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Posted by David Sherman on Thursday, September 16, 2004 at 10:33PM :

In Reply to: Deep Water Fording Questions posted by Paul(in NY) on Thursday, September 16, 2004 at 9:44PM :

You are basically trying to invent what the engineers already invented for most of the M-series military vehicles. In addition to the intake and exhaust snorkels, they replace the gearbox breathers and master cylinder breathers with tube fittings and connect them with small tubing run to the intake manifold. The distributor is a special sealed military model that includes the coil inside the sealed unit. Military (shielded) spark plug wires are used, which are more waterproof then the slip-on rubber civilian ones. It should go without saying that your axle and gearbox seals had better be in better shape than they usually are on old trucks. Military batteries have special vent caps to keep external water out even when submerged. I don't think they do anything special to seal the carb throttle shaft. An engine can suck a fine mist of water and keep running just fine, so this is the least of your issues. Don't forget to replace the road draft tube with a PCV system.

The military operator's manuals have instructions for fording which usually include keeping the RPMs up so the engine doesn't stall, and looking out for deep holes in the river. They don't say anything about removing the fan belt, but advise keeping the RPMs reasonably low and being prepared for the additional load on the engine when it starts "blowing" water. Cracking of the manifold should be avoidable by having the engine reasonably cool (let it idle a while) before plunging in. After fording, the manuals usually say to re-pack all the wheel bearings and change the oil in the gearboxes if any water got in. Is it really worth all that?

The old military DC generators were sealed waterproof units. The new alternators are open, but all the electronics are in a sealed compartment and they are supposedly submersible. I expect a civilian alternator would work underwater more or less for a little while at least, but bare wires such as commutator rings and brushes with electricity on them will corrode mighty fast if submerged in water that's at all conductive.

As an interesting aside, I'd always thought that the Rockwell axles had flanges on both sides of the "pumpkin" just to standardize the design since the middle axle uses both ends, but I was just told by somebody who sounded like he knew what he was talking about, that the army had special super-long drivelines that they could hook M35s together with so that a "train" of trucks could ford together and if any of them stalled, the others would keep them going. Sounds wild, and I don't know if it was ever used in the field, but I'd love to know more about it.



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