I bought the CHEAPEST Army truck I could find, Will It Run??? (Deuce and a Half)

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[austinborow]

Hey Matt I know a lot about these trucks, the idle issue is usually the fuel shutoff valve stuck or the rod isn’t adjusted or the spring on it. There’s an o ring on the fuel shutoff valve that can leak and suck air too. Another issue is the fuel density compensator, they get stuck and don’t meter the thinness or thickness of whatever fuel is in it. Especially if someone runs used oil mixed with diesel or gas, it’ll gum up quick. You might wanna consider draining the tank and flushing it and flushing the fuel system with just straight diesel and only run straight diesel. The fuel tank also has an electric fuel pump that comes on with the main power switch, it looked to be working in the video. There’s a fuel filter i think around the alternator area and the 2 you bled, those fuel filters look like spooled yarn haha, but might wanna change the filters also. They also make a conversion to put spin on filters on it but it’s cooler to be original but that’s an option. Same with the oil filters. Make sure you replace the o rings for the oil filters if you change them, they will leak bad. A few issues on those trucks I know of, the oil cooler housing is known for pitting out inside mainly on the top where the coolant enters the housing, it wears the housing out and leaks, it’s made of a pot metal too. That happened to mine. The brake system uses dot 5 silicone based brake fluid, only use that. The master cylinder is under the drivers side floor board under a little door on the floor. The best way to bleed that system is pressurize it, I use a pvc pipe with a hose coming off and a homemade cap connected to it, fill the pipe with brake fluid and install cap, connect regulated air and push like 12 psi and it’ll force pressure with the brake fluid and you can bleed and refill at the same time. The rubber boots on the steering axle are another issue, check those they go bad over time and crack and rot. The transmission is a 5 speed spicer transmission. The radiators are junk in those trucks, I’ve never seen one not leak, best to take to a radiator shop and resolder tanks and all. A few more tips, the left wheels are left hand thread, yeah those dipsticks are threaded kinda weird but it works, they’re great trucks and will go anywhere, they’re so low geared they’ll climb a wall with 5 tons behind it, they also have a pto winch for the front on some trucks, I think you can convert it to that if you want. You can also convert it power steering if you want. On the front there’s a little fixture below the lights, that’s blackout light, it only emits enough light to see barely to get where your going to be stealthy and not shine big headlights, I think the same for the rear taillights have a small light in them. Thanks for the videos, can’t wait to see what you do with it.

[drunkdunc]

Don’t park it in the woods Matt, come springtime you’ll never find it 😲🍻

[gordonjohnson]

Matt, I spent nearly 20 of my 32 years in the Army around these. Although I was not a mechanic I did have an HHC and was signed for 10 of them. And again as a Battalion Motor Officer. And, of course, when I retired from the Army I bought one, because they are useful and very, very durable...if you know what to do, as they are different than most modern vehicles. So, yours *might* be a REO, but it is not a 1953. In 1953 there were still M135s. The M35s hadn't been fielded yet, and they were all 427 C.I. gas engines. In the 1960's they came out with the first LDS465 Engines in the M35a1s, followed a couple of years later with the addition of a turbo to clean up the coke from the exhaust (LDT465) in the M35a2's. A data plate on the passenger side of the engine, towards the front will tell you which engine you have. But it sounds like an LDT465C, a.k.a. "The Whistler". The year can be tricky because power packs and transfer cases were changed out regularly. Also, don't believe the mileage. When a speedometer broke they would replace it. No one would set the miles on the new one most of the time. So, the first place to look is on the data plate just to the left of the glove box. The top line will be the stock number. The bottom line will be the contract number. In the middle there will be a registration number and a serial number, that may be displayed on one line separated by a space, or it may be on two lines. One of the numbers will probably be 6 or 7 characters, and alphanumeric. That's the registration number. The other will be 9-13 numbers and is the serial number. The contract number line should say who manufactured it. If it is REO then it was likely a 1950's vehicle. Some did get updated to the LDT 465 in later decades. If it was built in the late 60s-70s, then it is probably a Kaiser Jeep. Kaiser Jeep was spun off to AM General in the Chrysler bankruptcy, I believe. So beginning in the late 70's through the last contract in 1987 they were made by AM General. For the Kaiser Jeep and REO vehicles you *might* be able to put in the combination of the registration ID and the Serial number into a VIN decoder. Usually the Kaiser-Jeep vehicles had a 7-digit Registration number, and the last two digits were the year. In the AM General Vehicles (which were made in the same plant as the Jeeps, just under different management) the first two digits are the year. For instance my Deuce's Registration Number is 83K658. 1983 was the year it was made. Now, cab data plates often were broken or illegible. So if it doesn't look old, its not. But you can look on the drivers side of the frame near the front wheel. The number will likely be buried under paint. And you can check the axles. Each will have its own data plate with the registration number and serial number on the front of the front pumpkin or the back of the back two.
Sorry to be long winded, but I'm going to make some hard recommendations right off the bat in priority: 1) Check and replace your soft brake lines for all three axles if they look anything less than new. Its not worth guessing if they *might* be old. 2) Bleed out all the brake fluid. People will add DOT 3. But there will have been DOT 5 from the military. STRONGLY recommend you just bleed out all of what's there and replace with DOT 5. They're not compatible. 3) Bypass your FDC. It is a wearable part that was not maintained after 1995 or so. When the seals go it will leak diesel into the engine oil. Bypass is a 15-minute job. I can send you instructions if you like. 4) Replace soft fuel lines from high pressure pump on the side of the Injection Pump just below the Hydraulic Head to the secondary filters, to the hydraulic head. This is best done when bypassing the FDC. The function of the FDC was to modulate fuel so that the engine would have similar power with any of the fuels, though all but jet fuel had less energy than the diesel. It is still a multi-fuel without it. The multi-fuel part is in the design of the piston cup and compression ratio ... 22:1. 5) Re-pack your axle hubs. The Army uses "Grease, Army-Artillery" or GAA. It is animal fat. It goes rancid and should be replaced annually. Do yourself a favor and just buy a 5-gallon pail of a good moly-lithium heavy duty bearing grease, and re-pack them all. Those are most of the out-of-the-gate "Must Do's". Your radiator is separating from vibration. Just solder it back on. But under it you will find a couple of very flattened square rubber pads. If they were still good your radiator would not be coming apart. You can buy new ones cheap from BigMikesMotorpool.com. If you want to know how to do anything else, just contact me and ask. If you give these trucks any love at all, they will outlive you.

