We have received our M-578 at the museum. Regrettably the batteries were
dead and it was not able to be started tonight. Upon further investigation
I found just about every switch in the drivers compartment in the on
position, including the master. It had been in transit since this morning
and the crew was not able to start it at the unit prior to delivery. They
had a fancy name for unloading it without power. Combat offload. In
layman's terms this means they threw it in neutral and tilted the trailer
until the thing rolled off the back. Moved pretty fast, proof that gravity
works I guess.
We spent the next hour trying to get hold of one of the local guard or
reserve units, several close by, and get a jump start. First big problem
occurs here. All forces have NATO slave cables, M-578 has two pole old
Vietnam type. I have an M151A2 with proper slave receptacle but no cables,
will be fixing that soon.
One of my questions is what would the going price be for batteries for this
beast. We did not have time to pull one out tonight but they look like your
regular run of the mill big assed tank battery. Four of them.
The track has a full tank of diesel and all fluids levels check out within
spec so we are anxious to get it running and off the curb where it came to
rest after the Combat Offload. We are looking for info about filters for
fuel and oil. The oil looks pretty black so I figure a change is coming
soon. (After reading the tech manuals) We have three CVC helmets for the
crew, but wont know if the intercom system is working till we get it
started.
I would certainly be interested in any information that anyone in the group
might have pertaining to do's/don'ts etc. for the vehicle. I have a full
set of tech manuals on zip disk but the compression format is giving me
fits, will have that fixed by the weekend and all manuals installed on the
laptop. The biggest thing I have heard to date is that the hydraulics are
very quirky and complicated to fix. I wont know the status of the
hydraulics until we can start it and check it out.
In advance, thanks to the group for any info, stories or advice!
David & Donna Brubaker
Member MVPA
M-151A2
http://www2.southwind.net/~b52d
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 01 2000 - 21:37:47 PST