AM General M50 6x6

[wil440]

Collected my new to me AM General M50 6x6 truck  last Saturday, took a while between buying it and actually driving it back to the farm where our workshop is which BTW is also new to us (my brother and myself) we just moved into a 3000sqft shop 

PO of the truck told me it had fuel but if I wanted to put some in there was room in the 50 gallon tank so I took 40 litres of new but unidentified engine oil,  20l litres of gas, 20 diesel and 20 cat 50w axle oil,  guess that tested the "multifuel " capability, ran perfectly,  5 speed manual syncro  with 2 speed transfer box shiftable on the move with a twin disc clutch,  PTO too, gearbox layout took some getting used to as both 3rd and 4th are to the rear but at 7.8 the motor didn't care what gear it was in,  6 wheel drum brakes which stop the 5 ton truck dead.

I've got some repairs to do but just minor things. 

It's basically a REO Whistler built under licence, produced from early 50s to 1990s ish

Really does need power steering though and taller tyres to increase the gearing a little 

 

Going to build a camper

 

[JAG1]

On 10/2/2023 at 7:46 PM, wil440 said:

 

 

Going to build a camper

 

Need to see pics of the progress Or any you have time to share!

Edited October 4, 2023 by JAG1

[wil440]

37 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

Need to see pics of the progress Or any you have time to share!

Few pictures, removed the USAF beacons as they were as big as a flying saucer.  Went to the local pub in it last night was there motorcycle night,  truck had it's own VIP cordoned off area 

Just been given 5 gallon of 10 year old gas, gone in the tank with some axle oil, also got 2 45gallon barrels of old thinners which is old but no paint in it , be fine with oil. 

[Tractorman]

Great pictures.  When I was living in Alaska in the early 60's, my dad had a 4x4 version of that truck.  He just ran it on gasoline.  But, I do remember late one November it was about -40° (Celsius or Fahrenheit, doesn't matter) and the truck hadn't been run for a couple of weeks.  Standard procedure - take battery into house for an overnight warmup, build a small bonfire underneath the engine for about three hours to liquify the oil (no mulit-viscosity oil back then).  Wait for the outside temperature to warm to - 30°F and then start the engine.  Works great.

 

Do you know what year your truck is?

 

- John

[wil440]

1 hour ago, Tractorman said:

Great pictures.  When I was living in Alaska in the early 60's, my dad had a 4x4 version of that truck.  He just ran it on gasoline.  But, I do remember late one November it was about -40° (Celsius or Fahrenheit, doesn't matter) and the truck hadn't been run for a couple of weeks.  Standard procedure - take battery into house for an overnight warmup, build a small bonfire underneath the engine for about three hours to liquify the oil (no mulit-viscosity oil back then).  Wait for the outside temperature to warm to - 30°F and then start the engine.  Works great.

 

Do you know what year your truck is?

 

- John

John,  it's 1959  so 3 years older than me, been repowered at some point as I think it has the later multifuel engine but I'm still on a very steep learning curve.

 

Spoke today to a very knowledgeable man 80 years old that runs a company here in the UK supplying parts for US EX military vehicles the original Duece and a half, the M35/M50 and the bigger M800 and the Oshkos stuff and everything in between this guy knows a lot and holds a lot of NOS parts so going to make up a list of the small parts it needs.

It's been booked FOC of course for a 5 years old birthday party on the 14th of this month, only problem there is the 5 year old wants to take it home afterwards and the 5 year old is a girl 

 

As for cold weather running, there is a intake heater but at -40 and IF thats C Jeez thats cold I doubt anything is going to start right up without prep,  the engine oil is listed ON the dash on a plate at straight 30w   but I doubt it's this low sulphur stuff of today, I use a lot of Cat 10W/30 but that's LS so more reading I think

Figured out today when trying to get it into a tight space IE a lot of steering it's much better to use low ratio, steers quite easily for no PS

 

On the to do list

fix the wipers, they are air

new wiper blades, when the motors work

Better seats

Make the passenger bench seat actually sprung instead of just bolted to the floor

Passenger screen to replace, cracked, flat laminated

Bigger tyres, as big as I can find to get some gearing

Make a flatbed

Build a camper

Go do the shopping in it

Drive through the London Low Emmissions Zone, because it can and won't be charged £12.50 per day because of it's age 

 

OH and POWER STEERING

 

Funny how on the 2nd pic it's US army number is N J 0011  my company is N and J Plant and no I didn't know when I bought it

[Tractorman]

Well, it looks like you have your work cut out for you. 

 

If you are going to go to the trouble of taking the truck to London, you should install a large green environmental decal that says, "FLex Fuel Vehicle"  Then, in smaller hard to read print, "Meets 1959 Emissions"  That way you won't feel bad making all those people mad.

 

One important thing to check is whether you have a hydraulic braking system with a single or a dual master cylinder.  Here, in the U.S., dual master cylinders didn't come out until around 1965.  Driving with an aged single master cylinder braking system could be inviting disaster.

