Builds Ryan’s 40 AKA "Bandit" (1 Viewer)

[rfitzpatrick]

I got the steering box rebuilt. It's not perfect but it's definitely a drastic improvement. I think I had around 6-8 inches of play in my steering wheel before, but now I only have around 3 inches. I did have to remove all my shims and left just the spacer. I refilled with 90w oil and a new seal. All in all, I'm very happy with how this came out.

 

[rfitzpatrick]

Went out for a nice test drive after rebuilding the steering box. Great day for a drive in the 40!

 

[rfitzpatrick]

I'm really excited about this! A full tire carrier from @lcwizard . I chose to move the spare tire to the driver's side per Dave's recommendation. I also got it powder coated. This was definitely in my future plans but knowing that he's mulling over retirement, I simply couldn't let that happen without me being able to purchase one for my 40.

Thanks Dave!

 

[greenEFSI]

Went out for a nice test drive after rebuilding the steering box. Great day for a drive in the 40!

i just gave ya a follow

 

[rfitzpatrick]

i just gave ya a follow

I appreciate the follow. Thanks!

 

[Engineer8000]

Nice truck. I am curious about the safety wire on the knuckle bolting. Was that on drum brakes only?

 

[rfitzpatrick]

Nice truck. I am curious about the safety wire on the knuckle bolting. Was that on drum brakes only?

I believe so

 

[rfitzpatrick]

Not much happening on my 40 lately. I’ve been planning on some winter projects but can’t bring myself to go out into the cold garage. Until then, enjoy this drive by picture my daughter snapped of this 43 we saw in Estes Park, CO yesterday.

 

[rfitzpatrick]

I finally braved the cold garage and went to work on the 40. My plan was to drain the fluids, but since I couldn’t get the skid plate off, I changed directions. I started unbolting the seats. Since I wasn’t planning on this quite yet, I didn’t do any prep in the way of researching how to best remove the seats. Needless to say, they gave me a little trouble. However, it’s pretty interesting what you’ll find. For me, I had to remove the back of the middle portion of the bench seat to undo some hoses to the fuel tank. I had no clue that this was behind that seat:

Here are the original seat belts in pretty good condition. I’m fascinated by the tag on the belt - pretty cool.

I’m going to soak the seat belts to clean them up for when I put everything back together again. For now, it’s time to remove this transmission tunnel. Unfortunately, I have too much gas in the tank for me to be able to remove it and I don’t have enough tanks to siphon it into.

By the way - does anyone have any tricks for removing the skid plate?

 

[Green Bean]

I finally braved the cold garage and went to work on the 40. My plan was to drain the fluids, but since I couldn’t get the skid plate off, I changed directions. I started unbolting the seats. Since I wasn’t planning on this quite yet, I didn’t do any prep in the way of researching how to best remove the seats. Needless to say, they gave me a little trouble. However, it’s pretty interesting what you’ll find. For me, I had to remove the back of the middle portion of the bench seat to undo some hoses to the fuel tank. I had no clue that this was behind that seat:
View attachment 3528096
View attachment 3528097

Here are the original seat belts in pretty good condition. I’m fascinated by the tag on the belt - pretty cool.

View attachment 3528098

View attachment 3528101

I’m going to soak the seat belts to clean them up for when I put everything back together again. For now, it’s time to remove this transmission tunnel. Unfortunately, I have too much gas in the tank for me to be able to remove it and I don’t have enough tanks to siphon it into.

By the way - does anyone have any tricks for removing the skid plate?

Following

 

[rfitzpatrick]

We went from several days with negative temps to mid 40's a week later. It's actually been quite nice in the garage once you get moving. Since the weather has been much more mild, I've been spending more time in the garage working towards my goals for this winter. I started this week by draining the radiator so that I could remove the heater and take out the transmission tunnel. Surprisingly, I was able to drain the radiator without making much of a mess at all. Even more surprising was the fact that I removed every both from the transmission tunnel without breaking one!

As of last night, I have the tunnel cover off, the heater removed, and the drive shafts removed. Now I'm ready to drop the transmission and transfer case this weekend. It's quite dirty, so lots of cleaning ahead. While these parts are getting cleaned up, amongst other things, I'll be removing the radiator and taking it along with the heater cores to have them tested and repaired if possible.

 

[greenEFSI]

We went from several days with negative temps to mid 40's a week later. It's actually been quite nice in the garage once you get moving. Since the weather has been much more mild, I've been spending more time in the garage working towards my goals for this winter. I started this week by draining the radiator so that I could remove the heater and take out the transmission tunnel. Surprisingly, I was able to drain the radiator without making much of a mess at all. Even more surprising was the fact that I removed every both from the transmission tunnel without breaking one!

