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[T. Highway]

Jim Lee,

It's looking good. I can't wait to see the video of the truck running.

Bert

[RMS]

great progress jim. I'm a little sad to see her completed as I have enjoyed the wright ups and all the awesome pics. so when are you going to start on the next one

[jim lee]

Thanks! Its been fun working on it. Its been a great break from boat building.

As for the next one?

Once the M37 is up and running, the plan is to get the gang back together and build another one of these.

52 M-42 is coming up tomorrow about noon-ish for a visit, you should come down. We could all meet here at the shop then go out and have burgers.


P.S. Does anyone have the bearings for the generator? My rebuild guy is held up waiting for a set.

-jim lee

[MSeriesRebuild]

Gen bearings are easy, don't know your guys intentions, but the smart fix is to install sealed, lubed for life bearings. This does away with the oil reservoir and geared oil slinger mechanism that was used originally to oil the front bearing. That system utilizes an inner oil seal which generally fails, dumping the oil into the armature area of the unit. That screws up 2 ways; oil dumped into the wrong area screws up everything in sight to include brushes, and the loss of oil to the front bearing causes catastrophic failure when the bearing seizes up. Many times that ruins the entire unit.

The best fix is converting to an alternator; however if you prefer the original gen unit, do it right or grief will be close behind.

[T. Highway]

Jim Lee,

Great sailing picture, who's at the helm if you all have your feet dangling over the side?

Bert

[jim lee]

The guy in the rear looking inwards drives.

Here's my latest dilemma. How in the world do you hook up the *&^$@(*#& clutch linkage? I have the lever on the clutch shaft so it can slide back and forth. I can not get the pin into the petal lever to attach the link thing. There has to be something I'm missing here. Do I have to pull the PTO off the gear box to get enough room to work? Everything is wedged between the PTO and the frame. I can hardly get my fingers in there.

If there's a trick to this, please, let me know!

Thanks!

-jim lee

[jim lee]

Ok, we've had a little progress..


Wiring. Alex hooking up the wires to the high beam switch. Tested this today and it worked! Cool!



The insanely hard to hookup clutch linkage. There is another lever hidden behind the frame rail. Not shown in the picture is a two ended linkage that goes between the two. There there is the PTO unit that blocks where the lower pin is to go in and lastly.. You can just barely fit your fingers in there to touch them. Not like you can do anything.. My hands didn't fit at all.



Trying Shelby 'cause she has smaller hands.



Dan installing the generator.



Mostly complete. Fan belt's not on yet. This is where we found we had to pull the water pump pulley to install the adjuster arm for the generator. Uggh!



Allie & Julie bolting in the starter button.



52 M-42 came by for a visit!



52 M-42 has a very shiny M37! Actually its the command car version. But I forget the model number.


And in the end? This is for you T. Highway
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=19 ... 7492260037
There ya go!

-jim lee

[vtdeucedriver]

Sounds good!!! Though I would seriously consider making new lines from the pump to the carb to get that fuel filter away from the manifold. I dont know how close you are but it looks too close to my liking. I would also switch to a solid metal one from the plastic.

BTW, the command truck is a M-42

[RMS]

Mostly complete. Fan belt's not on yet. This is where we found we had to pull the water pump pulley to install the adjuster arm for the generator. Uggh!

done that a few times over the years ......next time that bolt is touched its getting swapped out for a stud and nut

[jim lee]

Well, it was fun while it lasted..


One of those, move forward two steps, fall backwards and roll back down the hill a ways..


As for changing to a stud, I think they were actually studs originally. I'm forever getting to some point and finding that I have to undo all sorts of stuff 'cause I got the order wrong again. Almost to the point of getting paranoid about installing anything at all. "Why bother? Just going to have to pull it all apart again tomorrow."

-jim lee

[52 M-42]

So what happened? Why is the radiator off and the engine coming out again?

52 M-42

[tbone1004]

Looks like to get the bracket for the alternator back in.

[jim lee]

The lengths I'll go to to get some response huh?

What happened was that once the machine was running there started a really slow coolant leak somewhere in the front of the engine. A drip every 15-30 seconds or so. There was now way to see where it was coming from. My land lord dropped by (He's a hot rodder/boater).We spent all afternoon tracking the silly thing down while not wanting to pull much apart. In the end we had to. So I put the machine back under the hoist and we went to town. Turns out there were three bolts up near the top that were drilled through to the water jacket and all three were seeping just a tiny bit.

They are all gooped up now and the truck is almost back to where we were when I fired it up. Killin' some time on the net to see if it drips again.

Fingers crossed.

-jim lee

[MSeriesRebuild]

That is why we take pains to seal every bolt that goes in a through hole. It saves MUCH frustration.

[jim lee]

That is why we take pains to seal every bolt that goes in a through hole. It saves MUCH frustration.

Well, I didn't assemble that part.

But then, I'm more than capable of monkeying up stuff all by my self.

Got the machine put back together and test fired. Ran nice again. Was able to tune the idle jet so it ran better. Next was to build an adapter for the standard key-switch.

One power goes in from the voltage regulator, then this feeds both the ignition and the power for the instrument cluster. Had to do a lot of scrounging to get parts for the Douglass ends. Took a lot of digging to find the three that weren't completely dried out and toasted.


Julie Alex n' Shelby dropped by to see it run. I just finished up the key adapter so I installed it and fired up the machine. Many Ohhs and ahhs. Everything was going wonderful. Except the dash wire wasn't connected seeing that it was missing its end and I'd not done that bit yet. Shelby wanted to see the gauges work, so I tried to "hotwire" the dash. There was a spark.. And the engine died.


Now there's no power coming out of the voltage regulator for feeding the ignition. I'm tired, its getting late. I'm going home..

-jim lee