The rescuer becomes the rescuee (M35A2 issues)

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My deuce sat for years, 10 or 15, with the tank FULL of diesel. It wasn't very cruddy. Dry desert and tank being full doesn't give room for rust to form.

I'm glad that worked for you. There are microrganisms that can grow in diesel. This is a big problem in boats. I have no experience with desert. Maybe they require humidity.

Certainly a full tank leaves less room for air coming in and out, bringing dust and/or humidity an/or microorganisms. It also prevents rust, as you mentioned.

 

[Jeepsinker]

You may want to check the turbo flange to exhaust manifold gasket to see if that was causing the smoke in the cab.

 

[Barrman]

I see traces of a small leak between the flex pipe and J pipe. I just stuck my head in there for a fast look waiting for my forearms to stop throbbing after doing those 10 way too long screws to get the pump off and on.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Be glad your screws let go! I had 3 that i needed to drill and tap.

 

[Barrman]

I was thankful for that Chris. I had the impact driver ready to go just in case. I think every one of those screws was stuck when I pulled the Gasser apart years ago.

 

[Recovry4x4]

That's the spooge I spoke of. Been there, done that, got a tee shirt from it. Thanks for sharing Tim.

 

[DavidWymore]

To be clear, I didn't leave my deuce sitting that long, wouldn't do such a thing. It sat retired from a farm, now I'm trying to bring it back from the dead.

I have heard of bacteria in diesel before, but here in the desert, never seen it. We don't have much moisture that doesn't come from a canal.

 

[VPed]

Take it from another desert rat, it does happen despite the dry air. You can get a waterlogged load of fuel easily. small amounts of fuel below the pump pickup point will remain there and allow the algae to grow. Apparently, I have not read the TM's sufficiently to run across the technical term for that: spooge.

That is why some of us with diesels, military or civvy, carry spare fuel filters. I once had to drive, literally half way across Texas, to deliver and install a fresh filter on my civvy truck that my daughter was driving. Ironically, she was headed to Austin to recover my son with a dead Corvette. I had been the one to fuel up the truck before she took off so I know where the problem originated. The filter she left home with had less than 2000 miles. Since that day, all of my diesels have spare filters on-board.

 

[Kaiser67M715]

Just to throw my 2 cents into this mix, Rusty has a good point. But I always find Barrman's posts well informative, and because he is human; showing that even something as simple as checking the cleanliness of the Fuel tank can be overlooked especially when he is not the only driver.

on that note I never run an in tank screen, rather I try to run an extra filter, so if anything is in the tank it finds the way out to where it would be easier to spot. I do also realize this is more difficult with in-tank pumps, expensive machines, that sometimes need the in-tank screens

WMO is nasty stuff sometimes, grandparents ran it in their Mercedes before I inherited/bought it, pulled the tank twice after that to clean it, never did injectors, but probably would have gained power if I did/had money

 

[Flyingvan911]

Also check the rubber hose on the in tank pump. Now's a good time to replace it if it's not in tip top shape.

 

[rustystud]

OK just to be clear, I was not making a personal attack against "Barrman" . I was making a broad statement and using his comment about NOT checking the fuel tank as the "catalyst" for my comments. Lets be honest here. How many on this site have a regular maintenance program for their military vehicle ? Can I have a show of hands ? I'm very positive not many here raised their hands. That is the problem I'm talking about. Truth be told my post yesterday was in large part a response to my son's lack of care to certain things he is responsible for, but the whole premise of my post is still valid. If you have a stand-by generator and never do the proper maintenance on it are you going to get upset when it doesn't perform when the power goes out ? Granted you almost never use the thing so why should I do all that maintenance on it right ? That is the rationale I'm addressing here. I should have made a statement before my rant that "this is not an attack against Barrman" but a broad statement to the whole Steel Soldiers community. So, if I offended you Barrman I apologize. It was not my intent to harangue you. For you others who felt they should jump on me for my comments (you know who you are ) I say maybe you should ask if my statements where a personal attack before you yourselfs attack. So ends my second rant on this post.

 

[mkcoen]

For you others who felt they should jump on me for my comments (you know who you are ) I say maybe you should ask if my statements where a personal attack before you yourselfs attack.

Since I was the only one that quoted you, I'll respond.

NO.

 

[Barrman]

As I wrote yesterday. Interesting comments here.

Colton and I took the truck for a test drive yesterday. 10 miles out we stopped to check things over and found oil on the passenger side of the truck. We were all excited about how it was running great, a little bit down on power, but running great. We still haven't swapped out the fuel filters so that is probably the down on power part. Then we saw the oil.

We couldn't see the source and the level was still in the operation range on the dip stick so we went home slowly. We found more oil, but no source with the engine idling. The highest most forward wet spot is the oil supply for the turbo. I cleaned it off and it didn't get wet after running the engine for 10 minutes. I think I will pull it off and inspect for a crack tonight.

