Family haulin'

[brokenparts]

hehehehe...its one of my favorite threads to open up. I always get excited when I see the "new" next to the thread title.

[97grntaco]

Originally Posted by brokenparts

its one of my favorite threads to open up. I always get excited when I see the "new" next to the thread title.

^^I have to agree.^^ As usual, great work. Always love to see the progress.

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by 97grntaco

^^I have to agree.^^ As usual, great work. Always love to see the progress.

X3 get enought time to carefully read each step ..

[Mace]

Watch that rear shock mount. The stock tubing is fairly thin. The added leverage might be enough to rip it to shreads..

[boots4]

Thanks for the warning, I'll keep an eye on it.

[brokenparts]

what did you figure out on those springs?

[boots4]

I haven't focused on them yet (we're talking about the front packs for those who are curious) but my thinking is to find another set of ranger packs (should be cheap) for some more options. Right now I'm thinking of going ranger main, ranger second, shortened ranger third, stepvan leaf with retainers 4th, shorter stepvan leaf 5th, and possibly one more at the bottom from the stepvan for 6th or perhaps an overload leaf from the ranger pack. I want to keep it about the same height and same thickness as the current pack and take some stress off that main leaf. That's my initial plan but that's the beauty of leafs they're tunable, just takes a little wrenchin'. Maybe I can recruit your help when I get there.

[brokenparts]

yep yep... I'll get those spring holders from my neighbor.

I'm adding some aals to my front this weekend. The springs are now inverted. Hopefully the aals will just get the springs back to where they should be... Depending on how much they add I may break out my cutoff wheel... again.

I think big blue get scared every time I turn on my compressor now.

[CRZA1]

I added stepvan leafs to my packs on my cummins conversion. It made the front shackle angle much better. I added two leaves to the front. In the rear it helped the the tired main leaves. Not sure how it rides since I am still working on putting the whole thing back together. I added one leaf to the back. This was on dearched OME 2.5" lift springs. The stepvan springs are a little narrower, maybe a 1/4".

[boots4]

Yeah the stepvan leaves are good to play with. For me they have a little more arch than the ranger main leaf that I'm using up front plus the way I have them stacked is putting more stress on the main leaf and causing it to bow off the rest of the pack. It's functional now but once I start wheeling it I can see how it will fatigue my main leaf. I'll get some pics this weekend to show what I'm talking about. Now that I have it on the ground I have a better idea of what to try next so that the pack flexes together. Droop is fine, it's the compression that will be a problem so when I originally hung them from the frame all looked well. It was once I got the weight on it that I could see some more tuning was necessary.

[SAR_Squid79]

This is one of my all-time favorite build-ups. I always make sure to check this one regularly.

...Isn't it kind of frustrating that you've done ALL THIS WORK, but still haven't really started modifying for Off-Road, yet? You seem to be like me in that everything I do to my truck is tightly budgeted. Once you get this diesel, and transmission completely wrapped up, what other trail related mods are you planning?

[boots4]

Thanks. Yeah it sure feels like getting it on the road is just the beginning. I worked on a '71 fiat (I was young and foolish) that ended up taking me 9 years before I got it on the road so compared to that, this project has gone fast! For offroad prep and projects:

• rear quarters to cut
• rear bumper to finish
• front bumper to build
• sliders
• front drive shaft built or build one myself
• get the 38s mounted
• shifter linkage to finish
• wrap bar for the rear axle
• roll cage of some kind some day
• rear locker

And of course tuning what needs tuning to get things dialed in. While I don't need all those things to start testing it off road a couple of them will be necessary. I doubt a rear link setup is in the 5 yr future since I plan to do some towing with this and want the load capacity of the leaf springs, but who knows about the front. I want to test out the leafs and see what they are capable of.

