Just bought a FLU 419!!!

[Sharky1528]

So NO pic's of your Mog ???

 

[The FLU farm]

Maybe it's the vampire edition? If so it wouldn't show up in a photo using a regular mirror reflex camera.

 

[BobWhite]

My fuel primer pump was a screw to unlock type that was bad. I bought one from Expedition Imports and primed it and it runs fine. The newer primer pump just pumps, you do not have to screw it out to unlock pump.

 

[Mountain Mog]

Newbie with a newbie unimog. I got it registered in Colorado. Passed emissions and the DMV only asked a couple questions. I even showed them pics. It was harder to get State Farm to give me full road insurance, but they did.... Reluctantly. Either way, my Mog is road legal and I drive it around with the attachments in place. What a great machine.

 

[The FLU farm]

Welcome, Mountain, and good to hear that you got yours through the system.
Not that I understand the urge to drive them on the road, but hey, it's one way to wear out those useless Michelins a FLU comes with.

 

[Mountain Mog]

I plan on making some money with it, so I have to move it around the mountain. Hence the tags and insurance. As for the Michelins.... Mine came with new Pirelli's. Not sure if they are any better. Got it from D n B construction in Lena Wisconsin about 2 months ago. It had 57 hours and 396 miles when I got it. Ram seals need work, but no mice issues.... Yet.

 

[peakbagger]

Some things to check

Drain and lubricate the air locker pistons, its not in any of the military manuals but I started a thread long ago with info https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showt...l-you-differential-lock-cylinders-on-your-SEE

Check the alcohol tank. The cap sits slightly above the back deck and frequently folks have stepped on it and smashed it in. If this is damaged it could be full of dirt. If the valve on the alcohol injector is closed make darn sure you don't open it if there is dirt inside the tank its direct shot into the air system. I think most folks just remove the tank and not use alcohol which is only needed in freezing conditions. Alcohol injection for brakes is definitely not great and if you do plan to use it in cold conditions consider installing an air dryer. I have the parts to do the swap but haven't done it.

Check your cross body air line with a magnet. This runs from the back side of the air pressure regulator on the passenger side frame rail to the air manifold in front of the air tanks. Use a magnet, if its steel swap it out with either stainless of cupronickel. If its steel plan on taking the air system apart to clean the rust flakes out. The line rusts from the inside out so it may look good but its big known source of contamination. The military had a technical advisory and they swapped it with stainless. Note the fittings are metric AN fittings, Belmetric is a source (and also own a Unimog (or two)).

Speaking of technical advisories, it you search around on the Misc Tech manuals forum on this site you will find a collection of military service and tech tips in one thread that would be useful to go through and there is more recent thread that has a student handout for SEE mechanics that has some nice diagrams and explanations of systems.

Take a thin stick and spin the hydraulic cooling fans, they should run free with no friction. There is s known defect that the wires were routed through the top of the cases and the rubber grommets fail due to sun exposure. That lets water in the fans and either shorts them out or rusts the guts. The military fix is just smear RTV on the grommets. I think the field fix is cut the wires. The fans only run after an extended period of running the backhoe so next time you are using it for heavy digging check that both fans turn on. If there is short it will blow a fuse that takes out the rear platform mounted controls.

My last recommendation is get few tubes of grease and a good grease gun and go through the entire lubrication schedule on both the chassis, the backhoe and the loader. Some grease points are hard to find but they exist. On the backhoe some are hidden when the backhoe is stowed. The original grease can turn gritty and solid so its best to follow the instructions on greasing and get fresh grease in every joint. The worst one to find IMHO is one on top of the transmission, the only way I could get to it was rotate the backhoe up and then crawl behind the cab and reach down to find the zerk. Note the instructions on not overlubing.

