From: Chance Wolf (bigbadwolf@telus.net)
Date: Sat Feb 11 2006 - 18:30:58 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Convoy Magazine" <convoymagazine@yahoo.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 6:40 AM
Subject: [MV] mutt M151-A2
> When seeking a MUTT for purchase, what specific points
> of this family generally (related to all versions)
> should one examine closely on a used vehicle prior to
> buying,
Three little words: Rust, Rust, Rust. You can overcome anything mechanical
because so many mechanical parts (both NOS and used) are available through
Supply Line and Military Vehicles Magazine vendors etc., but rust in the
key parts of the monocoque undercarriage is not so easily dealt with. There
are also lots of cut-in-half rewelds out there which have been put together
less than professionally, so aside from the integrity of the welds (and look
very closely underneath indeed - paying special attention to the main
channels and anything freshly undercoated), grab a measuring tape and
measure the vehicle from stem-to-stern and compare it to an uncut one. One
of our members (WCMVHS) did some amazing rewelds the *right* way (and
measured the vehicle to get it exactly right), but others I've seen have
misaligned front and back halfs 'camouflaged' with bucketloads of fiberglass
filler and/or worse malaises. Seriously, if I were looking for another one
tomorrow, I would spend my entire time looking over the body with a
magnifying glass and taking the relative quality of the running gear as a
healthy bonus.
Also watch people who look at your reaction to various rust-outs and say
things like, "Well, you know that you can get the Big Rust-Out Kit for 200
bucks, so what's your worry?" Well, the "Rust Out Kit" doesn't have
everything, and it specifically doesn't have the cross-member running
underneath the vehicle just behind the seats that the rear suspension kind
of puts a strain on. If you have rust there and/or the areas the
differentials mount to (and prod and poke with a screwdriver until you're
satisfied), you have problems. The Military used to condemn bodies for rust
here. My own 151A2 is sidelined because of nasty (unsafe) rust there, and I
have to get the affected bits (the whole crossmember, actually) fabricated.
On the AM General bodies also take a good, hard look at the
rear-differential mounts. They had a bad problem where the frontmost one
would rip clean away from its moorings, and they even came out with a kit to
'fix' it. Unfortunately many were 'fixed' post-Army, and done less than
competently with $100 arc welder and a great deal of haste.
Floor panels, battery box floors and the support structure underneath rot
out quite regularly, but you can buy replacement panels for this stuff and
the entire rear floor pan (behind the gas-tank) in repro now. Plus that
sort of rust isn't structural, so even if you're doing a 'combat
restoration' you're not compromising your safety. As far as annoying stuff
goes, let the clutch out on your test drive and listen for a pronounced
'bang' underneath the rear floor pan of the vehicle. That's almost always a
bad suspension bushing (if not a bad axle-shaft u-joint), and if not dealt
with fairly quickly, generally results in an elongated bolt-hole on the
bracket assembly(ies) which will require either replacement or welding up
and redrilling (being metal-on-metal action) before you can change the
bushing itself (real cheap - 12-14 bucks.)
If you're driving it home, also check the bolts/nuts holding the lower
a-frames in place up front. I've had quite a few of the nuts which are
either really loose or not there entirely, which would make for some rather
fun random suspension geometry on the way home, and a few white-knuckle
moments we could all do without. :)
Anyhow, my two bits.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Tue Jul 18 2006 - 21:40:45 PDT