Restorable???

[jdepiero]

finally read the entire thread. I am blown-away by your craftsmanship! It is fantastic. Best of luck to you

[JReed]

Thanks for the compliments guys. And thanks for the info Greg and Tim. I think I'll wire my instrument lights into the headlight switch like you mentioned Tim. I have a 3 position rheostat switch for the heater that I plan on running in-line just after the main on-off switch. I did this because I don't like the look of my rheostat switch. Its the only brown switch I have and its lit. I plan on installing it under the dash just in reach of the drivers seat, but just out of sight.

I had hoped to be finished with the truck by now, but a weekend job came up that I couldn't pass by, so I've spent the last 10 or so weekends working very little on the truck. I did pull my winch apart and have it all powder coated. I just installed new bushings and bearings and put it all back together last night. The gears seemed to be in good shape so I didn't mess with them other than cleaning. The clutch on the winch was frozen and the drum shaft was swollen in that area so i had to do some filing and sanding and use a few clamps to pull it. Its sliding smooth now. I had a few alignment problems when I went to install the winch so I've gotta elongate some holes on the rear mounting bracket before I can get it back on.

[JReed]

The powder coating guys usually do a good job of masking all of the machined surfaces, but they missed a few this time so I had a bit of sanding to do. They coated the splines on the winch drive shaft too. Think I'll have to use some sort of acid on that.

Few more pics:

[JReed]

Internal brake on winch?

Also meant to ask if anyone could tell me what that internal brake in the winch does, or how it works?

[Greg Coffin]

The winch is looking good Joel. I've had alignment problems too. Sometimes it helps to set the winch on the frame rails and loosen the bolts that hold the base angles (the angle iron) to the castings, then shift everything around a bit to get the mounting holes to line up with the frame holes. *Sometimes* it helps.

It looks like you have a drum from an MU3 on the winch. That drum is really nice to have, since the cable spools on much better fastened with the set screw than with the U-bolt through the side. I'd like to find drums like that for my winches. It may also be, since you have a later truck, that Braden supplied the later MU2s with that drum - but that's just a guess on my part.

I noticed that you installed a brass plug in the filler hole. Did you happen to drill a vent hole in the side of one of the flats? If not, drill a 1/32" hole in one of the flats into the the inside top of the plug. A lot of heat and pressure builds up during winching, and you don't want to blow oil past the seals. I set the plug so that the hole is on the lee side when it's snugged up.

The internal brake is to stop the input shaft from counter-rotating when the winch is under load. You orient the brake band in the housing so that it expands (against the spring pressure) when the winch is spooling in, and engages when the winch is spooling out. The spring adds a little pressure to the band to help energize the brake. You flip the band one way or the other in the housing depending if you have a left or right hand gear set. Once the winch is mounted, put a load on the cable (I don't remember how much) and see if the drum holds position. Loosen the spring nut until the winch starts to slips, then tighten the nut till it stops. Then tighten the jamb nut behind the spring nut. The brake band energizes whenever you spool out under power, so be aware that it wears out the brake band. I think there is a PDF from Braden that mentions how much load to put on the cable when adjusting the brake.

[cj7ox]

Winch looks good, JReed!

[53Crusher]

As always, NICE WORK! Can't believe the powder coater did your worm gear. Clearly that is a part that requires a machined surface. Mine was in terrible shape, and it took me quite a while to find a decent used replacement. Couldn't come up with a new or NOS worm gear. New bronze bull gear set me back a bunch of $$$$. If you haven't already seen this, there is some great info on our winches here.
http://www.powerwagonadvertiser.com/...=winch+rebuild

[JReed]

Thanks for the info Greg. I'll look into it a little more and get it all adjusted probably when I get the truck running again, hopefully soon. I'll have a lot of odds and ends to adjust at that point. And I'll do like you said and get a hole drilled in that upper plug soon. Don't think I have a 1/32" drill bit here. Maybe have some wire gauge bits at my dads shop.

I got the winch installed today. Even with the two bumper sides fairly loose in the frame channel I had to slot a few bolt holes to get everything to fit nicely. Also got my cable rolled onto the drum. I'm gonna weld up a stay clip to hold the wedge socket to the winch angle piece up front when the cable is reeled in. This will allow me to wrap or hang whatever I put on the end independently of the drum.

Oh Tim, the worm wasn't powder coated. Just the drive shaft splines. I guess it looked like the picture went with that text. Anyway, the worm was just stained dark over time. Thanks for that link. I hadn't seen that yet.

[Greg Coffin]

The bit doesn't have to be 1/32" exactly, just a very small hole to let any internal pressure out, and keep as much dirt and water out.

I really like the finish you have on the bumpers and front fenders.

[cj7ox]

JReed, Your truck is gorgeous! Love the coating on the bumpers/fenders, and that color is awesome!

[JReed]

Fuel Tank Grounding?

Thanks again guys.

So I started working on some wiring last night. I'm working forward from the rear. Anyway, I had a question about grounding the fuel tank (or the fuel tank accessories). My fuel tank is one of the epoxy coated, reconditioned tanks from VPW I bought several years back. This means that the fuel tank (and sending unit) isn't grounded through contact. I obviously needed to ground my sending unit so I put a grounding stud on it and ran a wire back to a common grounding bar I have at the rear end of the truck (I'm grounding all of the trucks fixtures this way, not relying on body or frame grounds, but taking a wire off of ever accessory back to one of three common grounding bars). Well I started wondering if I knew all there was to know about grounding a fuel tank. Is it safe to leave my fuel pickup and and fuel filler neck ungrounded? Does static electricity do anything weird that would necessitate grounding these other accessories on the fuel tank? I know that originally the sending unit and anything else attached directly to the fuel tank would have been grounded through the tank itself. Not sure about the filler neck though... I guess it was always isolated by the rubber hose between itself and the tank. Its just that I recently saw some filler necks for custom fuel tanks that had ground wires attached and I wondered if there was some safety reason for that. Anyway, If anyone has some ideas I'd appreciate it.

I'll leave a few pics to show how I'm grounding everything.

[W_A_Watson_II]

Excellent approach to the wiring by grounding everything in this fashion.

As for grounding the fuel filler, etc... On most OEM vehicles with metal fillers isolated from the body by a plastic/rubber mounting and connected to the tank through a rubber hose, a ground strap is added to the filler to be sure no static electricity can build up on the filler.

[Bruce]

Looks Right

I have the grounding bar on my frame, not far from the battery mount, it makes sense to to me.

[cj7ox]

Wiring looks great, so far. Looks better than anything I've ever seen coming from the factory!

[Ammo]

This is one bad *** PW! Your craftsmanship and attention to detail is outstanding. Thank you for taking the time to describe what you're doing with pics. This build thread is so helpful to newbs like me.