Cool driveline!
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Well, Ill probably run it around in stock tune. Dont really need a lot of power and Im used to the 3B (although it ran like brand new) and although it got me around, a little more wouldnt be that bad. So, if Im using the hydro motor mounts, itll help a good deal?
Also, how much lift did you need to clear the motor? I know that the 80s need like 4" but could I get away with the OME/ MAF 4" SR heavy kit or is SOA a must? If SUA will get the job done, thats what I would love to do since I kind of want to keep this relatively low. I think that that will get me around all the East Coast trails and quarterly trips to CO just fine. What do you think?
Im the same way. Im not a fan of beating on stuff as that stuff has to get me back home. I have a set of 30 spline longs and a True Tac sitting in the garage so the fronts will get upgraded and I will put the Poly shafts in the rear. Tire size is undecided but Im leaning for 35s or smaller. Ideally, I wouldnt mind something like 255/85 or 34x10.50.
- Thread starter
- #1,743
The liquid fill mounts will help. For further research you might look at how placement has an affect on it i.e.; above or below the crank line. Make sure the tranny mount also has give in it or it could transfer what you hoped to reduce with those motor mounts.
As for lift, the real answer depends on how creative you can get. I would say you'd want some kind of lift and if you really want to stay SUA then I'm sure there is a way to do that. Probably a combination of shifting the motor to the driver side a little more, some fabrication on the oil pan, and maybe even moving the front axle forward some will allow you to do what you want. You'll definitely want a rear sump oil pan on the 4bt.
- Thread starter
- #1,744
Update
So the first pair of ruffstuff brackets spaced the pad off the rotor by a 1/4". The second set did the same thing. I am using all the components I'm suppose to but could they have sent me another bum set of bracket? I decided to just fix it myself and remove some material off the brackets to make them work. Why I didn't use the other brackets as a spacing templet in the first place is a
moment but the holes were just a little tighter than the holes on the calipers. With floating calipers that's a problem as the caliper slides over the bolt heads but luckily I was able to remove a wheel, cut off one side and use the first brackets to line it up.
I pulled this off after a 12hr shift in the dark because CTW11 was that weekend. Welded, painted, and tested came out 90% successful. I still get a once in a while drag so I may be clearancing the bolts just a tad. Then again maybe all I need is lubrication in the right spots. It was fine until I hit the dust on the trails. Brake feel is different now too. It's better, pedal feel is good, and it stops better even though I'll need a proportioning valve for the rear. In hard braking the rears will lock up first. As a reminder I'm running hydroboost with a chevy astro van MC (1 1/8" I believe). Overall this is a brake upgrade from what I had and my last configuration worked.
Staffed at CTW11' and ran the route to our check point and wheeled the route back to camp. For most of it I was in 2wd Low and even with the open rear the tires did well for me.
Dirtgypsy and I ran a check point with some questions and a game. I parked here to filter them our way.
We both brought kids and this hill was the perfect baby sitter. The kids climbed up and down this thing almost the whole time we were there.
I got back to camp and saw my steering box was pretty juicy. It ended up being the lock nut for the adjustment screw on the top of the box. I've never heard of that coming loose but after tightening it back down my leak stopped. Besides that no other issues.
When I was at the junkyard getting replacement parts due to the fire I also picked up some rear shoulder belts off of a 2000's isuzu trooper. They were in really nice shape and do that child safety click on recoil when you pull them all the way out. I got both shoulder belts along with the center for $20! It must have been a sale day at the yard and I didn't know it.
Stuck a pin in my pillar to test for threads and happily found a threaded capture nut. Then I cut a hole in the liner.
So I did all my measurements and decisions on placement and cut out a hole for the mechanism.
More mods for fitment and fastening.
Bolted them in and they work great. The mechanisms are bolted on top and on bottom. I cut out a section on my cover panel and will make a cover to hide the mechanism. With my kids getting bigger and their car seat's changing to booster seats I've been wanting shoulder belts in the rear for some time. All the bolts I pulled from the trooper threaded right into the holes in the cruiser. They are a pretty standard import seat belt bolt size.
So the first pair of ruffstuff brackets spaced the pad off the rotor by a 1/4". The second set did the same thing. I am using all the components I'm suppose to but could they have sent me another bum set of bracket? I decided to just fix it myself and remove some material off the brackets to make them work. Why I didn't use the other brackets as a spacing templet in the first place is a
moment but the holes were just a little tighter than the holes on the calipers. With floating calipers that's a problem as the caliper slides over the bolt heads but luckily I was able to remove a wheel, cut off one side and use the first brackets to line it up.
