Another green thing to work on, 53 M37

[rickf]

Ok, It runs again. Charged up the batteries and ran a gas line to the electric fuel pump and after a little coaxing to get all the marvel mixed with gas in the cylinders it fired off. Smogged out the neighborhood for a while as it burned out the oil and crap that got into the exhaust from the overfull crankcase when the fuel pump went. Oil pressure was good so no harm done by the gas in the oil. Got it in the garage and changed the oil again to get the residual gas out. Holding 45-55 lbs at idle.Now I need to get my disc brakes on there so I can stop it. I noticed that it seemed to be stiff going into gear, almost like there was rust on the gears or shaft so I am going to have to look at that I guess. I will drain the transmission and see what comes out. If no water I might just get the brakes going and take a few runs around the block to get the oil circulating all through the transmission. Now I have a questin, the bed is toast so it needs to be replaced. I want to remove the entire bed as a unit since I think working on it separately will be a lot easier for this old man than trying to work around the rest of the truck. I see tree bolts on the side bottom and one in the rear which looks like it will need to have the bumperette and tie down removed. Am I missing anything?

[rickf]

Got all the bolts out of the bed, only had one bolt in the rear break. Between all of the doctors visits and testing I plan on getting the bed off this weekend and then I can get the gas tank out and see what condition it is in. I can tell you that when I hit the bottom of the tank it sounds like I am hitting a tank full of mud! Not good. It has liquid in it, I know that because when I first started cranking it with the line off of the pump to the carb the pump was pumping some really nasty stuff out of the tank. I am thinking there is going to be a 2" layer of varnish and gunk in the bottom and when that is gotten out somehow I am going to have a lot of holes. I can see where it has a little seepage under one of the straps. At that point all four wheels will be fully exposed and I can get to putting the disc brakes on that I bought from Dcook last year. I have an appointment with the cancer surgeon next Thursday so I guess that is when I find out when they plan on opening me up and that is when things come to a halt for a while.

[soupermike]

I found some die springs at McMaster-Carr that seem to be decent substitutes for the original cab mount springs. The ORD 9 SNL doesn't include spring rates, so we have to guess a bit on those (I have the old springs from my truck, but they're rusty, used, and no guarantees they're even original), but these seem close.

I don't recall the McM-C part nos. off hand, but can look them up if you need them.

Elwood, Do you happen to have the McM-C part # for the springs? I would appreciate them if you don't mind.

Thanks
Mike

[Cal_Gary]

My gosh Rick, best of luck with your medical issues-we're pulling for you!
Gary

[rickf]

Got the bed off today. Pleasantly surprised to find the front cross member was not rusted through, it actually has flaking paint and shiny steel. Gas tank looks fairly good but I can see it is leaking under the straps. Will get that out tomorrow I hope. the bed is toast but the supports are not as bad as I thought they would be and the toolbox is more complete than I thought. Look the pictures over and let me know your thoughts.

[RCrombie]

Surprising how good a lot of that looks... considering how rotten the bed floor is. It must have been sitting with leaves or something in the back? The inner wheel arches look good too, and that’s where I have a lot of rot in my truck. I understand that the tool box rust is usually a case of condensation that tends to build up from the exhaust so is pretty typical of these trucks. What are your plans for it? Are you good with a welder?
Frame looks pretty nice in my opinion. But then, most Canadian stuff I see is rusty rusty rusty!

Regards,
Rob

[rickf]

I have stick, MIG, TIG and torch and a wide array of body and big hammers. The frame has a lot of surface rust on it in places but no deep rust. I looks like it was painted before because I blew it off with shop air and the green paint was coming off in large flakes and leaving behind a black paint or primer. Same on the body. If you click on any of those pics a couple times it will enlarge to full size and you can get a better look.

[06boblee]

Midwest Military has new bed floors.

[m-37Bruce]

WOW, your bed floor is really swiss cheese, even behind the rear wheels? Let me know if you need anymore bed stuff, ok?

[rickf]

Got the gas tank out this morning and started to drain it, Yes, there is actually STILL liquid in it. Notice I said "liquid" and not gasoline. This stuff is probably at least 20 years old! I have seen some bad gas but this takes the cake. I put some in a pan and tried to light it on fire and I had to use a propane torch, Sort of like lighting diesel fuel but diesel smells a LOT better than this stuff. The tank appears to only have a couple leaks where the bands were touching it right now but I am sure once I manage to get it cleaned out I am going to find more. Two questions, One is what is the best way to clean the tank? Don't say radiator shops because where I am in NJ there are no shops that will touch a gas tank. And I am in an environmentally sensitive area and I prefer to keep it that way so I want to keep that in mind also. The other question is how do you guys usually approach taking the bed floor out? I am looking at screws that the heads are pretty much shot and I think the best thing is torch them and get new instead of fight with them.

I will put pics up this evening of the tank and nasty gas.

[just me]

Sodium hydroxide will clean the tank. So will Muriatic acid. One will neutralize the other. Neither is for the ill prepared or faint of heart.
Since you want to be safe, fillit with 3 gallons of Oil Eater and 4 gallons water. Throw in a couple hundred hex nuts and lash it to a mortar mixer and spin till clean.

[m-37Bruce]

You can use a few 4 foot lengths of chain and some solvent, seal all of the openings up with plastic and decent tape that won't melt. Shake well, turn a few times, take a breather do it again, I'd do this for a few days, open it all up and using a flash light check it out, repeat if necessary.
BTW, My tank had a dime braised onto a hole, it's still there too. Hole repair is a hole nother story. My tank is epoxy lined now.

[rickf]

Here are some pics of the tank. I found an epoxy repair at the bottom that appears to have been covering a drilled hole. This was not really leaking until I started banging it around on the forks of my tractor. You can see some holes under the straps. I popped the top off of it and there is a 1/4" layer of gunk in there that is probably mostly rust from the top side of the tanks but under the gunk which actually breaks up quite easily is nice shiny steel. So is looks like at least most of the bottom of the tank is good. I put the top back on to keep it moist until I can get in there and scrape out the worst of it. MAN this stuff STINKS!!!!!!!!

[Cal_Gary]

I've never seen such a collage of photos, Rick-thanks for such detailed shots! No telling what was poured into the tank over time. You'll likely have to torch or air-chisel the bed bolts-not worth fussing over, trying to free them up-I think there is something like 64 of them and would take a ton of time to retain serviceability.
Gary

[06boblee]

I used a cutoff wheel to cut slots in the bed bolts so I could use a flat head socket. I think the heat from cutting the slot helped, only a couple would not come out this way (Kroil is your friend!).