[apulbroo]

I have an M35a2. It’s an amazing vehicle to say the least. I have the C-turbo (whistler).
When I was going through my divorce I was daily driving it for a long time before I could afford a car.
When I was really hard up I ran it on 100% waste motor oil. People told me it would hurt it running waste oil but I never had a problem. The truck still runs great to this day. You will definitely have some fun with it.
Remember a M35 won’t get you anywhere fast but it will always get you there.

[richardthomas]

OMG! $3, 000.00 is CHEAP! What a DEAL!!!

[Ekatjam]

My father was in the US Army Transportation Corp. In 1957 he went on a mission above the Arctic Circle to supply "The DEW Line" He said that from the time they left the LST to when they departed three weeks later, they were never turned off once. He said that if he had a choice between the the Deuce or a Weasel, he would take the truck because... It could outrun the bears.

[edwardyeomans]

Here's a little trick where u will never have to Crack an injector line agai buy your self a inline electric pump put it on the return line connect pump and run until u see constant fuel running into tank start no problem been doing that of excavators bobcats tractors works like a charm

[thomascreary]

That's a late 70s-80s duece comes equipped with a flame heater to assist with engine warm up, lower left hand side of the dash the 6x6 switch is underneath the steering column plus the primary fuel filter is underneath the injector pump and if you use gasoline you have to mix clean motor oil in the correct mixture but you cannot use av gas, plus that's not a continental engine it's a White- Hercules muti-fuel engine and if one axle seal leaks replace the one on the other side I know I was trained to work on them in the U.S.A.F

[GEOsustainable]

Huge respect to the engineer that designed the dip stick to not pop out under battle conditions AND made it so it is not damaged when a newbie goes and tries to pry it out with a crowbar.

[texasww]

I drove the 2 1/2 in the early 70;s mostly in Europe during the Vietnam war, it was a very dependable vehicle. The sound of Matt running this deuce and a half made old memory’s that been locked up in my mind for 53 years come flooding back! Thanks Matt for the wonderful memories you unlocked!

[juliaharris]

Thanks for the video, Being a mechanic in the ARMY and working on them over 30 yrs ago. this took me back and I was glad i could remember what was needed and what was wrong. Thanks from an old 63 B

[ofipete]

I still have the Army drivers license from 1968 for this truck. It was a beast I loved to drive, very rugged and reliable. This model was commissioned in 1950 as successor to the wartime GMC CCKW. During a Reforger maneuver here in Germany in the middle of nowhere the V-belt ripped off. With a rope and some duct tape as a makeshift belt we made it back to camp. During one of my transportation assignments I got pulled over by the MPs for a roadside check. My unit later awarded me a plaque and an off-duty day for passing the inspection 100% flawlessly. The recommendation plaque still adorns my wall.

