M1009 recovery and first start up after possible 10 years sitting.

[Skinny]

Wait! You have an M1031 and a CUCV clone 6.2 diesel K20 Suburban which you used to pull an M1009 that appears to be relatively untouched...can you buy me a lottery ticket and send it in the mail? You have a nice fleet...very jealous. Good luck with the new purchase. What are the plans?

 

[K9Vic]

It was not butchered by the Sheriff office expect the mechanics cutting the headlight switch harness. Excpet for the decals, I saw no sign of a light bar on it or any holes for one. Not even sure what they may have used it for, but it seemed to only have a console in it and no emergency lighting/siren.

I was just going to restore it and not do anything crazy to keep it stock. But taking the topper off would kind of look cool and save me some $$ on replacing the glass.

 

[Skinny]

The canvas tops are super expensive but I think a good investment. It's a shame so few people during the 80's and 90's didn't take advantage of the removable tops on the fullsize SUV's. Eventually manufacturers just phased them out. What a shame...such a cool feature. Gut the tailgate, pull the topper, and throw some canvas on

Either way, post up! Always enjoy looking at your projects.

 

[K9Vic]

What about one of those K5 pickup conversion kits? That would be so cool, but only if I could find one...

 

[machinist75]

What about one of those K5 pickup conversion kits? That would be so cool, but only if I could find one...







View attachment 445246View attachment 445245

Got the one on Craigslist? Good deal, I have never seen one of those.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Why not a chalet for the back.

 

[machinist75]

Why not a chalet for the back.

What were the blazers called back in the 70's that had the camper permanently mounted on the back? Weren't they called prospectors?

 

[machinist75]

I'm sorry, it was the chalet. Duh!

 

[K9Vic]

Yeah I got the one on CL and drove 120 miles to get it in the Suburban. Guy was real cool to hold it for me as I told him where I was and that I could not get it until Friday or the weekend. I knew of them, but have never seen one in person before until now.

There was a Chalet for sale here last year that was listed on CL for like pretty cheap and I though about making the M1009 I had at the time into one. But decided not too, but if I every run across one again I may. I actually did look for one with this current M1009, but that none found locally.

Last Friday I drove near 200 miles for a perfect dash up near Oklahoma, but I was in my Tahoe so nice working AC compared to my Suburban that is weak in this heat. It worked out to be allot cheaper over buying one from LMC or other places.

 

[K9Vic]

check the teeth on the flywheel if you remove and check the starter drive. flywheels get their teeth knocked out!.

I did not take the starter out, but the bracket is missing and that may be part of the issue.

So yet again I had to make one as they do not exist anymore and will see if that helps before I pull out the starter.


Simple with welder, grinder and drill. Take a angle iron and cut it to length and cut a slit out of it to bend it and weld it in place.



Cut is rough and is tightened up after bending it.
The last two pictures show it is even and ready for a good weld.
I also cut down the ends to shorten it slightly, but it really does not need to be done.




Holes drilled out to match the OEM bracket.
Weled and the outside I grind down to look nice.


Painted to protect it from rust with 5 coats.

 

[K9Vic]

Here are pictures of the first one I made, I think the latest one turned out nicer looking. But these pictures give you all a better idea of the angles it matches.

 

[K9Vic]

Well my flywheel is really bad after taking the starter out. Before I took it out I turned the engine manually from where it was spinning and started, so that told me it had to have bad teeth.

Not sure if I am going to tackle this one myself, or have my mechanic do it. What I really need to do first is make sure the transmission is good and shifts fine as that would save labor if it need work as well.



.

The fun of working on these and I still have to figure out stalling when I pump the peddle. After it revs up and releases quickly it dies, but runs fine with no surging. I bleed all the lines at the injectors and saw fuel spitting out. That got rid of some white smoke on the passenger side. There was no fragments in the IP and no leaks around the IP that I saw. The timing is factory in line on the marks. I know the fuel is really old, so maybe that is the issue. I think the filter base is slightly leaking, so I am going to replace that with my spare. I also used 4psi air into the return line with the filter base bleed valve open and got good flow. All that work bleeding it out and still stalled with giving it fuel and letting the peddle go fast. I gave up on working the fuel issue as the started hit the dead spot and when to take that out. So.......

Is it just old bad fuel, does this fuel look darker than normal?
I added Diesel Klein to the tank and does have a new filter. Runs no different over the old and new filter.

 

[o1951]

Well, I guess now we know why it was parked. Some of that damage looks old, most looks recent.

Re: trans - I agree - no sense doing the work twice.
Since you have a tow vehicle, I would take a chance - clean out all the detrius between the teeth, and smoth the worst of the tooth damage - just get the few high spots down to roughly tooth contour. I used a Dremel with a stone.

