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Beginning the Journey

G

gslader

Well-known member
106
288
63
Location
California
I picked up a 2003 M1078a1 in mid-February of this year and have this forum (and its members) have been a huge help in helping to fill-in my meaningful knowledge gaps so I'm looking forward sharing the mistakes I make - so others won't make them and give back to what has been a great community. The quick parts reference sheet has been a huge help and in a similar vein I've been keeping a working maintenance log of work down, parts used and their source and cost and time to complete. I've made the link public in my signature or here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/104Vj_ovOgtdSRR80fiOTwCENxiusQvJt4MmeSUEtAuo/edit?usp=sharing
Hopefully it will be of help to others.

I picked up my LMTV in Boise, ID in mid-February at around 8pm at promptly headed SouthEast towards Lake Tahoe where I planned on keeping the truck while I worked on it. Thanks in part to an in operative fuel gauge, a misclocked odometer (due to 3.07 gears) and no shortage of hubris on my part I ran out of diesel at 1:30am just outside of Lovelock, NV - so it begins I thought.

After an eventful few hours I got her gassed back up, primed and started and back on my way, arriving just after 6am into North Lake Tahoe. I've shared below a walk around from the truck after I first got her and plan to share more of experiences as the work continues.

 
INFChief

INFChief

Well-known member
722
1,348
93
Location
New York
gslader said:
I picked up a 2003 M1078a1 in mid-February of this year and have this forum (and its members) have been a huge help in helping to fill-in my meaningful knowledge gaps so I'm looking forward sharing the mistakes I make - so others won't make them and give back to what has been a great community. The quick parts reference sheet has been a huge help and in a similar vein I've been keeping a working maintenance log of work down, parts used and their source and cost and time to complete. I've made the link public in my signature or here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/104Vj_ovOgtdSRR80fiOTwCENxiusQvJt4MmeSUEtAuo/edit?usp=sharing
Hopefully it will be of help to others.

I picked up my LMTV in Boise, ID in mid-February at around 8pm at promptly headed SouthEast towards Lake Tahoe where I planned on keeping the truck while I worked on it. Thanks in part to an in operative fuel gauge, a misclocked odometer (due to 3.07 gears) and no shortage of hubris on my part I ran out of diesel at 1:30am just outside of Lovelock, NV - so it begins I thought.

After an eventful few hours I got her gassed back up, primed and started and back on my way, arriving just after 6am into North Lake Tahoe. I've shared below a walk around from the truck after I first got her and plan to share more of experiences as the work continues.

Click to expand...
When you have time I’d like to see where & how your back up camera is set up.
 
G

gslader

Well-known member
106
288
63
Location
California
I picked up some of the CTIS Wheel covers from MME a few weeks ago. They seem like cheap insurance - if $400 saves me changing a tire in the middle of no where - then that's insurance I'm willing to buy. It also provides me some tangible evidence of progress on the truck, which is always a nice psychological boost. As always, I'm keen to get input on things I'm doing wrong or have missed - those are the most valuable comments!

PS - Despite my skepticism about the rubber liner staying on the covers - several weeks later they all seem to be hanging in there.

 
T

TomTime

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
MD.
wandering neurons said:
1: Welcome to the forum, nice rig!
2: I'm just a couple of hours east of you, off Hwy 50, there's things to do in the area!
3: Who's MME - I WANT some wheel covers!
Click to expand...

midwestmilitaryequipment.com

LMTV/MTV/FMTV Replacement CTIS / Wheel Protector

Shop the Midwest Military Equipment LMTV/MTV/FMTV Replacement CTIS/Wheel Protector. Available in singles, sets of 2, 4, and 6. Simple installation with durable powder-coated black finish. Grade 8 hardware included.
midwestmilitaryequipment.com midwestmilitaryequipment.com
 
G

gslader

Well-known member
106
288
63
Location
California
wandering neurons said:
1: Welcome to the forum, nice rig!
2: I'm just a couple of hours east of you, off Hwy 50, there's things to do in the area!
3: Who's MME - I WANT some wheel covers!
Click to expand...
Thanks on the rig. The more time I spend with it, the more I find to do on it :rolleyes:

Great to meet a relative local! I just got it plated last week so hope to be taking out exploring a bit more, particularly now as the snow is melting off here on the crest.