 

By the way, -40°C is the same as -40°F   -  but, you probably already knew that.

 

- John

 

 

 

 

[wil440]

28 minutes ago, Tractorman said:

Well, it looks like you have your work cut out for you. 

 

If you are going to go to the trouble of taking the truck to London, you should install a large green environmental decal that says, "FLex Fuel Vehicle"  Then, in smaller hard to read print, "Meets 1959 Emissions"  That way you won't feel bad making all those people mad.

 

One important thing to check is whether you have a hydraulic braking system with a single or a dual master cylinder.  Here, in the U.S., dual master cylinders didn't come out until around 1965.  Driving with an aged single master cylinder braking system could be inviting disaster.

 

By the way, -40°C is the same as -40°F   -  but, you probably already knew that.

 

- John

 

 

 

 

Majority of Londoners hate the ULEZ zone  but as ever mayor thinks it is a good idea....Read money making scheme...... government is cracking down on local authorities who make rules to penalise motorists so who knows what will happen. 

Sticker on the back will read

" THE STARTER MOTOR ON THIS VEHICLE IS ELECTRIC "  and I won't care who gets ****** off  

It's a single circuit master cylinder, there is a few options talked about on "steel soldiers " forum, I've got a complete new set of flexies to fit and and some more reading to do on what M C to use.

Plenty in the US still on S Circuit its on a to do list 

No I didn't know -40c and -40f was the same as here we don't use f except maybe weather forecasters on the TV when they want to sound dramatic trying to scare people and it just never sinks in anyway for most 

Truck is a work in progress ... 

[Tractorman]

1 hour ago, wil440 said:

Sticker on the back will read

" THE STARTER MOTOR ON THIS VEHICLE IS ELECTRIC "

 

That's even better! 

 

- John

 

[Mopar1973Man]

On 10/4/2023 at 7:35 AM, wil440 said:

Few pictures, removed the USAF beacons as they were as big as a flying saucer.  Went to the local pub in it last night was there motorcycle night,  truck had it's own VIP cordoned off area 

Just been given 5 gallon of 10 year old gas, gone in the tank with some axle oil, also got 2 45gallon barrels of old thinners which is old but no paint in it , be fine with oil. 

 

Salmon River Fire Department had 3 of these military trucks used for firefighting purposes and used 2 of them for water tenders about 1,000 gallons of water. Then the 3 truck was an actual fire engine with a full pump panel and all only held about 400 gallons of water. Man I missed the days of that wild gear box and the shift patterns. Most guys would get hung up with the strange shift pattern. 

[wil440]

4 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Salmon River Fire Department had 3 of these military trucks used for firefighting purposes and used 2 of them for water tenders about 1,000 gallons of water. Then the 3 truck was an actual fire engine with a full pump panel and all only held about 400 gallons of water. Man I missed the days of that wild gear box and the shift patterns. Most guys would get hung up with the strange shift pattern. 

Mine was a water tanker, and yes the shift pattern is pretty strange, still getting used to it really and what with moving to a much bigger workshop haven't had much time.

I have figured out that it's best to use low ratio when moving it around in tight space due to no PS,  forgot last night to take it out of reverse when I put it back in the shop, hit the start button this morning and it's  off albeit rather slowly 🐌.... plenty of room behind luckily.  sure it would have reversed straight over the Landrover Discovery minus the body that was behind it 

[Mopar1973Man]

Oh before I forget those engines can and will start up and run backwards. If it does you'll have 1 forward gear and 5 reverse gears and might have a burnt or melted air filter. Also the engine oil pressure will not rise so be aware. 

[wil440]

5 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Oh before I forget those engines can and will start up and run backwards. If it does you'll have 1 forward gear and 5 reverse gears and might have a burnt or melted air filter. Also the engine oil pressure will not rise so be aware. 

That's good to know,  had quite a bit of experience with engines running backwards, mainly 2 stroke Commas which were 50s/60s medium trucks with a 2 stroke diesel usually happened when pulling off and driver just about stalled the motor, you tend to never forget the noise the motor makes.

The trucks you speak of were they multifuel? Or just ran diesel? I'm amazed at what this engine will happily run on .

Right now the 50 gall tank is full of old gas, old diesel, some new of both and some new Cat 50W axle oil, all the old fuel was clean but there is some serious fuel filters on it anyway. One other thing,  it has a in tank lift pump but it's 24v

[Mopar1973Man]

22 hours ago, wil440 said:

The trucks you speak of were they multifuel?

Yes.

 

22 hours ago, wil440 said:

Or just ran diesel?

It was a multifuel and we typically just used diesel fuel.

 

22 hours ago, wil440 said:

I'm amazed at what this engine will happily run on .

Gasoline

Diesel

JET-A fuel

Kerosene

[JAG1]

Thank you for the Pictures Wil. That's pretty cool old truck, enjoyed looking. I hope you get it to what you want. When you find a gal that likes riding in it you'd better hang on to her that's for sure as it's a right or wrong girlfriend tester wagon!