I pulled this off after a 12hr shift in the dark because CTW11 was that weekend. Welded, painted, and tested came out 90% successful. I still get a once in a while drag so I may be clearancing the bolts just a tad. Then again maybe all I need is lubrication in the right spots. It was fine until I hit the dust on the trails. Brake feel is different now too. It's better, pedal feel is good, and it stops better even though I'll need a proportioning valve for the rear. In hard braking the rears will lock up first. As a reminder I'm running hydroboost with a chevy astro van MC (1 1/8" I believe). Overall this is a brake upgrade from what I had and my last configuration worked.
Staffed at CTW11' and ran the route to our check point and wheeled the route back to camp. For most of it I was in 2wd Low and even with the open rear the tires did well for me.
Dirtgypsy and I ran a check point with some questions and a game. I parked here to filter them our way.
We both brought kids and this hill was the perfect baby sitter. The kids climbed up and down this thing almost the whole time we were there.
I got back to camp and saw my steering box was pretty juicy. It ended up being the lock nut for the adjustment screw on the top of the box. I've never heard of that coming loose but after tightening it back down my leak stopped. Besides that no other issues.
When I was at the junkyard getting replacement parts due to the fire I also picked up some rear shoulder belts off of a 2000's isuzu trooper. They were in really nice shape and do that child safety click on recoil when you pull them all the way out. I got both shoulder belts along with the center for $20! It must have been a sale day at the yard and I didn't know it.
Stuck a pin in my pillar to test for threads and happily found a threaded capture nut. Then I cut a hole in the liner.
So I did all my measurements and decisions on placement and cut out a hole for the mechanism.
More mods for fitment and fastening.
Bolted them in and they work great. The mechanisms are bolted on top and on bottom. I cut out a section on my cover panel and will make a cover to hide the mechanism. With my kids getting bigger and their car seat's changing to booster seats I've been wanting shoulder belts in the rear for some time. All the bolts I pulled from the trooper threaded right into the holes in the cruiser. They are a pretty standard import seat belt bolt size.
Last edited:
Nice find @ the yard. Safety first! That rear looks pretty sexy btw!
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Teaser:
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That is some nice flex you have there, are you running modified spring packs in the rear? Or did you swap in some chevy springs?
Tapage
Club 4X4 Panamá
Mod everything ..
I wish I had that flex Mike .. really impresive .. and also it's the nice place to play ! letm see Zach playing too
- Thread starter
- #1,749
Update
I started to get a few drips from the filler neck on my fuel tank. I had previously sealed the holes where the neck and emission hoses goes through with duct tape. This was one of those little projects I was going to come back to at a later time. Now was a good time. I cut some block-off plates out of aluminum, drilled some holes and sealed it up. I also re-routed the overflow/by-pass tube a different way.
I had to wipe things down and drill some holes.
This opening already had bolt holes so I just held the plate up and had an assistant scribe from the inside where I needed to drill holes. Notched it for the by-pass tube, spread on some sealant and bolted it down.
Made a cardboard template and then cut this out. Test fit and adjusted as necessary. I had to drill holes in the quarter panel but I did the same thing to know where to drill them on the block-off plate.
Put sealant of the back side.
Bolted it up and oozed sealant all around. The top little piece is held on with sealant only.
This is the stuff I used. It's just what I had around.
While I had the filler next out I welded up the holes that I had made previously. There were spot welds that held the nozzle restrictor inside the neck. Diesel nozzles are bigger so that piece had to go at the beginning. I never really sealed it well so I took care of that now. Sometimes when wheeling in off camber stuff I'd get some slosh inside the quarter panel.
The original drips were coming from the connection tube, the catalyst for the project. I also shortened that so I could get the filler neck to fit better. I wasn't able to use the lower bolt on the neck in the below photo and that always bugged me so shortening the connection tube solved that and a tightening of the clamps got rid of my leak.
I started to get a few drips from the filler neck on my fuel tank. I had previously sealed the holes where the neck and emission hoses goes through with duct tape. This was one of those little projects I was going to come back to at a later time. Now was a good time. I cut some block-off plates out of aluminum, drilled some holes and sealed it up. I also re-routed the overflow/by-pass tube a different way.
I had to wipe things down and drill some holes.
This opening already had bolt holes so I just held the plate up and had an assistant scribe from the inside where I needed to drill holes. Notched it for the by-pass tube, spread on some sealant and bolted it down.
Made a cardboard template and then cut this out. Test fit and adjusted as necessary. I had to drill holes in the quarter panel but I did the same thing to know where to drill them on the block-off plate.
Put sealant of the back side.
Bolted it up and oozed sealant all around. The top little piece is held on with sealant only.
This is the stuff I used. It's just what I had around.
While I had the filler next out I welded up the holes that I had made previously. There were spot welds that held the nozzle restrictor inside the neck. Diesel nozzles are bigger so that piece had to go at the beginning. I never really sealed it well so I took care of that now. Sometimes when wheeling in off camber stuff I'd get some slosh inside the quarter panel.
