Waking up a Texas M151A2

A place to post pics and descriptions of ongoing restoration projects

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by rickf » September 13th, 2016, 5:06 pm

Being a race car driver all of my adult live and a good part of my juvenile life I can tell you that in an accident your arms (and legs!) can fly out if not restrained. When I was racing we were not required to have window nets but in the mid 70's they started requiring arm restraints to keep your arms inside the cage if you rolled. The number of injuries dropped dramatically. I also was on a first aid squad for many years and I can tell you all about seat belts. If you want to argue against them then I am not even going to talk about it. Personally I do not really care for the webbing but I fully understand it's worth. I do not drive in places like George so I do not worry as much. I have an A1 that did not come with belts at all but I put in lap belts and I do use them. If it rolls I am probably toast but with no belts and it rolls I am guaranteed burnt toast because it is going to throw me in the direction of the roll and then it is going to squash me. Remember what I said about the first aid squad. Been there, scraped them up. As far as the positioning of the retractors I am not positive, I do know certain retractors do have to be mounted in a dedicated position, I don't know if these are or aren't.
1964 M151A1
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 13th, 2016, 7:34 pm

Good to hear you like the look, Horst!

Spent the whole day at the hospital. My son had brain surgery, which came out a huge success. Another hashmark in the win column!

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by rickf » September 13th, 2016, 7:50 pm

Congrats on the surgery success!!!!!!!
1964 M151A1
1984 M1008
1967 M416
04/1952 M100
12/1952 M100- Departed
AN/TSQ-114A Trailblazer- Gone

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 14th, 2016, 9:28 am

Thank you, Rick. The kid was trippin' on the really good stuff yesterday. Today, he's a bit sore, but otherwise pretty squared away and Momma is an RN/Director here at the hospital. We got it all sewed up around here!

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 14th, 2016, 9:55 am

As I am killing time beside while the kid continues to recover from his surgery I decided to scan my photo archives to see what I might come up with that is related to my A2 that might be of some interest so somebody.

Battery box....as found when I bought the truck.
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Last edited by m3a1 on May 17th, 2018, 8:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 15th, 2016, 8:08 pm

The kid came through his brain surgery with flying colors and is now back at home with his family. (APPLAUSE)

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by Mr. Recovery » September 16th, 2016, 1:30 pm

:D Great to hear. I take it that is him in your photos?

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1960 M151 Run 1
1963 M151 Willys DoD 10-63 in Baltimore
1989 Alley Cat. "work in Progress"
NRA Life Member
American Legion Post 275 Fl
US Army 6 years 2nd Armored Cavalry Bindlach Germany
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Md Air Guard 15 years active duty on C-130's

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 16th, 2016, 3:02 pm

Yup. And he's grown quite a bit over the course of one year (and I call him Gigantor, now) which probably had something to do with his skull vs. brain size issues. To give you a sense of his size....here he is!

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 16th, 2016, 3:08 pm

I just can't resist posting these. I know many of you share the feeling...

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 17th, 2016, 12:24 pm

The parts have arrived and it's radiator hose and radiator mount bushings day, boys and girls! Let's get wrenching!

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 17th, 2016, 10:28 pm

I know much of this is going to be old hat for most of you, but I'm posting for guys like me who are working on their first M151A2 (or similar) truck and who are still on that road of discovery.

