M37 Restoration (53-41242)

[Wayne Hingley]

My outdoor painting has been stalled by rain for the past two days, but I did get one coat of green on when the sun was still shining. Maybe more tomorrow.

[Lynn Eades]

Dave, excuse my ignorance, but what does the filtery thingy between the oil gallery and the oil filler do? Pressure relief valve?

Looking great Wayne.

[Wayne Hingley]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

Dave, excuse my ignorance, but what does the filtery thingy between the oil gallery and the oil filler do? Pressure relief valve?

Looking great Wayne.

Hi Lynn, I think its the angle of the photo that makes it look like the fittings are connected... but I think you are looking at the oil pressure sending unit (brass color). Its not connected to the filler spout, but it looks that way due to the angle of the photo.

[Lynn Eades]

Thanks Wayne. I was easily fooled by my eyes but what I saw made no sense. Cheers.

[Peter Phillips]

That is coming along nicely Wayne! I have to admit I'm a bit puzzled on everyone's troubled experiences breaking down split rim tires? As a 5-ton driver in 1 & 2 Svc Bn, we had to break down 10.00 x 20.00 NDT's quite a lot with a only a tire sledge and spoon. We did use a cage for re-inflating. Probably the only safety related item I ever seen used in the military! Is it the corrosion that's stopping these from breaking down? I found a liberal amount of soapy water and a few well placed blows with the sledge would loosen the bead easily. And as murphy's law goes, it was always the inside duals that went flat usually from spent shell casing penetrations. Now this was back in 1986.........

[Clint Tauber]

Originally Posted by Peter Phillips

That is coming along nicely Wayne! I have to admit I'm a bit puzzled on everyone's troubled experiences breaking down split rim tires? As a 5-ton driver in 1 & 2 Svc Bn, we had to break down 10.00 x 20.00 NDT's quite a lot with a only a tire sledge and spoon. We did use a cage for re-inflating. Probably the only safety related item I ever seen used in the military! Is it the corrosion that's stopping these from breaking down? I found a liberal amount of soapy water and a few well placed blows with the sledge would loosen the bead easily. And as murphy's law goes, it was always the inside duals that went flat usually from spent shell casing penetrations. Now this was back in 1986.........

They come apart easily, on trucks that see frequent use. Not so much after sitting in a field for years, with water accumulating inside the rim, slowly rusting away. They often have to be cut off the rims after a few decades.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Clint

You raise a couple of interesting points about tires and rims that have had a chance to sit and rust together.

I've dealt with CMPs tires that had sat for years but would hold air or in the case of run flats hold shape. When they are on a truck that is driveable then driving around on the tires at low or no air pressure seems to make easier to break the tire down. But as often happens you end up dealing with tires and rims from a non running truck that has had a real chance to rust together.

One of my trucks had a mix of run flats and regular military tires and was running and driveable so it got the let the air out and drive it around the circle a dozen times in both directions. On that one the regular tires came off with some serious tire iron work while the run flats had to be cut off with a sawsall. This problem is aggravated by the bead locks more area to get rusted together.

Now once the rims are clean and well painted and on a truck that is regularly driven it is not a big deal to break down tires. One particular trick I've learned is take your time get the tire laying flat at comfortable working height then take two 24 to 30 inch tire irons and stick the first irons in and lean on it while sticking the second iron in next it repeat over an over as you walk your way around the tire TWICE. It doesn't seem to be a matter of pushing real hard just let your weigh do the work. It seems that that trick is the TWICE around one my trucks even with tires that have been on for ten years they come apart at this point.

How I figure this trick out was watching a professional tire guy break set CMP tires off the rims. It was in a big truck tire shop and the young gorilla that was trying to break down the first tire and rim mounted up tire on the big power unit and started the machine at full power putting as much force as he could. The professional (boss) came over and said don't beat up the machine, just let the bead breaking wheel run around the tire a couple of times at medium pressure. Couple of times around an there was that satisfying clank as one half of the rim separated from tire. Turn the tire around and repeat. When the rim halves were out the boss laughed when he saw the solid rubber bead lock.

Cheers Phil