Just to revisit the temperature gauge "bouncing" I mention in the first post. Coolant is at the "happy spot" for this truck. Which means I can't see it in the radiator neck, but can feel it with a finger in there. Any more added just comes out the over flow. During the drive the temp went to just below 200°, then down and finally settled down to the usual steady needle. I must have just looked at it during the only time it was actually moving the other day.

The clamp between the flex pipe and the J pipe took 4 turns of a wrench to tighten up and that stopped the exhaust smoke.

While standing there watching it not leak we got to talking about how the truck is mad at us. We both decided it is because of what happened 2 years ago. I had the rear hubs flipped and was running 11.00 XL singles all around. I only had 6 XL tires. When one of them split at the sidewall, I basically parked the truck and let it sit for almost a year. When we finally pulled all the wheel cylinders because the brakes lost fluid while it was sitting, flipped the hubs and went back to duals. The truck had been sitting without use for 9 months. I had motor oil in the tank all that time.

So, what we are going through now is just the waking up of everything that has been ignored. Brakes are all basically new. Fuel tank will be clean soon, new filters will go on again and the NDT 11.00 tires are all pretty new too. Of course, the blinkers stuck last night so we are still in the revolving mad truck phase of the wakening.

Oh, I had removed the fuel lines from the flame heater some time ago so that isn't the leak.

On a side note. Since we are still supposed to get rain and any rain right now will lead to flooding. I fired up the Gasser M35 last night. Tonight is going to be spent getting its brakes

 

[DavidWymore]

Probably needs synthetic dot 5 blinker fluid. Maybe add a filter.

 

[Kaiser67M715]

Probably needs synthetic dot 5 blinker fluid. Maybe add a filter.

hey blinker fluid works;

True story, my brother had a 99 GMC diesel one of the front blinker housings was on upside down, so the drain hole was at the top, to it would remain about 3/4 filled with water. anyways we flipped the housing one day and the blinker stopped working, tried a little bit of everything, so we flipped it again, it rained the next day filling the housing, and the blinker started working again, so we left it

 

[rustystud]

hey blinker fluid works;

True story, my brother had a 99 GMC diesel one of the front blinker housings was on upside down, so the drain hole was at the top, to it would remain about 3/4 filled with water. anyways we flipped the housing one day and the blinker stopped working, tried a little bit of everything, so we flipped it again, it rained the next day filling the housing, and the blinker started working again, so we left it

Now that is funny !

 

[rustystud]

Since I was the only one that quoted you, I'll respond.

NO.

NO you won't ask and just attack or NO you'll ask if it's an attack ? Just wondering.

 

[mkcoen]

NO you won't ask and just attack or NO you'll ask if it's an attack ? Just wondering.

No I won't ask. When someone comes into a thread where the OP talks about breaking down and starts a rant about people not maintaining their vehicles it's pretty obvious they had the OP in mind (with others) when they started the rant. If you just generally want to rant about something and not imply a particular person is included in that rant then start your own thread. Coming back after you've been called out on it and saying "oh I didn't mean Barrman" is a little disingenuous. That's like insulting someone then saying "oh I was just kidding" when you really weren't.

 

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I find rustystud's rants educational. I suspect barrman and rustystud both have the same motive, to educate the MV community about what can go wrong, how to prevent it, diagnose it, and fix it. They certainly educate me.

I'm an MV newbie. I read the TMs and their PM guidance, but rustystud is advocating a much deeper PM vision than the TMs contemplate. He basically takes the truck apart, section by section, and cleans, lubes and upgrades parts as he goes. I don't have the skills or the tools to do everything he does, but his recommendations give me something to aspire to. Barrman's stories give me projects for my list, and new items for my spare parts kit. I find it all helpful.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the MV hobby works best for those who are retired, with deep pockets, and with a well equipped barn or very large garage. I'm more a shade tree mechanic, with aspirations. I'm learning, which for me is part of the point of the hobby.

I don't think too many thin-skinned folks post their war stories here. At least not twice. Most mechanical failures could have been prevented by preventive inspection and maintenance. Most of us don't have time to do everything all at once, so these stories help us prioritize the time we do have. I appreciate both the "here's what went wrong" and the "here's how you prevent that" posts.

 

[gimpyrobb]

I am not retired, don't have deep pockets, nor a barn/large garage. I have posted many "war stories" and will continue to do so. I think too many people "care" about what others may post and get their feathers ruffled too easy. Its just a website and what anyone may say is their right. Many times I have had folks think there was an attack intended, when in fact there was not. Thats why I like to go to the rallys and meet people in person. Someone's persona online may be WAY different from their personality "in the flesh". Its a great hobby with lots of great folks involved, we should all strive to meet at least 10% of the others on the site.