Alex's '42 WC53 Carryall Build Details - Cummins ISB170

[Alxj64]

I started messing with the seat layout in the truck and also messing with the floors. I think I mentioned prior that the floors are going to be made out of reclaimed teak from the USS North Carolina!

Here are some of the deck boards that I have. I will have to re-saw them down to thinner runs just so that I can have enough to do it. These 5 boards are all that the guy would sell me.




So also in the attached photos I decided to take a nap... and also put the drivers seat in the back just to get my locations where I want them. Turns out the original seat locations are pretty much where I want things.

I also made a bunch of stock reproduction seat keys to put in the floors similar to the way the trucks were built originally.

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

Are these cut exact to factory spec?

[Alxj64]

Are these cut exact to factory spec?

Nearly, dimensionally yes.. Well, the original plate as .104" thick I believe and these plates are .125" thick. Also the end of my bolt slots are squared to give a third shoulder contact point for tightening down vs the original ones had a rounded slot (due to the process used to make the original ones). Otherwise they are same outside dimensions, radial dimensions and screw dimensions as provided from Jim Lee. I owe him a set once I get these countersunk for the 1/4" hardware.

Next, I moved on to building my intermediate and rear driveshafts. The Allison 1000 has a 1480 PTO flange yoke that I turned down the drum hub years and years ago. I was told that it was probably thrown out of balance because I turned it into the balance drill spots. This being the case I figured I'd get the shafts and yokes balanced as an assembly. Then I read an old Machinery book that explained the LeBlanc method of fluid balancing. I then found a fluid dynamics paper on it and figured it'd be worth a try. That is, it works similar to putting dynabeads or fluid in a tire. I used as large of a diameter but thin wall tube as reasonable so that the mass moment of inertia would still be small but the resulting centrifugal force on the fluid would be maximum due to the radial speed of the tubing.

So, I ordered a bunch of driveshaft parts and used the lathe to assemble my mid-ship jackshaft between the Allison and the NP205. yes, these are all my photos, the Dana one is actually getting picked up by my parts supplier to use on his website downtofab.com

[Alxj64]

So on the "dynamic LeBlanc balancing" I had mentioned this in a thread in the tech section of the forum... and it appears to work.

I spun the shaft at 1k RPM on the lathe and loosened up the live center on the tail stock a little bit and the splined end of the shaft danced all over the place and chattered.

I stopped the lathe, modified a $3.00 "Turkey Flavor Injector" from the grocery store by putting heat shrink tubing over the side slots and then grinding down a very fine opening in the tip.

I drilled a 5/64" dia hole in the tube as close to the end yoke as possible so as to affect the torsional reaction in the tube as minimal as possible. I then added about 7 fl oz of Power Steering fluid to the tube that was fully TIG welded. I then cleaned the hole with acetone and then quickly plug welded it back with the TIG.

I spun the shaft back up to 1k and loosened the tailstock again. This time the end of the shaft found a sweet spot and rode against the nose of the live center, and the shimmy and chatter were totally gone. It appeared that even the yoke was balanced out as I forgot to mention, I spun the chuck and output from the Allison up to speed without the shaft, and even that had an out of balance feel on my lathe.

I slipped the end yoke onto the splines and installed the shaft into the truck, it fit perfectly and has a ton of spline engagement. Should serve its purpose well.

[Alxj64]

So, I then started to build the rear driveshaft but needed to get an H yoke still as that was out of stock and I didn't realize it until I got all my parts. That order was from another vendor actually, and downtofab is filling in the order for me.

From there I started to work on the rear axle. It is an Eaton HO72 from a 1968 3/4 ton GMC. It has 4.57 gears already and I am leaving it an open differential, for now, until I can find the money and time to machine a 14 bolt ARB air locker to fit.

It had 1/2" wheel studs and drum brakes factory, but I am converting it over to disc brakes. In order to use the K20 front rotors and calipers, I need 9/16" wheel studs from a DRW application because the hat of the rotor is thicker than the drum, and also my Aluminum Beadlock wheels have a VERY thick mounting flange.