@TomTime nailed it on the CTIS link. They aren’t as robust as the OEM and have some other short comings but I hope they keep the random root/rock/other from grabbing my CTIS valve - time will tell.
 
G

gslader

Well-known member
106
288
63
Location
California
I had a chance to get up to work on the truck earlier this week and got a couple material things done, namely 1) pulling the starter and tightening the flange bolts and 2) replacing the power steering box supply line coming from the power steering pump. I shot some video of the repairs that I’ll try to condense and post in the next week or so.

Starter Flange Bolts: I expected a bit of a challenge pulling the starter, but this thing was a real pain in the ass. I hope I don’t have to pull it again anytime in the near future. For reference I tried to remove as little engine hardware as possible to get the starter out - for example I left the power steering reservoir in place - not sure if this approach helped or hindered me in the long-run, I’d be curious to hear what other folks have done when they have pulled the starter.

My first stumbling block was that I couldn’t get my 12 point sockets to mate up to the two 12-point flange bolts. I turns out this was due to interference with he starter casing - after a bit of a panic, a steelsoldiers Hail Mary and some googling it turns out that all I needed was a regular way closed end 10mm wrench for the two flange bolts. The last and third bolt just needed an 8mm hex head.

The next issue I ran into was getting the starter wire off of the starter solenoid. The starter wire is on the back-side of the solenoid and after 30 mins of trying to back the nuts off the starter post I was unsuccessful. The real issue here is that the post has two nuts that sandwich the terminal with a star washer and they had fused together - there just wasn’t enough space to get a wrench onto one of the nuts and a driver on the second. I even went so far as to pull the starter out and drop it down a few inches (I had it supported with a rope) so that I had better access to the starter post - still no joy. I ended up cutting the starter wire at the terminal and remaking a connection - I should have done that from the beginning and saved myself half an hour.

After pulling the starter I found that 4 of the 5 flange bolts were loose and one of the bolts was sheared off. In what turned out to be the one easier than expected moment of the repair - drilling and extracting the broken bolt was quick and easy. I chased all five holes with a 5/16 tap to ensure they were all clear - no problems there. I went down to the hardware store and bought 5 new 5/16 x 18 socket head hex bolts - what could go wrong. I started installing the first bold and quickly saw that it was hanging up on the recessed hole. Out came the calipers and it turns out the socket head was 0.465”, the recess was 0.460” and the OEM bolts were 0.455” . . . So I threw the flange in the vise and drilled out all of the recesses to accommodate the larger hex heads. I mated the nose of the starter, clocked it properly and installed all five flange bolts (with loc-tite).

To re-install the starter I initially struggled with trying to lift it up from underneath the engine into position and realized quickly I would end up damaging the starter, myself or both. I have a light material handling crane in the bed of the truck and I moved it from the back of the truck up to the front drivers side position and dropped the line down through the engine compartment and hooked it to a rope I had around the starter (it was actually a pretty straight pull-line with the crane). Using the crane remote with one hand I was able to gently navigate the starter back up to position and get it mated with the transmission. This part proved easier than expected and while tightening the three starter bolts was tedious the rest of the re-assembly was easy (electrical reconnections, etc.).

I do hope (knock wood) that I don’t have to pull the started again anytime soon as it is a pain in the ass and not that rewarding an exercise.

Power Steering Hydraulic Line: A couple of weeks ago while doing a PM once over on the truck I noticed that the hydraulic supply line going into he power steering box was showing crush damage. The outer skin of the hose was abraded while the steel mesh underlayment was intact. I tried to figure out how this happened and it became clear that the Pitman Arm was contacting the hose and crushing it against the front bumper. I think what happened is that a prior owner installed aftermarket BO lights and when they did that they routed the hydraulic hose under (as opposed to above) the BO light putting it in conflict with Pitman Arm.

