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Another Ft Drum Adventure

mangus580

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Yup, I had to go up AGAIN...

I had to go up and get a residue deuce that me and a friend are working on. The day got a late start right from the beginning, as I forgot to make sure I had a valid insurance card :-( So after finding one, I headed off about 8am. I stopped at Tractor Supply in Oswego, to get some electrical connectors, wire, and some gear oil for my tranny. It had started shifting quite hard.... Made me think I might wanna check it. Headed on from there, up to doghead's place. Once there, we did the standard talk and kick 'towbars' for a few, then proceeded to check the oil level in my tranny. Doh! not much in there! We put about 5-6 Quarts in! While dh was pouring in, I was laying underneath to make sure the funnel hose stayed in. I noticed, that my rear PTO was dripping at the shaft. Looked to be about 1 drop every 3-4 seconds... not TOO bad..

We also spent a few minutes looking for a possible engine oil leak. I was smelling some slight burnt oil on the way up, so I figured maybe there was a noticeable leak... Considering the side of my engine looks like the Exxon Valdez, we decided that we could be all day figuring that one out and gave up., and headed out.

We arrived at Ft Drum at about noon, and drove back to our residue. After assessing what we were up against, we set about removing axle shafts, and front hubs. We also had to pump up the one rear tire that was flat, add bolts to the front bumper, tie the hood down, and attache the towbar. Being that it is missing one shackle mount, we had to use the bumper/axle clamps for the towbar. There isn't a real good place on the deuce bumper to clamp these we found out! On kenny's suggestion, we tried outside the frame rails first, but in order to get them clear of the bumper gussets, they are so far out, they are on the angle. Towbar doesn't like that, as it cant pivot down all the way (bjorn has proven that bad for us ;-) ). We ended up going just inside the frame rail.

By now, its 2:30, and it is being suggested by Ken from DRMO that we might want to get out of his yard 'soonish', so we proceed to hook up the towbar. This is when we discover that my truck (which from here on is dubbed the Valdez) had left a nice puddle of gear oil underneath!! Ken was not happy, and said we better clean up the mess. Something about the environmentalists not liking it. So.. after hooking the towbar to my deuce, we scraped the mess up into a bucket i had with us. When we started across the Lot, Residue really didn't wanna follow us nicely... dh had to hop in, and steer it back to straight. We make our way out into the median in front of the lot, and continue our preparations for the trip.

All we were left with, was wiring up a trailer pigtail to the tail lights. Pretty easy, right?? WRONG! It seems the ground in my trailer plug is shot. After a few minutes of beating heads against the side of the truck, we figured out what was going on, and ran a jumper from truck to truck. Voila, Lights! Quick wrap up a safety chain, and we are on our way!

Pulling up to the first stoplight, we were so paranoid about making the turn, dh had his coat off, seat belt released, and was ready to 'bail' in case he needed to help with steering. Come to find out, that thing tracked GREAT the rest of the trip (with one exception that I will get to shortly). We made our way back to I81, noticing that my pyro kept climbing way to hot too fast. Made a quick stop at a gas station, and I tweaked the fuel down some. That seemed to help considerably.

Once on I81, things went pretty smooth for a while... That is, until my windshield started getting wet, like it was raining. Odd, dh's side wasn't doing it.... :? We find a parking area, to let the deuce cool down some (I have had problems with this before when REALLY working it), well this didn't work, made it warm up even more. Now its running about 210-215. Only about 8 more miles to dh's house, so we push on.

Pull in to dh's driveway, pop the hood, see exactly where the spray was coming from. It seems someone (not me) didn't put my radiator cap back on tight the last time it was off... and is now MISSING. I now have rusty radiator slime all over my truck, and we take a few minutes to hose that off, and refill the radiator. Look down in, and I see the cap that was MIA grab that, and put it back on.

After a another look over the towbar and such, we decide its time to keep moving. DH had me pull in his driveway, and said to loop around the backyard and around to the front through the grass.... It seems he forgot about a certain video posted on the site!! Residue decided to now NOT turn with me, and turn opposite... and left some really nice ruts in his yard!!! rofl I guess I am not allowed to play there anymore either!!

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. DH followed me the rest of the way home in his NA deuce. There is some comments about possibly having seizures from following my convoy lights for 75 miles in the dark though! :shock:

All in all, it was a good trip. I was gone almost exactly 12 hours, and used about a full tank of fuel. The gear oil leak, when the tranny is hot, turned into a steady trickle, so I know what I need to do before I can drive the truck anymore. I would be willing to bet, its probably empty right now!
 

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devilman96

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LOL.... My god... I thought the inside of Kennys radiator was nasty!!!! Damn!!!! Dump a gallon of CLR in and flush that poor helpless radiator before it pukes!!!
 

Hookin1

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Chandler, Indiana
There is nothing more fun than letting soldier b stare at your yellow lights in the dark running down the highway :D ask eddiec rofl .......Mike your not allowed in my yard whenever you come over so don't even ask :mrgreen: Looks like fun cool trip :driver:
 

Armada

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Great story and pics Mike.
What devilman said... wow, thats some nasty coolant! We now know the duece water pump doubles as a trash pump.... hehehe :)
 

doghead

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Thanks Mike, for including me in on this "adventure".This was a fun trip! (enough unplanned things popped up but never anything so serious as to be a real problem) Some good experience was gained on deuce towing. Thanks for all the phone help from all who called or were called. ( I've never seen any ones phone ring as much in one day) The trip back from your house to mine went great (54 mph almost an hour and a half straight). It took my eyes awhile to stop uncontrollably blinking from your CONVOY LIGHTS! Just a few more photos to summarize the trip from my perspective!
 

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derby

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S.E. MI.
Kinda look's like dried powderd cheese! what fun is an adventure with out some trouble,make's it more memorable! I'm shure DH's ol' lady won't forget. good times.......good times.
 

eddiec

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Southeast mo
Mike, which one pictured were you driving? just kidding. the one you bought looks like a good fixer. nope, you will have to park on the street if you come down here.
 
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