The "Hulk": Ugly green truck to Juneau??

[oldndcctrucks]

My wiffy and I took the W200 and the camper to Calico Ghost Town this last weekend for a one-night camp-out, four-wheeling, and event (which used to be called "Civil War Days" and is now billed as "California Days" for SOME REASON; please read the last with sarcasm). The route took us up Cajon Pass on Interstate 15; this has fairly steep grades for several miles; Flattest Route.com calculated the worst grade at 15.7%.

The truck pulled the 5600-pound trailer up the hill with relative ease for a stock, 49-year-old truck. We were able to maintain 40 mph on the worst of it. The downgrade was no test as there was ridiculous traffic and top speed for the worst part of the downgrade was 10 mph.

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Camp was in the state campground. No services, dry camping. We met up with a few Army truck club buddies and our best friends.

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Earlier in the afternoon some of the guys and I went burning powder and damaging targets.

Note this guy's earplug- we were short:

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Next morning, a few of us went 4-wheeling. I took my wife, and afterwards she was much more satisfied about the reliability of the W200. That was a win for me!

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OK: Now back to business!

I have found an upholstery shop, and this weekend the plan is to have the seats and carpet removed. Here is the initial condition:

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Hopefully this will look very much improved in 3-4 weeks!

[712edf]

That's the way a truck interior should look.

Bucky

[oldndcctrucks]

Well....yeah

BUT

The women folk being the species they are, this condition would make for a less-enjoyable trip of
30+ days, every day, in this truck.

Today's progress:

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HOPING (wish in one hand, poop in the other and see which fills up first) that the rust
showing is surface and not real rot.

I'm a gonna be tired tomorrow afternoon!

[oldndcctrucks]

So, I thought this was covered in rust, and it was a mess.

But….
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…It turned out that the carpet pad glue had aged a rust color. There is actually very little rust. The primer is where I accidentally removed paint when I was scrubbing the carpet pad remnants and loose old glue /debris.

WHEW

Also removed the factory heater. Three of the seven studs holding the assembly to the firewall started spinning, so I had to cut them off.

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Next is cut a piece of sheet steel and cover the opening, then cover all other unnecessary holes.

[oldndcctrucks]

I also did a test-fit of the carpet kit:

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The factory carpet had a separate piece for the transmission cover. Haven't decided if I
will have that made, or keep the carpet as one piece.

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I will need to get a steamer to help settle it down. Also, there's no padding yet.

I also worked on installing the A/C compressor:

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The heater hose is just twisted out of the way. I used existing bolt holes on the heads
and the intake manifold. This keeps additional weight off of the timing chain cover.

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Rope used to get rough belt length... In this image, the pulleys don't look aligned.
They looked fine before the rope, so hopefully it's just an optional illusion.

The compressor ports will be less than 90 degrees from vertical, as required by the
manufacturer.

Also, not sure how much the bracket will deflect upon belt tightening. If it's con-
siderable, I will make an additional strut from the top center bolt of the timing chain
cover up to the bottom of the compressor base.

Lastly, I started installing the evaporator (not shown).

[oldndcctrucks]

Got the heater / evaporator half installed... needs two more brackets. Then after completed
fit-up, remove and then apply heat/sound insulation to the firewall.

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The black plastic housing is the unit; the darker black object behind is the metal panel
covering the original heater unit hole.

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Looking through the glovebox opening. There is plenty of room for the glovebox, hoses,
and flexible ducts.

This is a Vintage Air Gen II Super Cool; next smaller than the biggest one they make. The
largest is about 25% bigger and I thought would have been difficult to install.

I'm not promoting Vintage Air, just noting what I decided to use. I will say, however, that
their customer service seems to have been better than most businesses I have dealt with
in the last five years or so.

[oldndcctrucks]

All A/C components except the vents are installed, and I evacuated and charged the system
today; it got down to 32.7 degrees F, which is a bit cold and would ordinarily lead to icing-up
the evaporator, so I'll need to keep an eye on it.

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The pressures seem low, but they correspond to the temperatures on the gauge faces.

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It got up to about 43 degrees after a few minutes of operation, so there may have
been some "settling-in" of the system.