I pulled the hose off easily enough and the most challenging part was loosing some of the hose brackets that were difficult to access. After pulling the hose off I ran it down to Napa to have a new hose made up. The one wrinkle here is that they didn’t have any JIC fittings for dash 8 hoses so I had them make up the hose with dash 6 instead and kept the original hose so I can get a proper replacement made up. $125 later I was on my way back to finish work on the truck.

I installed the new hose, re-routing it to avoid coming into conflict with the Pitman Arm and secured all the hose brackets.

With those two repairs done I re-attached the main battery connections, crossed my fingers and hit the remote start switch. She fired right up and while the engine got warm I checked the power steering fluid levels and dropped the cab. I took her for a 30 min drive and all went well.

At the end of the drive i checked the transmission fluid and its a bit low so I’ll need to top that off next time. I also took hub temp readings (99 and 101 on the front and 112 and 114 on the back - seems in-line with what i have read).

Lastly, my spare tire hydraulic cylinder decided to lock itself up (both for the AHU and manual) so I think it is either in the cylinder itself or in the hydraulic manifold. I’ll see if it is the cylinder check valve issue that others have referenced but that will have to be another day.

Gavin
 
INFChief

INFChief

Well-known member
722
1,348
93
Location
New York
gslader said:
I had a chance to get up to work on the truck earlier this week and got a couple material things done, namely 1) pulling the starter and tightening the flange bolts and 2) replacing the power steering box supply line coming from the power steering pump. I shot some video of the repairs that I’ll try to condense and post in the next week or so.

Starter Flange Bolts: I expected a bit of a challenge pulling the starter, but this thing was a real pain in the ass. I hope I don’t have to pull it again anytime in the near future. For reference I tried to remove as little engine hardware as possible to get the starter out - for example I left the power steering reservoir in place - not sure if this approach helped or hindered me in the long-run, I’d be curious to hear what other folks have done when they have pulled the starter.

My first stumbling block was that I couldn’t get my 12 point sockets to mate up to the two 12-point flange bolts. I turns out this was due to interference with he starter casing - after a bit of a panic, a steelsoldiers Hail Mary and some googling it turns out that all I needed was a regular way closed end 10mm wrench for the two flange bolts. The last and third bolt just needed an 8mm hex head.

The next issue I ran into was getting the starter wire off of the starter solenoid. The starter wire is on the back-side of the solenoid and after 30 mins of trying to back the nuts off the starter post I was unsuccessful. The real issue here is that the post has two nuts that sandwich the terminal with a star washer and they had fused together - there just wasn’t enough space to get a wrench onto one of the nuts and a driver on the second. I even went so far as to pull the starter out and drop it down a few inches (I had it supported with a rope) so that I had better access to the starter post - still no joy. I ended up cutting the starter wire at the terminal and remaking a connection - I should have done that from the beginning and saved myself half an hour.

After pulling the starter I found that 4 of the 5 flange bolts were loose and one of the bolts was sheared off. In what turned out to be the one easier than expected moment of the repair - drilling and extracting the broken bolt was quick and easy. I chased all five holes with a 5/16 tap to ensure they were all clear - no problems there. I went down to the hardware store and bought 5 new 5/16 x 18 socket head hex bolts - what could go wrong. I started installing the first bold and quickly saw that it was hanging up on the recessed hole. Out came the calipers and it turns out the socket head was 0.465”, the recess was 0.460” and the OEM bolts were 0.455” . . . So I threw the flange in the vise and drilled out all of the recesses to accommodate the larger hex heads. I mated the nose of the starter, clocked it properly and installed all five flange bolts (with loc-tite).

