Builds Family haulin' (2 Viewers)

[boots4]

Q: why do the spring plates have to have sides to them? Is it to increase rigidity or strength? I have seen people just use 1/2 plate up there.

T: It may be good to leave that PS spring mount tacked until you get the full weight of the rig on the axle. It seems to me that with the axle sitting so far forward on the spring pack and the SR the pinion will point even higher with any kind of bounce or bump.
You have already touched on this in your last post, so it is clearly a concern of yours too. I looks to me like you may have burned in the DS perch with the pinion pointed a little too high if that angle will increase under bump. Could be camera angle....

It's funny because I didn't plan on doing this all at once--lift and swap and interior, but it just worked out that way and I know I'll be glad I did once I can drive it again.

A: 1/2" would be strong enough but I'm not running 1/2" so I sided them anyways to give it rigidity so I don't have to worry about the clamping force lessening due to the plate deforming. Plus, without a drill press 1/2 wouldn't be much fun to drill out. I might have to modify mine for the bump stops but I'll wait on that once it's on the ground to get axle travel.

R (response): The perchs are already burned in and while that doesn't mean they're permanent (more grinding), it does mean I'd try shims first. Pass side really wasn't much fun and I wouldn't be excited to do it again. In the pics the axle is not pulled up tight against the springs so the pinion angle looks worse than it is. The ubolts are bottomed on the thread first so the pinion will tilt down some once I get new ubolts to clamp all the way down. While I feel it will point higher with articulation, I don't know by how much and it may turn out to be minimal. If it really does become a problem I will redo the angle so that it's safe but for now I'm pressing forward.

 

[Pacer]

Thanks Boots

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

How did I miss this thread, its awesome! Nice work boots!!

 

[boots4]

weekly update

Thanks dieselcruiserhead. I read through your post on the first 4bt swap a couple of times while I was deciding my setup.

I had a few set-backs this weekend and small projects seemed to take longer than normal. I ended spending most of my saturday helping pull down that tree. We got it topped and half of it on the ground. Shouldn't be more than a couple hours to finish up next saturday and we'll be done. It was more of a service project than me needing the wood. It's a great family so I'm happy to help. Anyways my filters showed up and my used turbo showed up as well.

I decided to go with the bent ubolt option for fastening the front axle to the spring pack. I was able to bend it with a long pipe for leverage with the ubolt held firm in a vice. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be.

I left some material from the old perches to keep the ubolts from sliding down the housing. I plan to weld in some support underneath the diff side ubolt unless someone here has been running with a similar gap under the ubolt and hasn't had any problems. Chime in.

Still need to trim the top of that ubolt. I left thread so that I could add a leaf if I needed to. I put the weight of the rig on the front springs and the springs were getting close to flat so I think I will add in another leaf when I pull the axle to weld up the knuckles. The pinion angle did look a little steap. I could probably run it without much of a problem but since the details get to me I will probably get some shims and that will take care of it. You can see how I had to fill in the gap on the perch. Anyone think I should box in the spring perch? They are 1/4".

You can see the ubolt bend well in this pic.

Next I started on the battery trays. I plan to run dual batteries mostly so I can run my ready welder on the trail if need be. There are several ways to set them up and I'm still working on that with an engineer at work since I need them to be wired in parallel for 12v (system/accessories) and in series for 24v (for the welder). I have group 31s and they are big batteries. It took me a while to figure out how to get them in due to space constraints because of the intercooler.

Passenger side

Driver side

Without cutting it was impossible so out came the cutoff wheels. I got the battery to fit like this with difficulty. A shoe horn probably would have helped. As you can see clearance is non-existant on the intercooler as the battery was touching.

At this point I was questioning if it was worth it to run this big of a battery since the driver side had even less width space to deal with and I probably would have bought smaller batteries if I hadn't already had two 31s that are still new. Tetris skills only deal with right angles and I needed a different approach. I left the passenger side and looked at the driver side and finally realized that I could angle them to clear the intercooler and sink them some to get under the ports on the intercooler.

This is the cutout I needed to fit the batteries. I also had to "massage" the sheet metal of the fender well so that the batteries could fit under the intercooler ports. It took some beating but there is now enought depth for them.

