Just Received My M1078 A0

[mccullek]

While this is not my first post here, this is my first post on my new M1078. I purchased it off of a Govplanet auction a couple of weeks ago as a non-runner with a flat on the front driver side tire. I took a chance on it since it seemed to have little wear and tear on the interior controls and mostly because I got it cheap compared to recent prices on other similar truck auctions. I was nervous, but wanted it, so I pulled the trigger. I was surprised that my EUC was approved in only 3 days, as they had told me 60 to 65 days.

They delivered the truck on Friday and other than figuring out how to apply air to the emergency glad on the front to unlock the brakes, and filling up the flat with air, I had little issues unloading it from the truck. It rolled right off the trailer and the brakes were strong with the connected emergency air. The best part was I installed two batteries in it, and it fired right up. Purrs like a kitten and no oil leaks or blowback. Put it in drive and off it went. Other than a bit of a jerk when it goes into drive, the transmission seems to work and operate properly. I feel like I got lucky on this one and got it for a great price, so I'm pretty pumped and thought I would post this here. Is that normal on the transmission?

The biggest issues I have found is I cannot get the cab to raise, and even using the hand pump, it took about 1000 pumps to get it up enough to inspect things, so I need to fix that problem. Also, the driver's door won't shut, and the passenger door won't open so I have to figure those out pretty quickly, as that is a real pain in the rear. I was expecting the CTIS to be a problem after reading so much about these trucks on here, but even my CTIS works properly. It has no speedometer either, so I ordered a GPS one that I will use until I can find a decent price on an original. I just can't see paying $365 for one at this point in time, when I could put that money to getting the cab hydraulics fixed.

Anyway, I feel like I got a good truck at a cheap price, although I certainly know I was rolling the dice buying a non-running truck. I'm looking forward to restoring it and getting it in top shape. Love driving it around too!

 

[coachgeo]

pull drive shafts and have them check for worn U-Joints and have them balanced. Drain ALLLL lubes along with fuel. Then IMHO replace lubes with cheap but in spec. stuff along with cleaning additives, plenty of diesel fuel injector cleaner etc etc..... ...... after your do a good bit of driving that long enough for all those detergents to do their thing..... drain it all again...... flush it if you can.... if you can't put cheap stuff in again and drive.... then drain again and put in really good stuff and you might be good to go for a while....... run her hard on occasion....(Italian tune up)

PS- all the oils you drained- give it to someone making fuel out of it.

 

[coachgeo]

fill your reservoir of the hydraulic pump. will be fun to get too with spare in the way.

 

[GeneralDisorder]

The best part was I installed two batteries in it, and it fired right up. Purrs like a kitten and no oil leaks or blowback.

Nice! Congrats on the lucky purchase.

Put it in drive and off it went. Other than a bit of a jerk when it goes into drive, the transmission seems to work and operate properly. I feel like I got lucky on this one and got it for a great price, so I'm pretty pumped and thought I would post this here. Is that normal on the transmission?

When going into gear from neutral? Yes the trans will lock in pretty firm. You DO NOT want to be rolling the opposite direction - come to complete stop when switching from reverse to drive. Will snap your head off your shoulders if you don't. If you mean when changing gears - the older trucks were pretty harsh about it. That didn't really get addressed till the Gen IV's in the A1R trucks. The A0's are notoriously hard shifting. Flushing out the 15w40 and filling with Allison TransSynd, Dexron VI, etc is often reported to help a lot.

The biggest issues I have found is I cannot get the cab to raise, and even using the hand pump, it took about 1000 pumps to get it up enough to inspect things, so I need to fix that problem.

Check the fluid level in the hydraulic pump. The pumps often need to be rebuilt, the plastic reservoirs often crack also. Oh - and they take special aviation fluid. It's not easy to find but you will probably have best luck at an aviation supply. Incidentally - the hydraulic cab latch is also used on F22 Raptor's and I'm guessing that's part of why they used exotic fluid. It is an odd choice to be sure.......

Also, the driver's door won't shut, and the passenger door won't open so I have to figure those out pretty quickly, as that is a real pain in the rear.

The exterior door handles break and are expensive AF. Also the various rods inside the door can bend due to lack of lube and manhandling, and the plastic rod clips are always a problem.

Anyway, I feel like I got a good truck at a cheap price, although I certainly know I was rolling the dice buying a non-running truck. I'm looking forward to restoring it and getting it in top shape. Love driving it around too!

