Posted by David Sherman on Monday, October 24, 2005 at 3:17PM :
In Reply to: Re: Duece & 1/2 had Autos (60s') posted by COTM Mike Stone (Idaho, USA) on Monday, October 24, 2005 at 12:55PM :
I have a GMC M211 deuce and a half brush truck I bought from the F.D. and although the rest of the truck is pristine, the transmission is shot. Checking around, the Hydramatic trannies in the M211s and M135s were notoriously fragile. Maybe they were good IF the driver knew how to baby them and IF the trucks weren't hauling their rated loads up and down mountains, but those aren't IFs that anybody should have to think about during a war, which is undoubtedly why the M35 series with a manual tranny was made for almost 30 years, whereas the GMC deuces were only made for a few years. You don't need to be an engineer to figure that putting an automobile (Cadillac) tranny in a 24,000 GVW truck is asking for trouble. Sometimes "new and improved" isn't really an improvement. I have yet to pull the Hydramatic and attempt to rebuild it, but what I've learned so far from the TM and some phone calls is that it will be neither easy nor cheap. There's something like 500 parts in that box, lots of special tools required, and an amazingly complicated test procedure for all the parts. Even just the simplest "overhaul", replacing the bands, is a lot more work than replacing a clutch. It's the only automatic I own, and I'm sure it's the only one I'll ever own.
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