September 23, 2021

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Fixing your Jeep's motor? Adjusting your Deuce's carburetor? Balancing your Dodge WC's tires? Find all types of technical advise and expert tips for maintaining and driving your historic military vehicle. 

Tech tips Jeep
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Tech Tips 2020 no. 3

Tech tips Jeep
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Military Vehicle Tech Tips December 2019

A typical single-circuit master cylinder as used on many MVs with “suspended” clutch and brake pedals, such as M151s and M715s. To ensure long life of both master and wheel cylinders, brake fluid should be drained and renewed every two years.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Brake Systems Basics

Some MVs, such as the CCKW, have a strainer screen in the oil pan. This screen should be removed and cleaned every time the oil is changed.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Changing Your MV’s Oil

There are two basic types of mechanical parking brake systems used on most vehicles with hydraulic service brakes, as well as on many vintage vehicles equipped with air brakes. The first type, shown here, uses a drum or disk on the transmission or the transfer case output. When the brake is applied it locks the drive shaft so the vehicle’s rear wheels can’t turn. This system is used on many common collector military vehicles, including most jeeps, Dodge WCs and M37s, Kaiser M715s, some early model HMMVWs, most deuce-and-a-halfs, five-ton trucks, and also on many larger vehicles and construction or material-handling equipment. This CCKW example uses an external contracting band type brake.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

MV Parking Brake Service

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips: September 2019 Edition

Frontline Feature

MLT SPOT FOR SALECROP
Frontline Feature

UP FRONT AND CENTER!

This Spot Reaches More than 10,000 people a day.

Optimal vehicle operation results from optimal maintenance. Follow the 13 tips in this article to avoid a vexing breakdown somewhere down the road. John Adams-Graf collection
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

HMV Maintenance

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips: August 2019 Edition

A lot of vehicle engine problems can be traced to the gas you use and when you use it.
Military Vehicles in the News

Gas Woes

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips: June 2019 Edition

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips: May 2019 Edition

Bendix drive starters such as this Prestolite, (as well as many made by Autolite) were fitted to Willys MB and Ford GPW jeeps, the GTB Burma Jeep, as well as most International and Studebaker vehicles. Bendix drive starters also went in and out of fashion on CJ-2s, CJ-3As, CJ-3Bs, CJ-5s, and most Ford cars and trucks well into the 1960s.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Starting Something

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips: March 2019

Experience may be the best teacher, but it’s often a hard way to learn and requires being lucky enough to survive the mistakes you make. My first experience with air brakes was in a U7144T similar to this. My truck was a closed cab model. It had a Hercules RXC 529-CID gasoline engine, a five-speed non-syncro transmission with 5th gear overdrive, a two-speed transfer-case, and an early style air-brake system with a mechanical parking brake.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Air Brake Basics

Overhead view of a WWII Jeep engine bay.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Rejuvenating Old Car Batteries

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips December 2018

One of the most common reasons a parking brake won’t hold is that the mechanism that applies the brake — the handle or lever in the driver’s compartment, and/or its connecting linkage — is worn-out, broken, or out-of-adjustment.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Hold it in place!

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips: More Bleeding, No Bandages

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips with Steve Turchet

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips - December 2016

Distributors are the hearts of battery ignition systems. In many ways they’re like magnetos in that they have breaker points, a condenser (capacitor), and use a coil to boost the vehicle’s low voltage – 6, 12 or 24 – up to the 15,000 or 20,000 volts needed to fire the spark plugs, they just don’t generate their own power to do so, but use the vehicle’s battery instead. Like a magneto, a distributor is usually turned by the engine’s camshaft, which on a four-stroke engine rotates at half the engine’s crankshaft speed. And, like a magneto, a distributor must be “timed” so that it fires each spark plug in each cylinder in the correct order and at just the right moment to ignite the fuel and air mix and produce the most power in the most efficient way.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Historic Military Vehicle Ignition Systems Part I

This hows all the components of a pre M-series ignition system. This is the system used on virtually all WWII U.S. military vehicles, such as MBs, GPWs, GTBs, WCs, G-506s, CCKWs, DUKWs, etc., including most heavy trucks and special vehicles of that period: Studebaker, I.H.C., the Weasel, and so forth (though some tanks and amphibians had magneto systems). Most of the time, the only difference between WWII military systems and their civilian counterparts is the military versions sometimes have “splash-proof” distributors. This splash-proofing is generally just a Bakelite shield that fits into the distributor underneath the rotor and protects the points and condenser from... well, splashes.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Historic Military Vehicle Ignition Systems Part II

Engine oil doesn’t only break down and become dirty from use, it also gradually breaks down over time. And, in vehicles that aren’t driven much, or are not driven long distances so the engine never fully heats up, moisture forms in the crankcase. Moisture also forms in engines, axles and gearboxes simply because of temperature changes. Water not only dilutes engine oil, it also reacts with the oil to form acids that soften and eat away bearing material. Therefore, you should change the engine oil at fairly regular intervals whether or not the vehicle is driven a lot.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Historic Military Vehicle (HMV) Maintenance

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips

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2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

MV maintenance: It’s time to spring ahead!

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

MV Tech Tips with Steve Turchet

Complete diagram
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Transfer Case Basics

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips - December 2015

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4. 1 to 2-ton Vehicles (M715s,CUCVs, HMMWVs, GTBs, G-506s, etc.)

HMMWVS in the Hobby - Part II: Buying tips

The cooling systems of most common HMVs have three basic parts: 1) A water jacket cast into the engine block that surrounds each cylinder with liquid. 2) A radiator where most of the heat from the water is transferred into the air as it flows through the radiator core. This air is either pulled or pushed by the engine’s fan at low speeds or when the vehicle is stationary. or is forced through when the vehicle is driving down the road. 3) A water pump, which is the heart of the cooling system. The pump circulates water through the engine block, where it picks up heat, and then pushes the hot water through the radiator tubes where the heat is transferred into the air. The cycle is completed when the cooled water—which has given up its heat to the air—is pulled back into the engine for another go-around.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Don’t blow your lid. Stay cool...

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips with Steve Turchet

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

MV Tech Tips, with Steve Turchet

While many of us in the old car hobby dream of stumbling across a dusty but otherwise all-original vehicle in a barn, it’s a very rare occurrence. That is not to say that it doesn’t happen.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Bringing home a 'barn find'

10 October M37 Fort Greely Jerry Park
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Ethanol, Vapor Lock and other Gas Woes

Wires or hoses that are not controlled are prone to chafe. Follow this “Modified Work Order” to avoid failure as a result of worn-through wiring and plumbing.
2. Restoration & Maintenance of Military Vehicles

Here's the rub: Stop wire and hose chafing

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Riddle of missing Spitfire solved

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

WI passes legislation to protect private ownership of HMVs

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Unraveling the mysteries of ... MV WINCHES

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

TECH TIPS: Fuel tanks, engines & clutches

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Military Vehicle Tech Tips

MV BALL-KNUCKLE SERVICE

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

Tech Tips: With Steve Turchet

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

DOES 12 PLUS 24 EQUAL 36?

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

MIRROR, MIRROR

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

FINGER EXERCISE

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

FOAMING AT THE TRANSMISSION

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

ADVICE FROM AN EXPERT

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

WHEN M35s ATTACK

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

ALL TICKED OFF

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

REALLY, REALLY TICKED OFF

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

REALLY TICKED OFF

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

HOW TO TOW

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

SIX-VOLT STARTER UPGRADES

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

BIGGER SHOES

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

GIVE ME THE POWER!

Military Vehicle Tech Tips

OIL FILTER UPGRADES