Just got my M1009, what a beast! Lots to learn!!

[RiceBurnerBrian]

Well, I got my CUCV last night and today I began a small amount of work on it. I've been reading the WIKI and I was lucky enough to get a paper copy of the operators manual with the truck. Also this site has an awesome database of information, I've been wading thru it to find out what I need.

Today I just changed the oil (Rotella T, 7 qts) and a NAPA gold/WIX oil filter. This is the first diesel/truck/4x4 I have ever owned in my life and it was just crazy to see that much oil come out. I also installed a KN filter to replace the badly worn OEM one. I also got a new fuel filter and I am currently waiting on the doghead relay from Napa and I should pick it up in the morning. 5 quarts of Dexron III rounded up my day of picking up parts.

Now to tackle little electrical gremlins with the guage pod, seems like no guage pod lights come on when I turn on the lights so I can't see the speedo/ fuel guage at night. Also it seems my fuel guage acts crazy at times, showing full, then 1/2 full, then back to 3/4 full. And of course my Gen 2 light sporadically comes on while I am driving, then turns off randomly also. These little electrical gremlins should be fixed in the next few weeks when i have some time to dedicate to the troubleshooting on the weekends.

After that, I have a nice little oil leak that looks like it's coming from the back of the oil pan somewhere, I'll get to that much later and just keep an eye on my oil level.

I'll be sure to post up some pics soon enough, I think I got really lucky with this M1009 with all that came with it.

Oh I do have a question, has anyone here ever taken their CUCV to have the tranny professionally flushed? Pro's and cons of that? I'm debating it but I already have the Dexron III and I should be picking up the tranny filter on Saturday.

Thanks!!
Brian

 

[K9Vic]

Oh I do have a question, has anyone here ever taken their CUCV to have the tranny professionally flushed? Pro's and cons of that? I'm debating it but I already have the Dexron III and I should be picking up the tranny filter on Saturday.

NEVER EVER flush your transmission on old used vehicle, only drain the fluid and change the filter. Due to age of it being like 25 years old all those small partials are like seals inside the trans and if you flush it your trans will likely die soon after.

 

[hunderliggur]

Welcome to the addiction! For the Gen2 light, check your belt tension and mounting bolts for the alternators (there are two of them). Might as well check the power steering bracket when you are in there. As far as the dash lights, you rotate the headlight knob to adjust the brightness. If you turn it fully anti-clockwise you should get a nice floor light . For the fuel gage, be sure to check your ground connections.

Sam's Club has 6x1gallon case of Rotella at a good price. I change the M1009 oil and filter every 3000 miles (about 6 weeks for me, I drive 100+ miles a day). A deuce takes 22 quarts (5 1/2 Gallons) of oil for the oil change. Of course, you can run it o the waste oil after you filter it

 

[cpf240]

Always remember the most basic piece of advice regarding the CUCV: "The first rule of owing a CUCV, 'If its electrical clean it, if its rubber replace it'."

That will fix many of your problems.

On the dash light issue, have you tried turning the headlight knob? You know, old school dimmer control?

 

[FatBuddhaBoo]

Welcome to the club! I got mine a few months ago to compliment my Deuce, and now I have two projects going at once.

And since no one else has posted it yet.....

 

[RiceBurnerBrian]

As demanded, pics of the urban assault grocery getter...

Wow, thanks for all the words of advice! Here are some crappy pics I took of her when I got her 2 days ago. This CUCV actually had a background, it was a promotional vehicle for the National Guard and it's call sign was "Paladin". It had a full body wrap, was lifted ( 4 inches I think), they threw on these snazzy aluminum wheels, Toyo tires, and threw a roof rack on top. I bought it off a guy who needed to get rid of it since his wife thought it was an eye sore. Now my wife thinks it's an eyesore and my neighbors think I am really getting ready for the zombie apocalypse!! HAHA!

Well, on to the pictures! Yesterday I wanted to see if she would fit in my garage so I could change the oil... no luck on that...


So I just took some pics of it.. after I changed the oil in my driveway at an incline....


Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna start more on the maintenace side of the house and get her up to my standards for safe driving. Then I plan to move on to the luxury side of the house like a radio, some speakers, a heater (maybe) and A/C(if I can figure out how to imstall one or find one that fits), fix some rust areas, herculiner the interior, etc...

As for the interior lights, I will try the dimmer switch by rotating the light knob, I could have swore I did that to no avail.

Also no power flushing oof the tranny, copy that!

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

NEVER EVER flush your transmission on old used vehicle, only drain the fluid and change the filter. Due to age of it being like 25 years old all those small partials are like seals inside the trans and if you flush it your trans will likely die soon after.

Yep. Those pressure flushes are great for the shops. For the owner, not so much.


Now, if you want to just replace ALL the fluid, that's a different story. Basically, the idea is to disconnect the trans cooler return line, and stick it in a container of clean trans fluid. Run the engine a while. The clean trans fluid will be sucked out of the container, and the dirty fluid will flush out of the trans cooler. Once you see clean fluid coming out of the cooler, shut it off and put things back together.

