M923 with drained fluids

[Ue413]

Was working on a Recent M923 acquisition, and crank case, power steering, coolant reservoir and fuel tank were all drained.

the tranny registered (barely) on dip-stick.

two questions,

1. Why was this typically done? Truck was redone in 2007....but it appears it was subsequently drained.

2. Had not yet checked, but does this normally imply no differential oil?

anything else to look out for?

thanks!

 

[painter paul]

I believe it was policy at military installations to drain trucks they no longer were going to use to prevent leakage into the soil.

 

[bikeman]

Could have been a few reasons. Some DLA (aka DRMO) require turn-in with fluids drained. This was common to see on GL trucks when they went to auction. It could have also been that it was getting prepped or was in some long term storage and leaked out or could have been drained in search of a problem. If you're not seeing some fluids, smart assumption would be that all fluids are drained, including the diff, until you prove otherwise.

 

[98G]

The site where you're seeing these trucks had intended to scrap them all and had drained them in preparation for this. Then it was decided to sell them as trucks instead of scrap....

Some of them were drained by means of a drill, especially the hydraulic tanks...

 

[therooster2001]

Another theory I heard was overseas shipping to another country for sale. (not for military ops). Most commercial shipping vehicles in containers requires draining of all fluids before shipping unless it's a roll-on, roll-off shipping scenario. These might have been intended to go somewhere then changed to local sale. Or as stated above might have been about to scrap, issues, etc.

Drained should be everything, not even windshield wiper fluid.

I did help rescue a drained truck. It's a lot of fluids to put back in. Check everything. Risky on a buy as the engine could be seized and you'll not know until you either try to lug it over or fill it and try it, besides all the other component unknowns. Leaks, priming, rust in tanks / lines are all possible complications there too. It is a good time to swap all the filters and start from scratch. No bad or nasty gelled up diesel. Also the perfect time to change to tractor hydraulic fluid if that's your thing. We did and didn't notice much of a change. The big guy just ended up having some minor electrical issues, but it could have been worse.

 

[Ue413]

Well....the differentials were not drained, but everything else dry. The transmission filter removed, drain plug out of radiator missing, engine oil filter in place but crankcase drained, and fuel filter and housing gone. Batteries also removed.

got everthing replaced and she runs good with the exception of slowly losing fuel prime.

the strange thing about the truck was that it was refurbed at a base, and the log of everything they did was still in the truck.

 

[rumplecat]

You are lucky on the documentation, as for the fluids, I won a M543A2 wrecker several years ago from GSA/Homeland Security? The only fluids on the truck were the four dead batteries! Cost me almost a grand to replace them, it doesn't take long for it to add up to some dollars when you start buying 75 gallons of hydraulic fluid! It did come with a Homeland Security gas card, never tried using it?

 

[bikeman]

the strange thing about the truck was that it was refurbed at a base, and the log of everything they did was still in the truck.

Then it sounds as if the rebuild was almost complete (short of a road test) and they got orders to get rid of the truck. Happens. Had a Bradley come up for refirb in my first unit, and had already gotten rid of it... thankfully was able to swap out the other Bradley that we did have (originally 2, then just 1) that really needed some TLC and get it done.