New M37 owner

[jmacqueen]

Well I've had time to crawl around underneath while I save up for parts and such, and had my first issue. The winch...

The PO put a very long chain lead on, and then at some point tried to reel it all in on the winch. It was all wrapped up in a knot around the bar that goes across the spool underneath, and bent it pretty good.

I untangled the chain, spooled it out, hooked the end hook on the bumper and wrapped the leader chain in a figure 8 around the bumper from side to side, about 4-5 wraps, all is good, except the winch lockout handle on top of the winch was broken off and a piece of flat bar welded on half, as well as welded to the shaft coming up out of the winch.

Anyway after driving around for a couple of hours my winch keeps unspooling on it's own. Is there supposed to be some type of brake or clutch in the winch to stop this? Do I need to keep the winch lockout up front engaged? would a canvas cover around the spool stop it?

[jmacqueen]

Never mind, When I untangled the 20' leader chain I didn't unreel -all- the cable.

Figured it out today the PO also had the 1/2 the cable spooled the wrong way, I started winding out, got out and went up front and it was winding in. So I set the PTO to wind n and it was winding out, at least till 1/2 the cable was out. Then I revesed it and unwound the whole spool and straightened it all out.

I think it'll stay wrapped tight now.

[jmacqueen]

Well I've looked the truck over good, and I've though about it a lot, and I came to the conclusion that it's going to get a good frame off rebuild, as well as 4 wheel disc brakes, a spicer tranny and 4bt engine... Got the money for the job, only a 2 car garage to work from though but it's time to start in on it.

In the interest of the next guy doing this, I decided to at least try to take the time to document it online at least here.

I had to get the top off, it's sheet metal riveted and welded onto the canvas top supports, I was hoping to save the canvas top bow, but it's welded to the sheetmetal all the way across the top bow.. So I find a new one, or grind off 6' of weld.

I did get the welds and rivets off of the winshield frame and side supports though, I can keep those.

Man that top was loud, it made it pretty unbearable to drive, without the top it was very quiet in comparison. It was like driving in a big metal speaker cone with that thing.

Anyway that got the truck inside, I got the 5 motorcyles and associated gear stored elsewhere so have 100% of my space for the truck, and every night and weekend to work on it till it's done.

I decided to start at the bottom, get both axles worked out, and work my way up from there.

I decided to go with Charles Talbert at m-series rebuild to rebuild the diffs with higher gearing and add in ARB lockers front and rear, so the diffs came out this weekend and I dissasembled the front knuckles and cleaned everything up to take a good look at it.

Took a little blunt force here and there, a rosebud here and there but it all came apart ok.

The front springs look like they need help, I'm thinking a NOS set if I can get em and add a couple of leafs from this current set.



Everything looks serviceable in the knuckles, though I haven't checked the clearances on the joint parts yet. The inner axles are grooved from the inner seal though, I'm afraid I'll be looking for some NOS inner axles if I can find em. I can't see a seal sealing well on this, even if it is internal.


And the rear diff has obviously taken on water and sat up in the past, has been pulled (and I assume bearings replaced) because there was silicone gasket sealer on the gasket but the rusty ring gear was left in.. I'm glad I'm having them rebuilt.


Time to start calling around for parts....

[jmacqueen]

I spent thanksgiving weekend tearing the old girl down, I took the bed apart and removed it, cut out the mickey mouse bracing the fire dept had welded in though I still need to cut and grind a bit more.

Took the front clip off, and the mickey mouse power steering setup off of it.

Pulled the transfer case, gears look good but bearings show a little wear and seals are all shot.

No rust or big issues that I can see yet, though I might still run into some when I get it blasted.

I have hit one thing I'm not quite sure of the best way to repair. Seems someone hit something with the front right bumper pretty hard. The frame extension is bent down some, and the frame is twisted a bit in front of the spring hanger where it meets the extension as well.

They also welded the bumper brackets to the frame extension and frame. So I either have to try to straighten it all out, or I guess get a new bumper extension and cut the old one off.




http://killer.playnet.com/pics/M-37/IMG_1923.jpg

Any ideas on straightening out the twist in the frame end?

[Warren Watt]

Good Input

No reply regarding the frame straightening, but thanks for the input so far. It is good for all of us to see some of the hidden parts and their condition.

[jmacqueen]

I'll post some more pics tonight.

The only rough parts of getting everything loose were the screws that hold the hubs to the drums took a little heating before they would break loose, the cotter pins on the shock mount nuts wouldn't budge so I had to just turn the nut and shear them and I'll drill them out later.

Otherwise, I decided the phillips screws in the bed weren't worth even trying, and I just washed the heads off with a cutting torch and knocked them through with an air chisel with a sharp point.

I haven't decided whether to try to patch up the bed with all the fire dept cut holes for tank/pump mounting or spend a few hundred for a new bed floor yet.