Passenger side

Driver side cut-out. I will also need to add some brackets to regain the support that those pieces I cut out provided to the structure.

I made these battery trays that mount to the radiator support in the threaded holes that the original tray mounted to. I added a bolt to the spot that rested on the fender well and drilled a hole for that bolt so I can attach a washer and nut under the fender well. I tacked the bolts to the trays and ground the heads flat so the battery would rest on a flat surface.

Left is passenger, right is driver

 

[boots4]

Used turbo showed up. The description said it has some play in the wheels which I figured were bad bushings. Since I had my rebuild kit I figured I'll just transfer the parts over to the good main housing and put mine back together. I chose this turbo because the main housing looked to be in good condition on the outside.

So I pulled the main housing out of mine to get it ready.

Here we go again! I'm soaking it and tapping on it to separate the main and exhaust housings. This time I'm more gentle with my tapping.

I got it apart on the second day and the shaft slid right out. It took me 20 seconds to realize this housing was crap! The bearing surface in the main housing was scored and grooved and the oil seal surface was worn away. The oil seal came out as thin as a strand of copper wire. You can kind of see the scoring in the pic if you look hard.

Those grooved areas on the main shaft are bad.

All I wanted from this turbo was the main housing, none of this stuff mattered (just showing for "educational" purposes). This was the rear bushing with grooving, that surface would need to be smooth for me to be able to use the housing with new bearings.

At this point I'll probably cut my losses and hunt for another solution. Fortunately it wasn't expensive but more than I'd pay for a paper weight. I'll email the guy and show him the pics but I don't want to waste my time trying to get him to replace it. If he does great but I'm not going to let that stop my progress and I'll need that turbo together before the end of the month.

I moved on and did something simple. After removing some tabs on the dash hole were I plan to mount my aux. temp gauge I got the plastic piece and cut a hole to see if the gauge would fit in it. I was going to make some kind of small panel but this turned out great so I'm using it. The gauge is not in the easiest place to see but it is mostly ment to be a back up to the electric one on the instrument panel.

Again this gauge came with my stepvan. I tested it and it works so I figure I'd use it. This is the back side.

I played with AC compressor and alternator placement. I just rotated the altenator up on it's main bracket and I think I'll be able to get the AC mount underneath it. It will be a little tight and for right now I'll probably just make up a quick bracket to keep the compressor in place and worry about making it functional next spring.

Some rod I had from the stepvan demo. Bent it up and welded on some tabs. Just need to drill some holes and paint it.

Quick wood shelter I built from free used lumber last year. I split and stacked wood that I already had to get ready for bringing the tree rounds home next saturday. Those stacks are 7 feet tall and safe so they won't tip over. Makes me feel good to have that in there and to have a warm house to go into after my hands get numb from wrenching on the cruiser outside. I've also been storing some tires and parts in the shelter.

Started to drive the studs in my front hubs and put on my new discs. I talked to a new friend to come down this week and see his shop and use his press. I'll take the front hubs and the rear axles.

Looked in my scrap metal pile and found this to shape up for my additional fuel filter. Found a place in the engine bay so I knew what kind of bracket to make and made it.

From my readings filtering for diesel engines is good insurance for extending the life of the injection pump. I talked to a friend at work who deals with filtering of products and suggested to keep the micron ratings closer rather than farther apart so I am going with a 16 micron before the lift pump and using the factory 10 micron filter right before the injection pump. I bought additional filters and a mount and will need to plumb it all. I found this online and it has good prices, cheaper shipped than what it would cost buying from a retail NAPA. They are wix filters and are labeled the Napa Gold line.

http://www.fleetfilter.com

mounting base - 24770 (wix number)
fuel filter 16 micron - 33244 (wix number)

for the factory filter I went with a fleetguard because they are cummin OEM and found this place to be the cheapest: http://colemanequip.com/Parts.asp?page=&q=fs1251

The spot I found is on the driver side and I found some holes that were already threaded. This is looking in from the driver wheel well.

It will be close to the lift pump.

I can access this from under the rig and with the rig lifted it shouldn't be hard.

