Build Live in Texas, drive a pickup: HDJ79 single cab build

[bottombracket]

I’m not gonna lie Kelly, it felt pretty damn good.

I love that Luke was able to see it happen in real time.

After six years, to have a motor in the truck and have it burning diesel feels really great.

 

[OffRoadScott]

Congratulations!!!

 

[SNLC]

Always a great feeling!

Cheers

 

[Broski]

Sounds great !! congratulations !

 

[tucker74]

“Oh, What a Feeling!” moment

 

[svsisu]

Cicadas or grasshoppers- what ever it was, great preamble. Congratulations!

 

[bottombracket]

Now that I fed my kids dinner, I can ignore them and get back to work.

I was able to get the tachometer working. I went through the extremely clear diagnostic troubleshooting information, confirming appropriate resistance, appropriate ground, and appropriate 12 V power. Using their handy lookup table, I changed the dip switches to just number 5 and number 7 on. I selected 12V signal output. Bingo! Good tach sweep.

 

[bottombracket]

I threw a shifter knob on for funzies, and it must’ve had some sort of magical effect. Now the reverse light is working just fine. Maybe the reverse light switch just needed to be cycled a couple dozen times?

 

[77mustard40]

I threw a shifter knob on for funzies, and it must’ve had some sort of magical effect. Now the reverse light is working just fine. Maybe the reverse light switch just needed to be cycled a couple dozen times?

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Yeah, pretty sure they had a guy at the factory doing that all day

 

[OGBeno]

Yeah, pretty sure they had a guy at the factory doing that all day

Pretty sure he was into rainbows.

 

[bottombracket]

@OGBeno or whoever came up with this, uh, suggestive photo on how to check the protrusion of the timing belt tensioner.

 

[bottombracket]

Well, after three successes in two days, I was destined to have setbacks. I can’t figure out why the fuel gauges don’t read. I added in a right side frame rail ground, a battery negative to frame ground and a chassis to frame ground strap. No changes.

So I moved onto buttoning up the front end. I installed an alternator with new adjusting block and bolt and a new fan pulley and belts. I’m missing the plastic alternator cap so I’ll find one.

Next step will be power steering.

 

[ryaneddy16]

DUDE CONGRATS!

 

[bottombracket]

I bit the bullet and picked up a Tillix forward facing intake elbow. Man this thing is nice.

The 1/8NPT plug screw is a nice touch.

 

[davegonz]

That's a ton of ports on that thing.

 

[cruiserdan]

I bit the bullet and picked up a Tillix forward facing intake elbow. Man this thing is nice.

The 1/8NPT plug screw is a nice touch.

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Mission Creep!

 

[bottombracket]

@cruiserdan since I am building two of these things I need to figure out an intercooler situation. I have always believed that a front mount intercooler would do better because no heat soak from the motor. But I do have to think about the fact that I’m in Texas where it can be 105°F outside, and do I really want to sandwich a big intercooler, a condenser, and a radiator all in the front of the truck? Plus, the hoods have built in hood scoops… I’m thinking about doing a top mount intercooler for the double cab. Regardless, I needed a forward facing elbow compatible with an FTE so I went here.

 

[bottombracket]

Back to work yesterday:

Power steering high pressure line, union, and high pressure gasket in place. I am pretty sure the high pressure line is a HZJ79 44411-60670 that I ground the orientation tab off of. I found it it my stash. It’s been 6 years…

Low pressure return hose and clamps. It required a little trimming- 1.5” or so- for optimal clearance of the steering box.

Orientation of the high pressure line is suboptimal but I may follow @c2dfj45 ‘s lead and make a custom hose in the future.

 

[bottombracket]

My dang hose was too short. Life problems.
Generic 3/8” power steering hose from Advance solved the problem. At least I used OEM clamps (90466-16002).

Routing complete. Popped a quart of Dex/Merc in and no leaks.

 

[bottombracket]

New battery tray (74403-60240) and group 34 battery (non-AGM).

Couldn’t find the hold down clamp. Ordered one (74404-60140). And the nut (90179-06206).

Then I started to play with wiring and harness routing and cleaning up the messy layout. This took forever because you move one thing, you change a clamp, change a routing, change a wires course…2 other things need to be changed. Optimization and integration is tedious.