1989 Cushman Meter Maid Parts Available

CharleyL

I brought home a 1989 heavily weathered Cushman Meter Maid model Truckster today. I want the motor, the windshield, and maybe some drive train parts, but most of the rest is headed for the crusher in about a month, unless somebody wants some parts from it. If I don't need it I'll make some very good deals on the rest. I'll add pictures,etc. to this post as I can. Send me a PM if you need something and I'll try to help you at a very reasonable price. Just trying to help out fellow truckster owners. I'm not a business and I don't have the room to keep this truckster around for very long.

Charley

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Wickline

I am looking for door window glass and one set of the window channels for my 87 Truckster. do you have anything like that?

Dave

CharleyL

Dave,

Welcome to BGW. It's great to see another Cushman owner here. We number about a dozen now. Trucksters aren't really golf carts, but they let us in anyway. Please take a moment to fill out your user profile. Go to "User CP" in the second dark blue line at the top of this page just below the image of the golf cart and tell us a bit about yourself and your truckster. If you own any other golf carts or small vehicles we would love to know about them too. For your location; your city and state will do. One of us might be near you and can provide personal help if you ever need it. We love pictures and after I think 6 posts we would like to see you post pictures of your truckster. To see mine, do a search for "Cushman Truckster saved from the forest. I haven't done much to it since then.

Sorry, I can't help with door glass. My parts truckster came without doors.

I have priced a new double pane safety glass windshield for my 87 truckster, the one that I'm keeping, and they quoted me $100 for the glass plus installation. The side door windows ought to be a bit cheaper than the windshield and you should be able to easily do it yourself. Go to a glass shop. Don't go to an auto glass shop. It's a flat window so they can do it cheaper than the auto glass places. As far as tracks, they may be able to help you with that too. I could use some new ones if you find a source. If you need a pattern to cut the glass to the correct size I can take one of my doors apart and trace the size of the glass for you, but it may be easier to just take the door to them. Do you have the window latch hardware? It will likely be difficult to find originals.

Charley

Wickline

Charley, Thanks for the ideas. I do have one door that still has the fixed piece of glass in it, but all of the sliding pieces are missing and the lower track on the right side door is missing. The latches are also incomplete I only have the portion that is mounted to the door not the piece that goes on the glass. Do you have a picture of the glass side of the latch that could be helpful in my hunt? I have a local glass shop that I do business with at work and they have made some specialty windows for me in the past for a boat I restored, I will talk to them when I get closer to working on the glass.

I purchased my 87 Truckster in December and am just now getting around to working on it. It was mostly operational when I purchased it but not in the greatest condition, it needs some TLC. I put a new master cylinder in last week and but didn't have a helper to help me bleed the breaks so I waited till the next day. By the time I went to do it, one of the wheel cylinders had failed. I think it is time for a break overhaul. I am in the process of locating a tool to remove the rear drums since I cant seam to get them off. I have read there is a sleeve or nut you thread over the end of the axle to protect the threads then just hit it with a hammer. Do you have any input on this method?

I will get my profile up to date ASAP I just found this forum this morning.

Dave

CharleyL

Dave,

WOW, you sure aren't just around the corner from me. I live on the other end of the US, just North of Charlotte, NC.

I don't have a picture of the window latches, but will take one and post it for you. Give me a couple of days on this. My 87 has original glass all around, but the windshield is cracked on the lower left corner. The 89 has a good windshield, but it is fogging up along the bottom from water enter into the lamination. It's better than the one in my 87, but not much better, so I may eventually just buy a new windshield from the glass company.

I've heard that Dennis Carpenter Ford Reproductions has the tool that you need to get the rear brake drums off. I'll be going there, hopefully this afternoon, and find out more on this. If it's true, I'll be picking one up for myself and will post the details so you can order one. Dennis Carpenter is about 12 miles from my home. I had an awful time getting my rear brake drums off, but succeeded without the tool. It wasn't fun and I've vowed to own the right tool for the job before I have to do it again.

I bought my master cylinder from the local forklift repair shop for $41. The same master cylinder is used in some models of forklifts. They had it in stock. They also had the brake shoes in stock for $10 each. The wheel cylinder rebuilding kits came from O Riley Auto Parts. They are for early 70's Ford F-100 pick-up trucks, but are identical to the Cushman and work perfectly, however the complete wheel cylinders for the F-100 trucks are slightly different than the Cushmans and won't work. There is an automotive machine shop a few miles from me and they honed the wheel cylinders for me for $3 each. I also had to replace some of my brake lines. My son has a double flaring tool, so we made up the steel lines that were needed. The flexible line that runs from the chassis to the front suspension (My truckster is a 4 wheeler) is the same as a 1968 Dodge van, so I got that at O Riley Auto Parts too.

The DOT 3 brake fluid that's used in these trucksters is alcohol based. The vented master cylinder allows air and humidity to enter the brake system and the moisture from the air combines with the alcohol. When a sufficient amount of moisture has mixed into the brake fluid, the internals of the brake system begin to rust. I was looking for a sealed master cylinder to prevent this, but gave up finding one that would fit and just replaced it with the original design and I vowed to replace my brake fluid every two years to keep the rusting to a minimum.

