M35 parts compatible with M37

[frozenwheat]

Is there a list of M35 parts compatible with the M37? On another web site, someone mentionned the inner frames of the windshield and the door mechanism. My CND M37 is far from complete as it was used as a parts truck. However, I might be able to have access to two M35s at the beginning of next month. Thanks.

[m-37Bruce]

I think you mentioned two of the three items...... cab canvas will work but needs rigid bows instead of canvas straps. Exterior door handles also will work, but need to be shortened..... there might be a few more, have you asked over on the S/S Board?

[frozenwheat]

Thanks for your reply m-37 Bruce. Might be because I'm still at my first coffee this morning, but what does S/S stand for?

[w30bob]

Hi Frozen,

Yours is a good question. Oh...S/S stands for Steel Soldiers (www.steelsoldiers.com), a website for military vehicles of all types. From what I've read about why the M37 was produced for the military.......it said the Army wanted to reduce the parts count it needed to support it's vehicles. Apparently during WWII there were so many vehicles from different manufacturers that getting all these unique parts to the troops was a bit difficult. With that in mind, I see there are a number of parts used by both the M37 and the M38....so I would assume there would also be some parts commonality with the M35. I've been focusing on the M37/M38 connection, but there should be one for the M37/M35 as well. How you go about finding out the common parts is a bit tough. The only way I can think to do it is to load both ORD Manuals for each vechicle (in PDF form) into one file, and then search by part number. Incredibly tedious....but I don't know any other way. Maybe someone else will chime in with a simplier way!!

regards,
bob

[frozenwheat]

Thank you w30bob. It had not occurred to me until I read your reply, but can I assume that some M38A1 parts might interchange with the M37 as well?

[m37jarhead]

I can tell you that the front pull out window frames are the same on M37's and M series duces and 5 tons.
The windows for the doors are not.
I would also guess that many electrical parts are interchangable, on other "M" series
vehicles. As suggested above, a thorough search of parts list for M series models might
allow you to cross reference parts. I'll agree with "tedious."
JB

[w30bob]

Hi Frozen,

I'm not well versed in M38A1, but you're probably right. I would assume most of the 24V parts (gauges, senders, etc) between the vehicles are the same, well as some of the fording hardware. It would be nice to find a cross reference for parts interchangability between the vehicles. I'm sure the Army had one.....I just don't know where to begin looking for it.

regards,
bob

[k8icu]

Head lights, marker lights, tail lights, light switch, The guages, trialer socket, circut breakers, windshield glass....There may be a few more parts, but that's all I can think of.

[frozenwheat]

Hi Frozen,

Yours is a good question. Oh...S/S stands for Steel Soldiers (http://www.steelsoldiers.com), a website for military vehicles of all types. From what I've read about why the M37 was produced for the military.......it said the Army wanted to reduce the parts count it needed to support it's vehicles. Apparently during WWII there were so many vehicles from different manufacturers that getting all these unique parts to the troops was a bit difficult. With that in mind, I see there are a number of parts used by both the M37 and the M38....so I would assume there would also be some parts commonality with the M35. I've been focusing on the M37/M38 connection, but there should be one for the M37/M35 as well. How you go about finding out the common parts is a bit tough. The only way I can think to do it is to load both ORD Manuals for each vechicle (in PDF form) into one file, and then search by part number. Incredibly tedious....but I don't know any other way. Maybe someone else will chime in with a simplier way!!

regards,
bob

Hi Bob, Yesterday, I spent two hours on the computer after reading your suggestion. I downloaded TM 9-2320-361-20P from Steel Soldiers Web site as an M35 parts list. But I didn't find the equivalent for the M37. Now, a couple of options are offered once the M37 parts list is found. First, convert the pdf's in Word. Then, using the Revision option in Word, do a comparison of both documents which will leave as is (in black characters) the common parts numbers. Formating might suffer during the conversion. The two other options would be to compare the pdf's per say. This feature might be offered on the pro version of the software, but I'm not sure. And at last, at work, the analysts are loading our documents on a software called Teamsite which also allows for comparisons. I don't have access to a private use of this software. Cheers, Daniel

[w30bob]

Hi Daniel,

You're a brave man! The M37 parts manual is entitled ORD 9 SNL G-741 Department of the Army Supply Manual. I've got it on CD but it's too big a file to email. I just tried and it bounced back. Seems it's also a password protected file so I can't convert it to a Word document. It may be available online free somewhere but I haven't looked hard for it. I'm not that computer savy......so I guess I'm at a loss at this point. Let me know what you think.

take care,
bob

[mike_l]

Hey guys,

I don't recall ever seeing a cross-reference sheet in the military as which parts will interchange with which vehicle as the thought process was different. If we needed a part, we ordered it from the specific vehicle parts TM. If we needed to can (cannibalize) a part off another vehicle, it was usually a like vehicle though a knowledgeable motor sergeant knew what parts were interchangeable. On the rare occasions, it was easy to pull out a TM and check to see if the PNs matched. For the most part, if it looked the same, it usually worked (or could be rigged to work) the same.

