Builds Dick's '84 Saudi 45

[DickM]

A lot of scraping, blasting , wire wheeling, sanding, wiping down, priming and painting on most all of the engine bay parts that got removed. The engine block got more of the "magic mixture" removed on the passenger side and the power steering pump and mount were tidied up.
The bib got cleaned on the inside, the screen and headlight buckets all got painted. Fuel lines and charcoal canister lines were all replaced, and the fuel line insulators were cleaned.

 

[DickM]

The factory gasket between the back plate and the water pump was dried out and broken into several pieces, so I robbed one out of the leftover box and installed it with some Right Stuff using 4 bolts to make up for the 4 mounting bolts that were not there to apply pressure, as there are only 3 countersink screws on it. The next day the pump was installed with another freebie gasket from the leftover box.

 

[DickM]

Prior to paint I did remember to repair the front splash guard that had a good size crack in it.

 

[DickM]

Out of town for 10 days, and the elves disappointed me again and did nothing while I was gone, everything was just as I had left it. Oh well....
Time to start reinstalling parts! The new OEM oil cooler was installed on the freshly painted oil filter bracket with CityRacer washers and o-rings and installed on the block with another parts stash gasket.

 

[DickM]

Continuing reinstall, I worked from front to back with all new hoses, new fan, radiator support bracket and frame braces, new radiator, shroud and all the rest of the parts that had been removed.
The bib was which was previously disassembled, cleaned, screen and headlight buckets painted, and all reassembled was installed.

 

[DickM]

Final product. Almost a completely new OEM cooling system.

 

[DickM]

I have been using an IR gun to monitor temps as the factory temp gauge does not work, along with the oil pressure gauge and the amp gauge.
I am not a fan of the stock gauges ever since I cooked a head gasket on a freshly rebuilt 2FE in the 60 with normal temps showing on the factory gauge.
When the 40 2F was rebuilt, I installed a Dakota Digital VHX cluster, and have been very happy with it. For my taste, it is a great tradeoff for having a slightly more modern non-stock appearance and having accurate, reliable engine information and the other features, some of which I actually use on the 40.
The next project on this build will be a Dakota Digital VHX install.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

@DickM great work here! We met on Owl Creek Pass at SAS 2! My boys still remember you! Hope all is well!! Sub’d.

 

[DickM]

I remember you guys as well, CD. Liam and Keaton set the fashion bar pretty high there by styling in their cowboy boots and shorts. I peek in here at the Elf Barn periodically.
Thanks for the kind words, hope you guys are doing great as well.

 

[DickM]

Been working on the wiring for the Dakota Digital. In my setup, the control box goes in the glove box with 2 groups of wires that feed it. One group from the cab that picks up ground, fuel sender, right and left turn signals, high beam, and instrument panel lighting from the old connector behind the gauge cluster, and the DD's CAT5 display connector and S/S2 switch mounted in the dash. A second group group out of the engine bay that is 3 new sensors (oil pressure, water temp, and speedo), constant and switched power, ground, and tach wire.

The instructions are very clear and straight forward with good detailed info and illustrations, so even though there are about 15 wires (depending on some selected options), the install is pretty straight forward.

 

[DickM]

I did however manage to severely complicate the install. When I initially routed the speedo wire. it came up shorter than I wanted at the control box. No problem, reroute by drilling a small hole in the backing plate and adding a zip tie lower down. Except in a brain, dead senior moment I managed to screw up the layout and catch the edge of the folded seam on the fuel tank with the drill, just enough to go partially through the first layer and start seeing fuel leaking. This is in the top 5 of my all time screw-ups, and believe me, after 50 years of being in the construction business, that is saying something.

 

[DickM]

So, drain the fuel, drop the rear driveshaft, remove center section of the tailpipe by disconnecting 2- 3 bolt flanges, disconnect fuel sender wire through access panel behind the seat, remove fill and return hoses from fuel pump, remove 3 fuel vapor hoses, remove 2 screws in fuel fill flange to allow it to pull up to remove lower fuel fill hose and fill vent hose. Remove the 2 support straps for the tank, remove the protector plate and finally wrestle the tank out.

 

[DickM]

The silver lining, I guess, was that, as usual, everything got to be cleaned, de-rusted, painted and generally taken care of.

I did all of the grinding outside under the awning of the 60 as I had just taken a day to do a long overdue shop cleanup and floor degrease.

Without the tank in the way, I could get to all of the frame holes and thoroughly complete the frame interior cleanout and apply a good coat of fluid film. All of this helped marginally with my feelings of utter stupidity.

 

[DickM]

After considerable time researching fuel tank leak repair on the internet, which as usual yielded a ton of misinformation and a bit of real info, I decided that the only sure way to repair was to weld the tank, no JBWeld or SealAll for me.

As far as welding info, the internet ranged from never welding on a used tank, to setting the tank in the sun for a week or so and welding away, to filling with water and welding, to using exhaust from a running vehicle to purge the tank and then welding, to putting dry ice in the water and welding after the vapor had formed.

We followed what seemed to be the most reasonable advice, which was to drain the tank, blow clean air through it for a period of time (which I accomplished by putting a cold hair dryer in the fill hose with the drain plug removed, purge the tank by filling it with non flammable (inert) gas and welding.

