Bought an old dump truck

back woods

back woods

Well-known member
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
1010
Messages
411
Loc
Michigan
A good friend of mine owns a big excavating business and had this old top kick sitting in the weeds. The deal was too good to pass up so I bought it for basically scrap price. It has been sitting for a while but ran when parked, with issues. It was suspected to have been dusted and needs an inframe. Upon further inspection I am not sure that is the case for a few reasons. The biggest reason it was parked was the transmission mount bolts fell out and the motor moved.


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They swapped out the CAT diesel for an ppumped 8.3. Reason to believe it is dusted is the dipstick won’t stay in and pushes oil out of the tube as well as low power. Upon inspection I found the o-ring in the dipstick was gone causing fitment and seal issues with the dipstick tube. Looking further I found the ccv slobber tube was dry. No residual oil around the end of it. Got me thinking maybe it isn’t dusted. Looked some more and the throttle linkage has a lot of slop only giving it around 3/4 throttle max

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Trying to get it running where it sits to drive it 5 miles to my place. Not sure what I want to do with it yet but I plan on fixing a lot of things to get it back on its feet. It also came with a donor cab that is in good shape.
 
The old L8000 log truck my buddy ran had an 8.3L. It pulled 80k+ lb loads for many years.

It twin screw or tag?
 
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Wow! Thats a score for sure. I wish I had friends that gave me deals like that. I always buy old iron only to end up rebuilding it front to rear before I’m done.😜
 
Starter is giving me some hassle. Took it off and it spins well. On the truck I can’t get it to spin. There is red hot cable and a smaller black cable. They were zip tied to each other and I could have sworn they both went to the starter. Red cable had around 10.5v hooked to a good battery, maybe dirty connections. Starter doesn’t click and the hot wire doesn’t jump much spark. Going to add another battery and clean up the connections a bit. Everything is covered in a thick layer of oil and dirt.


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Where does that smaller black cable come from?

It is not uncommon to hook the alternator to the starter connections.

If it is a ground, definitely hook it back up somewhere.

You are sure the motor is free?
 
Tiha said:
Where does that smaller black cable come from?

It is not uncommon to hook the alternator to the starter connections.

If it is a ground, definitely hook it back up somewhere.

You are sure the motor is free?
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The motor was free when it was parked 2 years ago. The first time I put power to the starter it clicked lightly. The flywheel teeth are a funky so maybe the gear of the starter went into it funny and wedged. This happened on my D4 once and caused all kinds of head scratching until I bared the motor over a couple degrees and freed the starter gear. Guess I will start with 2 fresh batteries and cleaned connections. Bar the motor over a little bit and trace the black wire. It goes into a filthy loom that looks like it goes towards the firewall but not 100% sure.
 
back woods said:
Starter is giving me some hassle. Took it off and it spins well. On the truck I can’t get it to spin. There is red hot cable and a smaller black cable. They were zip tied to each other and I could have sworn they both went to the starter. Red cable had around 10.5v hooked to a good battery, maybe dirty connections. Starter doesn’t click and the hot wire doesn’t jump much spark. Going to add another battery and clean up the connections a bit. Everything is covered in a thick layer of oil and dirt.


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I never understood how people run stuff with it dripping oil for years and don't take care of it. At least stuff some absorbs so it doesn't drip all over the place!
Had to in my forklift. Repacked the main lift 2 years ago and it's already leaking, needs a new rod at around $1000

It's only been a couple things I've owned that didn't need alot of steam cleaning to get it even acceptable.
 
AKnate said:
I never understood how people run stuff with it dripping oil for years and don't take care of it. At least stuff some absorbs so it doesn't drip all over the place!
Had to in my forklift. Repacked the main lift 2 years ago and it's already leaking, needs a new rod at around $1000

It's only been a couple things I've owned that didn't need alot of steam cleaning to get it even acceptable.
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I used to think that way. Oil leaks drove me nuts but after buying a truck with a leaky 460 rear main and valve covers, sure it was a quart every 1,000 miles and yes it was a mess to work on.

