G749 Trucks hard to come by

[1944mb]

I was curious in your guys' input. IT seems as though the G749 trucks are getting hard to come by. I hard been watching for them for a while and havenm't found much close to me. Are transmission parts still available for them? -Ben

 

[NDT]

Some nice ones came up not long ago up your way on GSA. You are correct, these trucks are getting OLD and those that have not been cared for are getting scrapped every day. That being said, there still seem to be more of these trucks available than people willing to take them in. As far as the Hydramatic, most people find that the transmission can be brought back to life by a heavy cleanup of the linkages, cooler, and valve body. If bands and clutches are shot, get another transmission.

 

[m1010plowboy]

Are you buying or building?

I know of two projects running on this side of the border and both will be low to mid 5 digit projects. Most require complete tear downs and re-builds if they've been sitting. I am finding crate transmissions but they've also been sitting. The cone clutch seems to be the most difficult piece to find so NDT is bang on with the solution. Seal kits are available.

Even the 'new one' that had a complete re-build not long ago will need some service love soon but it's appraised around 20G. It was built with NOS parts from the ground up.

There was an M215 sitting in Basin MT and I just tried to call the old boy last week with no luck. Maybe it's still there but it would need a ton of time, metal bashing, parts and money. If you're interested in a name, send me a PM.

There must be some G749's down there that someone wants to find a good home for.

 

[1944mb]

I am more interested in preserving the trucks themselves. It breaks my heart to see something getting scrapped. I figure if they are sitting down in my pasture I know they won't get scrapped. A couple years back I had an opportunity to buy two m211's down in Dillon Montana, but the fire department realized they didn't hold the titles for them. They went to the county, and I never could find who to contact about them. I'd be interested in something that was in decent shape, running it not isn't too big a deal. I am a ASE mechanic so the mechanicals don't bother me at all, just as long as I can get parts. Is there anyone out there sourcing parts for these trucks? If not is it because there is a low demand for them? Have some really cool pictures of my wife's grandpa in Korea, he was a truck driver over there Unfortunately he passed a few years ago

 

[1944mb]

Some nice ones came up not long ago up your way on GSA. You are correct, these trucks are getting OLD and those that have not been cared for are getting scrapped every day. That being said, there still seem to be more of these trucks available than people willing to take them in. As far as the Hydramatic, most people find that the transmission can be brought back to life by a heavy cleanup of the linkages, cooler, and valve body. If bands and clutches are shot, get another transmission.

Bummer where were were they listed at malstrom afb?

 

[NDT]

Bummer where were were they listed at malstrom afb?

No, they were fire dept turn-ins at the state forestry yard, Utah I think.

 

[USMC 00-08]

I was curious in your guys' input. IT seems as though the G749 trucks are getting hard to come by. I hard been watching for them for a while and havenm't found much close to me. Are transmission parts still available for them? -Ben

There are transmission rebuild kits available still and I have failed to list it in our parts list. I will re-confirm the part numbers with Sturmtyger380 (I think it was him that found the kit??)and get them posted up.

It seems that these trucks are getting harder to find and some areas of the country have a lot less of them than others.

Is there anyone out there sourcing parts for these trucks? If not is it because there is a low demand for them? Have some really cool pictures of my wife's grandpa in Korea, he was a truck driver over there Unfortunately he passed a few years ago

There are still people sourcing parts. Memphis Equipment and Alfa Heaven are a couple. Occasionally eBay has some good stuff. We have also put together a parts list of things commonly available for these trucks at your local part stores and we are adding to it all the time.

Here is the link to the parts list thread.
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?137722-G749-Parts-List

Do you have pictures of your wife's grandpa with any of the trucks he drove? We would love to see them

 

[NDT]

The G749 trucks that are truly hard to come by are the short wheelbase trucks like the 215 and 221. The dumps were all put to use after being surplused and are used and gone. Tractors were made into chassis trucks for other purposes and also got used up. I've been looking for ANY example of these for a long time.

 

[1944mb]

Do you have pictures of your wife's grandpa with any of the trucks he drove? We would love to see them

I will check and see if she can get a hold of them. I was gonna post them anyway just to see if the truck every made it back to the states-which I know is highly unlikely. I havent seen the pics yet, but her grandma was telling her that he loved his deuce-that he took a lot of pride in it. A few years back, when I was looking at that package deal of 2-211's she said what are you gonna do with them. Then after seeing pics of her grandpa by his truck she said I should collect a truck like that, that it looked awesome---what can I say. I already have OD fever so whats a few more pieces of old iron...I'll try to get some pics. The list is awesome. Is there no one that is rebuilding the trannys or are some of the hard parts hard to come by?

 

[1944mb]

USMC 00-08 also, thanks for that video of your deuce-its awesome!

 

[m1010plowboy]

Cone Clutches

Here is part of the Hydromatic Challenge. Maybe with a few pics and a show of either heart or greater interest, someone will dig some parts up for us. I don't pretend to know how all this works but I'm learning the facts from boys that have been around the trucks.

The Cones, or "cone clutches" are a part that wears out. Heat causes faster wear so it makes sense that hotter climates used more clutches. With our cooler climates just south of Kosmos954, we should find less wear up here which should mean more - healthy transmissions.

I have a box with "new" clutches in it so they are out there...somewhere. Here are the parts and pics.

 

[1944mb]

Checking a few tranny suppliers they are showing reduction unit overhaul kits as available, as well as master overhaul kits which typically contain all frictions. I'll call tomorrow and see what they say.

