"Nut & Bolt" your trucks!

[BugEyeBear]

More on my recently acquired '71 M35A2....

I was poking around under the hood and noticed that the 2 rear mounting bracket bolts for the IP were quite loose (not even finger tight... in fact they had backed off about 1/16"...)
So I grabbed some wrenches & tightened them down.

What is interesting about this is that the IP was recently replaced with a new one. So this probably means that "Joe-Mechanic" did a sloppy job at the install and failed to tighten everything up!

This caused me to doubt the tightness of anything that had been recently repaired/replaced, so I spent a couple of hours putting a wrench on anything that looked like it had been recently touched.
I wasn't surprised to discover that many of the recently touched bolts, hose clamps, fittings, etc. were NOT as tight as they should be. & many were just plain LOOSE! My air horns were VERY LOOSE, one of them was only half way screwed in, & the other was cross-threaded & only held in by 1/4 of a turn! It fell off in my hand!
Not all of the bolts were loose, but enuf were that I'm glad I spent the time checking & tightening.
It is worth noting that ALL of the old stuff (that hadn't been touched in awhile) was plenty tight....

Must have been recently serviced by "Joe-NEWBIE-Mechanic", or someone with no upper body strength!

Hope I didn't miss anything VITAL!!
Guess I'll find out!

 

[doghead]

What's really scary is, guys with no experience with these truck, keep getting in them, and drive them home.

 

[BugEyeBear]

It probably would have been "safe" for a recovery drive of a few hundred miles...

BUT I'm sure that I would have lost at least one of the air horns, a few bolts, and probably would have experienced some coolant & oil leaks due to the loose items.


That reminds me....
I need to check those lug nuts!!


3 Lugs on a wheel is normal, right?!?















(.....just kidding!!)

 

[doghead]

Yeah, but you only really need two!

 

[hippiedude]

Wow ..... Good thing you started poking around ..... You mite want to check them lug nuts just incase joe newbie played tire man ...... Tim

 

[BugEyeBear]

Yeah, but you only really need two!

Is there a story here??!?


I DID also look to see if I had LH-threaded wheel lugs on the left side & RH-threaded wheel lugs on the right side.... (LH has LH, & RH has RH )

AND I ALSO checked that I had LH turn signal bulbs on the left & RH turn signal bulbs on the right....



I'm sure that I'll be paranoid about other potential "Joe-Newbie-Mechanic" fixes for a while to come.

"OH Well"... Nothing that can't be fixed!

 

[emr]

These are tactical vehicles as we all know, and that means they need ALL nuts and bolts to get a wrench at least once a year, depending on how much U drive them. Do get a wrench on the nuts and bolts of your jack shafts asap this is good advise to all, they loosen up alot, and when they go will rip a hole in the tranny and floor, i saw it happen to a guy in the MTA, ALL nuts and bolts on these vibrating machines need a wrench...

 

[topo]

When I brought home my m211 years a go I drained the rear ends to put in new gear oil and I noticed some chunks of metal I put my finger inside the drain hole and felt more chunks . I pulled the third member out and every thing was fine . I could not believe someone replaced a rear end with broken ring gear and did not clean the metal out of the housing . never know what you will find on these old trucks .

 

[BugEyeBear]

These are tactical vehicles as we all know, and that means they need ALL nuts and bolts to get a wrench at least once a year, depending on how much U drive them. Do get a wrench on the nuts and bolts of your jack shafts asap this is good advise to all, they loosen up alot, and when they go will rip a hole in the tranny and floor, i saw it happen to a guy in the MTA, ALL nuts and bolts on these vibrating machines need a wrench...

"emr", I completely agree!

But what annoys me is that the loose bolts on MY deuce were primarily on recently serviced items, & NOT on stuff that normally vibrates loose over time.

This is due to a mechanic being careless, not due to vibrating loose over time. I can only assume that either some "newbie" didn't know what he was doing, OR someone simply didn't take the time to check his work.....

BTW: I did also check my jack shafts & drive shafts. All bolts were tight.