[muddogbob]

Originally Posted by boots4

Thanks. Yeah it sure feels like getting it on the road is just the beginning. I worked on a '71 fiat (I was young and foolish) that ended up taking me 9 years before I got it on the road so compared to that, this project has gone fast! For offroad prep and projects:

• rear quarters to cut
• rear bumper to finish
• front bumper to build
• sliders
• front drive shaft built or build one myself
• get the 38s mounted
• shifter linkage to finish
• wrap bar for the rear axle
• roll cage of some kind some day
• rear locker

And of course tuning what needs tuning to get things dialed in. While I don't need all those things to start testing it off road a couple of them will be necessary. I doubt a rear link setup is in the 5 yr future since I plan to do some towing with this and want the load capacity of the leaf springs, but who knows about the front. I want to test out the leafs and see what they are capable of.

I'll build you a roll cage if you swap a 4bt in mine!

[boots4]

I revised the shifter linkage and used thicker material all around.



I used 3/8" pins shorten with a redrilled hole for the retainer clip so that they cleared each other when the shifters passed by each other. High/Low on the 203 and tcase have been hooked up. I has to play around with these to get them to clear each other but I finally got it worked out. Since I don't have a front driveshaft yet I didn't bother making linkage for 2/4wd. This is a view from underneath.





With those in I wanted to see what it was like with the access panel bolted down, the shifter boot on, and the tranny shifter bolted down. I'm going to make a new plate for the shifter boot because it is not wide enough to cover the hole in the access panel. Knowing that I just threw some metal screws on the existing plate to see what it looks like. I sure like having the tranny shifter bolted down. It makes rowing the gears much easier At idle with the panel bolted down it hits the side so I'll need to clearance that a little more. When I first felt it hitting it freaked me out thinking the drivetrain had ripped off a mount or something until I realized that it was just the shifter tapping on the opening that isn't wide enough. Bolting it all down did make it quiter in the cab and idle is now pretty comfortable. I'll still use up the rest of my dexdamp on the firewall and doors and expect it to get quiter still. I still have a droning but thats coming from my muffler and I'll be trying something else out for that.



Here is a pic of what brokenparts and I were talking about a couple posts up. You can see how the main leaf is bowed off the rest of the pack. The main reason for this is that the following leaves are too close in length making the pack stiff (EDIT: mostly it's the 2nd and 3rd leaf being so close in length that I think they are basically acting as one really thick leaf). I'll need to change the length of those to get the pack to compress better.



I continued wrenching and got a few wires rerouted in the engine bay to clean it up. I also had a friend come over and we looked into the slipping 1st and 2nd gear issues I'm having. We tried a few things and came to the modulator installed in the tranny. There is a pin that can be shortened that will affect the line pressure. We shortened it, slapped it back together and took it for a spin. It was much better and definitely more enjoyable to drive even though I'm still using my hand vacuum pump to get vacuum to the modulator. With that taken care of we figured out which pin was + on the ford PS vacuum pump that I mounted last week and how to hook up that GM regulator. I'm hoping by this weekend I'll be able to fab up a mount and get that hooked up, run some vacuum line, tune it and be done with the tranny until the next fluid change. I've been thinking about how to get this operating right for a while now and it'll be nice to focus on something else.

I haven't done anymore sound deadening but had someone with a dB meter swing by to check it out. At idle I'm now around 88dBs and @ 15-2000rpm I'm around 94dBs. So I'm really close to the permissible allowance and might just try out a different testing station and might be able to squeek through. I haven't changed the muffler but will be ordering some of these this week to try out: Spiral Turbo Specialties: Spiral Turbo Baffles Overview I emailed the owner and want to see what they can do for my little turbo diesel. I'll run these without a muffler and see what the sound is like.

I had a lowbeam burn out on me so instead of spending money on another one I'll work on upgrading to some roundeyes or ipfs. They just about come in at the same price once shipped and hooked up.

[Tapage]

I'm still thinking in your spring pack .. can you offer few flex pics . ?

