? That would definitely be something we would need to fix.

Your truck looks great, that's a ton of work. Tom's ps looks like such a great upgrade.

You have more or less duplicated the M44A3 rear light setup with your mods, of course with an extra side marker and no back up lights. I would really like to add the 3 markers to the center of my '87 A2C but I just can't bring myself to cut such a nice bed.