[azarellediaz]

Hello Matt, man did I enjoy this video. I drove and fixed more Duces than I cared to count, as you were troubleshooting I was here wishing I had been there to help along. I started driving one in Dec 1979 and the last one around May 1998-99. When I saw you put a bar through the dipstick loop I was laughing and then you figured it out. There is a fording kit for these trucks that would allow you to drive it through water as deep as mid driver’s window. If you haven’t gotten to it check the fuse for the in-tank fuel pump, it’s under that small cover to the left of the full cap with a wire on it. Without this pump running they don’t idle much because the injector pump doesn’t create a lot of suction. One thing to watch for on these trucks, DO NOT LET IT ROLL BACKWARDS WHEN IN A FORWARD GEAR AND STOPPED!!! This will wind up the transfer sprag unit and if it is not released properly it can send a shock through the transmission shifter that can snap your wrist, yes, it can break your wrist. If you are driving and it kinda hops when turning STOP 🛑, put the transmission in neutral, chock the rear tires, carefully jack up the driver’s side front wheel and you will see that wheel spin backwards as the sprag releases. Any questions? Let me know, I have the books for this baby on a CD.
By the way, I noticed you changed the bridge classification number from 21 to 50…
Before registering ensure you have the correct serial number, I’ve seen too many with erroneous numbers on the data plate, it should be on the chasis somewhere above the rear axles and the end of the chassis, or above the front axle depending on who made it; but I can’t recall what side.

[mjmcomputers]

Check the fuel line between the pump and tank to make sure it isn’t cracked and sucking air. Also running it straight on Diesel Purge a few minutes may help clear it up.

[Sovereign_Citizen_LEO]

Beautiful Deuce. There was one of these abandoned at a small Army outpost up here in the Santa Cruz Mountains (thought they finally cleaned up that site and removed the truck about 15 to 20 years ago). There's still a bunch of abandoned military buildings and concrete buildings/ foundations hidden in the forest and barbed wire and chain link fences around the site (which was called Peanut Hill), and was a support site for Nike Missile Bases and other Military infrastructure (communications and Radar/ Microwave sites) during WWII in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

[bishopcorva]

Helped a friend move his a while back, I remember his girlfriend at the time was concerned that we would get going too fast and get a massive speeding ticket. We had to explain that the only way that the truck could break the speed limit was if it fell out of a plane and even then the headwind it would have might shave the speed a little.

He sold it to a guy that offered five times what it was worth plus a four door square body Chevy. The part of that trade deal that makes me laugh is how much those old square body trucks are going for now.

[DrewMarold]

The most important thing to know about driving one of these offroad is to keep your fingers on the *outside* of the rim of the steering wheel. Since this doesn't have power steering like the 813 series 5-tons, if you hit a bump or a rock or something, the wheel can suddenly and forcefully turn and it will break your thumb if it's in the way.

[davidweidner]

Glad to see safety was on your mind when loading the behemoth (coat over the cable)

[dannyo]

I was in the National Guard in November 1983 to September 1991, as wheeled Combat Engineer. We had 3 engineer platoons in our company and our squads used the 5-ton dump trucks with the troop transport setups in them. Those were for each squad, so they didn't haul as much inside as this one.
1st and 2nd platoons had diesel 5 tons but as 3rd herd, we got the leftovers. We had gas 5 tons from the early 60's without even turn signals on them.
The maintenance platoon also was the fuel hauling unit for the company, and since we had gas trucks, their tanker pulled a pup trailer set up with gasoline. Incidentally we still had the jeeps at that time, so we weren't the only vehicles running gas. We also had the M880 Dodge pickups which were also gas powered. Maintenance, the cooks and the admin team all had the Deuces which were exactly the same as this truck. The only issue was that, considering the fact we are in North Dakota, our trucks didn't have heaters.
Ultimately the state Guard Bureau decided to switch all the Guard unit trucks to diesel so there was only one fuel needed for everything. So, our gasser trucks became diesels, and they even installed turn signals on them...still no heaters though. Our trucks got the same engine the Deuces had. The Jeeps and the Dodge pickups went away, and we finally got the Humvees. This was around 1990 to 1991. I got out of the Guard in September of 91 and did a Try 1 in 1995 then got out altogether.

[CptAngelKGaming]

THIS is the kind of video that built this channel. Awesome old equipment being brought back from the dead. The excitement when it fired up! WOW Love it!