“What have you done with THEIR 5 ton this week….”
So, I am in a Guard unit of a branch that does not deal much in combat mode with trucks in general (hint) but my admin crew happens to be responsible/own for a FMTV in motor pool that has been neglected. Since they heard I had a truck they sent me to have a look at it and report discrepancies to maintenance….
First they had too much engine oil and not enough coolant. I started the engine and it rattled really bad but smoothed aout after 2 min. Obviously it had not been started in months and the cylinders were dry. It was really cringy. The tranny level came up to barely the min level too. The lights at first would not work either. For some reason it took 5 min for the system to “warm up” and lights finally started blinking as they should what not.
I checked the belts and there were all kinds of wasps coming out the engine side because mason wasps and yellow jackets had taken residence on the engine block. Upon looking at the cab area I also found the cab was not latched and a mason wasp nest was lodging in it. I tried to raise the cab up and down a bit to latch it but it was raising with difficulty. The air-hydraulic power manifold over the latch started spewing puffs of clouds of hydraulics and started leaking. The cab finally raised itself properly, so proceeded to admire a bit the tough but abused Catterpillar engine that now was purring ok, and then I cleaned the nest and brought the cab down but it still would not latch with the indicator sticking out. If I understand the hydraulic pressure hose going to the latch should power it in the latched and unlatched position.
In that condition I did not want to drive it and so I called motorpool and they were like. ” Nah, too much oil? No big deal, and look coolant expanded out. The latch? It’s supposedto have the red indicator latch out {like, I was, wtf} but it matters not, it does not go on missions, just drive it around the hangars for 10 miles there is no traffic, Oh, by the way, you do not have to do all this, you could get hurt raising the cab what not, we do not want you to do that… you know,, this is the worst and oldest truck we have from 2003 and pass 20 years we get rid of them, because they are POS” {hmmm… was that a CYA hypocrite statement that I was bothering them, making them work} .
Wow. There you have it, the government for yah. Be advised next time you get on auction an FMTV, regarding the TLC it will need, people are not too kind on them round these parts. I definite would dump a bunch of Zddp in the oil and maybe spray some in cylinders before starting them. As for me, driving it, I was wondering if I could pin the cab. There are some pins and slots under the cab on each side. I wonder if it is for transportation. I am tempted to pin the cab next time I drive it, I do not want it to keel over in case I have to stop hard. Not sure if it is recommended. Of course I officially grounded the truck on paper due to the lack of latching and I will see if they fix it, but I have my doubts although his boss did thank me for the “thorough” inspection because an annual was coming up.
The question I had, though, was about the dog bone torque rods on FMTV, they seem to be hard bearings to pack and not rubber types as on the M900 series truck, if I am not mistaken.