Hello from Boston

[hectore3]

Hello everyone. I just registered and am happy to have an M-37 like my dad drove around in Vietnam. Pictures below of my new purchase.

















1. My plans are to re-gear it to 4.89's as Mr. Robert Stahl of "Vintage Vehicles" lives a mere 9 miles from my house.

2. Disc brakes from Helitool. They're website is still up but not many offerings. Any advice regarding disc brakes would be appreciated from the hive mind of this forum.

3. Flat six is long gone from a rod through the block. Ford 300ci six sits in its place. Backed up by a SM465 4 speed. But 3rd gear is tough to engage at times. A transmission top rebuild in order?

4. Adding in the short term a GM style HEI ignition to the Ford straight six. The points are pretty much toast.

5. Seat belts, 3 sets across.

6. Possibly thin Kirkey seats for the most leg room.

7. Need a hanging pedal kit. Helitool doesn't have any in stock. Any alternatives? Vintage Power Wagon? etc?

8. Upgrading the signals to LED's all around. Any tech on this would be very useful.

9. Looking to get this all done before winter here in New England
Once again, thank you for the knowledge you all bring.

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

Welcome and enjoy the forum, Thank you for sharing with us all. Matthew

[pwrwagonfire]

Welcome to the forum!
I go to Bob Sthal quite a bit myself, he's got lots of good stuff, very easy to deal with!

-T

[Tom Petroff]

Welcome!
Nice start.
Have Fun with your Truck.
TGP

[Doc Dave]

Welcome,
I think there are some people on the other Forum who are trying to make up disc brakes for PW's and M37's since Helitool is not very available anymore.
I think it is Steve Kaegi? Not sure if he posts here.
Hanging pedals, not sure if anyone else is making them but you could look at someone in your area that has one of Ray's kits and measure, make one up. They are not super complicated.
Paul Mierop on the other Forum swapped the brake and clutch pedal of the helitool kit in his M37 to clear the steering column.
post away with any other questions. Also search this forum and the other one for the key words in your quest.

[W_A_Watson_II]

VPW now has a kit as well.

[hectore3]

Welcome,
I think there are some people on the other Forum who are trying to make up disc brakes for PW's and M37's since Helitool is not very available anymore.
I think it is Steve Kaegi? Not sure if he posts here.
Hanging pedals, not sure if anyone else is making them but you could look at someone in your area that has one of Ray's kits and measure, make one up. They are not super complicated.
Paul Mierop on the other Forum swapped the brake and clutch pedal of the helitool kit in his M37 to clear the steering column.
post away with any other questions. Also search this forum and the other one for the key words in your quest.

Thank you for the information. Your are very right about helitool slowly winding down. Although I did order one of his disc brake kits for the M37. And the price was very reasonable in comparison to other offerings on the market.

He doesn't offer as many items as he had in the past I discovered. Contacted VPW about their hanging pedal kit. Speaking to one of their tech guys they have a yet to be listed in their catalog Wilwood pedal set up that is quite nice.

Have been doing a lot of searching on this site and others and have been very pleased with the knowledge here.

One regret that I have is that the PTO winch is currently not operative when I purchased the truck. Previous owner said once they swapped in the SM465 4 speed in lieu of the stock tranny and didn't adapt it.

[Doc Dave]

Are pto's available for that tranny? I bet Chelsea makes one. Might be worth checking with them. The key is if your winch shaft will clear with slightly different geometry underneath from the tranny/pto position..
Not sure about the repair of your present tranny. That is a good engine torque wise. The bone stock 230 engine is a little weak with the 4.89's if you are dealing with hills or hauling.
One other option is to go back to the stock set up, but maybe have some performance upgrades to the engine. So, a 230 with the NP420 and its PTO.
230 engines are fairly plentiful, as are the NP420 trannys and to a certain extent the PTO's.

[W_A_Watson_II]

On my M I went with the Kugel Komponents Hanging Pedal Assembly. It was back in 2005 and except for making the mistake of trying to use their master cylinder it's been a great unit.

[hectore3]

Are pto's available for that tranny? I bet Chelsea makes one. Might be worth checking with them. The key is if your winch shaft will clear with slightly different geometry underneath from the tranny/pto position..
Not sure about the repair of your present tranny. That is a good engine torque wise. The bone stock 230 engine is a little weak with the 4.89's if you are dealing with hills or hauling.
One other option is to go back to the stock set up, but maybe have some performance upgrades to the engine. So, a 230 with the NP420 and its PTO.
230 engines are fairly plentiful, as are the NP420 trannys and to a certain extent the PTO's.

The current straight six runs nice right now. And not lacking for power or torque especially. Been rethinking about the gear swap for right now. Like folks have said on here the 4.89 can make it tougher on grades or heavy terrain/snow etc. Will have to see.

Trying to keep this current project reigned in as best I can on the budget. The helitool kit and associated items almost broke me haha! But I really did need the disc brakes. Just to be safe especially here in Boston on any day with people cutting one off at will.

Mr. Charles Talbert at Mseries is finishing up an electric wiper kit for me currently. Should be a massive improvement over the vacuum/manual set up on it now.



The old points distributor above and the replacement in the below picture.



Starts and idles much better now. One step at a time.

[joemcc]

Your original distributor pictured here wasn't a points distributor. It was an electronic ignition also.

[hectore3]

Maybe I'm wrong. But that stock dizzy was horrid. New stuff worked much better once I got it in.

[joemcc]

You probably have a hotter spark with the new setup, the old was probably tired. Glad its running better for you!

Joe

[hectore3]

Does anyone have in their old stash a 2010 Power Wagon advertiser magazine article on Helitool disc brake install? Just got in Mr. Ray Suiter's kit. And ordered the rotors,calipers etc from NAPA today.

Hoping to see other people's experience and tips,tricks and pitfalls along the way. Also would like suggestions "while I'm in there" having everything apart. What to order and replace (seals,bearings,etc). Thank you.

[Matthew Ziegler]

disc brakes

I did Ray's disc conversion a few years ago n my front axle, love it. I'd recommend you also upgrade to the chevy master cylinder Ray recommends. Be careful to avoid the crappy Chinese rebuilt ones though, Had one that kept letting air into the system and gave me problems, finally got a bendix and all is well. If you want hanging pedals get a speedway motors catalog, they have lots of pedals and brackets for hotrod setc.