To re-install the starter I initially struggled with trying to lift it up from underneath the engine into position and realized quickly I would end up damaging the starter, myself or both. I have a light material handling crane in the bed of the truck and I moved it from the back of the truck up to the front drivers side position and dropped the line down through the engine compartment and hooked it to a rope I had around the starter (it was actually a pretty straight pull-line with the crane). Using the crane remote with one hand I was able to gently navigate the starter back up to position and get it mated with the transmission. This part proved easier than expected and while tightening the three starter bolts was tedious the rest of the re-assembly was easy (electrical reconnections, etc.).

I do hope (knock wood) that I don’t have to pull the started again anytime soon as it is a pain in the ass and not that rewarding an exercise.

Power Steering Hydraulic Line: A couple of weeks ago while doing a PM once over on the truck I noticed that the hydraulic supply line going into he power steering box was showing crush damage. The outer skin of the hose was abraded while the steel mesh underlayment was intact. I tried to figure out how this happened and it became clear that the Pitman Arm was contacting the hose and crushing it against the front bumper. I think what happened is that a prior owner installed aftermarket BO lights and when they did that they routed the hydraulic hose under (as opposed to above) the BO light putting it in conflict with Pitman Arm.

I pulled the hose off easily enough and the most challenging part was loosing some of the hose brackets that were difficult to access. After pulling the hose off I ran it down to Napa to have a new hose made up. The one wrinkle here is that they didn’t have any JIC fittings for dash 8 hoses so I had them make up the hose with dash 6 instead and kept the original hose so I can get a proper replacement made up. $125 later I was on my way back to finish work on the truck.

I installed the new hose, re-routing it to avoid coming into conflict with the Pitman Arm and secured all the hose brackets.

With those two repairs done I re-attached the main battery connections, crossed my fingers and hit the remote start switch. She fired right up and while the engine got warm I checked the power steering fluid levels and dropped the cab. I took her for a 30 min drive and all went well.

At the end of the drive i checked the transmission fluid and its a bit low so I’ll need to top that off next time. I also took hub temp readings (99 and 101 on the front and 112 and 114 on the back - seems in-line with what i have read).

Lastly, my spare tire hydraulic cylinder decided to lock itself up (both for the AHU and manual) so I think it is either in the cylinder itself or in the hydraulic manifold. I’ll see if it is the cylinder check valve issue that others have referenced but that will have to be another day.

Gavin
Click to expand...
Great info!
 
G

gslader

Well-known member
106
288
63
Location
California
Third From Texas said:
Just out of curiosity, are you running motor oil or ATF in the trans now?
Click to expand...
@Third From Texas: Good question. It looks (pinkish/red) and smells like ATF. What type of ATF, I don’t know. I’m going to call the Cat dealership up in Idaho (that serviced it for the prior owner) tomorrow to see if they have a record of transmission service and what it was filled with. If they don’t have a record then I think I’ll just try topping off with Mobil ATF D/M? Anyone have other suggestions of what to do if i can’t track down what kind of ATF it is currently running?
 
coachgeo

coachgeo

Well-known member
5,147
3,463
113
Location
North of Cincy OH
gslader said:
@Third From Texas: Good question. It looks (pinkish/red) and smells like ATF. What type of ATF, I don’t know. I’m going to call the Cat dealership up in Idaho (that serviced it for the prior owner) tomorrow to see if they have a record of transmission service and what it was filled with. If they don’t have a record then I think I’ll just try topping off with Mobil ATF D/M? Anyone have other suggestions of what to do if i can’t track down what kind of ATF it is currently running?
Click to expand...
Pretty sure tran$end $ythetic is the CAT recommended. Hopefully that is what is in there and your only topping it up....

LMTV M1078 Transmission Fluid Change To ATF Write Up

Did the switch from the 15w40 engine oil in the transmission on my 1997 M1078 LMTV with WTEC II to ATF. Followed "8-9 Transmission Oil Filter Replacement" procedure found in TM 9-2320-365-20-3 page 8-32. However, I deviated from the procedure and did NOT remove the front driveshaft (WARNING...
www.steelsoldiers.com
 
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