M37 Restoration (53-41242)

[Wayne Hingley]

Rob, here is another one that will demonstrate how young you are...
The truck has one wheel with these clips (see photos) on the split ring. Again, not something I have experienced, but I understand they were to somehow help with ease of install and/or removal....???

[rob love]

Nope...those are bead clips. They prevented the tire from spinning on the rim (whilst simultaneously tearing out the valve stem from the inner tube) when driving the tire with low pressure for extra flotation. They basically kept the beads pulled against the outsides of the rim, simlar to what a beadlock ring would do.

Good old TM9-8000 (principles of automotive vehicles) covers it here: https://books.google.ca/books?id=OP0...0clips&f=false

TM9-8000 is the manual I initially read to become a army mechanic. A hearty tome, it will keep you up for many nights reading it.

The clips are not common to find. They could be saved if you did the tire repair by hand, but the big coats HIT5000 tire machines destroyed them.

[Jes Andersen]

It looks pretty complete under the hood. Strange routing for the multi fuel filter run, unless its coming from an electric fuel pump hidden under the dash or drivers side somewhere. I can see that something is cut off the fuel pump, either a vacuum connection or the original fuel connection to the carb. If I am correct, the air cleaner is a fording type but may just be a regular one after the dirt is cleaned off. Those clips are bead clips and not too common any more. When I redid a bunch of my wheels, the tire guy tossed those he found and we never bothered to find anything to replace them with. Wiring on anything this old will be toast and a replacement along with a cutoff switch, if it doesn't already have one is worth the effort and could save the truck or worse. These trucks had Douglas connectors originally but after many mods over their lives, its hard to know sometimes. Did you find the serial number? Not that there are records but it may help you know where in the range that this one lives. If you have access to any reasonable rust free parts trucks, they would be worth thinking about getting, especially if you have a place to store them or the take offs. As the guy I got my last two from told me, the parts won't get easier to find in 10 yrs...
Looks like you have a great project lined up. I just noticed the 'coolant recirculator' off the water pump elbow. That must be one of those rare bits we are all looking for...