19trax95's 1986 CUCV M1028A1

Got a fair bit of work done today. Now as much as I wanted, but still made decent headway.

I got the glow plugs replaced, new terminals installed on all 8 glow plug wires, tidied up the harnesses a little, ran wiring for my new fuse box, ran the wires for the relay to control said fuse box, cleaned up the radio wiring, and tested my tachometer.

To my surprise, all the old glow plugs came right out without any issues. By the looks of them, I would say they were original to the motor. I applied a little bit of copper antiseize to the new ones. I then installed all new weather sealed terminals for the glow plugs since the original ones were corroded, and half of them broke off with the spade part of the glow plug still in them. And the new plugs are the civilian Delco 60G plugs which have the typical 1/4" spade vs the military 13G delcos which have a narrower spade.

For my fuse box, which isn't quite done yet, I ran my heavy power and ground wires from the battery and chassis ground to the relay. I just need to run one more wire for the relay trip and put it to an ignition hot source. That way I can have my radio, light bars, fuel pump, etc all come on, or be able to come on, with the ignition only, and have their own dedicated fused circuit.

I like these little marine fuse panels since they are compact, and have a power bus bar, and a ground bus bar. Makes it really nice to wire stuff up. I have the larger version on my 15.

Here's a couple pics of the glow plugs. I'll grab some pics of the tach and fuse box once those are done.

Truck project is finally almost done. I got the rest of the wiring wrapped up today, got the tach installed, fuse box mounted, new auxiliary switch plate made and installed, and the new alternator arrived and I got that installed.

Now my radio comes on with the key, and my light bar and beacon light is wired to the new ignition hot fuse box as well. The two switches on the new plate I made are for the light bar and beacon light.

I didn't realize how crappy the pics were until I went to upload them lol. I also greased the u joints, front end, and transfer case linkage.

I also may need to adjust the tach slightly. I feel like I may had set it a hair high. But I have no way of knowing exactly what the engine is running at, so I only set it off of what I assume the idle is based on the spec, and sound. Spec is 650-700, so I set it right around 650. I'll see what it's like driving it around and maybe make some adjustments.

New mufflers acquired. Just got the cheapest that advance auto had to offer lol. I had speed perks plus their sale so I got both for $52 after tax. It'll be better than the blown out rusted ones I have.

I didn't want anything crazy since come spring they will be coming off anyway in favor for a nice straight pipe from the turbo back.

So I got the new mufflers on the truck last night. I thought the clamps would be good yet, but they aren't. They work, but don't seal the best. So if it stops raining today I'll throw some new ones on there.

But even with the small leak from the clamp, I really like the new mufflers. They actually sound way better than I thought they would.

They are quieter by miles than the blown out old ones lol. I can actually hear the motor and tires now lol.

So I can now say, the toyo MTs do have some noise. Not bad at all for how aggressive they are, but definitely noticeable compared to the ATs (obviously). But now I can cruise at 55mph nice and quiet (for a 6.2 lol).

Once I get the new clamps on and get the old tips out of the mufflers, I'll post a video. But I'm impressed for under $60 for the pair of them. No more clapped out sounding truck haha. Here's a picture of the old ones for example lol. As you can see, they were beyond shot.

Got some more done today. Got the old mechanical fuel pump off the motor, and the new blockoff installed. Removing the old pump was the hardest part. The one line wouldn't come off so I had to cut it. Doesn't matter since it's dormant anyway and will be removed when I do the turbo swap. Then the top rear bolt was a pain to get at.

The rest was easy. I installed the new fuel fill neck. I had to shorten the hose on the tank end about 1" to get the hose to sit right and not have a partial kink in it. Then I bolted in the support plate and fill neck along with the vent hose. Filled the tank and it filled great.

Then I cut up parts of my old stock exhaust off my 17 to use the pipe for some tips to shoot the exhaust downward and away from the axle/brake lines. Actually sounds better now that it's not echoing under the bed.

I'm debating rigging up two tail pipes to make it actually exit the underside of the truck. I want to see what kind of scrap sections I can find at work.

And finally, I went and got some 1/2" pex pipe. I removed the door strikers and pressed the pex over the striker where the latch sits. Now my doors close really nicely with far less effort. Still need a firm close, but now they close first time, everything without needing to slam them. Definitely worth the $1 the pex costed me lol.

Eh I'll definitely notice a power loss. I'm only working with 150hp when it was brand new lol. And then it goes through the power sucking turbo 400 trans. But the turbo swap will definitely help.

But the wheels are to stick with the military theme. Plus they are cool looking. They will likely have the run flat inserts in them still, which I may remove in favor of a pvc bead lock. That will allow me to air down to the single digits without fear of blowing a bead. The hmmwv wheels are a single bead lock but the inserts press the outer bead into the inner and basically make it so you can't pop a bead at very low pressures.

At this time, I'm leaning towards the BFG Baja variety of hmmwv tires. The original goodyear MTs, while the cheapest of the three types (well technically 4) are not great in the snow, and are known to be very hard rubber as well as very loud.

The second option is the Goodyear MTR. These are better in the snow and quieter, as well as a softer overall ride. However, they are also known for some of them to experience sidewall cracking and sidewall blowouts. Military actually has a bulletin on it.

And lastly the BFG baja. These seem to be a middle ground of ok in snow, ok in mud, great on dirt and sand (obviously) and are a softer compound. I can currently get four 24 bolt wheels, with BFG tires on them, for just under $600 and they have 75% tread or better. No shipping needed since I can pick them up about an hour or so away.

Once I have the wheels, tires can be had much cheaper if I wanted to switch. Only downside is I'd need to stick with milsurp tires, or spend $1400 on a set of intercos since they are the only ones that still make tires for 16.5" wheels.