New Game! Name that chunk of 5/16-18 hardware!

[ashyers]

For 5 weeks now we have had all hands in the Auto Shop working on a MVCC buddies M37. What seemed to be a relatively quick and fun project turned into a fun and rather substantial rehab. The truck looked great, but underneath lurked many years of poor maintenance and hammer mechanics. It's been a great teaching tool due to all the "adventures" it has offered us. We were preparing to wrap things up and were changing the oil prior to some good-bye dyno pulls and SURPRISE!

The remainder of the bolt is 5/16-18 and was hit repeatedly on one end before breaking. There are beach marks visible and it is slightly bent. I'm trying to figure out where it came from. My current thoughts center on the last knuckle head who worked on the truck. They replaced the fuel pump and it only has one of the stock bolts now. I'm wondering if they put in a bolt that was too long and it impacted the crank a few times before failure. I can't think of any other 5/16-18 in there hardware, can you?

The good news I pulled the pan and things look OK. The truck also runs well now, turns, stops, steers, and isn't going to spit the driveshafts out from under it. It's truly amazing how these trucks will run with soooooo many issues.

Thanks for the help!

Andy

[w30bob]

Andy.........that's an easy one. What you have there is the crankcase water vapor extractor. It was designed to look like a regular 5/16 threaded rod to fool the Russians............but it's actually a Beryllium/Boron alloy that has one free electron in it's outer shell that when in solution with petroleum oil (engine oil) serves to ionize the oil. The ionized oil will react with any water vapor to render it harmless (it's also good for curing Type 2 Diabetes and minor cases of erectile disfunction), but please don't anyone eat it.

All M-Series vehicles used in the 50's had one of these special alloy rods installed in their engine crankcase, but its whereabouts was never publically disclosed to keep it's secret from the enemy. The rod was also given a slight bend to it and had one end ground off-square to fool the enemy into thinking it was just a piece of FOD and typical poor American craftsmanship. Their use was discontinued sometime in the early 70's when synthetic oils were developed that had the free electrons in them.........so the rod was no longer needed.

Finding an original one today that's still intact is quite a feat, and means the motor you found it in never saw any water in its crankcase........so good motor you got there. Just the opposite of what someone might think if they thought the rod was an actual part of the motor that found its way into the crankcase and was wrecking the rotating parts. Boy our Engineers were smart back in the day! The last one I saw was in a coffee can of rod bolts at a swap meet, but was only about 1/4 long, due to probably seeing significant water vapor in the engine it was in. If you don't plan to put it back in the engine you should list it in the Swap Meet section for those who are true detail freaks about their M37 restoration. I bet 99 percent of restored M37s are missing this valuable component. You won't find these rods at Midwest or VPW...........I've called and asked many times. They rank right up there in rarity with hen's teeth. I have quite a few chickens on my farm, so believe me......THAT IS RARE!

To the Moderators..............I believe this information has now been fully declassified, but if I'm in error please delete this post immediately. And I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused. But as Hillary says........."It wasn't labeled "Secret" when I got it". That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



regards,
bob
So Andy............please put the rod back where you found it immediately.

[ashyers]

Look kids! It's the crankcase vapor extractor!!!!!!!! We're all going to be rich!!!!!!

P3120743.jpg (39.79 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

Thanks Bob,
The students and I just read your post and are very excited to find we have such a rare part. Fortunately we're in California so we've had all our free electrons and radicals removed. I'd be happy to SELL you the part for a nominal fee. Please note, as the cat's now out of the bag the price will be increasing rapidly!

Andy






The kids and I have never seen such a load of BS!

[T. Highway]

BOB,

Please remember to cooperate fully with the interrogation team that will arrive shortly in the black helicopters.

It won't matter that you already deleted the files from your private server either Bob.

Bert

[RMS]

[j mccormick]

Bob you'd make a good presidential candidate with your mishandling of classified information. Might as well throw your hat into the ring!

[F18hornetm]

That was awesome Bob, agreed you should run for office.

[w30bob]

Thanks guys.......what a nice way to say I'm full of sh^%!



Gotta have fun with this stuff once in a while.

regards,
bob