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After a number of months of silence, I got her fired up today. With no stock gas tank, and the one which came on it (a 5 gal marine can bolted to the bed wall) discarded, I had no way of moving the truck. Of course, with no brakes it wouldn't be moving far anyhow.

But after stinking up the whole house with rust treatment chemicals two weeks ago, I had to find a way to move her out of the garage. This became a priority to keep the peace.

I wired up an old lawn mover tank which holds maybe 1/4 of a gallon to the fender frame extension. After some coaxing, she came to life.

It was nice to hear her run again.

As she warmed up, there was a rattle or vibration from underneath the cab. It would go away if I pushed in the clutch. I hope that isn't the throw-out bearing...

You hope it isn't the throw out bearing? You'de be more fortunate if that were the deal. If the noise/vibration were being caused by the throw out bearing, it would take place when the clutch pedal was depressed instead of going away. There is a high likelyhood of issues going on in the transmission if it stops when the clutch is depressed. You could get lucky with a clutch problem or maybe the flywheel might be loose on the crank, but neither is probable.

It's a great feeling. I fired my M38A1 for the first time in months a couple of weeks ago. After some fits and false starts, she's running like a watch.

Take a look underneath while it's running to isolate the noise. I would hazard a guess that it might just be rattling due to harmonics. Does the noise go away if you change the engine RPM? Does it go away if you put your hand on the transfer case levers? I had a pretty good rattle at certain speeds that turned out to be a loose washer on the PTO linkage.

Good luck...

Dave

I never heard the noise before when I ran it, so I am hoping it is the cobbled together clotheshanger exhaust system rattling.

You're right about the throwout bearing, I got that backward. I need to get under there and check the fluid level. I'm going to be in denial over transmission problems...

We'll see if I get a chance to run her again tonight. I almost got introuble for stinking up the house with fumes again!

If you have a window or door nearby, or behind, the right side of the truck, you can run a length of 4" aluminum dryer duct from your exhaust. That's how I get around gassing the family out. I don't seem to have any back pressure problems using the 4" (assuming I haven't crushed it in the garage door too many times ), plus it fits over the flange easily.

Just a thought...

Dave

Ah, yes! The trials and tribulations of having an attached garage! I don't have such a thing at the moment, but have had in the past. I solved the problem by installing a dryer vent in the bottom panel of the garage door and running a dryer hose from the exhaust to it when working with the door closed. In the summer, I just left the door open with a fan blowing the fumes outside. I only had to get yelled at twice for stinking up the house before I got smart.

Man that is a great idea. I wish I had thought of it. I too have an attached garage and more than once the house got fumigated by exhaust when someone mistakenly opened the kitchen door while the truck was running. We have a good amount of prevailing wind that blows right through our garage when the door is opened as well as the back window, but it takes a while to dissipate all the odor. I like the dryer hose idea. I can run it out the garage door around the side of the garage when working on the truck in winter.

I climbed under the truck last night to search for the offending noise source. I didn't see anything obvious and the exhaust is nowhere near the transmission.

I did notice some stuff had fallen out of the bellhousing, like leaves and stuff, so I wonder if there's trash or a dobber nest up in there. The drainplug is missing so who knows.

The transmission definitely needs a few new seals as it is seeping oil here and there.

I think I am humoring myself about this so my buddy is coming over on Saturday to help me diagnose the noise. I did get a metal dryer vent hose for the exhaust pipe.

I suppose that draining the oil from the transmission might be a good way to see if there are metal filings in there. I may be learning to rebuild a transmission....

Any advise on diagnosing the trouble???