Good luck and hope you got a "good one"

 

[Mountain Mog]

Wow! And Thanks for the advice. I have downloaded and read, and reread everything I can. Expedition imports, SS, and more. I think I got lucky, as I bought it sight unseen. I've lubed it based on the placards and bulletins. And I know I have a water issue in my air. I'll check those lines and check the hubs that didn't work at first, but are working now. This thing sat for a long time. I have a great set of tools, and I work for a heavy equipment company as a mechanic right now, so I have resources to deal with issues. I had the starter go out already, but that was easy. Im most worried about the driveline. It looks like DnB did some work to it before they shipped it. Has some newer lines and sending unit in tank. Some new driveline boots and such. It's really a well thought out design for a collaboration project between Freightliner and Mercedes. I have another month or two before I take it out there and drop it on my mountain land. So it's been all inspection and maintenance for the last two months. Any other tips, tricks, or advice you have, is truly appreciated. Thanks again.

 

[peakbagger]

Spend time on the air system, Take it apart and clean out every component. until you dont see any rust flakes. Mercedes really likes air assisted systems. Pull the engine cover and lube all the throttle linkage rods.

Definitely drain the portal hubs and replace the fluid with synthetic gear lube. If you use it on the road consider putting on the special vents that keep the fluid form pumping into the axle.

The fuel system hoses are infamous for leaks under vacuum. Get some neoprene hose and cut it in short lengths. Slit it and slide it over the barbed section of each hose connection then put a full wrap hose clamp over it. Make sure you get the very hard to get at hoses on top of the fuel tank. Check to see if you have the old style primer pump on the injector pump. If you need to unscrew it, its the old style, order a new style from EI and do yourself a favor. Pick up a spare strainer and gasket for the fuel system.

Of course the biggest potential issue is sun damaged hydraulic hoses. Many SEEs have the original hoses and the sunlight really did a number on them. If they are loaded with cracks its pay me now of pay me later in the field.

The gaskets on the valve stems can deteriorate and the wheels can go flat. Cant do much except take the air out of the tire, break the bead and put in new stems.

Speaking of tires, if you have a spare, its held in with a long fine threaded rod, spray it with penetrant and lithium grease ASAP, Its a real PITA to get off if its dry.

 

[Mountain Mog]

I will, thanks again. I can't wait for this place to thaw out and start building my road to my property. About as off grid as you can get for Colorado. Was thinking about a 4x4 tractor, but it's all jeep roads and 4x4 trails to get there. The smaller stance is going to allow me to wheel it up some serious terrain. Treacherous enough to film the trip!

 

[peakbagger]

My property in NH is quite steep and wet in spots as the road is a low spot in the hillside. I know my local mountains in NH are molehills in Colorado but four of the five highest mountains in New England are literally right across the street. Ours are lower as the valleys are around 900 to 1000 ASL with the summits around at or just below 6000 feet so they do stick up out of the surroundings. The difference for me is I can pull off a paved road onto my lot while it sound likes yours is way out in the boonies. The soils are mostly glacial till, basically rocks with ground up rocks filling the gaps between them with thin topsoil growing between them and northern hardwood trees growing on top of it.

I have gotten mine stuck trying to go up the steep logging road that zig zags up the side my hill. I think the weight of the backhoe transfers most of the weight to the rear wheels when going up a steep hill. When I get on rocks, the wheels are all turning at one speed but it will not go uphill, the tires just spin on the rocks and it just slides sideways and then starts to rotate off the road. I believe the solution is ring type skidder chains for all four tires. They are on my list for this year. Not cheap but without better traction for going uphill I cant get to a lot of my land. When the property was logged years ago they did it with skidder with chains so I expect that's what I need to do. Maybe you may want to wait to buy a pair but might want to keep an eye out for some. I did try backing up this slope to more equally shift the center of gravity and made it up farther but its nothing I really want to try to full time. Looking at various youtube videos with Mogs used for logging they all have chains and I think I know why.