In order to do so, I needed to drill out the hubs for the new larger diameter knurl studs and it needs to be a press fit. So a 39/64" drill bit chucked into the mill did the job. AND, I do have both a rotary table and an indexing head, but those are heavy and I am lazy. So, I snagged an old Eaton spindle I had from when I cut the tubes off of my custom front axle build. I squared up the end on the lathe and then just held it in the vise on the mill. Found the center of the spindle and then just moved out 6.5" for the bolt pattern, and then drilled away. This also allowed some active self centering of the bit in the holes too. Worked perfectly!

[Alxj64]

Last little post for this update and now ya'll will be up to speed as of 1/18/18.

I got some brake lines ordered and in. They were custom made to help get my hood to close near the master cylinder and also allows my to mount my rear proportioning valve in a place that the handle is easy to get to for adjustment when the truck hits the road. I know that many people say that npt threads aren't supposed to be used in automotive brakes, however this system came with NPT threads on the prop-valve, and despite my looking, it seems any decent valve requires adapters. So my lines go from 1/4" PTFE crimped braided hose, to an inverted flare, to npt, then comes back out to Npt to inverted flare. I need to make the hardline that drops down to the chassis to make the connection at the frame. I don't anticipate the body to move much relative to the frame to justify using a flex line at the body to frame connection. Also, I think that for everything I do on the axles, I am going to switch over to JIC 37 degree flare. It seems that it actually seals better than the inverted 45 degree, parts seem cheaper, and you can get the lines tighter too. My wife snagged me this nice flaring tool to use on this project. It also makes GM fuel line fittings, GM trans cooler fittings, Metric inverted flare and metric bubble flare, along with the inverted flare and the JIC 38 (AN) flares in all soft tubing and its rated for up to 1/2" annealed stainless steel. So far I really like it!

[Greg Coffin]

That's a nice flare tool. I have one like it and it's a joy to use. It can get into some pretty tight areas if you have to work on a line that's already on the vehicle. I had to redo a flare on my 6x6 fuel line and it really saved my bacon.

[Alxj64]

That's a nice flare tool. I have one like it and it's a joy to use. It can get into some pretty tight areas if you have to work on a line that's already on the vehicle. I had to redo a flare on my 6x6 fuel line and it really saved my bacon.

I just got to use it under the truck and you are right, it certainly makes flare work on the vehicle very easy. I was balled up sitting with my legs crossed and the Transfer case output stabbing me in the neck while I was flaring the line for the connection to the flexible drop line to the rear axle, did it in like 3 minutes with a perfect flare. I also started building the hard lines for the front axle. Figured I'd do a drop to the axle and then hard lines across there too.


In other news, I did scale this thing out.

She's heavy, but not as heavy as I feared and only a few hundred lbs over what I was hoping I could keep it down to. These weights are without fenders, without hood or running boards, no complete interior. No fuel in the tank. However, I created a spreadsheet and separately weighed a lot of the other components, then based on their location relative to the wheelbase, the spreadsheet would calculate what the final total weights are. I was only able to scale two corners at a time.

So here are some pics because thats what matters, right? The pic of the scale is of the front weights.

[Alxj64]

Also, still working on the brakes some.

I've decide to run AN -4 lines for the flex lines instead of inverted flare for the sake of being able to build my own line with field type fittings in the event that something happens. I hope its not ever an issue, but also any old hydro shop can make me a "get it home" JIC -4 line in a pinch.


Also, wife decided she wanted to be part of a "Front End Friday" Facebook post in the Power Wagon owners group. Buncha rest-mod grouches in there lately; I enjoy stirring the pot though.

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

Thank you for sharing Alex, we all love your build and insight. With your skills as a fabricator I think you can build a bigger spoon for said Pot.