 

[1944mb]

Okay, Got a response back on the hydramatic parts from these folks-http://www.fatsco.net/hydramatic.html

Master overhaul kit with frictions and steels-mkrh102t-1 $464 lacks extension housing gasket
Both bands-bdaatf+bdaatr $78 ea with $50 core
Reverse cones and pistons both available.
Reduction seal and gasket kit available. He did say they had everything but the reduction unit cone clutch. Which makes sense cause it is only used on the military trucks. Other than that sounds like everything else is available as I understand it. I've heard varying reports that only seals were available to nothing being available for these trannies, so this makes me feel better. Asked him about going to suppliers and having a limited run of production on these, and he stated it was do-able, but would be costly-but they do it for other trannys. Also stated that these were definitely a much beefed up tranny compared to standard hydra used in vehicle with internal parts being solid brass or steel compared to aluminum in light passenger. Would there be a market for these obsolete parts?

 

[1944mb]

Does anyone have a burnt up tranny that they want to part with? I wouldnt mind getting in the shop and tearing down to see what I'm actually talking about. The reality is I suppose there is not a huge demand-probably most collectors are doing very good to put 1000K miles on a truck in five years

 

[USMC 00-08]

Part numbers and everything!!! That is great information. I will get those added to our parts list soon.

There probably is not a huge demand right now. Maybe if we can come up with enough readily available parts and people see that these trucks can be brought back to life, there will be more of a demand in the future. Next to the CCKW, I think the G749 series is the best looking truck out there. I have heard over the last 30 years that parts simply were not available for these trucks and have seen quite a few scraped because of that myth. A lot of people were also afraid of the transmission too.

A lot of us have done some digging and came up with a pretty good parts list I think. If we can get these transmission parts on the list and get some transmissions successfully rebuilt, hopefully it will bring about more interest in the old G749's.

 

[1944mb]

While were on the pn deal here are a few more...
Reverse cone and piston Hpahm41a, and hpahm41 $126 ea respectively
Cone and piston-HPAHM113+hpahm113A $158

In my opinion the g749's are the best looking deuces made. I had an opportunity to buy 2 for a thousand dollars, but continued to hear how the Transmissions were terrible, and worse yet parts were not available. Frankly I even called a truck outfit in Memphis and they told me tranny parts were not available any longer. I worked in the repair business for a number of years, and hold certifications in heavy truck and buses, but felt if parts are not available for the tranny it was a useless gesture. Clearly tranny kits ARE available, and not JUST seals as I have also heard. The master kit stated above had friction and steels, gaskets, and seals. They also listed fluid couplings for these trucks. I got another call from gentleman I spoke to previously today, and he informed me that they had a core tranny with reduction unit if I was interested. The guy on the phone knew what he was talking about, and he told me he used to rebuild these trannys back about 30 years ago. Its always nice to talk to someone who has ahad their hands in it. I am so excited to hear that parts actually are available. Keep in mind hard parts might still be a search. We need to work on the image of this series that parts are still available. How many people crush these trucks because they have heard the same myth!

 

[USMC 00-08]

Cool! I will add these as well. How should I list these so the wording is correct in the parts list? Reverse Cone and Reverse Piston for the #41a and #41? What about for Cone #113 and piston #113a?

Are you going to pick up that core transmission and rebuild it? If so, can you make a video or at least lots of pictures of the rebuild so we can follow along with you?

Please spread the word about the parts list so we can get some renewed interest in these trucks. I know a lot have been crushed already because of the lie of no parts availability.

 

[1944mb]

Cool! I will add these as well. How should I list these so the wording is correct in the parts list? Reverse Cone and Reverse Piston for the #41a and #41? What about for Cone #113 and piston #113a?

Are you going to pick up that core transmission and rebuild it? If so, can you make a video or at least lots of pictures of the rebuild so we can follow along with you?

Please spread the word about the parts list so we can get some renewed interest in these trucks. I know a lot have been crushed already because of the lie of no parts availability.

USMC, not exactly sure of what the names were, had bad cell service, and we got to talking about other things before I remembered to ask what parts it was.
Moving forward I would like to get a master parts list of all the parts they stock, or can get for this transmission. If it saves one truck it would be worth it. I'll work more on this, and then probably re-post the info in a new thread so that more people are aware truly what is out there. Also I called the transmission builder that we used through the shop and he had rebuilt a few a long time ago.
It would be nice to have a truck that needed a transmission, build the tranny and then stuff it back into the truck, make the necessary adjustments, and run it. At the very least I would like to get a transmission, and tear it down to see what we are looking at needing for future parts supplies(i.e. the reduction unit cone clutch). I'd be more than willing to make a video/document steps in building the transmission. Like I say, I'm a little miffted that the overwhelming majority would say little to no parts are available for this, so I Would really like to make a positive step to ensure people are comfortable saving this series of truck. At the very least, I'm gonna put together a "master parts list", and I would really like to tear a transmission down. It would be nice to actually rebuild one for a truck, and get it working. I know where there is a truck in the county, without a motor, tranny, bed. Perhaps that might be the ticket? I'll have to look at it this weekend and see how much is really there.

 

[USMC 00-08]

Sounds good on the master parts list. We can work together if you want and add it all to our spreadsheet for everyone. Let me know what I can do to help.

Hopefully you can find a truck close by here soon.

 

[tommys2patrick]

recent sales thru GSA in Colorado

A couple weeks ago the Forest service in Ft Collins Colorado auctioned off a couple G749's and a 12 or 15 deuces. They all were in rough shape but fairly complete. I talked to the forest service agent in charge of the site and he thought Boyce bought most of them. So some parts might show up eventually from them.