NY-B61

And a smart way to go. Harnesses aren't cheap no matter what you put them in. I used a multi-meter with a continuity tone when I re-did my Jeep FC-170 one wire at a time. I alligator clamped one end and probed the other until I heard the tone. It saved me time, wire and I found hidden shorts. When I'm pulling all fresh wire and the schematics are muddy, about the best I can do is enlarge the schematic one section at a time on the computer, print it and tape it together. I have one now that covered the dining room table and part of the floor. Since I could almost walk on each circuit, I found the heater short and broken turn signal lug in my B-61 pretty quickly. Hope this helps.

Aw, heck. Maybe even days.

11 minutes later..I have my answer. And that's why I love BMT and these forums. There's nowhere else on earth that would have happened. Thank you, Ken. I know you already know this but there were only brief periods post-Ford but pre-unibody where designers made a focused effort to meld the appearance of the automobile with the functionality of industrial equipment or machinery. The 840 is a product of one of those short periods. Thanks again for the quick answer that would have taken me hours to find otherwise!

Did you buy a new or used wiring harness/bundle or are you going at this wire by wire?

What a great piece of history and pictures. Thank you, Guy!

What a great piece of restoration craftsmanship and equipment. The 'body' styling and shape share some elements of car and truck designs from that period. I wonder who actually designed the 840? Thanks for the great picture also. That's one good looking machine.

I agree. I think the stuff they apply to the roads here in Upstate NY is specifically formulated at the factory to rot metal and plastic. There's never a shortage of REALLY BIG! car sales occurring. Stainless lines and fittings should be mandatory from a safety perspective alone, although that would negate part of the planned obsolescence package that come standard with every new vehicle you purchase. You won't find fittings made of pig iron and hydraulic lines made of PEX or tin foil on an aircraft, for example. And it's not as if the connection between salts, metals and corrosion hasn't been known for some time. But I like my Bang & Olufsen heated GPS unit that automatically positions itself to give me directions in Mandarin.

I don't take mine out in the Winter because of the liquid salt and who knows what else spread on the roads. Rust is the enemy. Great work on the fuel tank and great pictures! Jim's right, you might have started something. Wonder if it's feasible to do the same to the the frame and suspension on a truck.

Nice looking truck and welcome aboard!

You've made a lot of progress. The original dump bed sure tuck a hit!

Looks nice. Are you going to put it to work when you're finished?

Wonder if air conditioning was an option that year.

Cool as heck picture of the M26! Wonder what it would take to get it moving?

Local plumbing store went out of business.

Congratulations and on to making more money!

Fascinating thread and remarkable craftsmanship.

Nice looking rig!

Thanks, Farmer. That makes the most sense as far as giving me peace of mind goes. I have the manual fuel shutoff and will definitely use your suggestion for that in the future.

But opens the door to $1 a gallon Diesel so plentiful you could bathe with it. Hope the sulfur content is boosted accordingly.

Thanks, GreenGiant2! It's good to have someone in my road terror camp. Silent failure and damage from oily shrapnel that no insurance company covers. Any preventative maintenance suggestions on turbos or idea on how many hours they usually last?

Thanks, Bob. I was hoping anything with bearings in it would give you some kind of warning before it failed but you never know.

You might have experienced, and you might have seen on Youtube, what happens when a turbo suffers catastrophic failure. The videos are fun to watch in a train wreck sort of way, especially when you loop the good parts and fiddle with the bass knob. My B61 with an END673T was parked for about five years without being started or driven on a regular basis. Maybe once a year. The engine was rebuilt sometime prior to the B61's hibernation and has about 50k on it now, 5k of that since I bought it a year and a half ago. It's a great truck and there's nothing that makes me think the turbo is compromised. Does a turbo unit give any signs of impending failure or just go crazy and start sucking oil out of the crank case like, for instance, a screaming vampire? Is there any type of PM that can be done or regular method to test a unit? It's the truck sitting for five years part that bothers me. All the wheel seals were, of course, dried and leaking when I bought the truck. Dried front wheel bearings also. Those and the second time around tires it came with were replaced with new ones but that turbo still bothers me. I'm confident enough in the rest of my B61 to take it on a long round trip this coming Spring where it might run for a couple of days solid. It's that darned turbo. Any advice or just buy a new one and be done with it?

Same thing happened with my Triplex after the truck sat for five or six years. I (gently) used a pry bar and rubber mallet to free the rods and then shot all moving parts a couple of times with my grease gun. Everything's been fine since.

That's a great story and thanks for the cool pictures!

That's a beauty!