They are quite fun to drive. Drive it daily for a while to really get in tune with it.

Clean every electrical connection you can find. Especially all the grounds. That truck will have the 100a alternator and they were massively undersized for the 4 huge batteries so best practice seems to be to reconfigure for two batteries and ensure they are always charged. Clean the connections at the Polarity Protection Device, check and clean all the connections under the PDP, and checked for cracked solder joints on the PDP circuit board. Clean the ground on the grab handle bolt under the PDP as well.

Throw the battery disconnect switch any time you will be plugging or unplugging connections - especially modules like the CTIS controller, and the Allison computer - they can be easily damaged if you don't.

Electrical issues seem to be one of the most common things we deal with. Understanding the electrical system and having schematics on hand is essential.

 

[Third From Texas]

Grats on the truck !

There are two tanks for the cab/tire lift system. One is at the manual pump and one is up behind the cab/spare. Easiest way I have found is to fill from the upper tank and bleed from the manual pump tank. Certainly start there.

If it is leaking/misting oil then the repair kits for the pump are cheap and readily available.. It's about a 4hr repair.

Good on you for the speedo.. ALWAYS source civilian solutions first for these trucks. Because the surplus racket is a HUGE price gouger as I'm sure you are well aware.

Lots of posts here and elsewhere about the simple conversion to TriMark door handles (like the A1R trucks finally ended up with). It's a $80 solution opposed to replacing the handle with the same faulty design that S&S originally used. But if you want to keep the OEM handles, there's no shortage of surplus scalpers who will gladly sell you a set for $500. Just be prepared to re-replace them when they break again (and they will).

The rods can be fashioned from stainless welding rod quite simply (bonus because the little plastic inserts from AutoZone will fit those nicely). Or again, you can pay one of the surplus guys $10/pc for some old brittle 20 y/o OEM plastic inserts that will fall apart and have you pulling the door panels again in a few months. There are a few YouTube vids on dealing with rods/inserts. *I tack weld tiny washers on my rods opposed to the plastic inserts, but it can be tricky to get into a few of the spot (but it's a one-time repair for life).

You can pull the inside door panel and figure out how to get that passenger door open for repair. Pretty simple once you get in there. Just a matter pf tripping the right lever on the latch.

The driver door may be more involved as to why it won't shut. Is it sprung? Is the door latch present and bolted up inside? Is the striker missing ? etc Lot's of car repair sites walk you thru troubleshooting that can apply here.

 

[mccullek]

Thanks for all of the replies. I already converted to dual batteries, so I did that right out of the gate when putting the batteries into it before starting. I did add hydraulic fluid to the upper tank and all it would do is mist and spew fluids, so I guess I need to find the rebuild kit and make that my first project. Glad to know the jolt from the transmission is natural and not an indication of a problem. I had to add a quart of oil to motor and about 2 quarts to the transmission, but will change all those fluids shortly as suggested.

I have a c7500 dump truck that has the same type door handles and I recently changed one of those and it was a nightmare, so not looking forward to working on the doors for the M1078, but thanks for all of the tips.

 

[coachgeo]

...I have a c7500 dump truck that has the same type door handles ....

what year?

 

[mccullek]

what year?

1998 Model

 

[Green Mountain Boys]

As for the hard shifts, that is normal as others have said. Some things that reduce the hard shifts are:
1. A fully warmed transmission.
2. A load on the truck.
3. Make sure the engine idle speed is correct. Sometimes the throttle linkage can bind a little. Check the base of the pedal in the cab for dirt and rust.
4. Replace the transmission fluid with synthetic.

 

[Third From Texas]

I did add hydraulic fluid to the upper tank and all it would do is mist and spew fluids, so I guess I need to find the rebuild kit and make that my first project.

Yeah, misting is the tell tale. The kit will resolve it. May as well do the latch rebuild while you're at it (it's even easier).

There's a few threads in here that have the kit numbers. Colt has a good video of the whole process. And be sure to shop around (as usual, there are scalpers here who simply mark up what you can get yourself).

I have a c7500 dump truck that has the same type door handles and I recently changed one of those and it was a nightmare, so not looking forward to working on the doors for the M1078, but thanks for all of the tips.

Yeah, it's be the same (no fun at all though).

