glitchwrks

Hey, this is the one I just about bought last fall, 11429 old Overnite line haul, Phelan trailer! Put in a deposit and everything, and then I couldn't get anyone to move it! I'm so glad to see this is being wrenched on and not cut up for parts or doing shunt duty or something! I know where another one of these sits, in southern VA -- been eyeballing it ever since I started working at a place near the limestone plant it's at. When I looked at it, the previous owner fired it up...noticed it seemed to have a lot of blowby and an oil seep from the rear head. I guess the chipped piston would at least partly explain the blowby. Did you drive it all the way to NH or have it hauled? I've got a few pictures from when I went and looked at it, if you'd like me to post them.

Yep, GMC even dropped a truck off on a bungee cord: I went to school not too far from the bridge. One of my friend's dad worked at the local GM/Chevy dealership and *supposedly* they really did drop the truck, but it was completely gutted to reduce weight!

Back to hard-to-service stuff, Ford's dual-ignition 2.5L 4 cylinder they put in 1999-2000 model Rangers (Pinto engine based) had some hard-to-get spark plugs on the driver's side. With most Pinto engines, you've only got the four plugs on the passenger side, no problem. But the dual ignition (2 plugs per cylinder) meant you had four more *under* the intake manifold! I think we ended up getting creative with a cut-off wrench as well. The original RACOR fuel filter on our 1985 F-350 (diesel, 6.9 IDI IH engine) is another pain to change. The previous owner went ahead and cut a hole in the fender well to get to the water separator drain. Still requires contortions to actually *turn* the drain, but at least you can get a scrap of hose on it and keep from washing down the inner fender with diesel fuel. I keep meaning to replace it with a spin-on filter base and water separator.

I keep trying to figure out ways I can goof around with 26K+ GVW trucks without a CDL, and keep coming to the conclusion that I just need to get my CDL. I'm pretty sure from what I've read that farm tags mean I don't need a CDL back home, but there's so much confusion about whether it would be OK across state lines even if only hauling personal property for hobby use (e.g. shop forklift or the family's big tractor with the post hole auger). I nearly bought a similar setup (1970 Mack MB-600 and Phelan 15 ton lowboy) last fall for moving some of the bigger stuff around. I always felt my old F-600 (when we had it) and an equipment trailer was much easier to control with larger trucks, tractors, loads of masonry, et c. than a 1-ton pickup. Just feels like you've got the right equipment for the task, versus pushing something beyond its comfort zone. Glad to see you can hang on to this one! Nothing wrong with a cabover Can't beat them for maneuverability, visibility, and as long as it's tilt-cab, they're pretty easy to wrench on.

Just finished reading all 24 pages! Very cool project, was going to comment that we could've gotten you to move the new transformer to the science museum in Wall, NJ but I see it's made its way north! Makes me wish we hadn't had to sell our '69 F600 when we moved from upstate NY a year ago.

Yeah, but she loves the old Rabbit We've looked at a few newer TD and TDI VWs and she's always decided to keep on with the Rabbit. Definitely not the cost effective option -- we've had the floor pans and rockers replaced, shaved and rebuilt the head, changed radiator out, did a 5-speed transmission swap, and had the injection pump rebuilt. At least it's pretty easy to work on!

We've got a VW Jetta we bought to steal the 1.6L turbodiesel engine out of that drinks oil. I'm pretty sure some bonehead hosed it down with ether and blew the oil rings out of it. Starts excellent even in the cold with no block heater, but when you're overrunning going downhill it leaves a thick blue smoke trail behind. Uses a quart of oil every 50 miles or so. Currently parked and awaiting disassembly. The 1.6L turbodiesel is going to replace the worn out (0.050" out in the bores!) 1.6L naturally aspirated diesel in my wife's '79 VW Rabbit. I keep meaning to start on the swap but the old 1.6L NA just won't die!

I'll see if I can upload them from her phone when she gets home.

Picture from when I brought it home last year: The rest of the album is here: http://imgur.com/a/rketF Previous owner painted it purple, the fenders are actually early CJ-5 (it is actually titled as a '52 CJ-5, which is interesting because they didn't make CJ-5s then!) but the rest of the sheet metal appears to be M38A1. Definitely an M38A1 chassis, it has the cross member for a gun mount. It has a 2.0L Ford Pinto engine swapped in, in place of the original F-head, which may get swapped for a Mazda license-built Perkins 4-135 out of a rotted Ford Ranger Diesel -- I suspect the bell housing is the same since the Pinto engine was offered in the Rangers. It runs and drives, but the brakes are pretty terrible, I've got a full kit to replace them, master cylinder to drums. Needs a new gas tank too, currently running out of an aux tank sitting in the back seat! There are two more project jeeps on the farm, a 1948 CJ-2A and a 1948 M38. Both are pretty well disassembled at the moment, they're supposed to be my dad's project(s) but he hasn't gotten around to doing much on them.

Long time lurker. No project trucks at the moment, might start seriously looking for an old Mack MB once I get my box truck sold. Almost bought one last fall in southern VA, an old Overnite truck. Working on getting a 1952 Willys M38A1 army jeep finished up.

My wife found out about this one from the banners in Lexington, VA. Good smaller show, everything from pickups to big trucks. Quite a few Macks. More cabovers than I expected. Someone had a bunch of Dodge medium duty and big trucks.