I have closed lengh in my spring pack and it flex well .. ( not very well as I want .. but nice .. I need longer main leaf )

[boots4]

If you are running the toyota leaves in tencha those are thinner than the leaves I am running and with thinner leaves you can get away with the leaf lengths being closer together. Since mine are thicker I need to vary the length on them more to get them to bend or run a shorter main leaf (pointless since I did the work to run long ones). I have not done any flexing yet since I'm still focused on it passing the DEQ testing so I don't have any pics yet. I'll probably rework the packs before I do any serious flexing and will take pics. I'm concerned that flexing out those main leaves is going to shorten their lives quickly. That will probably be the next focus because I'll need to flex the front axle to see what kind of movement I'll need to plan for the front driveshaft.

Tapage could you post a pic of your front pack please? I've been looking at a bunch of different packs of all kinds for further ideas and it would be nice to see yours. They don't need to be flexed I'm just interested in how they are stacked.

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by boots4

Tapage could you post a pic of your front pack please? I've been looking at a bunch of different packs of all kinds for further ideas and it would be nice to see yours. They don't need to be flexed I'm just interested in how they are stacked.

Ya sure .. I just found the perfect one ..



My oldies OME packs with a AAL from MAF ( I remove the second one and swap for the AAL )

[boots4]

Thanks, that helps confirm an idea I've been having. I want to pick up another ranger pack and use that main leaf by cutting off it's eyes and stacking it under my current main and then space the pack from there. That should give me some extra support on my current main leaf especially since I'm running a heavier engine. Those are my current thoughts at least.

I do have good news, I passed DEQ's testing and now have tags!! I tried out another testing station and ended up going today at lunch when it was busy. Perhaps the busyness helped but they didn't even do a noise check. Luckily I had an acquaintence with a dB meter and he tested it for me and with the sound deadening I've done so far and I came in at 88dB @ idle and 94dB at 15-2000rpm. So it's definitely improved from my 101dB three weeks ago. I'll persue more deadening but it is not my priority now so it'll get shuffled in. I'd like to see what it looks like with 38s on.

[brokenparts]

Originally Posted by boots4

I'd like to see what it looks like with 38s on.

Me too.

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by boots4

Thanks, that helps confirm an idea I've been having. I want to pick up another ranger pack and use that main leaf by cutting off it's eyes and stacking it under my current main and then space the pack from there. That should give me some extra support on my current main leaf especially since I'm running a heavier engine. Those are my current thoughts at least.

Sound good your plan .. I do the AAL route coz my OME are old and tired, after the SO and few trails locked and chained they start looking tired .. and allowing more axle wrap in the front diff ..

[1974FJ]

Awesome, so your driving it full time? or are you still working on the transmission? And why (like tampage's leaf pack) would you have all leafs connected with the leaf pack strap(dont know the correct term for that)? I would have thought that if your looking for flex and looking for vehical support, you would run those extra leafs but not tie them all together with the strap, just tie a couple together. What do you think?

[boots4]

Yup, I've been DDing it to work for three weeks now on my trip permit but now it's got tags. I should be able to get the tranny wrapped up this weekend with hooking up that regulator and powering the vacuum pump. I've got my plans now so all I need is some time to get it done.

If you notice my pack I have those straps but don't have the bolt that would run through the top it to keep the top leaf from separating from the pack and don't plan to run that bolt with a reconfigured pack either. If tagage opened up those straps on his he would see a little more flex from his pack. I like having those straps there because they act as a guide to keep the leafs lined up. A reason that someone would not want to open those straps up is if there is a leaf on top of the main leaf and it seems some toyota aftermarket packs are that way.

[Tapage]

In my experience with Tencha .. if you open those straps, yes you archive more flex in the spring pack, but also at the time that your leaves loose alignment, you will expecting more axle wrap .. due to more flexie spring pack ..

More if you are locked ..

[Tapage]

Not bad at all ..