 

[Ronmar]

Does the hand pump not work? Pretty common for the AOP to need seals/work…

hard engagement into drive may be high idle RPM. As mentioned check the pedal and cable, and insure the governor control is returning completely to the idle RPM stop screw…

It is virtually impossible to fully warm up the A0 without a fair bit of load on it. They sent all the bypass coolant down thru the transmission cooler instead of back into the engine where it belongs until it warms up enough to open the thermostat…

look sharp! Don’t take anything for granted. These trucks went to DRMO/auction for a reason…

 

[mccullek]

Does the hand pump not work? Pretty common for the AOP to need seals/work…

hard engagement into drive may be high idle RPM. As mentioned check the pedal and cable, and insure the governor control is returning completely to the idle RPM stop screw…

It is virtually impossible to fully warm up the A0 without a fair bit of load on it. They sent all the bypass coolant down thru the transmission cooler instead of back into the engine where it belongs until it warms up enough to open the thermostat…

look sharp! Don’t take anything for granted. These trucks went to DRMO/auction for a reason…

The pedal is definitely sticky, so I think I need to check that and make sure it's not idling too high, so your suggestion is probably right on the mark. My hand pump will raise the cab to almost the tipping point with about 1,000 pumps (not exaggerating). Not sure what that means, but assuming the hand pump is shot? I haven't checked the fluid in the hand pump yet, so maybe it just needs fluid? Any other suggestions? I don't see any leaks on the hand pump or the cylinder/lines, so maybe the hand pump is not sealing. I'm leaning to that since if I pump fast enough and long enough, it does slowly raise the cab.

I was looking at a post where some people have changed out their air/hydraulics for a two way hand pump system that seems to work well, but while researching that possibility, I stumbled onto a 12v hydraulic pump. See thread link below. Would love any feedback on the feasibility of going with the 12v pump as it would be cheaper and easier than a rebuild or the alternative hand pump I think.

Alternative hydraulic hand pump. | SteelSoldiers

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Well the A1P2's with the armored cab switched all the hydraulics over to electric. The AOP wasn't up to the task of the 4500 lb cab. They switched to electric and dual hydraulic rams with dual cab latches. So yeah - it's absolutely possible and likely the best solution if you have the means and the will to do the conversion. I considered it but it's a LOT of work.

 

[Ronmar]

The pedal is definitely sticky, so I think I need to check that and make sure it's not idling too high, so your suggestion is probably right on the mark. My hand pump will raise the cab to almost the tipping point with about 1,000 pumps (not exaggerating). Not sure what that means, but assuming the hand pump is shot? I haven't checked the fluid in the hand pump yet, so maybe it just needs fluid? Any other suggestions? I don't see any leaks on the hand pump or the cylinder/lines, so maybe the hand pump is not sealing. I'm leaning to that since if I pump fast enough and long enough, it does slowly raise the cab.

I was looking at a post where some people have changed out their air/hydraulics for a two way hand pump system that seems to work well, but while researching that possibility, I stumbled onto a 12v hydraulic pump. See thread link below. Would love any feedback on the feasibility of going with the 12v pump as it would be cheaper and easier than a rebuild or the alternative hand pump I think.

Alternative hydraulic hand pump. | SteelSoldiers

The installed hand pump is really small volume and only pumps in one direction so a normal lift takes 168 full pump strokes anyway... You could also have a bad control valve or pump check valve and I gave you some suggestions to try and narrow down the problem over in the other discussion.

Usually when you are low on fluid, it will pump normally until that fluid is expended then stop pumping at all…

 

[wheelspinner]

I have a few good take-out speedos. Send me a PM

 

[Tow4]

No pictures?

 

[mccullek]

No pictures?

what year?

it’s a 1998 model.

 

[CONJIN]

As for the hard shifts, that is normal as others have said. Some things that reduce the hard shifts are:
1. A fully warmed transmission.
2. A load on the truck.
3. Make sure the engine idle speed is correct. Sometimes the throttle linkage can bind a little. Check the base of the pedal in the cab for dirt and rust.
4. Replace the transmission fluid with synthetic.

I think my idle speed is way too high, about 1000. I definitly need to check the linkage, etc, before adjusting the idle speed. Any idea what it should be?

 

[Ronmar]

I think my idle speed is way too high, about 1000. I definitly need to check the linkage, etc, before adjusting the idle speed. Any idea what it should be?

Could be linkage/cable. The speed control
Block on top of the governor rotates between the low speed and high speed stop screws. First step is insuring that block touched those stops with o and full pedal application.

If you are idling too fast the trans wont allow a shift out of neutral…

there are 2springs on top of the governor(spring inside spring) tgat you need to insure are intact and pulling the block to idle…