Well, after posting I guess I did get a few things done this weekend. Still plenty to do.

 

[redcorn]

Nice work and it seems we have another thing in common.......................WOOD HEAT.

I manage woodlot here in Indiana and am always felling trees, cutting rounds, splitting and stacking as well as burning the windfall and roasting hotdogs and marshmallows for my girls.

It is such simple yet rewarding work at the end of the day.

Keep up the great work!

I can't wait to see this on all four tires!

john

 

[boots4]

Thanks John. You are probably used to massive piles and here I am showing my little stuff. Certainly do like wood heat and it can still be used even if the power goes out.

 

[gifu]

How much are you buying the used housing(s) for?

after reading up on Turbos for 4BT swaps here http://www.4btswaps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50 I went looking for a used HY35/9cm from a later model Dodge. I think I spent $150 or so... Supposed to be a very efficient design... fast spool, etc. etc. Here it's placed on a 6BT manifold that's had the first and last port cut off.

yes, the first exhaust turn-down will be very very tight... but you might have more room. The 4BT into 80 series (with NV4500), makes for a very set-back motor placement.

Just a thought.

~B

 

[boots4]

The junk housing was only 40 bucks so it wasn't much, but shipping was close to 30. I thought about looking for a different turbo/upgrade but I've got a 12cm housing that I think will do well for what I want. For more power I'll play with the pump but not until I get it running and get a baseline, I don't think I'll install the 366 spring in the injection pump until after I get it running (partially due to time). That's definitely a good link to read.

 

[Captain23]

Hey mike I have the turbo from the 93 if you want it no duckets

 

[boots4]

Hey mike I have the turbo from the 93 if you want it no duckets

PM'd

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

cool. I was going to say the same thing about the HY35.. There are a bunch of options though. I think your 12cm2 housing on the '93 turbo should be identical to what I had last time if it has a 4" intake. Tons of power and worked great...

 

[Pacer]

Hey mike I have the turbo from the 93 if you want it no duckets

Thats SO GOOD!!!

Boots, thank you again for all the detail.
-Pacer

 

[boots4]

weekly update

First off I need to say a big THANK YOU to captain23 for his generosity and giving me that turbo. On top of that he delivered it to my house! That was super nice and I am greatful. I look forward to seeing your rig on the road.

Boy did we have some rain this weekend. I was hoping to get the rear on the ground but it didn't quite happen and I'll explain why but I did get the rear brakes set up.

In order to set up the rear disc brakes I put the axles in with the c-clips and all to get the right spacing. I also put the pads in the calipers and set them on the discs. This showed me the position I needed and then I could start cutting out a bracket. I cut these out, got some fine thread grade 8 bolts and nuts and tacked on the nuts.

The other important position is where to rotate the caliper around the disc. For bleeding purposes you need to have the bleeder screw at the top of the caliper so the air will escape in the bleeding process. That's what I did and once I found the spot I liked (also considered bolt clearance to get a rachet in there) I burned them in. Painted them up and this is how they turned out.

Welds turned out a little fugly towards the bottom due to operator positioning. I used 1/4 plate to make the brackets.

I took my hubs and studs in to get them pressed in and the owner said the studs were too fat to fit in the hole. The threads were right and the application was right. He said to take an old stud and a caliper to the store and measure them when buying new studs. I took the old one in but not my calipers. Once I got home I measured them and sure enough they were different. Old ones were .537" and the new ones were .554". I asked if it would be bad to drill out the holes in the hubs and axles and he said that would be alright if I got the holes true and that's not easy to due by hand. That's the route I ended up taking since I have 24 new studs that are all too fat. I figured that a 35/64 drill bit would work out but since I couldn't find that size I settled for 9/16. On the front hubs I was able to use a drill press and those turned out great with the splines on the studs grabbing like they should and the studs were able to be tapped in. I couldn't get the rear axles under the drill press so I had to do those by hand. They didn't turn out as well so following the shops advice I had asked about if I decided to drill them out I tacked the studs onto the rear of the disc brake after I tapped them in.

