MV Technical References

On this page you will find links to materials which are found on Olive-Drab and not elsewhere on the web. This page will be expanded as additional things become available. If you have written up a project or have scanned in a manual or otherwise have created something unique, please let me know so we can add it to this resource.

Training in maintenance and emergency repair of halftrack, Ft. Benning, GA, April 1942
Training in maintenance and emergency repair of halftrack, Ft. Benning, GA, April 1942.

Today in WW II: 6 Jul 1939 All remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.  More ↓
6 Jul 1942 Anne Frank's Jewish family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
6 Jul 1942 Flying Tigers in Burma and China integrated into the US Army Air Forces as the China Air Task Force with Gen. Claire Chennault commanding the new unit.
6 Jul 1943 US and Japanese naval forces fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara, in the New Georgia Islands group of the Solomon Islands.
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.

Download Military Vehicle Reference Publications

Clutch Specs from PS Magazine

Thanks to the efforts of Olive-Drab.com contributors, some US military publications are available for download here. These documents originate from on-line military sources referenced elsewhere on Olive-Drab, but are included here because they are especially interesting topics for military vehicles. Documents in PDF format (with extension .pdf) require the Acrobat reader (available for free download from Adobe). Some of these files are quite large so be selective.

M-Series Wiring Documentation

Several documents are available on Olive-Drab.com to explain the electrical wiring of the popular American M-Series vehicles:

Other Reference Materials

In addition to the information available from this page, there is a full Olive-Drab.com section with information on Military Vehicle Camouflage and a very detailed page describing Olive Drab Paint for Military Vehicles.

Using 12 volt bulbs and other equipment in 24 volt systems is described on this page.

In this document, Harris Neil describes How to mount a heater unit from an M-151 jeep into an M-37 3/4 ton truck.

Here, Harris Neil describes how to install turn signals into an M-37 3/4 ton truck.

Mike Sommer provided this write up on converting the headlights in his M-37 to 12 volts. The description will work, with few or no modifications, on most American M-series military vehicles.

Darryl Bauman has written up how to replace a leaking pinion seal, a common problem on MVs.

Courtesy of Richard Notton, here is a diagram of a 24V cooking vessel provided to British troops to prepare food, tea etc. in vehicles on the road.

Richard Notton has written up this information about British lubricants, their US equivalents, and a lot of generally useful wisdom.