I will be un "Bubba Hacking" my 46 eventually :)

[Alxj64]

I will be un "Bubba Hacking" my 46 eventually :)

Shwew! Good thing! It might not be worth anything to anyone unless its perfectly restored to original, whatever condition at X date in time that might be...

Meanwhile things like a 1/2 ton single cab WC with a 4 link brings 220k, but a perfect numbers matching super rare original 3 door crew brings 176... yea, people really want the originals more...

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

To be honest, after speaking with a few of the Power Wagon minds I will be fixing my bed, in a similar fashion to one of theirs', we were also discussing four wheel steering due to the shortened wheel base it would be fantastic for a trip to Moab.

I believe we should all work together to help keep these trucks alive in which ever fashion suits the owner and the owner's needs.

[W_A_Watson_II]

I believe we should all work together to help keep these trucks alive in which ever fashion suits the owner and the owner's needs.

Amen!

[Alxj64]

I believe we should all work together to help keep these trucks alive in which ever fashion suits the owner and the owner's needs.

I was just poking fun at the FB warriors that lack an open mind. They can only see things one way and never take a step back and consider the other uses for things down the road; things are the way there are, and thats the only way they can be. I've seen lots of "Bubba-fied" conversions that are rather smart and an improvement over functionality, just maybe not as "cleanly" executed. After all, necessity is the mother of ingenuity.

Ordered a set of volume adding Reservoirs for the front ORI struts. The weight of this truck, when analyzed, calculates out to require the addition of gas expansion during a hard long hit. So, to avoid having my teeth knocked out, and more so to avoid stresses on chassis, I ponied up some more money into the suspension. Turns out though, I'll be getting the first consumer ready set of these upgrade reservoirs that were specifically designed for heavier vehicles like mine so I guess the fact that I drug my feet so long actually worked in my advantage. Sad thing though is I requested a bit of an appearance change to mine, I wanted the machined grooves removed so that they are all black; this will add a few weeks to the delivery. Ohh well, lots of other things to work on in the meantime... such as:

I also ordered my rear springs from Alcan. They got a TON of measurements from me, weights, etc, and we are looking into changing the eye bushings on my springs to something a little more "comfortable" than just the bronze eye.

I just want to verify the spring PINS ARE 3/4" Diameter, CORRECT?

I am re-using the original mounts and shackle in the rear and am having springs made for a better ride quality and flexibility rather than the super heavy rate springs the trucks came with. I have the air-assist shocks in place that can give me an extra 1100 lbs of load capacity if I want / need it. So, I told Alcan to make the springs nice and squishy and I can adjust my air ride to compensate. The adustment will be controlled by a small series of valves and a self relieving regulator that will be turned on and off. I'll be able to figure out a few pressure settings on the regulator that can be pre-determined for a certain trailer, or certain amount of cargo, etc. The weight of fuel, interior, etc has all been calculated into the spring capacities too.

Moving right along it appears. I still need to pull the body one more time to finish up the firewall, finish up the floorboard, and install some wire loom clamps that are too hard to a drill to with the body in the way.

I need to weld the passenger's side inner body panel back in too. It had to be cut out so that I could straighten out the rear of the truck after it was rear-ended just before I got it.

Very excited! I can now see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Things are nickel and diming me to death but I know it will be worth it in the end for sure! At this point all the little details are investments in quality vs just "parts for a truck".

Thanks to all who have been supportive and helped me along the way. I'm sure I'll be bugging you all for more idea checks, dimensions, and general support.

[Alxj64]

A few small things over the weekend. I had to slow down on parts acquisitions lately because my poor darg is in the need of an expensive surgery and he's like a child to my wife and I.

In the mean time I went ahead and installed some parts that had showed up over the past week; things that were back ordered and things that just needed some more thought.

So the rest of the driveshaft parts showed up, for those that have never messed with a 1350 CV shaft, ie CYBORG LEG, these things can be quite the Pain to assemble by yourself.

I included a generic view looking along my crazy driveline offsets.