With that out of the way I grabbed the rear axle seals I bought from marlin and found they didn't fit. They were too small for the housing. I must have picked up some mini seals 7 months ago when I ordered my high-steer. I really wanted to get the rear on the ground this weekend so I called around the parts stores, finally found someone who actually had them and my wife offered to pick them up so I sent her off with the old seal to make sure they gave her ones to match. She came back successful and I put them in.

Part number in case anyone is interested.

I had to remember the anti-rattle spring orientation on the calipers that I took off 7 months ago. I looked in the FSM and finally figured it out and got the calipers mounted.

I jacked up the rear carefully and tried to mount my tires. I have caliper clearance issues that won't be solved by a little grinding. I tried the original rims and those would probably work with a little grinding for clearance. I had thought about adding wheel spacers later on but it looks like I will need them now to be able to fit the rims. I decided on 1.25" and bought some from evilbay.

I moved the rear jacks and put them under the axle. Now I have the stink bug posture on jacks.

I worked on the AC bracket. This was my first one and have since modified the AC mounting part. I didn't get a pic of the new one yet but at least you get an idea of how it's mounted. I have another bracket underneath to keep it in a fixed postion.

I also got the turbo together. I pretty much used that main body, turbine, compressor wheel and compressor housing that Captain23 gave me and put it in my exhaust housing. I did transfer over my rebuild kit. So the updated specs are:

12cm exhaust housing, 4" intake and 54mm inducer (not the overall diameter of the compressor wheel but the part that you visually see when looking at the intake with the housing on). This should be a great combo.

I probably will have clearance issues with the oil filter with the 4" intake, but will probably just get a kit to relocate the filter. I'd rather have it vertical anyways instead of horizontal like it currently is.

Learning from my mistake on the last housing on rotating the main body to line up the oil return line I did things differently. **First off if you mark it before you even take it apart the first time you probably won't run into this problem.** This time I sanded out any paint that was on the mounting surface in the exhaust housing and cleaned off the surface on the main body. I put it together and screwed in the bolts without tightening it and made sure it could spin. I put it on the engine and rotated it by HAND to the right spot and tighten one of the bolts to keep it in position. I took it off the engine and tighten all the exhaust to main housing bolts and put it back on the engine. Slid the rubber hose that connects the oil return line to the engine (orange hose in pic above) and tighten in on.

 

[boots4]

weekly update

Got a few little things done this round and I even kept from freezing most of the time. Once the hands got numb I came in for the night.

Lets start with the throttle linkage. This is the stepvan gas pedal next to the FJ60 pedal. The part where the cable comes through is different on the stepvan. The FJ60 has a top piece that was not being used for anything.

So I cut off the top piece on the stepvan pedal and welded it on the FJ60 pedal.

The pull travel on the pedal did not work with that setup so I cut it off and used the part of the FJ60 pedal (old linkage that goes through the boot in the firewall) that I cut off. Drilled the hole, slit the side for the cable to pass and welded that on a different spot.

I did all this because I'm using the throttle cable off of the stepvan. You can see where I cut a hole in the firewall to pass the cable. The firewall mount is square so I drilled a hole and then turned it into a square using my dremel tool.

This is where the cable came through on the firewall.

Hooked up the linkage on the injection pump. Now I have a gas pedal. The cable on the bottom is the old choke cable that I will hook up to the manual fuel shut off lever as an emergency shut-off incase the fuel solenoid fails. Since the diesel is a compression engine with no sparks you have to either shut off the air flow or the fuel flow to stop the combustion cycle.

Good news. I cycled the front suspenion with the intent to find the change in the pinion angle as it travels up and down. There was a difference of 1/2 a degree. This means my caster at the knuckles will only change that much, quite acceptable to me so I got to work on setting my caster with the turning part of the cut'n turn. I used my BFL to spin the knuckles and checked my angle several times going back and forth between the two to make sure they were even. I set them @ 3 degrees because I have 5 degree shims coming this week and that will total for 8 degrees of caster since I'm bringing the pinion down.

Got to get in a welding pic. I'm welding up the knuckles and I think I wearing 5 layers to keep warm.

I just put it in the vice and rotated it as I welded.

All filled in.

Had some solid stock laying around and so I started making some ring gear protection.

Bent it up in a vice and welded it together.