Turn the flywheel to a good spot, make sure starter is fully engaging and try to start it.
Stay very close to home in case it stalls with damaged teeth in line with starter.
You should be able to run it enough to find out if the trans is ok.

When I did this, my vehicle did not want to stall. Drove it to a trans shop, and we were even able to start it again to get it inside shop for ring gear replacement.

 

[K9Vic]

M1009 project.

Sunday.
1. Harmonic balancer - My puller tool stripped out and was turning the engine over, so I had to use my backup puller. So now I need to buy a new one so I always have a spare. (Perfect example why I have a spare)
2. Rebuilt my one of my alternators, the other was a remanufactured and was OK. I still took it apart to make sure it was OK and clean inside.
3. While I had the the alt. and pulleys out I cleaned the grease and painted the parts black. I found that a nut was missing on the passenger side alt. bracket, so I replaced that. Also made sure all blots on the water pump were tight.
4. Put my starter back in as I had it out checking the flywheel that has broken teeth in random spots.
5. Hosed down the radiator before I put everything back on, it really cleaned out allot of dirt in there.
6. Removed the diode from the horn relay that goes back to the headlight fuse/system. Known problem that can develop that puts too much load on the headlights circuit. With that I also removed the capacitor on the wipers and horn.
7. Took a break and got lunch.
8. cleaned up my mess from working on the truck all day.
9. Made sure everything was all tight and in place and let it run for about an hour. I need to burn off this old fuel and also looked for any leaks.

Tuesday
1. Adjust my idle speed to resolve stalling issue, so far so good.
2. Remove grille, headlights and parking lights to clean and paint the area.
3. Replaced all light covers and any bad bulbs.
4. Clean radiator again since I had the grille out, there was still dirt in the lower part.

So I did allot of work on the M1009 on Sunday, but still allot more to do on it. Have to get the flywheel replaced, but I have to drive it first to make sure the trans is OK. No point doing that work replacing that if the trans is bad. Something I am nor going to do, mostly because my driveway is not level and too dangerous having it all up on jack stands. So I will have my mechanic do that work

.

 

[Shankem-Deep]

You've motivated me to get back on my 09 project! When I fist got it i did a ton of work to make it a reliable daily driver. I then got another vehicle and the poor 09 has been sitting in my shop for awhile. Time to get her back in fighting shape!

 

[Warthog]

Looks like I should buy some stock in LMC. With all the trucks you are working on I should make a fortune.....

I know how much work you are putting into them but you make it look so easy. Keep up the great work.

 

[K9Vic]

You've motivated me to get back on my 09 project! When I fist got it i did a ton of work to make it a reliable daily driver. I then got another vehicle and the poor 09 has been sitting in my shop for awhile. Time to get her back in fighting shape!

Good to hear you will get back to it, hopefully it will not need as much TLC as mine needs.

Looks like I should buy some stock in LMC. With all the trucks you are working on I should make a fortune.....

I know how much work you are putting into them but you make it look so easy. Keep up the great work.

Thanks, it can be allot of fun and allot of work. Keeps me busy on the weekends and keeps me from sitting around the house.

Yeah, I buy allot from LMC and always replace the plastic lights for that newer look. The parking lights are expensive, $60 for the pair and if I can I will clean the old ones, but they were too far gone. I wish they have a quantity discount as I would stock up on tail and marker lenses.

 

[K9Vic]

Well I took it for a drive and I am getting allot of white smoke out of the passenger side when driving and lightens up some when stopped. It goes away if I let the truck sit for a while and start it back up and it does not do it until I start driving again.

I bleed all the injectors and fuel is spitting out when loose. All my return lines look to be fine, no leaks. The white smoke is an indication of too little fuel, but it idles fine.
I am going to change out the injectors with some good used ones I have that were remove for new ones trouble shooting a fuel issue on a friends M1009. If that fixes the issue I know I had a bad injectors. If it does not I will do a compression test.

Is there a way to see if an injecotrs is bad while running using a laser heat detector? I have seen it done before on the Cummings, but what about ours?

 

[markg]

Well I took it for a drive and I am getting allot of white smoke out of the passenger side when driving and lightens up some when stopped.

drive it some more before condeming the injectors. it may stop after you get fresh fuel run through it. the same thing happens to me when i pick up a truck that has sat for years. put 20 miles on it or more , make sure the crankcase has not been diluted with fuel. ill bet it clears up! thanks. mark

 

[Warthog]

Take it for a looooong drive. Add some Diesel Kleen and some fresh fuel.


take some spare filters just in case and have a recovery plan in place.