The original drips were coming from the connection tube, the catalyst for the project. I also shortened that so I could get the filler neck to fit better. I wasn't able to use the lower bolt on the neck in the below photo and that always bugged me so shortening the connection tube solved that and a tightening of the clamps got rid of my leak.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #1,750
Update cont.
I went to see Zach's progress and slow him down for a night. Helped with a fitting, listened to plans, and helped get his rear pinion angle. It sure is a wonderfully huge work space.
Then we took Dora out for some tranny control tuning since he had his laptop nearby. Made some adjustments and learned some lessons but I'll be doing more tuning. Another 4bt swapper using the same tranny and controller has a TPS that is getting him a better voltage range than I have and I just got the part number for it so I'll probably order that up. I believe having a better spread will give me better control on tuning that controller.
After that we played around with the forklift and did some warehouse flexing.
Rear on the bump stop. Not changing a thing!
Some dork that named his rig Dora.
I went to see Zach's progress and slow him down for a night. Helped with a fitting, listened to plans, and helped get his rear pinion angle. It sure is a wonderfully huge work space.
Then we took Dora out for some tranny control tuning since he had his laptop nearby. Made some adjustments and learned some lessons but I'll be doing more tuning. Another 4bt swapper using the same tranny and controller has a TPS that is getting him a better voltage range than I have and I just got the part number for it so I'll probably order that up. I believe having a better spread will give me better control on tuning that controller.
After that we played around with the forklift and did some warehouse flexing.
Rear on the bump stop. Not changing a thing!
Some dork that named his rig Dora.
Last edited:
That is some awesome flex Mike, good work.
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Incredible!
Even given the height, your truck hides its capabilities well.
Even given the height, your truck hides its capabilities well.
Truck is really looking good Mike! Anxious to here about the tranny control and TPS mods. Any chance Zach is getting another work party going this week?
Clint
Clint
Tapage
Club 4X4 Panamá
flex envy !
Last edited:
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Probably not this week but maybe again in the next week or so. Hoping to fire it up Sat. though.
Hi-jack over.
FAAAAAAWWWWK!
Beautiful flex! Opens up really nice!
Beautiful flex! Opens up really nice!
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The thing that doesn't show is how perfectly Mike nailed the suspension set up. Very llittle up travel was wasted on the shock shaft... Same with the down travel. Fenders are cut nearly perfect too. You guys should have heard him being critical of himself and how he intended to to tweak a little more on it.
- Thread starter
- #1,758
Update
Two weeks ago the day we were suppose to leave for CA for a family visit Dora got unstable. I was on my way to work when she started getting some nasty vibs. I prayed I'd make it to work and I did. At work I found that I had lost 3 lugs and studs from the right rear hub and the other 5 were loose. This of course resulted in elongating my mounting holes. At lunch I tighten them as best I could and took surface streets slow on my way home (worked a half day thinking we were going to be leaving as soon as my kid got home from school). My brother's place is on the way home so I made it that far after another stop in between to try tightening again. The remaining studs were just spinning in the hub and their splines weren't biting to stop them from spinning. Brother ran me home so I could grab my welder with the plans to tack the studs to the back of the rotor so I could at least get some torque on the nuts. I found my old studs from the 14bolt and brought those along just in case. I actually ended up using the old studs and not welding. I got five pounded in without removing the rim and got a 120ft.lbs on the lugs so I loaded up the welder and headed home. Parked the truck, packed the car and ended up leaving in the morning. After the trip and back in Oregon I started hunting for another rim. These were Ultra 185 baja champs in 17x10 with 4.5 BS and wouldn't you know it...they're discontinued and no one has any! I called many places local and not local and no luck. So having to replace one rim turned into four! Since there is less than a budget I grabbed some H2 rims (17x8.5, 5.5" BS) off craigslist and transferred my tires.
The H2s are growing on me but I lost 4" of width off my track and I'm not digging the narrowed stance but these will just have to do until next year. I may try to track the other rim down but I needed to be on the road. This was basically my fault for not keeping up on retorqueing the lugnuts; however, when I took the driver side rear off I found several of those studs were not nice and tight. I used the stud recommended when doing a disc brake conversion but have found them inadequate. The original studs were much tighter so I cleaned up my good ones and picked up a bunch more that matched them. The heads are too big to fit in the recessed part of the rotor on the back side but all of them pounded in much more firmly so I feel much better running the original dual wheel style stud that came on my 14bolt with the drum brakes. No problem with the front spacer/adapters. Those are still nice and tight. So it's really looking like Dora has a rim fetish since this is the 6th different set that has been bolted to her hubs including the originals.
