M1010 Ambulance Picked up

[riggermedic]

If your going to convert it and pull out the bottom 2 berths, I would be interested in purchasing them. I have a 1010 that is currently stripped inside of the box.
welcome to the 1010 herd, I just finished chasing down most of my electrical gremlins. They are fun and frustrating at the same time

 

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I was taught that automotive alternators need to be connected to a battery. If you disconnect a running alternator from its battery, you can fry the voltage regulator or worse.

Search the site for info about eliminating the DUVAC from your system. The DUVAC was a really bad idea. There are several approaches. I went with the "Plan B Mod", but a smarter play might be to go with 2 12V alternators, one per battery. I'm not sure my 2 voltage regulators are playing nicely together. I'd need to install shunts and ammeters to find out. Haven't opened that can of worms yet.

My M1010 thread is here, FYA:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?135493-M1010-for-my-daughter-the-field-biologist

Battery drains are tedious but straightforward to figure out. You follow the circuits from the + post on the battery to the - post. Something in there is allowing electricity to flow. It's a simple process of elimination. To measure electricity flow, I got a clamp ammeter, and clamped it to the wire connected to the + post. Remove fuses and disconnect things until you have little enough current flowing that you can use an ammeter. Disconnect the + wire from the + post on the battery, and put your ammeter in the circuit. Mine handles <0.1 amps. Be careful you don't fry yours with too much current.

If you pull all the fuses, and turn everything off, you should see no current flowing. You may have to disconnect your alternator. Some leak current. Once you have no current flowing, you can re-connect things one at a time until you find the one that's allowing current to flow and draining your battery. You'll likely find a few things that are at fault. Cracked insulation on old wires, leaky diodes -- lots of possibilities. Turning the main light switch off is good advice. So is a trickle charger when the truck is not in use. I do both. I also have a small solar panel. All of this is discussed in detail elsewhere on the site.

While you are doing this, take the time to clean all your electrical connections and grease them with dielectric grease. I like no-ox-ide, but there are other good products out there. Again, this is discussed in great detail elsewhere on the site. Old connectors with corroded contacts can cause intermittent electrical gremlins that can be hard to track down. Clean and grease every electrical contact/connection, as you work your way through the vehicle.

I find most any question I have has already been answered on the site. Search, read the M1010 & CUCV threads, and you'll find most questions answered without your having to ask.

 

[lavarok]

Hi just wondering if you know where to find the wiring for the 4 spot lights in the back. They will not work and can't find the wiring for it. Any help would be great.Thanks

They are switched on the dash, but the wiring should go through the walls to the panel in the rear box on the driver side above the wheel well. If you have a berth in there, you need to look inside. My M1010 did not have the berth on the driver side so this panel was exposed.

 

[MountieM1010]

Ok..now that I have prevented you from potentially electrocuting yourself and/or welding your self to your truck I can explain your potential problems.

1: The little blue box(es) on your driver side engine compartment make up what is called a "Duvac". Your truck if it is stock will have [2] 24V alternators. The "duvac" is supposed to keep the 12v side of the truck powered and keep the front battery charged. You can search Duvac on this site for a plethora of information regarding the duvac, issues, and solutions.

2: The master light switch on the M1010 controls power to a relay for black out lights in the rear compartment of the truck. If you leave the master light switch on, even with a good 12v charging setup, the front battery will drain out over time. When ever the truck is not in use, do yourself a favor and turn off the master light switch. Just don't forget to turn it back on when you need to use the truck and off again later.

If you want any help figuring out your setup, just pm me an email address and I'll email you.

By the way, Nice truck.

Sorry don't mean to hijack your thread. I just recently bought a M1010 and it had a major charging issue which we mistakenly thought was the alternator. My truck was converted to 12 volts before I bought it. It still has 2 batteries and they are now hooked together to give us full 12 volt power to the starter. The 12 volt alternator is 120 amps. We discovered the yellow wire that was hooked to the alternator was routed to this strange isolator looking blue box but it wasn't working. So we disconnected it and routed the wire direct to the battery(as opposed to the starter like a typical old Chev setup) and corrected the problem. Now it charges great. Thankyou Lavarok for solving the blue box (Duvac)mystery for us. We had no idea what it was for.

And Maynard83 that's a great looking M1010 you have. Love the desert color. I am trying to keep mine looking as stock (for parades) as possible but am slowly making some improvements/changes to it. I am going to install a propane RV furnace. The small style that fits in a pickup camper. Not sure what other changes I'm going to make in the rear yet. But I got some great ideas from this site already. At the moment I am installing a 4 gauge dash pod. I have the tranny temp gauge installed and intend to finish the rest today. I was going to replace the dash top as it is cracked but decided to order a Mossy oak camo cover for it instead.

 

[brazengoat06]

If any m1010 guys are getting rid of their diesel fired heaters let me know...

 

[MountieM1010]

Sorry if I came off rude, it was not my intention. The M1010 is a unique vehicle in regards to its charging system. There are a lot of rumors and misguided information out there. I own a M1010 and have it figured out completely.

Man knows his stuff! I was two weeks trying to figure out what the blue box was for until I read his post. Now my M1010 runs great with no charging issues.