M37 drivetrain & 1100x16 tires

From: Doyle, John D (JDoyle@framatech.com)
Date: Sat Nov 10 2001 - 15:14:08 PST


The old 900x16 NDTs on my '51 M37 were bald and dry rotted,
so I replaced them with a set of 1100x16 Michelin XLs.

Been extremely happy with the tires so far, but have
had a few snafus and wanted to see what peoples'
experience/suggestions were.

The truck went into the shop to get a front end alignment.
Wound up replacing the front axle housing- the old one
was bent, causing the camber to be off by more than degrees.

While they were in there, they wound up replacing a worn
pinion gear in the front diff. Seeing the front diff open,
the idea to put a Lock-Rite in the rear end came up while
talking with the guy in the shop.

To make a long story short, I wound up replacing a few
parts shortly after putting the truck back on the road.
The carrier in the rear diff needed replacing because the
bolt holes that ring the carrier had been ovaled out
(they went from approximately no.2 pencil size to about 3/8").
Because I hadn't looked at the carrier initially, I don't know
whether this happened in the one day I was driving the truck
after the first trip to the shop or not.

The current hypothesis is that the original 1951 axles in
the rear end were sheared when the carrier failed. They were
replaced with some tempered steel axles from John Bizal at MidWest Military.
I've been very happy with them.

Got the truck back on the road. Was driving it around for a
while today and started noticing a single ping/bang when taking
off from a stop in 2nd gear. 3rd gear gets it as well, but not
as pronounced. It's coming from the back of the truck, but since
I can't drive the truck and be in the bed simultaneously, I am
only guessing when I say it's coming from the diff. Is this
indicating imminent carrier failure?

Hopefully somebody has had this experience before...

Ideas? Suggestions?
John



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Dec 07 2001 - 00:36:59 PST