As of last night, I have the tunnel cover off, the heater removed, and the drive shafts removed. Now I'm ready to drop the transmission and transfer case this weekend. It's quite dirty, so lots of cleaning ahead. While these parts are getting cleaned up, amongst other things, I'll be removing the radiator and taking it along with the heater cores to have them tested and repaired if possible.

View attachment 3541544

View attachment 3541545

Glad to see you're back at it! I'll be tuned in to see how this goes for you. My rear main seal is leaking and I don't know if I should ignore it, or man up and drop the trans lol.

 

[Green Bean]

Watching with interest on your approach to dropping the transmission/T-case since I'm right behind you. Curious: Was it necessary for you to remove your heater in order to take the tunnel cover off? Will you be using a hoist through the passenger door to lift the transmission/T-case; or do you plan on doing all of the heavy lifting from under the vehicle?
Thanks.

 

[rfitzpatrick]

Glad to see you're back at it! I'll be tuned in to see how this goes for you. My rear main seal is leaking and I don't know if I should ignore it, or man up and drop the trans lol.

Thanks! Well, since I'm doing mine I can't recommend ignoring it. However, I need to do a new clutch kit, so I figured I might as well throw in a new rear main seal.

 

[rfitzpatrick]

Watching with interest on your approach to dropping the transmission/T-case since I'm right behind you. Curious: Was it necessary for you to remove your heater in order to take the tunnel cover off? Will you be using a hoist through the passenger door to lift the transmission/T-case; or do you plan on doing all of the heavy lifting from under the vehicle?
Thanks.

Well, first of all, I'm sort of just learning the process as I do it. For me, I felt I needed to remove it because I couldn't lift the cover out and over the shifter column without removing the heater. It's only 4 bolts and you can pry do it without draining your coolant depending on the condition of your hoses.

As for actually removing it, I'm going to have to muscle it out since I don't have a hoist. I'm not sure how heavy it is, but it doesn't look too big. I'm going to put a couple ratchet straps around it and assist with removal while my dad is underneath it with a jack. We'll then transfer it over to a cheap dolly I have from Harbor Freight.

 

[rfitzpatrick]

Well, the transmission and t-case came out relatively easily. There is SO MUCH dried grease and grime that it’s going to take forever to clean this thing up. I’ve done lots of scraping and got about 10 pounds of crap off in about 30 minutes. This afternoon, I pressure washed it and hit it with some degreaser. Here’s the progress I’ve made so far.

Right out of the truck:

After some scraping:

After pressure washing it, 2 rounds of spray on degreaser and another round of foaming degreaser. I also mixed in some scraping and brushing. It’s a lot better, but still a long way to go!

 

[rfitzpatrick]

I took a break from the transmission/t-case because it went from 61 degrees and sunny to rainy and then a couple inches of snow the next day. I took Saturday off and then jumped into draining the oil and removing the clutch and bell housing today. I know I didn't need to remove the bell housing, but it's really dirty and I wanted to clean and paint it. Also, I hit the struggle bus hard with the flywheel. I realized after I was lowering the flywheel that it wasn't going to clear the exhaust pipe. For the life of me I couldn't get it seated back on the dowel because my creeper kept rolling me away!

There are a couple of things that worry me and wanted to ask those of you with a more trained eye than I have for these things. When I removed the flywheel, I noticed a lot of these heat/stress cracks. I will get this machined, but how worried about this should I be?

Second is this motor mount bolt. Where do I find these? This is the only one I removed and based on it's condition, I'll be inspecting the others more thoroughly.

Finally, this is how the rear of my engine looks. New pilot bearing and rear main seal are going in as soon as I can mate the bell housing back up. Does anyone see anything else I need to pay closer attention to?

 

[Green Bean]

Great job.

 

[rfitzpatrick]

Well, I'm not sure what's going on here. All of a sudden, I've got a leak in my gas tank. It wasn't leaking while it was in the truck. I've had it out of the truck for a couple of weeks, but I just noticed a little puddle under it a few days ago. It wasn't leaking from the drain plug even though it appears that way in the picture. When I first inspected it, the drain plug was dry but then I tried draining the remainder of the gas from there. If you look closely, it looks like the bottom was taped or fiberglassed and sealed. What do you all think? In any event, it looks like I'll be needing a new gas tank. Anyone know of any out there for my 72?

 

[peesalot]

pin holes in that rusty corner for sure. clean that floor up and I would add a drain hole there.