1985 M1009 CUCV w/12VDC conversion and 350/205/350

[GoGoGirl]

GoGoGirl submitted a new Build:

1985 M1009 CUCV w/12VDC conversion and 350/205/350

Hey all, I've been here for a while and got some great advice, and now it's time for me to dive in and get things going. I'm Sarah, and I don't have much mechanical experience besides one high school shop class and knowing how to do basic maintenance on a car. Most things I will be doing will probably be learned here and/or on Youtube. At least I admit it!

Tomorrow I plan to use this vehicle to do some work for the first time, retrieving a load of wood, so I figure it's time to start this thread. Spring is here and this beauty is about to begin the journey from being a driveway ornament to something I can use regularly.


I bought this beast in September and barely had time to make it run decently before winter hit. The seller was an acquaintance of a friend and was honest but not very knowledgeable about vehicles. He used this mainly to plow his driveway in the winter and to get feed and livestock supplies home in the warmer months. Sometime prior to his ownership, someone swapped out the 6.2L diesel and put in a Chevy 350. Moving down the drivetrain, they also put in an NP205 transfer case and TH350 transmission. While I tend to think of the TH350 as a "commuter-type" unit, as it was on my old S10, it fits, it works, and if it wants to vomit itself all over the road, then so be it and I will probably go back to the stock 400.


I will be posting more detailed photos, but there are quite a few changes from a stock M1009. Namely, 12 volt conversion, removal of slave start port and blackout light in the grille, adding a silly dual-tone air horn, civilian gasser dash and gauges (at least they all work!), and of course the plow.


Here are a few shots of the day she arrived:



View attachment 228369 View attachment 228370

View attachment 228371
View attachment 228372

The rotor...I am surprised I could even get the darn thing to run! Never seen one that bad. Center contact thing shot off as I exposed it:

View attachment 228373

And the solution:

View attachment 228374
View attachment 228375

Replaced a leveling cylinder due to a half-nonexistent gland nut that was causing a major hydraulic leak (old is red, new is black). Plow is a Fisher Speedcast. Replacement cylinder is Fisher model A3660/20117K.

View attachment 228376

Chained up and plowing my driveway in December:

View attachment 228377
View attachment 228378

March 15, 2017, blizzard, trying to stack snow at the top of my hilly...

Read more about this build here...

View attachment 228379

 

[Bent77]

Watching along, thanks for the pictures!

 

[Capt Ron]

It has been over a year since we have seen any updates. Have you got your front end worked on yet? I think it was maybe ball joints or something along those lines.

 

[GoGoGirl]

Thanks for the reminder!! Never got around to the ball joints due to time and work. Had to do some bare minimum safety stuff like brakes and a tie rod end and this week I’m hoping to finish fixing the rusty parts of the floor. I’ll have to post more photos!!

 

[GoGoGirl]

I ripped the ugly red carpet out today!! Not all but most, it was tough stuff even for a new razor blade. I had only taken out one place before today.

Now a question and observation.

My un-cleaned driver’s side floor is shown just as I found it. There’s thankfully no rot holes and just surface rust. Below the carpet were bits and pieces of a material like black construction paper that easily came off.

The next photos show my passenger’s side floor. There’s what is probably the same black material as the other side, but in top condition. In fact I didn’t even try to remove it after initially finding that it didn’t want to peel off without a fight. The stuff looks like thick black undercoating with a fiber reinforcement like duct tape has. I think I should leave it as long as I don’t find any rot when I crawl under and take a look. What do you think? What is the stuff? Original or added by a previous owner?

 

[Capt Ron]

From the pics it is kind of hard to tell but to me it looks like the factory sound deadener. The drivers side is pretty much always worse then the passenger side. If no rust is visible underneath you should be good to go. I know the diesel trucks had more sound deadener then the gas trucks did also, at least on the firewall area.
What are your plans for the surface rust on the ds?

 

[obijuank5]

Cucv had no insulation on them. That was likely added when the carpet was put in.

 

[Capt Ron]

https://ck5.com/forums/threads/lifting-and-insulating-a-cucv.308508/
Some more info here. I guess the general consensus is the military diesels had very little sound deadening while civilian diesels had extra. Yours obviously did not have carpet from the factory so what obijuank5 noted makes total sense. Someone added the factory style sound deadening / insulation when they did the carpet.