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[Note: I cross-posted this to both the Hummer and MIL-VEH lists.]
Ok, I have a maybe-dumb question for y'all. First, some background
information:
I bought a 1986 USMC-surplus M998 HMMWV about a month ago, and tonight
I finally made the 30-mile-long trip home from the hangar where I've
been working on it. Other than a 10-mile shakedown run on fairly flat
ground, with only about a mile on a freeway, this was the first "real"
drive my truck has had since I finished getting it (maybe, just
barely...) road-worthy. The main freeway I took (the 241 toll road,
for those of you familiar with Orange County, CA) was quite hilly, so
my truck got a real workout. The fact that I chose to start the trip
at about 9:30 PM, on a freeway which cuts right through the middle of
an unpopulated mountain range, made things especially fun. :-)
Several times during the trip, my truck started making a very LOUD
roaring sound. This happened on uphill segments, and the temp gauge
was reading around 200 degrees F. There was also an exciting
plastic-burning smell. Though I pulled over three times at call boxes
to look for anything wrong, I could not find the source of the smell.
Maybe it was a slipping belt?
So here's my dumb question, for those of you with experience in
similar trucks:
Was that roaring sound most likely the sound of the fan turning on?
Is it normal for the fan to make that much noise?
Ok, I guess that was two questions. I don't plan to drive the truck
again until I give it another thorough going-over. I plan to flush the
cooling system, inspect/replace the thermostat, replace the rather
crunchy radiator hoses, and also replace the expensive-looking lower
metal coolant pipe (where the drain is located), due to an interesting
rust bubble I found on it, which produced some green water when
crunched... I think at least one tire is badly out of balance/out of
round, which made the trip home even more exciting ("squirrelly"
doesn't begin to describe how it handled when I let it get over 55
MPH). I plan to take apart all of the wheels, inspect the tires,
probably replace at least one of them, remove the run-flats, and have
the wheels re-balanced.
I've been home for an hour, and I still haven't completely unclenched.
At least the truck fit in the garage without removing the fording
exhaust stack, or "adjusting" any walls with a Sawz-All. Time for a
beer or three... :-)
-- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK <mblair1@home.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL TO THIS SITE
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