Military Vehicle Repair: M1010 conversion to P/U, truck alternators, leece neville

Question
Hi Van
I just purchased a 1010 ambulance that has low miles and runs great. I would like to remove the body and convert to a pickup but the electrical appears to be somewhat overwhelming. Before I start is there any advice that might be helpful. I would like to eliminate the electrical connections to the rear body. This truck also has been killing the front battery. The truck only has one alternator, did these trucks come equipped with one alternator? From some of the information that I have been reviewing it seems to me there should be two.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Mike

Answer
Hi Mike,
I have some of them in my fleet at work.
I have removed the beds from two, and installed pickup beds.\
Find that big wire harness near the rear edge of the cab, and cut it, one wire at a time.
If I remember correctly, the brake and tail light wires are not in that harness, but are on the frame like a normal truck.

Alternators....on the orriginal military version, there were two large Leece-Neville alternators, both on the right front corner of the engine.
If you bought that from an individual, he may have converted it to 12 volt, or who knows what.

The rear battery is there in the orriginal truck only to help supply the 24 volts for the starter. The starter was the only 24 volt circuit.
The remainder of the truck operates on 12 volt, like any normal Chevy, and uses just the front battery.

First thing you need to do is see if it still has the 24 volt starter. Tag on the starter.

Now, those ambulances had some relays up in the dash, that if kept energized, will kill the front battery.
One is the volt meter relay, but it is operated by the ignition switch, so more than likely it goes off.
Another is the starter relay. It is operated by the ignition switch in start position, and is the way they controlled the 24 volt starter with a 12 volt truck. It also, is de-energized when the switch isn't in crank.

But, there are at least two more relays that are easy to have on.
There are two toggle switches under the headlight switch.
One runs blackout lights....make sure it is off, even if the blackout lights are disconnected. It uses a relay. With the truck off, and everything quiet, flip that toggle switch on and off, and you can probably hear a faint click over near the center of the dash. That is the relay clicking.
The service light toggle may be connected to a relay also, so just keep it off unless you are driving, or get in there and wire around the relay.

Then, about where the radio would be, is a panel with some rocker switches.
GPFU will for sure operate a relay. (Gas Particulate Filter Unit). Keep it off, or remove the relay.
The other two are side spot lights on the bed. Relays for them are back under the left side bench, I believe. There are several more relays back there, but you will eliminate them when you remove the bed.

But that just removes parasitic drain of that front battery.
You still need to find out if there is something charging it.
Use a volt meter across that front battery, and see if it measures about 14+ volts when the engine is running.

The following site could come in very useful to you.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/index.php?module=pagesetter&tid=1&page=5

Another is memphisequipment.com

Van