The TMs on the CDs were scanned in from original pubs. I think the early ones ('50s dated) were scanned straight to pdf as an image and won't convert back to word. So, they won't be searchable unless someone runs them through some OCR software. It would probably be quicker to go through the PN index in the back to compare the PNs. I haven't seen a comprehensive list anywhere yet but it wouldn't be too difficult to do some data mining from forum posts to put one together. Just time consuming. Most of what has been posted, along the lines of what k8icu said, are the guidelines most of us use, I think. That's certainly how I would rape a deuce. Good luck & good hunting.

[k8icu]

Most the electrical stuff as I said is Mil standard which is why it's the same headlight in a M151 as in a M35 as in a M52 as in a M998 as in a M37 etc. But that being said..things like Oil pressure gauge and engine temp gauges have different reading levels and thus have different sendres for the different vehicles and therefore may be slightly off between say a duce and a dodge.

It would have been nice for us collectors if the Army had thought about the future and made alll trucks basically the same so that things like doors, fenders etc interchanged....

[frozenwheat]

Hi Daniel,

You're a brave man! The M37 parts manual is entitled ORD 9 SNL G-741 Department of the Army Supply Manual. I've got it on CD but it's too big a file to email. I just tried and it bounced back. Seems it's also a password protected file so I can't convert it to a Word document. It may be available online free somewhere but I haven't looked hard for it. I'm not that computer savy......so I guess I'm at a loss at this point. Let me know what you think.

take care,
bob

Thanks Bob but you're the one that deserves all the credit. I did a quick search on the net using the reference you provided. Alas, only CDs are available (like yours maybe). And I also suspect they are not convertible. I'm short on time and will have to get back to this later. Have a good evening everyone and thanks to all those that provided input. Note:The reason I'm pursuing this lead is that the CDN army only had about 4500 M37s built (as opposed to more than a 100 000 in the US). So parts are quite scarce. In my area, I'm aware of collectors snapping all the M37 parts they can get their hands on (I don't blame them). Now, I know of these two M35s an hour and a half north of my place. Believe it or not, one of them was offered to me over 5 years ago but I declined as I didn't have quite the space for it. The M38A1 parts Jeep I was purchasing from the owner was sitting in the M35 bed, and the owner suddenly turned to me and offered the whole thing as a package. Now it's coming back at me...

[w30bob]

Hi Frozen,

I'm working on a way to break up the PDF of the M37 parts manual I have into smaller PDFs so I can email them to you. One snag I found last night is that since it's a scanned copy of a manual some of the part numbers in the list in the back are either very light in color or washed out in some places. So when I do a CNTRL F to find some of these light or washed out numbers it can't find them. Not sure how to get around that.....but I think this is a worthwhile project, probably more so than most people realize. For the reasons you mentioned especially.

They aren't making M37 parts anymore (ok, they're re-popping some things), but you can see by what parts are selling for on eBay that prices are climbing. Now part of that reason is because people are just lazy, and instead of going to a swap meet and buying parts at a much more reasonable price they rather just sit on their butt and click a button and write a check......and I'm not criticizing those people, as I do it sometimes too. But I just saw an M37 part sell for $85 a week or two ago that I can buy right now from a vendor for $12. You get the idea. So if we could figure out what parts are common to M37 and vehicles that they made more of....like Jeeps and M35s....we'd have an expanded source of parts for some things.

regards,
bob

[frozenwheat]

Good evening Bob, Faded numbers: It might be possible to retype them (depending on the scale of things) once the pdf's are converted into Word as the Word copy will be editable. (Lots of if's). Please keep me updated on how it goes with the creation of the small pdf's. In October, I obtained, delivered at my door, a front and a rear axles, complete from hub to hub, with the wheels and tires plus the steering linkages on the front axle. My own truck is missing the brake shoes, some inner axles (to be determined), brake cylinders, some hubs, etc. One step in the right direction. Daniel