All that's left on the frame in engine, tranny, cab and springs/axle housings. I'll probably strip out the cab this weekend and spend the holidays getting things cleaned up and ready to haul to the sand blaster.

[tstephenson]

New tires

I am 57 and had major heart problems and thought I needed power sterring when I first got my truck. I use the truck in the rocky hills of North Arkansas and have lots of tight turns. I put new tires on it and now I can handle it one handed most of the time. I was absolutly amazed at the difference it made. Just my 2 cents
Tim

[jmacqueen]

I've come across another issue now as well. The undercoating all over the underside of everything doesn't look to me like it's going to be very sadn blast friendly. Going to have to strip it all off I think. It's not a problem where it's been exposed to oil and grease as it's quite soft and scrapes right off.

I'm thinking some kind of solvent/stripper and couple days soaking.. Or I might try a needle gun first.

[Bruce]

I'll post some more pics tonight.

The only rough parts of getting everything loose were the screws that hold the hubs to the drums took a little heating before they would break loose, the cotter pins on the shock mount nuts wouldn't budge so I had to just turn the nut and shear them and I'll drill them out later.

Otherwise, I decided the phillips screws in the bed weren't worth even trying, and I just washed the heads off with a cutting torch and knocked them through with an air chisel with a sharp point.

I haven't decided whether to try to patch up the bed with all the fire dept cut holes for tank/pump mounting or spend a few hundred for a new bed floor yet.

All that's left on the frame in engine, tranny, cab and springs/axle housings. I'll probably strip out the cab this weekend and spend the holidays getting things cleaned up and ready to haul to the sand blaster.

Once you get things tidy'd up a little bit, AB Linn has the upper & lower brackets, left & right.
I'm thinking plasma torch & some grinding.
BTW, I don't recall if you rig is a winch rig?
I just bought an entire m37 bed, the under side looks NOS. (It's a lot for one guy to handle<LOL>!)

[jmacqueen]

It's a winch rig, though with the tweaked right side front frame there the winch has to have tweaked out of square.

The bolt on plates that span the winch drum are not there and the one long rod that spans the drum is bent. I assume the plates aren't there because the holes didn't match up with one frame rail twisted out a little bit.

I'm leaning more towards cutting/removing both frame extensions if I can find new ones, and just leaving the winch for last and taking it out to a frame shop after I have it back together and running and have them straighten out the front right frame rail so the extensions and brackets bolt on square, and the winch will fit back on with it's plates attached. I just can't see a way to straighten that rail with any tools I have available.

On a bright note, I tried a needle scaler on the old asphalt undercoating and it flakes it off like paper. Cleared one whole side of a frame rail in about 10 minutes. One problem solved, just have to spend a day rolling around knocking it all off and blasting will go a lot easier.

Still haven't uncovered any rust besides slight surface rust on things like running board brackets.

[Charles Talbert]

A needle scaler or needle gun as we refer to it does work great on material that will flake off without metal damage. We used to use them to clean asphalt residue off of truck beds & equipment in the old days.

[jmacqueen]

Got into stripping out the cab today, wiring is pretty old and patched up pretty poorly.. All coming out to get replaced. Still no rust found besides a little surface rust, I'm pretty happy about that. Worst of it seems to be up under the dash and inside the doors where it didn't get painted so well, but no cancerous holes anywhere.

When I got the truck the PO said it had factory power brakes... Well I didn't bother to tell him but I don't buy that, but I can't blame him for thinking so. It does have vacuum power brakes, and a Mico hydraulic brake lock too.

I'll be keeping the brake lock, but with a diesel swap planned the vacuum brake booster is going away, as well as the 4 drums, backing plates and shoes etc..

Here's a few pics of the brake booster mounted under the passenger seat, it seemed to work pretty good.

[jmacqueen]

After thinking about it some I think I've come up with a way I can straighten out the front frame rails.

Does anyone have or can measure a straight frame and give me the center to center dimensions from rail to rail on the front most frame bolt holes top and bottom?

[Warren Watt]

Booster question

J MaQueen - Is that booster under the passenger side seat?? If so, where were the batteries located??

[jmacqueen]

It's actually on my garage floor now. :)

Yeah it was under the passenger seat. He had one battery in it as he had converted it to 12 volts. You still could have put two batteries in there though it just would have been a little tight. Then again you could mount the booster just about anywhere in the truck, just needs vacuum and the brake line to pass through it.

The booster has a vacuum line to the engine, and the brake line from the master cylinder runs through it. Seemed to stop the truck fine, though there was some air in the system and I had to pump the brakes, once it got a pedal built up it stopped almost as good as my '96 4-runner.

I guess I'll be putting the brakes and booster, engine and tranny and the 12v generator/regulator/starter up for sale before long and try to recover some cash on the rebuild.

I have to wonder at whoever did the work on this thing though, from what I can tell the brake line that was run for the line lock was only regular copper tubing. The power steering setup I posted earlier was mickey moused badly, and the wiring behind the dash was just as shotty and mickey mouse.