From: Bruce Beattie (bruce@eecs.berkeley.edu)
Date: Fri May 14 2004 - 19:49:31 PDT
As a few of you know, I just bought an M54A2 5Ton from Jim Hossack up in
Washington State.
I started driving about 13 years ago, and no, I am not in my 20's. I
bought a 1977 F250 and had
it for about 10 years and then I bought an M1008 CUCV from Gene Pantano
and drove it back from Colorado.
Driving an M54A2 is not quite the same thing I found out..........
Jim did his best to set me up for the trip and I am deeply grateful for
all his help and advice.
Some of you may have heard about a fellow named Brad, who runs a surplus
gold mine.
No, not gold, but MV parts. It is worth taking the trip up there to see
what he has if you are
within a state or two.
Brad set me up with a whole lot of stuff, like frame extension kits,
tow bars and tow bat kits
to make an A frame settup, almost new tires, Hoist for loading and
unloading the spare tire, starter,
wheel chocks, jack stands, NATO cables and adapters, etc, etc. He DOES
NOT SHIP though.
The trip started off uneventful enough until I got about half way down
to California. Parked in
a motel, went in and registered, came back out and went to move the
truck. I heard the ringing
clanging noise that sounded like an 8 inch impeller or something that
had lost its bearings and
was clanging up against the housing.
Well, I didn't know that the turbocharger was this tiny little thing, so
I called up Jim and told him
that I thought the turbo charger had died.
He was all ready to go get one from Brad and have someone come down and
install it for me!
That is what I call dedication to helping someone out!
Figured out what it realy was yet????
I started talking to Jim and Brad some more and decided to rule out the
turbo. The next possibility
was that maybe the starter solenoid got stuck out and was pinging on the
fly wheel. This has
been know to happen, and was told about the big hammer approach. Barring
that, I had had the
presence of mind to have gotten a spare starter from Brad for the trip,
so I was prepared.
Still haven't figured out wat the real problem was?
I had done some more checking and couldn't find anything, so I started
it up and NO NOISE.
I had previously thought that this noise was associated with the engine
running but the vehicle stationary, but I was a little disconcerted at
the time. Bad assumption.
The following morning I got up and figured I was ok, after all I had a
hammer and I had a
spare starter. Oh, one more thing, I had noticed that the parking break
was loose, so I figured
I would tighten it up before I left.
Are you ready for this?
Crawled under the truck and what do I see, but thes two wierd parts
that look like they are part
of some brake assembly, just dangling by a control cable right next to
the 8 inch cylinder that
seemed to be part of the drive shaft. Duh, so that's how they
implement the parking brake
on an M54A2. Gee, I bet that makes a clanging noise when it hits up
against the moving
drive shaft and integral brake drum.......
Well, got to keep on trucking. That's what they make bailing wire
for....I'll get a replacement
pin after we get home. It is about a 3/4" by 5" bolt but has bearing
surfaces. It's what holds the
brake shoes in that shaft drum. Any one have one for sale?
On the road again, tearing down the mountains at a whoping 53 MPH with a
tail wind.
Which was fine, but then eventually it started to decrease a little at a
time, along with the RPM.
Then I remembere why Brad had provided me with a primary fuel filter and
instructions
on what to look for. So when it got to 45 MPH max I pulled into
a rest stop, and swapped the filter...Then I cleaned up the mess I made
doing it... You have to
tilt the canister to get the filter out.
Once that was done I was able to speed on my merry way....ok, ok, so 53
MPH is not speeding.
After going 45 though it seemed like greased lighting.
Paul Thomas met me at the storage facility where I have to park it to
meet insurance and the
usual city problems. He helped me unload all my gear, and there was a
lot of it, and then drove
me home. This was a very noble thing for him to do, even if I did let
him drive it into the
parking space. And he didn't even hit the two adjacent cars like I
probably would have.
I am now home, and I guess I should probably take a few lessons on how
to drive my new
toy so I don't traumatize any more folks on the highway.
Bruce MVPA 23824
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