Auction Deuce Recovery Assist

[silverstate55]

A friend of mine who owns a custom & hot-rod fab shop has been wanting to buy a Deuce for over a year now, and he finally got his wish. He was the winning bidder for a 1972 AM-General M35A2 with winch & hardtop, and the auction included an M103 trailer; his final cost after 3% buyer's fees was $3225 for both!

The truck & trailer spent a good portion of the 1990s with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Search & Rescue unit, and around 2003-ish it was sent over to the City of Las Vegas Fire Department. They never used it, and it sat since then. One of the FD mechanics I talked to during an inspection visit with my buddy said that he tried to get it started about 6 months ago, but couldn't get fuel pressure (even after pressurizing the tank with compressed air).

The truck & trailer are in GREAT shape, considering their history and time spent sitting. Other than the wood & dry-rotting tires, everything else is in really really good condition. The winch is complete & working, and it even had a spare tire! The tires on the truck are dated 2000, and I was praying that a sidewall wouldn't let go when I was airing up the tires for today's recovery. The seats are worn, of course, but overall this is one of the nicest Deuces I've seen. No rust, no dents, only very very minor dings in a few spots. After struggling with my ratted-out truck for the past year, I can't believe how complete & nice this one was. And how cheap my buddy got it for!

 

[silverstate55]

Since both of our pickups are down for repairs and unable to tow one of our heavy trailers, we decided to use my Deuce & towbar to bring this Deuce to its new home at my buddy's shop (in the Industrial Park next to the LV Motor Speedway). Of course we forgot to bring a basic tool set, so we couldn't remove the brake line bolts on the front axle...so the axle clamps were out. I decided to use the dreaded mount-the-towbar-to-the-top-of-the-bumper-brackets method, as we really didn't have many other options and my towbar was giving me fits (one pin decided not to fit for whatever reason, so the FD mechanics were kind enough to put it on their lathe & turn it down 1/64" to make it fit).

The steering wanted to go in the opposite direction in turns, scrubbing the outer shoulder of the front tires, so luckily there was an anti-theft chain mounted to the steering wheel & we used that to lock the steering wheel. My buddy followed me in his van with his flashers going, and after attaching 2 safety chains we were off! We took it nice & slow and made it after about 45 minutes of slow cross-town going.

The batteries in the truck were dead, so my buddy Ian ordered up 2 new ones to be delivered later that day. Meanwhile, I removed the lift pump from the tank and replaced the pickup hose, as well as replaced the blown 20-amp fuse in the top housing. A few loose/removed parts were reinstalled, and I pulled the primary fuel filter canister as it wouldn't drain anything...it was merely clogged with rust and gunk. I dropped it into a parts washer, and the solvent cleaned everything right up. The fuel filter looked OK, and we wanted to get it started so I reinstalled everything. I bled the secondary filter canisters, and only diesel fuel came out. I used my pressure bleeder to tune up the brakes, and this was made easy as the master cylinder still had plenty of fluid in it & no air bubbles were present during bleeding. I topped it off & finished that task. We double-checked all fluids, and everything looked fine.

When the batteries arrived, we connnected them and gave the lift pump a quick test; it passed! I reinstalled the pump and reconnected the fuel lines, and after a few seconds the air was purged from the fuel lines through the secondaries. CONTACT, after about 30 seconds the motor roared to life and quickly started purring like a kitten! SWEET!! It took a LOOOOONG time to build up air pressure, and we noticed that the old-style Low Air Pressure Warning Switch was leaking like a sieve. Ian ordered a new one from Erik's as we were waiting, and after about 60psi built up we took her for a test drive. Success! It drove nice and tight, no problems were noted and my buddy Ian was completely stoked! He is really excited about it now that it is running & driving.

I did notice that the FDC was not bypassed, so I'll have to do that for him. It looks like there is a pretty good oil leak from the rear main, but I wonder if that is because the FDC is allowing fuel to overfill the crankcase. I told Ian that he needed to do an oil analysis to verify this or not, as I was hoping it was the FDC or HH and NOT the rear main!

 

[Scarecrow1]

That is a great looking truck . Your friend is very lucky not only about the truck but, also to have a friend to help him with it like you did. I would add that if possible drain the fuel tank and wash it out before it causes more problems.

 

[BillabongKong]

Awesome Trucks! Yours looks great on those big Singles are they 14's ? Great Story too. Good Luck to both of you
Happy New Year!

 

[212sparky]

Good looking truck. I hope you did not put a 20 amp fuse in the lift pump.Spock is 2 amp slow blow. Current replacement is 5 amp slow blow.

 

[silverstate55]

That is a great looking truck . Your friend is very lucky not only about the truck but, also to have a friend to help him with it like you did. I would add that if possible drain the fuel tank and wash it out before it causes more problems.

Thanks! I recommended that he drain the tank & clean out all the rust; it's pretty crusty. But it's his truck, and he deals with old fuel tanks all the time on his hot-rod builds (30s & 40s cars are his bread & butter), so he knows it needs to be done. He'll probably ask me to do it...no biggie, I did it with mine.

I know he wants to remove all the canisters & replace them all with spin-on filters; they're all pretty crusty but functional for now. He has big plans for the truck and I will be sure to take photos & keep everyone updated. The truck is in good hands, and if he ever gets tired of it, he'll be happy to sell it to me.

 

[silverstate55]

Awesome Trucks! Yours looks great on those big Singles are they 14's ? Great Story too. Good Luck to both of you
Happy New Year!

Thank you! I am running 395/85R20s (46" tall), I am quite happy with them even though it makes the truck a bit slower. But it pulled like a sonofagun, it seemed a lot happier with a load behind it than it does without!

Thanks for the well wishes, I wish you the best in the New Year as well!

 

[silverstate55]

Good looking truck. I hope you did not put a 20 amp fuse in the lift pump.Spock is 2 amp slow blow. Current replacement is 5 amp slow blow.

THANK YOU. I'll let him know & I'll install it this week for him. I didn't have access to any TMs and he was anxious to get it running; the old fuse was so worn that we couldn't even read any of the markings on it.

Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[markmontana]

Nice outcome!