Today's goal was to remove the old radiator hoses and replace them, along with the old soft mounts for the radiator. So, I had a soft mounts kit, upper and lower radiator hoses and clamps (that turned out to be metric...GRRR!) So, the first thing I did was remove the grille. Six bolts which had anti-seize on them (thank you for the anti-seize, whoever you are!) consisting of three at each fender and, six wires to the headlights (three at each one). I marked the number of each circuit on the back side of the headlight bucket so as not to mess things up when putting them back on.
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Note that the horizontal slats on the grill were somewhat bent. Items such as this need to be put out of the way so as not to be stepped on, tripped over, or generally messed up while the mechanic focuses is on other things. By way of example, leaving it right here would be a really bad idea. So it got put well out of the way
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Keeping track of the nuts and bolts associated with a job can be an issue. I prefer the magnetic tray. It never wanders and neither do the things I put in it.
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An old fashioned catch pan does a nice job of catching that coolant!
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Those old hoses were once made of rubber. Only a slight effort with the screwdriver and they gave way. They were more like putty than rubber and it's hard to believe they were holding any pressure at all. I might also add that those worm-drive clamps were all only a little more than finger tight! There is a lesson in that and that lesson is, never blindly trust the previous guy's work. More on that, later!
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The soft mount consists of two rubber bushings, above and below the radiator supports. Within the bushings is a metal sleeve. The bolt is a simple carriage bolt that is not permanently attached to the radiator. It was a simple job to remove the nuts holding everything together. The beautiful part of this arrangement is that if the nut won't come off for some reason there is no need to pussyfoot around. It can be cut or torched off and a new bolt can be installed to hold the radiator without any tools whatsoever. My bushings were as hard as a rock.
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Now the top, centrally located soft mount must be removed and then the radiator shroud must come off.
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These little bolts are fine thread. There is a little slotted hole for each bolt that allows for some minor adjustment of the shroud, up or down. There is a relieved area between the side of the radiator and the inner face of the shroud. If the bolts are reluctant to come loose, you can get PB Blaster or other lubricant to the threads at the relieved areas by directing your spray to the relieved areas by spraying inside the shroud. This is far better than squirting the bolt heads and hoping for miracles. Use some anti-seize on reassembly. The next guy will thank you for it and you may be the next guy!
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Here is the leaky hose as it was oriented on the radiator. It was rubbing on the radiator support (which, along with extreme old age, is what caused the leak) and it has been rubbing on something else, higher up. Does anyone notice anything wrong with this picture?..... It has been installed upside down! The tight bend should be on the bottom and the sweeping bend should be at the top. Back to what I said earlier. Don't trust someone else's work! I must admit, I didn't know any better until sticking my nose in the TM today. Learning something new every day.
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Radiator out, revealing a very untidy engine compartment. What else can I accomplish while everything is so accessible?
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That thermostat housing looks pretty sorry....like the surface of the moon! I have a replacement but I don't have a gasket or a new thermostat. I don't want to get into that today. Put it on the to-do list but, meanwhile we can improve it somewhat.
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Clean it up thoroughly...
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And cheat like a BOSS with a layer of JB Weld.
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Now you KNOW I didn't leave it like that! I took it down so that the divots were filled and flush with the original surface.
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While that JB Weld was curing, I tidied up the engine bay somewhat and as Rick says, I moved the dirty spot in the engine compartment to the ground. I guess I am not environmentally friendly after all.
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I know we can improve on those timing markers while we're in here!
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Inspected the fan blades for cracks and didn't find anything. The V-belts were old, but satisfactory. Inspected the radiator which shows years of abuse. With damage like this it should be leaking, wouldn't you think?
Note the overflow tube is kinda crimped down. Fixed that too.. My Dremel Tool with tiny wire wheel made short work of the nastiness on the hose fittings and at the radiator cap. Eye pro when using the Dremel in this way. That tiny wire wheel flings tiny wires. I had one stick in my cornea once and was not a happy camper. Finally, with compressed air I blew out a bunch of junk that had found its way into the radiator fins. I wish I could find my radiator comb and straighten these fins somewhat. Maybe later.
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The new bushings for mounting the radiator were...um...different. I can't say where I got them but I think they probably offered their version of a one-size-fits-most and I fell for it. They came with longer carriage bolts because the bushings were quite a bit thicker than my old ones and....
WAIT FOR IT!....that's going to be a problem during reassembly.
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Their inner diameter was smaller as well so, my old bushings would not fit. I made a visit to Tractor Supply can came up with a suitable substitute.
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So, in putting things back together I find that the additional thickness of the bushings puts the radiator at a new, higher height and that meant the fan wouldn't clear the shroud at the 6 o'clock position. Note how much higher the top radiator mount is compared to the engine mount.
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So, I cut down one bushing per side, lowering the radiator to a level that would allow the fan to clear the shroud. I kept the other two bottom bushings at full thickness.

There is a relationship between engine and radiator height that can be changed dramatically by putting new bushings under the radiator; so much so that fan blades can start getting into the shroud, This is something that needs to be checked carefully before starting the engine!. If I learned one important thing in this project it was that one should be prepared to bring all the power pack mounts up to spec at the same time rather than piecemeal. It would have been a great time to do it. I did not have new engine mount bushings and so was not prepared to make that improvement today.

(Thank you Horst for squaring me away on some technical details..I edited this post to make it more accurate)

This story ends well. Everything is right and tight. No more coolant leaks and some minor improvements along the way. I even took some dents out of the grille but d'ya know what? I kinda miss 'em!
Last edited by m3a1 on May 17th, 2018, 8:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by Horst » September 18th, 2016, 3:06 am

I don't understand what the motor and transmission mounts have to do with the clearing of the fan shroud. The radiator is bolted to the engine, as such it is not related to any thickness variation of those mounts.

BTW, does the engine contract number fit to the body? You have an A1 style upper radiator mount so that might be a small indicator that the engine was swapped. But I could be very wrong here.
Horst

1972 USMC M151A2 w/ROPS (ex Barstow) and M416
1962 M201 and trailer
1966 GTO,1982 E350 Skoolie, 1987 SJ413, 1987 911
Gone: 2xM35A2c, Unimog 404S, Hanomag AL28, DKW Munga

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 18th, 2016, 9:44 am

Horst, I think you are correct and I am wrong about the effect the engine/trans mounts will have on the whole alignment issue. That said, the radiator can be raised, or lowered, independently from the engine/transmission depending upon the condition and/or thickness of the bushings it sits upon which is the issue I was dealing with. As for the pedigree of the engine, that's an unknown quantity.

I think I had better edit my post so that the next guy doesn't get bad information.

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by m3a1 » September 18th, 2016, 9:53 am

Horst, can you tell me more about the difference in these radiator mounts? Is this what you are referring to?
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Back to your engine question, earlier on someone mentioned that the engine may very well be original to the truck, or about the same year anyway.
Last edited by m3a1 on May 17th, 2018, 8:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Waking up a Texas M151A2

Unread post by Horst » September 18th, 2016, 11:34 am

That last picture shows an A2 upper radiator mount. It is a simple piece of sheet metal and the front lifting eye is another piece of stamped sheet metal. The earlier version, typically seen only on A1s or older is a welded part which is one piece lifting eye and the holder for the upper rubber radiator mount.
Horst

1972 USMC M151A2 w/ROPS (ex Barstow) and M416
1962 M201 and trailer
1966 GTO,1982 E350 Skoolie, 1987 SJ413, 1987 911
Gone: 2xM35A2c, Unimog 404S, Hanomag AL28, DKW Munga

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