My Truckster was far from operational when I bought it. Everything needed something. I've solved nearly all of the problems now except one major problem. A previous owner had cross threaded the spark plugs and ruined the threads in the cylinders. My son and I repaired them using a special tap and inserts, but one of these repairs failed back in November 2013. I bought another motor to re-build for it, but that one must have had water in the cylinders at one time and the cylinder walls were heavily pitted and un-useable. Last week I purchased the 1989 Meter Maid truckster, mainly to get good cylinders from it to fix my 1987 Truckster. This past weekend my son and I pulled the engine and transmission out of it, removed the right cylinder, honed it, and installed it on the engine in my 87 Truckster. We have the left one to do yet, probably next weekend.

If you get into doing engine rework I've learned a lot about these OMC engines, mostly that I don't like them. They are very hard to work on and they aren't nearly powerful enough for the Truckster. I may eventually re-power my 87 Truckster with something bigger in horsepower and easier to work on that parts are still available for. It's getting very hard to find OMC 22 hp parts at any price, especially the cylinders. I'm not sure what this will be yet, but it has to fit under the seat where the existing OMC engine is presently located. All of the other re-power projects that get significantly more horsepower into a Truckster that I've seen on Youtube all have the engines mounted outside of the existing engine compartment and I don't want to do this.

One good thing that I have learned about the cylinders is that they are both the same casting and the valves are both the same size. They just install the valves in different positions depending on if the cylinder is for the right or left side of the engine. It's otherwise identical.

Charley

CharleyL

OK,

I just got back from Dennis Carpenter Cushman and they have 3 sizes of the tool needed for pulling the brake drums and engine flywheels., but I didn't have the axle size with me so the guy at the counter didn't know which to sell me. I did take the one that fits the fits the OMC 22 hp engine crankshaft to pop the flywheels off, but this can be done with a 3 bolt wheel puller since these flywheels have bolt holes for such a puller in them. The flywheel tool is part #112015 and it doesn't fit the rear axles like has been incorrectly stated on the internet, so I'll have to measure my axles and go back to see if one of the other two sizes will fit my Truckster rear axles. Carpenter's catalog doesn't list the sizes of each. It just says that they are for the flathead engine flywheels of which there are 2 size engines for the scooters.

I had been getting ready to order a bunch of gaskets for the oil strainer cover and for the intake and exhaust manifolds from somewhere, probably Directparts.com, but Dennis Carpenter had them in stock so I bought 4 of each. I also bought 2 of the gaskets that seal the cylinders to the crank case.

I also found out that they sell new OMC 22 hp cylinders with the valves for $300 each and they have a complete short block OMC 22 hp engine brand new for $1500 (Direct Parts has one for $1000). These prices are too steep for me, so I'll continue to try to re-build the old ones that I have until I can't anymore.. I have one of my cylinders with spark plug hole damage at a cylinder head re-building shop to see if they can weld up the spark plug hole and then re-cut it. I will try to find out if they were successful tomorrow, If they can be fixed, I have several more to give them.

Charley

Wickline

Thanks Charley,

More good info.

I ordered one of the drum removal tools from Directparts.com yesterday morning before you posted this. the guy did advise me to leave the Cushman sitting on the ground when knocking the drums loose because the weight of the vehicle will assist. he said if you don't they are much more difficult to remove.

Its great to know that some of these parts will cross with forklift parts. I will check my area to see where my local supplier is located. this will be mush quicker than waiting for the mail every step of the way.

Dave

CharleyL

Dave,

Don't forget to check your local auto parts store too. If you can find a counter person who has been in the business many years, just looking at the part that you bring in can usually get you what you want. Steering ball joints, electric fuel pump, tail light lenses, gas tank cap, starter solenoid relay, fuel line, air filters, gas filters, etc. are all available from the auto parts store. All these parts are available for the automotive market. The only problem is that they don't have a cross reference to Cushman. The counter person has to recognize the part and then remember where he has seen it on his shelves.

The forklift repair shops fix all kinds of industrial vehicles, not just forklifts, so they stock much more than just forklift parts, but again, there isn't much cross reference information to Cushman. My Keihin carburetor parts came from the forklift shop, but they had to order them for me and it took almost a month for all of them to arrive.

Glass and sheet metal parts of these trucksters aren't readily available automotive parts, so these are what my original post intended to make available to other truckster owners. I mostly wanted the engine parts when I bought this truckster and have little need for the rest of it. Selling off a few parts will help me recover some of what I paid for it. I'm limited on space, so I won't be keeping the truckster very long. It will be going to the crusher in a couple of months or less.

I took some window latch photos for you yesterday with my cell phone camera, but then discovered a problem downloading the pictures from my new cell phone to my computer that I can't seem to resolve. I'll re-take the photos with my digital camera today because I know that I can get those photos into the computer.

Charley

CharleyL

Dave,

Here are 3 pictures of the drivers side window latch on my 1987 Truckster. I wish that the 89 truckster had doors and windows so I could sell the latches and windows to you. Maybe the photos will help you fabricate some window latches for your Truckster. They are just a simple hook catch and lever knob, but the window half of the latch is mounted to the window glass with two bolts through holes in the window from the inside.

The last two photos are of the 1989 Meter Maid Truckster that I'm parting out. My son and I pulled the motor and transmission out of it this past weekend for parts to fix the motor in my 1987 Truckster. Most of the rest of the 89 Truckster is available if any one needs anything. Most of the motor and tranny parts will be available too and my prices will be very reasonable. I need this Truckster gone soon, and want to help others who need parts for their Trucksters. I'm not trying to make a profit on it, just help other truckster owners.

Charley

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junkandcattle

try xtremedist.com in Gresham Oregon I thought they were very helpful. Also located items for me that they did not stock