This week I went to pick up some pellets with Dora and my voltmeter started pulsing much more than normal and I was in and out of charge. I parked it and took a look after work one night. I looked over my wiring, behind the dash, tested for charge again and it was nice and steady around 14V. Decided to try it out the next morning to work and half way there it ramped up to 18V! I turned on everything I had to get it just below 16V. At work during lunch time I disconnected the alternator so I wouldn't pop my battery on the way home. At home I yanked the alternator with the intent to take it in for a test but decided I could quickly separate the housing and take a look. Which one of these posts is not like the other.
And of course I'm 2 months out of the warranty period so no free replacement. This one I'm going to rebuild myself. I did my research to find it a hit and miss at getting a good one from the part stores since the main things that get replaced are only the bearings and brushes. If the other components test well they are not replaced, at least on the cheaper alternators. I plan on replacing the Bridge Rectifier, Capacitor, and the Voltage Regulator (this is what I believe is/went out). After this I think Dora needs to get a time-out.
Two weeks ago the day we were suppose to leave for CA for a family visit Dora got unstable. I was on my way to work when she started getting some nasty vibs. I prayed I'd make it to work and I did. At work I found that I had lost 3 lugs and studs from the right rear hub and the other 5 were loose. This of course resulted in elongating my mounting holes. At lunch I tighten them as best I could and took surface streets slow on my way home (worked a half day thinking we were going to be leaving as soon as my kid got home from school). My brother's place is on the way home so I made it that far after another stop in between to try tightening again. The remaining studs were just spinning in the hub and their splines weren't biting to stop them from spinning. Brother ran me home so I could grab my welder with the plans to tack the studs to the back of the rotor so I could at least get some torque on the nuts. I found my old studs from the 14bolt and brought those along just in case. I actually ended up using the old studs and not welding. I got five pounded in without removing the rim and got a 120ft.lbs on the lugs so I loaded up the welder and headed home. Parked the truck, packed the car and ended up leaving in the morning. After the trip and back in Oregon I started hunting for another rim. These were Ultra 185 baja champs in 17x10 with 4.5 BS and wouldn't you know it...they're discontinued and no one has any! I called many places local and not local and no luck. So having to replace one rim turned into four! Since there is less than a budget I grabbed some H2 rims (17x8.5, 5.5" BS) off craigslist and transferred my tires.
The H2s are growing on me but I lost 4" of width off my track and I'm not digging the narrowed stance but these will just have to do until next year. I may try to track the other rim down but I needed to be on the road. This was basically my fault for not keeping up on retorqueing the lugnuts; however, when I took the driver side rear off I found several of those studs were not nice and tight. I used the stud recommended when doing a disc brake conversion but have found them inadequate. The original studs were much tighter so I cleaned up my good ones and picked up a bunch more that matched them. The heads are too big to fit in the recessed part of the rotor on the back side but all of them pounded in much more firmly so I feel much better running the original dual wheel style stud that came on my 14bolt with the drum brakes. No problem with the front spacer/adapters. Those are still nice and tight. So it's really looking like Dora has a rim fetish since this is the 6th different set that has been bolted to her hubs including the originals.
This week I went to pick up some pellets with Dora and my voltmeter started pulsing much more than normal and I was in and out of charge. I parked it and took a look after work one night. I looked over my wiring, behind the dash, tested for charge again and it was nice and steady around 14V. Decided to try it out the next morning to work and half way there it ramped up to 18V! I turned on everything I had to get it just below 16V. At work during lunch time I disconnected the alternator so I wouldn't pop my battery on the way home. At home I yanked the alternator with the intent to take it in for a test but decided I could quickly separate the housing and take a look. Which one of these posts is not like the other.
And of course I'm 2 months out of the warranty period so no free replacement. This one I'm going to rebuild myself. I did my research to find it a hit and miss at getting a good one from the part stores since the main things that get replaced are only the bearings and brushes. If the other components test well they are not replaced, at least on the cheaper alternators. I plan on replacing the Bridge Rectifier, Capacitor, and the Voltage Regulator (this is what I believe is/went out). After this I think Dora needs to get a time-out.
Last edited:
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Dude... your luck is bound to change soon! So sorry to hear this happened now!
- Thread starter
- #1,760
Found a better price on the parts I wanted to get. This was a better site than the last one so I removed the last link. This place has a vehicle by parts list function that made it easy to find the right parts I needed.
Alternator & Starter Parts Wholesale - Repair Kits - High Output Alternators
This is mostly for my record but I'm using a Delco CS-144 alternator out of the following vehicles:
Cadillac V8 4.9L
Alternator & Starter Parts Wholesale - Repair Kits - High Output Alternators
This is mostly for my record but I'm using a Delco CS-144 alternator out of the following vehicles:
Cadillac V8 4.9L
Deville 91-93
Eldorado 91-93
Fleetwood 91-92
Seville 91-93