I have also finished the floor repairs and installing the Dynamat sound deadener
layers as well as the Noico thermal layer and finally the carpet padding.
I am now fitting/trimming the carpet.

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I also got the seats back from the upholstery shop yesterday. One is in the garage,
the other is in the front living room...

[oldndcctrucks]

Front seat and driver's seat belt installed...
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[oldndcctrucks]

The doors are finished excepting the "belt rails" which are the rubber wiper blades at the bottom of the window opening which keep most precipitation out. The ones I received are too fat and stiff, making rolling the windows down nearly impossible. I will look for new ones soon.

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Paint makes a big difference

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I used construction "visqueen" sheet for the vapor barrier, and 3M
QTY1 Butyl tape, 1/4", for the seal

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Hope to remember to paint the speaker hole cover when I paint the
roof or tailgate

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A/C and heater hoses are done

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The NP205 transfer case is out, cleaned, disassembled, inspected, some bearings
replaced, seals replaced, and the Gear Vendors overdrive unit being test-fit. Also I
am making new mounting rubber pads and etc.

I have some concern for the leveraged weight from the OD unit causing the rear of
the T-case to droop; Gear Vendors instructions say to not support their unit. I don't
like it. The unit weighs approximately 35-40 pounds.

Also, when shortening the rear driveshaft, the fixed yoke is replaced with a Gear
Vendors slip yoke with a slightly larger U-joint.

One of the detent ball / spring caps broke off on re-installation (it appears to have
been cracked for some time); now delayed another week waiting for a replacement.
I'll be installing adjustable detent caps.

[712edf]

For whatever reason I can't see any of your pictures. Probably has something to do with my status or settings.
Is Gear Vendors' fear that supporting the unit will not allow movement & cause possible cracking if the suspension is loaded?

Bucky

[712edf]

Now the pictures are loading! Looks nice! Real nice. And I don't even like green lol

Bucky

[oldndcctrucks]

Hey Bucky

No idea why can’t support the GV unit; but yeah, probably they’re worried about cracking

A lot of these go into hot rods with high hp and high torque engines

[Frank Irons]

You're doing an excellent job on that project, very nice work!

[oldndcctrucks]

Thanks very much!!

Only 9 weeks to departure; first week of August

[oldndcctrucks]

So.....

I got the t-case put back up, built and installed a brace bracket to reduce t-case wobble caused by the overdrive unit overhang, got a new driveshaft made in San Bernardino in an old shop (friendly guys), went for a spin, and had really bad vibrations and / or a bad bearing.

Unlikely a bearing; I didn't know much about drivelines, U-joints, angles, etc. Learned a bunch, took the drivehshaft back to the shop where they said it wasn't bad but they straightened the shaft a little at the front, slip yoke end. THAT'S when I found out they DON'T dynamically (spin) balance shafts!!! (insert multiple curses)

Put it back in, still problems. Found angles to be 7 at the transmission u-joint, 6 at the front of the t-case, 5.5 at the OD tailshaft, and 4 at the rear diff. I then added 1/4" shim at the rear t-case mounting bolts, thus tilting it, and reducing all u-joint angles. Now at 4.7 degrees, 4.6 degrees, 2.6 degrees, and 1.2 degrees. Still bad vibration at above 55 m.p.h.!

Took the NEW driveshaft to a different shop 35 miles away, and they found the front runout at .010", the middle at .031", and the rear (diff end) at .020"; and added weights at each end. They said their tolerances are .010" or less runout; they fixed the deficiencies.





$170 for the second shop resulted in a nearly vibration-absent ride up to 80 m.p.h.

Some of you may remember that I found out that the front and rear u-joints at the t-case are supposed to be in-phase to avoid vibration; this can be set out of phase by putting the t-case in neutral or in 4 Low. Well, now with the OD unit, the u-joints will not be in-phase most of the time. But since I usually don't drive over 70 and will be under 65 pulling the trailer on the trip, I don't mind some small vibration.

Took the truck and trailer out to Palm Springs and back this afternoon and it all worked just fine.

4 weeks to departure; still need to install cruise control and hope to paint the roof and tailgate.






I wonder if I've lost a seal today?? looks like oil on the bracket and exhaust pipe.




Note aluminum heat shield between exhaust and bottom of OD unit.