Now all the little Gremlins start.

[IRWFO]

Well like I said a week ago the truck is back on the road after over a year and a half. She is running great but now the little things are breaking. The first test ride caused the wheel cylinder to pop. Not easy stopping the truck with 36" tires and only front brakes. Tomorrow I will be replacing both cylinders, rear brakes, all the rubber hoses front & rear. Plus anything else in the braking system that isn't looking good. New fluid too.

Today was my first day home from being on the west coast all week and looked forward to starting her up but only got a click. Ok, batteries still need a good charge from the long storage. A few hours later and same thing. Just a click at the starter. Then nothing and a burning smell in the cab. Sure enough the relay burnt out. It was the orig. plastic one. Now my buddy with a 1009 put the same gear reduction starter as mine and had the same problem. He wound up putting a ford starter solenoid after about 4 relays fried. It seems these new starters put a heavy amp load through the relay. I am going to measure it tomorrow when I'm at the shop. I had a new AC Delco 15591718 Relay in the garage and popped it in and sure enough the truck fired right up. I started it up about 25 times through out the day with no problems but wouldn't you know it just smoked the new one on the last try before going in the house for the night. At least the relay burned open and not closed like my friend, killing a new starter. I just got a pancake starter solenoid to put in place of the relay and will install it tomorrow at the shop.

Just wanted to give a heads up in case anyone runs into the same problem and see if others ever had this trouble.

 

[jaytee]

That's odd, but maybe with the different voltage, the amp load is higher, I don't know what the stock starter draws, but it makes sense that a 12V DC electric motor would need more amps than a comparable 24V motor would, to produce equal amounts of torque.

 

[1stDeuce]

Hey Jerry, nice to hear that your truck came out of storage in good shape, relatively speaking! So you are talking about frying the infamous under dash starter relay that's really a heater relay or something like that, right? I thought the sole purpose of that relay was to take a 24V input and pass it on as 24V output to run the starter solenoid by only using 12V from the ignition switch to close the relay...

If your truck has been converted to 12V system, couldn't you just get rid of this relay entirely, and pass the 12V input to the relay from ignition right on through to the starter solenoid??? GM never put a relay on these trucks in 12V form, they just use the starter solenoid, which shouldn't be using more than 15A or so I wouldn't think.

If the truck is still 24V, there should be 1/2 the current through there that 12V uses, so the loads should be pretty low. Not sure why you'd get consecutive burnout, unless you are trying to run a 24V starter with 12V... That would double the amperage and probably not work that well anyway...

Any of this sound right? Anyone else??

C

 

[IRWFO]

What's up 1stDeuce, My setup is stock. 24v being sent to the starter solenoid and 12v to activate the relay. Today I mounted a starter solenoid under the dash, hooked the 4 wires up from the original relay to the new solenoid. For the most part it works good and should handle the amp load. Now I do see another problem. First few start up's went fine. I drove to the store and when I went to start it up I just got a click. I tried again and the same thing. It sounds like the starter solenoid at the starter is kicking out the gear but the motor isn't turning. Not even a hint that it wants too. On the third try it turned over fine. Same goes for when I got home and tried again. No problems. Tomorrow I am going under a double check that the wiring on the starter is tight.

Now my brakes are another story. After several hours of cutting and breaking all the old rusted parts off including the drums My rear brake system is all new. Drums, shoes, hardware, metal lines, E-Brake cable and whatever else I am forgetting. I'm starting to think I was lied to when I paid all that money for my mint Alfa truck that had the whole brake system gone through Time ran out so the fronts will be done later this week.

When does the fun of owning an MV start?

 

[Mike_Pop]

When does the fun of owning an MV start?

The fun starts when you get your second, third, fourth, etc. military vehicles! Be thankful that the M1009 parts are cheap and readily available. Also, the M1009 can be fixed easily by yourself or most mechanics.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

When does the fun of owning an MV start?

In our case after you fix all the stuff Alfa Heaven "neglected" to fix, didn't touch, cleaned so it looked new, and/or painted over.

 

[IRWFO]

[
In our case after you fix all the stuff Alfa Heaven "neglected" to fix, didn't touch, cleaned so it looked new, and/or painted over.

NEGLECTED? I was flat out lied to.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Notice the quotation marks. Picture me doing the "quotation marks" gesture as you read it.

 

[IRWFO]

New update. Front brake were as bad as the rear. Lines were full of water and rust so everything was replaced including calibers. Only the rotors were saved with just a cutting. Now she really stops well. Of course the truck had to give me one more kick in the groin on the way home with a directional light going out. The one under the battery. I think she is just testing my patience.
Now the past couple of days it seemed like it was being held back and forget about hills. I was sure it was the fuel filter and I was right. Alfa never changed mine so it's what came with it from GL. I put a new one in this morning and the bleeding went smooth and not even any stumbling on first start up. Just heading down the road it felt like a totally different truck. I went up the long hilled road that the other day I couldn't get her past 35mph on and today it's like the road was flat. Easily got up to 65mph without any trouble. Now I am feeling better.
This weekend I'm going to upstate NY, about a 5 hour trip. It should be a good shake down and if all goes well I think I will say she is ready for anything.