I left the house and went to the gas station – put $40 worth of fuel in the truck. That left front tire was shimmying every time I hit a bump – starting to think it is the death wobble. While I was putting fuel in, I put the chock on the pioneer tool rack – and forgot about it! The trip to Lancaster was about 20 miles – mostly highway, with about 5 miles city. After going about 5 or 6 miles the shimmy sort of disappeared – just re appearing when I hit a bump. For some reason, I went through all 3 traffic lights without stopping – and I wanted to practice shifting! Once I turned onto the secondary road going into the city, I had to stop at 2 lights, so I got to practice my shifting. At the 3rd light I had to turn right onto a side road with only one lane – now that was interesting! I downshifted and coasted into the turn, but it didn’t want to go into 2nd while I was turning – I ground that one pretty good before I got it to go in. I got to downtown and had to make another right turn – this time I had to stop. I made a wide turn in 1st (fortunately there wasn’t a car there), completed the turn, then shifted to 2nd. Went through a couple more lights and was there. Pretty decent second drive. I got out and checked for leaks -there was a fuel leak under the injection pump and one of the wheel cylinders (or possibly the axle seal).
We decided to park the truck in a bay closest to a wall so it would be out of the way, so they moved a few vehicles around so I could get in there. I backed into the shop and started a new journey. It took about 10 minutes and 20 turns, backing up and pulling up to get that truck in the bay! I had a jacket on and was sweating turning that steering wheel! Come to find out, the heater blower was on HIGH the whole time! I started looking around and noticed that the chock was gone – not inside, not in the tool box, and definitely not still on the pioneer tool rack! No telling where I lost that. I got my wrenches out and tightened a couple of hoses under the injector pump – hopefully that will stop that leak.
Next we loaded up the M105 on the rollback – since my brother was bringing me back home he figured we might as well bring it home too. We got home and rolled the trailer off. I hooked my 4×4 Silverado up to it – man that thing is heavy trying to lift it by yourself! The pintle on the truck is about 8″ lower than the lowest position on the landing gear, so I had to collapse the landing gear to lower it on the pintle. This isn’t possible with one person! I collapsed the gear and laid the tongue on the ground because I had to move the truck and the tongue hit the pintle, etc, etc, etc. I finally got it hooked up and moved where I wanted to keep it for now. Then it was the same thing unhooking it – had to lay it on the ground and move the truck. I used my leg to hold the tongue while I locked the landing gear down. I jacked the tongue up so that water would run to the drain holes.
And that is the end of my adventure today! I asked my brother if he could take a picture of the truck in its new home for me since I forgot to. And, of course, I forgot to take one of the trailer hooked up to the pickup too – of well!
M35a2 Bobbing and Resto 