Builds Lumpskie's Diesel 80 build (1 Viewer)

[IanB]

I am having a hard time visualizing this.

It's like putting a snowmobile belt on, you get it most of the way then spin the secondary clutch by hand, which is directly attached to the track (so it's easier if a helper can lift the track off the ground, same way it's recommended to have the trans in neutral), and work the belt over the lip and onto the clutch, or in this case the pulley. The socket on the pulley bolt allows you to spin the pulley and work the belt over the lip and into the groove slowly.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Hmmm. Last set of belts I changed were a struggle too.
Can you use a pry bar to push the alternator in more?
Maybe have someone turn the engine over by hand while you try to roll the belt onto the pulley


I'm sure beno knows, the dual belts should be a matched pair

 

[Tapage]

Rotate the crank ( from under your cruiser ) and use a big screwdriver as a lever to fight the belts in, has been my trick so far ..

 

[Lumpskie]

Thanks for the posts, guys. Yes, I believe Beno gave me a match set of belts... here's what I got:

So, I used a little bit of everyone's advice. I WD40'd the pivot. Tapped the alternator with a rubber mallet. Gently used a pry bar against the alternator. Used 2 screw drivers as levers to hook the belt on the pulley and rotated the pull to walk the belts on. I got both alternator belts on yesterday. Thanks for the help, you guys! I'll get the AC belt after work today, hopefully.

One observation is that it seemed like I really had to "man handle" the belts to get them on. Hopefully, that didn't cause them to stretch or deform in any way that would affect performance.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Lumpskie]

All the belts are on and I drove the Cruiser to work this morning!

Quick question for you guys... how tight are the belts supposed to be? I tensioned the alternator belts so that I could push the belt 1 belt thickness. (on the longest run side). I set the AC belt a little looser.

 

[mudgudgeon]

All the belts are on and I drove the Cruiser to work this morning!

Quick question for you guys... how tight are the belts supposed to be? I tensioned the alternator belts so that I could push the belt 1 belt thickness. (on the longest run side). I set the AC belt a little looser.

tensions sounds good to me.
I think you're unlikely to have damaged the belts

 

[Broski]

Sounds a wee bit lose

 

[Tapage]

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-6673-Universal-Tension-Gauge/dp/B000I198J0

It is bulky and sometimes hard to use in the tight spaces .. but will give you a ballpark to start / compare

 

[Lumpskie]

Thanks guys. Under certain conditions, I could get my AC belt to squeak a little bit. So, I tightened it up. It seems like everything is working well now.

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-6673-Universal-Tension-Gauge/dp/B000I198J0

It is bulky and sometimes hard to use in the tight spaces .. but will give you a ballpark to start / compare

I should probably just get one of these. I replaced all the belts on the Grand Wagoneer and had to guess. Now that I did the same on the Land Cruiser, I'm realizing that I work on belts more than I anticipated!

 

[Broski]

Lumpskie
Through I am 1 Mechanic I have never used one of these in 40 years of Wrenching. I Usually do just like you Did except I go tell there just a little deflection instead of a full belt width. Pretty dam hard to over tighten the belts. JMHO

 

[Lumpskie]

No "build" updates but I did get an unwitting fix. Since I installed my castor correction, I've been getting a metallic sound in my driveshaft... with a hint of vibration. I took the cruiser to the cabin last weekend to winterize. On the way home, I had the canoe on the roof and I hit a sharp rise over a section of road. It took me by surprise and I really cycled the suspension. After that, almost 100% of the sound and vibration is now gone! My theory is that grease didn't get onto the splines of the driveshaft when I greased them through the zerk. Cycling the suspension forced that grease on to the splines and that took care of my noise. (Do you guys think that's possible?) At any rate, I've put about 200 miles on it in the last couple of days and still have no noise.

Pictures: (because all posts are better with pictures)

Cabin:

Loaded up:

After that, my buddy (who is a farmer) invited me to bring my son out to one of his corn fields to ride on his tractors. We had a great time and even decided to take the cruiser down one of his steep hills to explore the bottom of one of his fields:

Half way down, a duck hunter jumped up off the side of the field. Rather than ruin his day, we decided to turn around. Well... that was easier said than done. We turned around on the steepest part of the hill and, because it was a corn field, there were no rocks mixed in with the mud. This was my first time in legit east coast mud and it was a little unnerving. I hit both lockers and tried to get going. Turning and forward motion was mostly a suggestion on my part. The Cruiser started up the hill at about a 45 degree angle. I hammered down on the throttle to clear the tires and the Duratracs found some grip. We accelerated to the top of the hill and my son had a great time... even though my heart was pounding. (my buddy had told me about getting his tractor stuck down there and ended up needing to call a professional recovery service)

The cruiser doesn't look to dirty in this picture but I'm here to tell you it really was:

Long story short, I'm still enjoying my Cruiser.

 

[IanB]

Does the rope not rub the paint on your hood when you tie your canoe down like that?

 

[Lumpskie]

Does the rope not rub the paint on your hood when you tie your canoe down like that?