That's just a quick, high level view of the process to give you the basic idea. You can find plenty of detailed How To's here and there on the Internet.

The rationale for doing this is that a normal drain and fill doesn't get all of the old fluid. You still have a bunch in the trans cooler system and especially in the torque converter. This process gets pretty much all of it.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Always remember the most basic piece of advice regarding the CUCV: "The first rule of owing a CUCV, 'If its electrical clean it, if its rubber replace it'."

There's the best advice!


And remember, GROUNDS! Clean those grounds! Some folks forget them. Funky grounds cause funky problems!


Clean those grounds!

 

[rivcrazy2000]

The bulbs behind the gauges could be burned out. Super easy to replace takes me about 7 minutes to get to the back of the gauges. I love the simplistic nature of the dashes in these trucks, there's just nothing there. It's a really self explanatory process just take out all the screws you see in the gauge cluster and everything will come out piece by piece.

 

[FatBuddhaBoo]

I bought it off a guy who needed to get rid of it since his wife thought it was an eye sore. Now my wife thinks it's an eyesore and my neighbors think I am really getting ready for the zombie apocalypse!! HAHA!

She looks pretty good to me! Mine was/is in much worse shape than yours!

Fortunately my wife has seen the work I have done on the Deuce and she can envision what the M1009 will look like when finished. As for the neighbors, got lots of weird looks when the deuce was in the driveway, and get a few with the M1009. Can't wait to see what happens when I get both sitting there side by side!

 

[stampy]

Pull all the fuses and clean/scrape them till they shine and put them back in...fixed lots of my electrical gremlins. Ralberts mantra if its electrical clean it if its rubber replace it.

 

[stampy]

Also Take out the instrument cluster and the interior (minus all the gauges and bulbs) is white I pained mine silver man it's a huge difference in night driving the dash actually lights up...well between that and cleaning the bulbs.

 

[85CUCVtom]

Pull all the fuses and clean/scrape them till they shine and put them back in...fixed lots of my electrical gremlins. Ralberts mantra if its electrical clean it if its rubber replace it.

Not just the fuse but the contacts in the fuse box as well. Don't end up like me, having to replace your dash harness!

 

[stampy]

Emory board is your friend

 

[RiceBurnerBrian]

Freaking rear window crank broke!!!

Well, I went out to lube up some squeaky parts and I decided to do the tailgate. Got some WD40 and went to work on it. I noticed the window crank had a wierd plactic tube in it, and it was loose, and I couldn't roll up my rear window anymore! Then I tried to push it back in and in fell into the glass window area.

Now I can't roll my rear window up, the handle just free wheels by itself. I can't get to the mechanism because the window is all the way down blocking me and I can't seem to raise/ move the window out of the way!!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I need to secure my CUCV before I leave for base work this weekend!! And with the rear window completely open, I want to keep honest people honest...

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

the interior (minus all the gauges and bulbs) is white I pained mine silver

Did it hurt much?

 

[stampy]

Yes it WAS a pain! to remove all those gauges but I did PAINT it ...lol teaches me to use my phone to type.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Those phones can do you in!

 

[Skinny]

I don't think flushing the trans with fresh Dexron III will hurt it. Just swapping fluids out. I would ABSOLUTELY stay away from flushing it and having a shop sell you on the heavy cleaning detergents and additives. Just tell the shop only ATF goes in...keep the magic in bottle potions for another customer.

 

[lolercaust]

A lil info on the tranny flush, dont do it. all the crude does act as a sealer, more importent then that is that it's building the hydrolic presure needed for it to operate with all thouse old parts by flushing it you risk removing the build up and thously droping the hydrolic presure to the point that it hang shifts, loss'es power and flow of fluid, and more offten the not stops shifting all together. For example GM's turbo hydromatic 350 (TH350) the lil brother of that TH400, one was sold to Jaguar for them to test and study. Jag thinking there better then every one else said GM's machining sucked and thought they could revamp the TH350. Thats when Jag polished all the internales of the TH to a sexy mirror finish and put it back together, and nothing happened. So Jag calls GM after weeks of work and still dont understand why this "super" TH350 doesnt do any thing. After talking to Jag, GM told them there stupid and that the rough machining and sand paper like surfaces of the inner case and other parts was important. The rough surface caused drag, turbulence and resistance as a way to easy'ly and effectivly build hydrolic presure. And with out all that happening in a tranny NO PRESURE=NO WORK ecspecaily for the TH tranny's. Flush it if you want you might get lucky, but all that gunk in there is the only reson old auto's still even work. OLD PARTS + OLD CASE - GUNK = NO PRESURE = WONT WORK. But like i said you might get lucky or you might be rebuilding you tranny, dont worry though TH's are stupid easy to rebuild get the pump out and guts all most literaly fall out. And it goes back together like lego's, unlike a VW T13 transaxle aaaarrr i hate that thing.