Well, I haven't updated this thread in a while, but progress is slowly occurring. My wife and I live debt free, so I have to save up along the way for projects like this.
As a background, I bought three of these cranes as a package deal. My original plan was to resell two of them to pay for the third. After selling one, I have become fond of the other two, so I bought an M105 trailer to mount the second crane on. I was looking for an M200A1, but the last auction price was not quite right. The plan, at the moment, is to put the long reach crane on the Deuce frame and the shorter crane on the trailer frame. The M105 trailer bed will be put on the deuce behind its crane. This way, if I don't like the set-up on the deuce, I could remove it and put the deuce bed back on. If I don't like the crane on the trailer, I can sell it, on the trailer or off, and cut down the stock deuce bed to fit. With the cranes self contained as they are, it is simply a matter of unbolting them or rebolting them on whatever will fit. I am thinking I will go with 7/8" high strength threaded rod and a piece of heavy plate to bolt to the frame, that way I can more easily change mounting.
In the mean time, I have been spending some quality time under the deuce on a creeper with a tape measure. I will have to I have also been following ODdave's post as he is making progress faster than I.
( ODdave's Crane Project ) I can see I will have to move the air tanks inboard to give clearance for the bolts on the inside of the frame.
I also am trading my C turbo with Clinto for a D turbo. My old deuce had a D, and I preferred the burble of the D to the whistle of the C, though it is fun sounding like a jet engine pulling away from a stop. The threads stripped of a stud in the process of removing my turbo. I had met the owner of
Bioblend at a conference and he told me that bio-based lubricants are polar molecules so they have tremendous metal wetting abilities. Therefore I welded a nut on the end of the stud, then while it was hot I melted some of their grease into the joint. I can't say whether it was the heat or the grease , but I will say when the stud came out, the threads looked wet. That stud and the two bolts will be replaced with stainless steel fasteners. My EUC for the M105 cleared last Friday, so I have to have the Deuce ready to go pick it up ASAP.
I took the opportunity to drill and tap two holes for a pyrometer while I had the turbo off. These will be plugged with stainless plugs until I get a pyro.
Lastly, I have started purchasing supplies to recreate
my remote oil filter kit I had on my old deuce. Unfortunately, the first supplier I chose for the filterhead delivered a crappy product, despite being made in the USA. The threads were cut very rough as you can see in the attached picture. My first test fit, the CAT filter I was using threaded on just fine, but as I was unthreading it, the scale you can see in the threads bit into the cat filter and would not allow it to come off. I could spin it forward, but not backwards. Finally I used a band wrench to force it off and the filter took two threads with it. This was a dry fit and perhaps it would not have been a problem if the threads had oil on them. I think I can salvage this for a waste oil filter system and I will get a better head for the Deuce oil filter.
sorry for youre loss with the botom of the barrel people we manage to run into