I have already inadvertently pinned the inclinometer on the dash to one side and am amazed I didn't dump it on its side. Its a capable beast but the laws of gravity still apply

My two are buried in snow and just about when the snow is clear they slap a load ban on the side roads until the frost melts out so mine don't get much use until mid to late april.

 

[Mountain Mog]

Lol. I know about pegging the inclinometer. I have done that also. It's puckering moment. Front left tire was off the ground and we were teetering. I grew up on the east coast. You can have the mud!! My trails are all rock and wood and sand. But I'm also at 8500 feet. So the snow will be here till about the same time. Mid April I'll be lucky to get there.

 

[Mountain Mog]

Peakbagger, starting the air system, but want to ask a specific question. The bleed off blows every few seconds above 1000rpm, but the main tank isn't filling or takes about 20 minutes till the light goes off. There's a clogged line I'm chasing first, would that symptom correlate with the top transfer line to the main tank you mentioned earlier? And it basically won't go above 60 on the gauge, so it barely shifts in and out of 4x4 and locked. Been doing a lot to it before I take it up the mountain. Another month or two and it's gonna be a happy machine!!! How's the mud back there? My buddy says your getting some NorEasters.

 

[peakbagger]

Hard to diagnose remotely. It sounds like you need to spend some time on the air regulator and work your way from there. I had similar issues with mine. I started by rigging up an air pressure gauge to the main air line and confirmed that I had plenty of pressure coming from the engine and then cleaned out the alcohol injector (which was full of dirt). I then pulled the air pressure regulator and it was pretty nasty inside. I elected to buy a new one from Expedition Imports but other folks have found the same regulator on Ebay by searching for part numbers (there is post somewhere on this forum). I think rebuild kits are available somewhere but I didn't look extensively. I think they used two different regulators on the SEE. The one shown in the parts manual blowup shows a strainer on the inlet. Mine didn't have one and there was lot of crap in it and some corrosion. The cross body air line must have rotted out at some point and the hack military fix was to use 1/4" copper tubing and lots of teflon tape to get it to seal. I replaced with proper metric copper nickel tubing using the right fittings. In the process of replacing it I broke one of the fittings over at the air tank trying to break a fitting loose and that is when I decided to take much of the piping apart on that side of the truck.

The air fittings in this system are bit of nightmare as they are mix of metric AN fittings and Metric straight threads. I picked up a metric pitch gauge and had a set of calipers so I got to learn how to identify the various types and sizes. Some of them appear to be cast aluminum and dont take any torque so you need to be careful to get a wrench on them to take the torque. There is not a lot of clearance in that area to get a crescent wrench in there. I have had bad experiences with the Chinese jumbo metric wrench sets being quite "sloppy" so I actually ordered up individual Craftsman large size wrenches that tend to have tighter tolerances. That really helped for taking the air system apart. I found crap in a couple of the check valves and in the air tanks and emptied them out. Do note that the SEE doesnt have air brakes but it does have an air brake system and that adds a lot of complexity to the system. I expect if someone wanted to they could simply the system.

Some folks have backfed the air system via the glad hands connectors at the front and rear of the truck. I havent done it but expect it might be good way to chase air leaks with the engine not running. I would like to clean out more of the air system but in order to get to it I need to tilt the cab and since everything is working I am holding off until I need to do it.

In my opinion unless the SEE came directly out of a rebuild with zero miles, I strongly recommend going through the air system as it impacts so many systems its not worth taking the risk. Anyone who doesn't is just setting themselves up for numerous future issues as the crap breaks loose and gets in expensive and hard to access systems. I think its a pretty indicative sign that the German Military specified the optional air dryer system on the 1300 series that were in production at the same time as the SEE. I have seen comments that it makes a big difference in the air system longevity. I have the parts to switch my SEE over but haven't installed the yet.

I had bare ground in some spots three weeks ago and was thinking about putting the batteries in the Unimogs. I have gotten about 3 feet of snow since then. It could make for an epic spring run off and mud season.