My first 40: Building up Barney the purple '77 (1 Viewer)

[bottombracket]

Part 2

Not to break the ssuspense, guys, but the conversion is over with at this point. I just stopped there because I couldn't type more while at work.

The next morning Dad calls me at 8:30- the Pitman arm slid right off with just a couple of light blows. He ground out the rivets and the frame was shiny underneath. Good.

A little Rustoleum later and he had Georg's bracket in and the pump mocked up. The pedestal fit like a glove. We reused the heat shield and brackets from the manual box- with a little bending the originals mounted right up. I haven't seen a lot of others mount the heat shield, so here are a few pics.

Close enough for me.

Next was the pump mount, which required a little more work.

 

[bottombracket]

Part 3: mounting the Saginaw pump.

I had more trouble here than others have described. We had to grind the top edge of the pump mount to clear the exhaust manifold. Second, the outside of the engine mounts are not perfectly flat. After re-reading Romer's thread I saw that you could mount the bracket INside the motor mount. We chose not to, and instead put them outboard like every other picture I saw on MUD. One, this kept the motor mount bolts from being placed into shear and two, the mild steel pump mount would accommodate to the contours with proper application of bolt torque.

Next problem was that the pump mount was off just a few degrees in 2 axes. We had to grind out the center slot to get fore and aft adjustment. I haven't seen anyone else have to do his. It could also be that my dad is a compulsive retired engineer. The pump required longer mounting bolts and eventually, a stack of washers, but it is laser straight now.

We dropped in a new rag joint and bolted up the lines, and then only had to install the cooler on the firewall. We cut the low pressure line to fit and cross zip tied it to keep the lines from wandering and that was it.

All that was left was to fill and bleed the system. I jacked the front wheels up and gave it several turns lock to lock, and then- following the FSM- lowered the wheels to the ground and went lock to lock 3 more times to load the pump. I know it has been debated in the past, and I was surprised to see the FSM loading up the pump like that.

All that was left was to drive it. I'm happy to say that steering effort is greatly reduced. It's not one finger like a modern car, nor should it be. It has improved the drivability immensely.

 

[bottombracket]

The current project before my folks leave is a rear bench seat. I was able to score a new in the box Bestop trail max II for $150- the mounting brackets were scratched up, and I certainly didn't mind that. In just 3 days a huge box showed up on the porch...with gigantic gaps in the tape.

Uh oh. The seat was unharmed but the strike plate was missing, and one of the brackets was missing the plastic mounting bushing. I emailed the online retailer and they quickly shipped out a replacement- including two new brackets.

We are currently mocking the bench up for placement. I think I am going to drill 4 mounting holes in the rear floor pan to mount the front brackets and 3 through the rear center rib to make it all line up. Suggestions for mounting both the bench seat as well as 3 point seat belts are welcomed.

 

[davegonz]

Bottombracket, what are the details (p/n, model/make) of that PS cooler? I like it.

 

[bottombracket]

Dave,

I threw away the box already. It came from Georg; I bought all of the conversion parts from him.

Galen

 

[davegonz]

Thanks. I found some online. Looks like a single pass unit.

 

[tls3601]

That bench seat is great I put one in mine too!

 

[bottombracket]

TLS, what did you do for rear seat belts? I need at least 3 point belts as I want to put my kids (current ages 4 and 6) back there.

The 2 year old has to wait until she's bigger.

 

[bottombracket]

Aaaand fast forward over a year.

Today I started installing an OME lift kit.

Here's the day in order:

1. Drive to auto parts store in FJ62. Stop at McDonald's because steak and egg bagels are good. Eat. When I come out the 62 is dead in the parking lot. I don't have jumper cables because I'm lazy.
2. Call AAA because I'm too embarrasssed to phone a friend and tell them I didn't have jumper cables.
3. AAA arrives. Truck starts instantly. (Neutral safety switch maybe?)
4. Drive home. Switch cars. Buy grease gun at Harbor Freight and grease at Pep Boys.
5. Home again. Jack up the 40, starting in left rear corner. Fire up air compressor and try to get shackle bolts off. Cannot get u bolts off, despite having Kroiled them for weeks in preparation.
6. Back to Harbor Freight. Purchase 25" breaker bar, deep metric 1/2" sockets. Home Depot: torch. And a Coke.
7. Back to work. The u bolts are no match for the breaker bar. My impact wrench sucks.
8. Cannot get old spring off of shackle. Rubber bushings are so stuck that the shackle won't even rotate in the hanger.
9. Apply torch. Burn bushing until it scares me. Drill out remains with 5/16" and finally get the spring off and shackle pieces out.
10. Look closely at new shackle. Shackle pin is bent. Realize I don't have bushings for shackle hanger. Crap.
11. Attempt to put fixed end of spring in place. It's tight. Enough grease and grunting and I can slide the greasable pin across. I reuse the old bolts and promptly break one off.

