Hi All,
>Well, I am not sure if it is low batteries or a solenoid problem. This
>morning when I jumped into my trusty battle-proven M151A2 and tried to
start
>it, I heard what sounded like a hisssss, as in an airhose leaking.
Then I
>smelled some electrical "something is cooking down below" smell with
smoke.
>Mind you it was 0500 this morning that I experienced this wonderful
military
>vehicle moment as I was preparing to go hunting. Well, immediately all
>switches were turned off and that was that.
>
Now I know nothing about the detail of a M151 but here's a possibility
that you'd want to fix PDQ.
All electric motors and the like are two terminal devices whether there
is a visible second connection or its provided by the metal case of the
device, all the amps you take out of the battery via the obvious
insulated wires flows _back_ into the other connection somehow, there
is no possibility of any "amps" getting lost en route.
Manufacturers typically mount engines on insulated, resilient mountings
and often put the big braided (or similar) return cable from the engine
just where you can't see it on the bellhousing or the tail of the
gearbox. Years of vibration finally break this to the point where the
next start-up of many hundreds of amps demand just finally melts the
last few strands of the wire.
There is a very potentially dangerous situation now, the starter return
current will have to take the only metallic route back to the battery
and/or chassis ground, none of the paths are capable of doing this and
can be destroyed, eg., the fine copper oil gauge pressure line, a
similar capillary temp gauge line, but the danger lies in the choke and
especially the throttle linkage.
The one place you don't want any sparks is between the throttle
butterfly spindle and the body of the carb internally, its being fed
with a precisely controlled explosive mixture and will/does go bang with
spectacular but frightening results like a really good carb fire
invariably exacerbated by raising the bonnet (hood) to investigate
thereby providing an instant fresh supply of oxygen to produce a vehicle
consuming fire now well fuelled by boiling petrol (gas) in the float
chamber.
I've seen it happen twice, most annoyingly because the owners were
advised, correctly, of the likely starting problem before the ensuing
conflagration, fortunately no persons or property were damaged and the
vehicles were old mass produced dogs, not cared for MV's.
Check your engine earth straps/battery return cables.
Richard
(Southampton UK)
===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.