It stayed in place and I haven't had any issue with rubbing. But I didn't use a freeway to get home... just used country roads. So, I never got going faster than 50-60 mph all the way home. You have me thinking now. If I wanted to shift the canoe farther forward, I could have cleared the hood. Or, I could have used the 2 tie down points on the back of my hoop. But, I wanted to get the tie down points as wide as possible because it was a crazy windy day. ...maybe I'll try those other tie down points next year, just to see.

 

[Lumpskie]

Rare sight... my Cruiser is actually clean.

 

[Lumpskie]

I haven't updated this thread in a while. Back when I rerouted the exhaust in this rig, I only replaced the piping in front of the muffler. The old piping behind the muffler finally rotted out. So, I went to my local exhaust shop and replaced that section with cheap 2.5" piping. Hoping for a fancy 3" setup sometime in the future but I"m happy with how "high and tight" they routed it.

Other than that, I've taken it out to the cabin, to have some family adventures.

 

[Lumpskie]

The Delta panhard lift bracket is on. Honestly, this mode made a HUGE difference in my driving experience. Everyone knows about correcting panhard geometry and so did I. In my mind was blah blah blah, center axle, blah blah blah, get panhard back to parallel... I guess so. No, that correction made a bigger difference on my rig than correcting caster! Body roll is almost totally gone. Unstable feeling in corner is also totally gone. My cruiser would require 2 hands when changing lanes because it would feel as though it would pull unpredictably over crowns in the road... also totally gone now. I can drive with 2 fingers on the wheel! Awesome mod I wish I did sooner!

 

[RFB]

No "build" updates but I did get an unwitting fix. Since I installed my castor correction, I've been getting a metallic sound in my driveshaft... with a hint of vibration. I took the cruiser to the cabin last weekend to winterize. On the way home, I had the canoe on the roof and I hit a sharp rise over a section of road. It took me by surprise and I really cycled the suspension. After that, almost 100% of the sound and vibration is now gone! My theory is that grease didn't get onto the splines of the driveshaft when I greased them through the zerk. Cycling the suspension forced that grease on to the splines and that took care of my noise. (Do you guys think that's possible?) At any rate, I've put about 200 miles on it in the last couple of days and still have no noise.

Pictures: (because all posts are better with pictures)

Cabin:

Loaded up:

After that, my buddy (who is a farmer) invited me to bring my son out to one of his corn fields to ride on his tractors. We had a great time and even decided to take the cruiser down one of his steep hills to explore the bottom of one of his fields:

Half way down, a duck hunter jumped up off the side of the field. Rather than ruin his day, we decided to turn around. Well... that was easier said than done. We turned around on the steepest part of the hill and, because it was a corn field, there were no rocks mixed in with the mud. This was my first time in legit east coast mud and it was a little unnerving. I hit both lockers and tried to get going. Turning and forward motion was mostly a suggestion on my part. The Cruiser started up the hill at about a 45 degree angle. I hammered down on the throttle to clear the tires and the Duratracs found some grip. We accelerated to the top of the hill and my son had a great time... even though my heart was pounding. (my buddy had told me about getting his tractor stuck down there and ended up needing to call a professional recovery service)

The cruiser doesn't look to dirty in this picture but I'm here to tell you it really was:

Long story short, I'm still enjoying my Cruiser.

I had similar issue and I think your right about zerk not getting grease on splines I tae mine out of truck and lube up the splines by hand Im using red and tacky as opposed to red moly like I was. seems to stick better.

 

[Lumpskie]

@Delta VS This post is for you!

So, I got to clearancinng my Delta Vehicle Systems Panhard lift bracket to clear the Slinky springs.

Here are a couple of pictures showing the interference.

You can see that the coil touches the bracket at ride height:

Looks like 1.5 to 3.5 inches back needs to be trimmed to assure clearance

Marked for trimming

Cuts completed

Clearance when finished (and my sloppy touch up on the coil)

I'm a little sad that I had to cut Delta's work of art. But, I am happy to have the handling improvements without any interference.

Hey Delta VS... do my cuts seem ok with you guys, as far as structural integrity goes?

 

[Delta VS]

@Delta VS This post is for you!

So, I got to clearancinng my Delta Vehicle Systems Panhard lift bracket to clear the Slinky springs.

Here are a couple of pictures showing the interference.

You can see that the coil touches the bracket at ride height:

Looks like 1.5 to 3.5 inches back needs to be trimmed to assure clearance

Marked for trimming

Cuts completed

Clearance when finished (and my sloppy touch up on the coil)

I'm a little sad that I had to cut Delta's work of art. But, I am happy to have the handling improvements without any interference.

Hey Delta VS... do my cuts seem ok with you guys, as far as structural integrity goes?

Thank you for posting up the feedback. We are still waiting on some springs so we can do our thing.

 

[Lumpskie]

Thank you for posting up the feedback. We are still waiting on some springs so we can do our thing.

Sounds good. And, to be clear, I have absolutely no complaints about your product. I am a happy customer. I was just trying to be helpful, giving you a visual on the clearance rather than commentary. Also, thanks for the little Field Notes book! That thing is handy!