My friend Wayne, who does a lot of welding, had a large bottle of 75/25 argon/CO2 welding shielding gas, so we used it for the purge gas. The fuel tank was set upside down with the drain on top and all of the other hoses on the fuel tank were plugged. The regulator hose was inserted an taped securely into the fill hose which was on the bottom now. We taped the drain hose partially closed to create pressure, and let the purge gas run for 15 minutes or so, occasionally completely closing the drain to force gas out of the hole to be welded.

Feeling pretty good about what we had going, I told my wife to watch from a safe distance on the house porch(with her cell phone in her hand), and Wayne welded the tank up with no problem. We turned the gas pressure up after letting everything cool off, plugged the drain hole completely, and sprayed soapy water on the repair to look for bubbles. One more pass was needed for a pin hole, and we were done.

That was a good feeling.

Not the prettiest, but no burn through on the thin gauge tank wall when welded and passed the pressure tested. I think it is a thing of beauty.

 

[DickM]

The Dakota digital install is complete except for the programing set-up. The only hiccup was the issue of the turn signals only blinking once and then the indicator arrow just staying lit. The hazard flasher worked all signal lights and the indicator arrows just fine.

After studying the wiring diagram and some poking around with the meter, and finding nothing out of order, I decided to check MUD for info.

Turns out to be a common problem well documented here. Turn signal trouble shoot - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/turn-signal-trouble-shoot.990955/#post-11016214
I worked through the list and all is good now.

Added military battery terminal connectors with insulators, a firewall grommet and and some loom to clean up the engine bay.

Control box is installed with Velcro in the glove box.

 

[DickM]

My success with the turn signals didn't last very long. I still had intermittent problems with a few blinks and then a solid indicator with no flash at the signals after a period of good function. This random occurrence made me believe that the 41 year old flasher unit (81980-30040) was probably the culprit, so I ordered the available replacement substitute (91980-12H04) and installed it. So far, so good except the turn signal flash period is faster than the more normal period of the hazard. We will see how this does over the coming weeks.

 

[Meshal]

Thank you for sharing this part number.

 

[DickM]

While doing the Dakota Digital install, one of the sensors that is replaced with a proprietary DD one is the water temp.
Since I was there working on the block to get the right bushings installed for the new sensor, I wanted to get a supply point installed for the future heater.

@ToyotaMatt set me up with a beautiful 2 piece solution. A 90 degree union hose bib fitting (90404-60010) with heater shut off valve (87240-10010) that allowed me to get the block work done now and had the ability to shut down supply to the aftermarket heater that I don't trust 100%.

The toughest part was getting the square head plug out of the block as I had no sockets that fit it, and there was no room to get a wrench on it with any force. After trying every combination of tools in the shop, and not having any success, we went shopping at the local auto parts stores. O'Reilly had a Powerbuilt 7 pc universal socket set #642054 that claimed to fit everything, including square drive.

And one socket did fit. So with a 1/2" drive breaker bar and a 24" cheater pipe with one guy steadying the extension and smacking the top of the breaker with a hammer while the young strong guy reefed on the pipe ( and I provided supervision) the plug finally broke loose. I relocated the sensor to the back hole and installed the plumbing parts after removing the valve cover to get clearance to spin the union into the block.

 

[DickM]

With the physical install of the Dakota Digital complete, it was time for programming/calibration set up. Again very straight forward, with just the speedo and fuel sender calibration requiring more than pushing buttons in the correct sequence to select proper inputs.

Since I only had added a couple of gallons in the tank after my tank welding fiasco, I decided to burn some fuel calibrating the speedo so there would be less fuel to drain to get the tank empty for fuel sender calibration. To calibrate the speedo ,you set up the electronics, push the SW1 switch , drive a mile (measured by GPS on a phone) and push the SW1 switch again at the end of the mile. Driving around for a bit, we found a good stretch of deserted road near the house, and started the programming.

All was good until we reached the end of the GPS mile, and I pushed the SW1 switch to end the programming. It was as if I had shut the ignition off. The motor quit and the display went dark. I cycled the ignition switch, tried to pop the clutch to get it running again. Nothing, it was dead.

So I coasted off the main road onto the curb of the side street and tried the starter, nothing but a click. Walked home, brought the 60 back, tried to jump start, no change. So put a strap on the 45 and my wife, who grew up in rural Colorado and luckily is used to old trucks with clutches, towed us back to the shop.

After a couple of days of random results from trying to diagnose the problem, it turn out that the problem (which at first seemed to be electrical) was a result of unrelated issues that occurred simultaneously.

1. Pushing the SW1 switch at the end of the calibration had nothing to do with any of the issues.
2. The display going dark was the result of dirty contacts in the fuse block resulting in the switched power to the DD being 8 volts. This was discovered when I pulled the dash, unplugged the stock clock(which had quit working ) (along with the headlights) and the display lit up. The volt meter confirmed inconsistent voltages on several circuits.
3. The starter that was on the list to be replaced soon was weak, but the new one that was much stronger would not turn the motor over more than an inch or so per bump. Trying to turn the motor over by putting the truck in gear and pushing would not spin it either. We could not spin it with a socket and cheater bar on the crankshaft pulley nut.
4. The motor was locked up because of a spun rear main crank bearing. We had dropped the oil pan and checked all of the rod and crank bearings individually, and of course, since we went front to back, the answer was the last place we looked.

Old worn out bore brush worked well for cleaning up the fuse holders.

Looking for trouble

Lower bearing half, that took about a 1/2 hour to "unweld" from the top half with a small, sharp chisel and a file

Crank damage.

 

[DickM]

Next phase started. Only motor mounts connected, motor ready to hook to the picker.