But dang that body was in excellent shape. No rot anywhere. Bolts came out like they were new. Totally changed my opinion to, if it ain't dripping on the ground who cares.
 
Spent some time messing with it today. Thought I saw all the radiator leaks from the fan hitting it until I started to fill it. Top of the radiator had a couple plates that were torn through. There may be a radiator in the parts cab but haven’t looked. Caked the hole with an entire tube of JB weld, let it set and covered it with ultra black rtv. Put some shop rags over it and put pressure on the area with a big wad of towels. We’ll see if it works, I’ve have pretty good luck in the past. If it doesn’t work I will probably pump a tube of liquid nails into the front side of the radiator to isolate the spot and top seal with rtv.

Pulled the intercooler boots and they didn’t have gritty oil in them, good sign. Turbo looks pretty good too, compressor wheel isn’t sanded down.

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AKnate said:
I never understood how people run stuff with it dripping oil for years and don't take care of it. At least stuff some absorbs so it doesn't drip all over the place!
Had to in my forklift. Repacked the main lift 2 years ago and it's already leaking, needs a new rod at around $1000

It's only been a couple things I've owned that didn't need alot of steam cleaning to get it even acceptable.
Click to expand...

A leaky front cover on an 8.3/9/ISC/ISL is about 40 hours of labor to fix. It can leak a LOT of oil before I recoup that cost.
 
Here is why I got the truck, kind of. Working on building a house and managing 20 acres, same reason I got a D4. Going to dig a pond, move some of the dirt banks, haul fire wood, bring in top soil, etc.

Stumped around 600 stumps and hundreds of yards of slash to get things where they are now. Dug a 500yd hole chasing roots for my foundation, getting it filled and packed soon along with a 2000 gallon septic system.

 
Snowy said:
A leaky front cover on an 8.3/9/ISC/ISL is about 40 hours of labor to fix. It can leak a LOT of oil before I recoup that cost.
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I don't remember have that much time into it on an 8.3L, but yes, definitely have packed absorbs on stuff that wasn't worth fixing, or parts not available, or already fixed and it's still leaking.
 
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AKnate said:
I don't remember have that much time into it on an 8.3L, but yes, definitely have packed absorbs on stuff that wasn't worth fixing, or parts not available, or already fixed and it's still leaking.
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Planning on giving it a full front to back degreasing as soon as I get it home. Most of my clothes are ruined from old greasy junk. Found the radiator in the parts cab, no good. End tanks are busted up. Hoping my jb/rtv job can hold. If the leak is reduced to a trickle I’ll throw some radiator stop leak in it and hope for the best.
 
Valley Rock said:
That thing will outlast everyone on this board .

A team of archaeologist will dig it up one day wondering how anyone could have made something so huge and heavy and speculating that we must have used logs and slaves to move it .
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Aliens
 
Think I got the radiator sealed up. What a dinky radiator for a big truck. Two plates were cut in half from the fan. Two mix tubes of JB and 1.5 tubes of ultra black rtv. On the front side I took a screwdriver and dug out all the fins then packed it with rtv.


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Air box has seen better days. Think I might just fix the cracks and toss a new filter in it. Found that shoe goo and drywall tape do a pretty good job and fixing cracked plastic.

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Both steer tires look great, completely flat tread wear.

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Passenger rear has a new spring pack.

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Does anyone know if Chevy truck cab components from this era will fit? Need to replace a door glass.

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Rears, not sure what they are spec’d to, I believe the front is 12k though. Looks like a couple newer cans.

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back woods said:
Does anyone know if Chevy truck cab components from this era will fit? Need to replace a door glass.
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Levigarrett76 said:
I bet M92PV4U would know on the cab stuff
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I think that they are the same, but have no personal experience in swapping them. The exterior door handles are interchangeable if you change the rods going to the latch & lock cylinder.
 
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