Egan's M101A3 Build

Egan70

Observer
Picked up a circa 1997 M101A3 in great shape today. Many plans which will be documented in this thread as time goes by...

 

Phoenix

Adventurer
Congrats. It is a great trailer, plenty of options on here, and looking forward to your creativity.
 

Egan70

Observer
Matching 8 bolt GM lug pattern is nice too!

Except the offsets are way off. I almost bought the same wheels and tires for my H2 last year, but they would have required a 2" spacer to correct the offset and clear the brakes/suspension. Not sure what my much lower offset spare will look like on the trailer, but I'll test it out.
 

Egan70

Observer
I had some time today while football was on in the background to get started. Swapped the taillight bulbs out (#97 and #1156) and yanked all of the wiring harness sections (plan to resell and wire the lights direct to a new 7-pin connector). Also pulled one hub apart to inspect (will repack the bearings next weekend). I checked the surge reservoir and was surprised to find it clean and intact.

Next up will be the hubs and stripping some of the loose paint and rust areas for primer. I still haven't decided what color to paint the trailer down the road.

 

Egan70

Observer
Are you trying to make most of us jealous with the lift photo!?

If that were the case, I'd have included a pic of the car that's up there. ;)

Garage is full with my wife's car and my '45 GPW on one side and the trailer on the other.
 

Egan70

Observer
Finally closed out a couple of lingering projects.

#1: Rewiring the trailer lights. I yanked out the entire harness and used a new junction box with a whip. This gives me the ability to add options such as charging and auxiliary lighting down the road.

Here's the box mounted. This was a chore. I first drilled the holes and then realized sheet metal screws weren't going to cut it do to the thickness of the frame. Next I tapped the holes - you can see how well that worked by what's left of the 1/4-20 tap to the left of the box. I eventually drilled new holes and riveted in thread inserts.



I ran all new wire down the length of the trailer and split the taillights, following the original path.



I sourced out the correct waterproof connectors to make for a clean connection.



And everything worked the first time:

 
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Egan70

Observer
The other project was the hubs. I yanked both sides apart, cleaned out the old grease, re-lubed them, and added new seals. The brakes are dragging a bit on the right side - not sure if that's just the parking brake sticking or an issue. I may have to pull the drum off and recheck. It's definitely not the bearings.

 

RagnarD

Adventurer
You really tore them apart. Was it hard to get the drum off. There are brake adjustment wheels you can access through a rubber grommet on the backing plates.
 

Egan70

Observer
You really tore them apart. Was it hard to get the drum off. There are brake adjustment wheels you can access through a rubber grommet on the backing plates.

It's quite the press fit between the hub and the drum. Once the two bolts were out that holds them together, I had to bang the hub face pretty hard on garage floor (rubber between the hub and the concrete). Getting them back together was fun too - I had to use three lugnuts to draw the hub into the drum while keeping the two bolt holes lined up just right.

Thanks for the tip on the rubber grommet.
 

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