I bought one of those axle braces for a mini axle before I started the project and had to trim it to make it fit. I wanted it closed so no water would get in and rust from inside so I cut the end and pounded it to conform with the axle. I filled in the axle breather hole underneath the brace and will relocate it somewhere else.

Welded it up and smoothed it out with a flapper disk.

All I need to do now is weld on a few tabs for the brakes, the steering bump stops, and shock mounts. Oh yeah and the mount for the ram for hydro-assist. Pretty much stuff I can do under the rig.

I wire brush it, primed it, and then put some paint on it. On the spots I weld I can repaint, no big deal.

 

[boots4]

One more of the axle.

Got a tap for the shaft out of the hydroboost unit and cut in some threads. The shaft spins in the joint so I held it with vice grips and held those in the vice. The tap was 10mm x 1.25.

Spun on the clevis.

I put on the mounting plate and started mounting it on the firewall. Set it level and took it off to tighten the mounting plate nut.

I adjusted the clevis a couple of times and bolted it to the firewall. I also adjusted the brake switch pin for good contact. So now my pedals are hooked up.

I put the MC on (not bolted down yet) and started playing with the power steering hoses I have. I think I'll convert to AN fittings like MACE did with his 40 and I think his 60. Still doing the research.

Followed MACE's thread on tapping the steering box for hydro-assist.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=156624

Started pulling the box apart. Top is off.

Pulled out the sector shaft and then the worm drive. Drilled some holes.

Tapped the holes and tested the fittings. The holes needed to be tapped just a little further (1/4 NPT tap) so I cut them a little more and when I was on the Toyoda hole the tap broke in the hole. Any of my finessing didn't work. I tried backing it out different ways and had no success. I tried drilling out the center but my bit just danced on the surface. I just should have walked away but I was determined not to let this slow me down so out came the chisel and hammer. Yes I was the victor and broke that tap out of the hole but not without buggering up some of the threads. The next day I picked up another tap and chased the threads with success. I tested the depth of the fitting by turning the box with some vice grips as a handle on the input shaft and saw no problems. I recentered the box which was 2 1/4 turns for me. You can kind of see the end of the fitting and the sector shaft in the pic.

Put on some teflon tape and tighten in the fittings. Bolted it back together and set the adjustment to what I started with.

Cleaned it up and got the first coat of paint put on. Rust bullet gets thick when it's 32 degrees outside so now I'm storing it in the house and not the shed.

Routed the mechanical temp gauge tube and bolted it back on the engine.

Routed the pyrometer cable and the boost tube inside to where the guages will sit. I originally cut two little holes in the dash. I decided just to cut out the section inbetween them to make it easier. The guage pod will cover this anyways. The boost tube can be cut but the pyro wires cannot so those along with the mech temp gauge tube is coiled up under the dash.

Inserted the pyro probe.

Hooked up the boost tube to the wastegate accuator and put in the block heater.

Finalized AC bracket.

Tapped into the boost line that goes to the wastegate accuator and plumbed my t-fitting for the boost gauge. The fitting is plastic so I might go get a metal one so I feel better about it not cracking.

That's it so far. The wheel spacers should be in today. Shims should be in this week. I need to get another u-bolt because one got messed up when I took the front axle off to do my welding. So if I'm productive this coming weekend maybe I'll get it on the ground.

 

[Tapage]

Very impresive as always dude ..

 

[redcorn]

Damn impressive work.

I am sorting out my diesel swap as I type this......

Copying your mounts

stay warm and dry my friend

john

 

[gifu]

coming along nicely.

If you don't mind a suggestion... with that much tilt on the front pinion... I would add or move the oil-fill bolt on the front axle to an inch or so higher so you can get the oil level high enough to get sufficient oil to the pinion bearings. My friend's SOA Pig had about that much tilt... and after a 3 hour trip in four wheel drive (snow on the highway)... his front pinion seized from lack of enough oil.

hope that helps.

 

[boots4]

Thanks for the tip, I do have a decent incline on my driveway that I was planning on using to fill it. The tilt will come down some once I get the shims on but that may be a future mod. I've seen the screw on caps that look bulky but that I actually like.