I'll be calling @cruiseroutfit today for more parts. And @davework for the bolt kit I haven't purchased yet.

 

[bottombracket]

First side of the suspension took 3 1/2 weeks, with all the stuff I broke, Harbor Freight runs, and suspension pieces (thanks @cruiseroutfit for excellent service, as usual).

Second side took 1 hour 40 minutes. Truck is drivable now (though it has a 2" rake back to front, kind of like a dragster).

Roundup is in one week, and I'll be out of town from Tuesday through Friday night. Should I chance fate and go for the fronts?

I have a set of 33x10.5 MT's I want to mount on the stock steel wheels, but I won't have time now to get them blasted, primered, and painted gray, especially as I'm out of town much of this week. I'm thinking I'll just keep the same wheel/tire setup for this week, as much as I want to play a little bit on the trails.

Thoughts, MUD?

 

[bottombracket]

Nate, guarding the garage.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

Seems like there are a lot of us scrambling to get our trucks ready for roundup.

 

[TheHardWay]

Nate, guarding the garage, or saying, "Not ready - don't do it!"

 

[bottombracket]

Holy crap. It’s been a year, MUD.

So I made it to Roundup 2017 for one day, long enough to pose with the Austin crew for the group shot. I didn’t put the front springs on, and I kept the crappy 30” Hankooks on the truck. Barney soldiered the 2 hours out to Mason without difficulty.

I rode along on some trails with @tucker74 and @aljollano who predicted that I would drive the easy roads this time and be wheeling next year.

It was a great time meeting many of my ‘Internet Cruiser friends’ in real life- @beno, @orangefj45, @mcguirejohnson and more.

Now let’s fast forward a year to 2018...

 

[bottombracket]

Along the way, I bought a set of powder coated 60 wheels (yes, I know that they aren’t correct for a ‘77, but my truck is f$&king purple so I can do what I want).

They arrived via an epic MUDship as @greenbeast was flying his small plane down to Fredericksburg, 90 miles west. I took the 62 out to meet him and we struck up a friendship.

I found a set of 33” KM2s on MUD and had them mounted up. They rubbed in the front as the front springs still weren’t on.

Then life got in the way and the truck sat all winter, hopped up like a dragster in the rear.

 

[bottombracket]

2018.

Roundup plans commence.

No fronts on Barney and it’s suddenly 3 weeks to go.

Enter the MUD pit crew.

@Sea Knight, @tucker74, @davegonz, and @aljollano came over today and with only one trip to @Sea Knight’s house for his (chrome plated) big boy jack stands, the front half of the OME lift was on in 3 hours.

It was a proper wrenching session as 1) the BFH was used, 2) we burned the 40 year old bushings out with a torch 3) quality beer was consumed (Community Mosaic). Sadly, few action shots were taken. Here’s all we have.

Thanks guys, I owe you. Roundup, here comes Barney, sitting level for the first time in a year. Or more.

 

[Rigger]

This purple ‘40 is cool! Great thread!

 

[bottombracket]

We also muscled @beno ’s old 60 into the garage so I can begin working on it in earnest. A build thread of its own will follow.

 

[OGBeno]

ahhh... the memories! Looking good Galen!

 

[bottombracket]

Got the truck inspected today after 3 hours chasing electrical bugs. I have some Narva LED taillights that I was going to swap in, but I’ll need to cut and splice into the tail light connector.

Looks like a Previous Owner has already been in here.

Narva’s will have to wait until after Roundup, as I want to get some tail light protectors so I don’t crush the shiny new LEDs with my amateur wheeling skills.

MUD, should I go SOR, MAR, 4+?

Thoughts? I know the SOR ones will fit around the Narvas.


Once I got it inspected I drove it at highway speeds...stable, no death wobble...the lift and 33’s feel great. I even passed another car.