The WC53 Carryall thread .

[Bruce in BC]

pegged alternator

Did not work on the truck today, sub zero temps outside. My SW voltmeter in the dash was pegged. Being relatively intelligent I checked at the batteries and would swear my voltmeter was over 16 volts. So I pulled the alternator. that was when I found out that the bottom was not hooked up only the top bracket. I tore the alternator down and it looked fresh inside. The kind of fresh a low milage alternator should show and the brushes look new. I tossed in a new regulator and some grease in the rear roller bearing. reinstalled in the truck and the meter would still peg. This is where the uncertainty kicks in, the stuff I loathe with a passion. Is it the alternator, did I wire it wrong, a short or a faulty guage? I then got smart, at about 8 o'clock in the pitch dark I had my wife sit in the Carryall and run it at 1000 RPM. Checked the voltage at the batteries 14.7 and at the alternator 14.8 . At this point I had a big happy on my face. That is a brand new faulty Stewart Warner guage. I will pick up another one tomorrow.

One step closer........

Bruce

Old leather couches are a great source for Carryall interior fabric

[Bruce in BC]

a ways to go yet

I am having a heating issue. 1st thing I need to deal with is the thermostat. Also replace the stewart warner volt guage. Then there is an issue with the engine oil temp reading too high. Not sure of it is a sending unit or gauge issue or if it is related to the coolant not heating up. There is pressure in the rad. No overflow tank ...yet.

So here is a gratuitous couple of pictures

[bilfman]

Looks great! You are almost there, keep on trucking. I just put a brand new 230 in my 46, it was 2 steps forward 1 back the whole process , I was starting to lose motivation. Finally got the urge to get back at it. Running like a top now , it's all worth the effort in the end! I had set back after setback. Finally got the engine in, boom fuel pump goes, new fuel pump bang starter dies( 6 weeks to get a rebuild), got starter zing no oil pressure( turned out I forgot a part in the pressure relief system). But I forgave myself, always been a chev guy and this is my first ffpw. So I finally get it fired and all is great , but then the bung soldered in the tank is dripping fuel , turns out the weld has a barely noticeable hairline crack. Off with the tank now, cut out the old solder and redid it with a silver rod and map gas, so it will be stronger then factory now. Still many things to do now but at least I can enjoy driving it now. Keep at it you definitely are not alone🙂

[vtunderground53]

Awesome!

Truck is looking great Bruce! Congratulations on the progress.

[Bruce in BC]

thanks for the positive comments.

Took it down to get it inspected today. The mechanics said they where happy with what they saw. There was one doing the inspection and he had another mechanic over to check out the truck to see if he was missing anything.

what failed. Speedo, lack of a front drive shaft and mud flaps. I am not going to whine over the two grey areas, mudflaps and the driveshaft. The stupid speedometer stopped as I was rolling down the road.

Speedometer - if it is the gear in the transfer case I will switch to a GPS speedometer. It takes too much time to remove all the bits just to access that gear.

Mudflaps - need to reach 14 inches from the ground. They will look real ugly. I will make a quick disconnect for them. They will live in the back of the truck when not in use.

Drive shaft - this is a bit of an issue. really the truck needs to go to a high angle unit. Under full drop the shaft will bind. To get one I wanted to take the truck to a drive shaft shop- which is 100 miles away. can not do that without a license. A bit of a catch 22 situation.

Driving with the extra hydro assist ram is interesting. The truck has bump steer. Not sure if it is because of the ram, steering geometry or toe in needs to be adjusted. it is really easy to steer. Takes no effort but the feed back and return to centre are different than i would expect.

[Desoto61]

Congrats on getting her road worthy! It's an exciting step. I have not yet gone after an inspection, I'll be interested to see what they say, right now the biggest issues would probably be the mismatched used tires and the battery strapped to the rear crossmember, but might be worth the money to see.

[Bob Thompson]

Bruce, Don't they use a rolling road to test the speedo? If so , how can they test a GPS speedo while the vehicle is stationary?
I don't know a lot about GPS speeedos so I thought I'd ask.

[Bruce in BC]

GPS speedometers - Alex may know more...

The GPS speedometer works while rolling, and that is how they test it. My vehicle was taken out for a drive - to test the brakes, steering, speedo. The rear driveshaft is in - Ford unit with 1410 joints. I gather that the GPS speedos are very accurate , especially at low speeds. This is what I have been told but I have yet to use one myself.

I just figured out the configuration for my front shaft. I can not find the Dodge flange unit that was on my transfer case and the yoke that is on the transferase will not work. So I will get a Ford super duty front shaft , add a flange to the transferase and replace the yoke on the Dana 60. Going to price that out today. I need to pull the yoke out of the transfer case and check the seal diameter. There are two sizes.

hope this helps

Bruce

I emailed speed hut yesterday the 5th, I have yet to get a response, I will let you know what I learn.

[Bob Thompson]

Thanks Bruce, I wasn't sure how they went about it. A lot of states here won't accept the liability inherent in doing a test drive* so they use a rolling road.
Although I am using a Dodge transfer case I that I can easily connect, the GPS unit appeals to me. I'm not sure yet what size tires I'll be using so the prospect of having to tailor a gear reduction to get the right speed displayed on the dash is a chore I can do without.
Let us know how that works out for you please.

*I suspect this has more to do with the number of lawyers per square mile in the U.S. than any fear that an inspector might crash someone's car.

[Alxj64]

Drive shaft - this is a bit of an issue. really the truck needs to go to a high angle unit. Under full drop the shaft will bind. To get one I wanted to take the truck to a drive shaft shop- which is 100 miles away. can not do that without a license. A bit of a catch 22 situation.

Why on earth is the front driveshaft required to pass inspection? Just tell them its a 2wd and you used a 4wd front axle! That makes no sense to me! Lots of people I know take their front driveshafts out around here so that it WILL pass inspection because the angles eat the U-joints. Thats a very odd thing.

Driving with the extra hydro assist ram is interesting. The truck has bump steer. Not sure if it is because of the ram, steering geometry or toe in needs to be adjusted. it is really easy to steer. Takes no effort but the feed back and return to centre are different than i would expect.

Your return to center may mean that your caster could stand to be turned up some as the assist ram requires more force to overcome. Unfortunately that means that your pinion angle will go down and thus worsen your driveshaft angle woes without cutting and rotating your knuckles which I would assume is not something on your list to do at this point. Another solution is to put a reactive valve in the system. Some steering orbital valves have them however the way a Saginaw type box functions, its not quite possible. All it does is allows the fluid in the system to move from chamber to chamber until volume/pressure is applied in a specific direction and at that point the reactive valve closes and the steering system is in control. Its sorta like a temporary and load reactive 3 point hitch "Float" position. Its a fair amount of extra plumbing. I'm avoiding hydro assist on my setup unless it is absolutely required to drive the truck simply for the natural "numbness" it creates when driving. I had it on my Wrangler and disliked it greatly for street use. I went to a full hydro system now that its trail use only and on the dirt roads at speed its better than the assist system was as I have a load reactive orbital valve.

The bump steer shouldn't have to do with the steering ram; thats going to be a geometry issue. How flat is your drag link from the box to the tiller? I can't remember if you did full cross over or just a high steer tie rod? Are your pitman arm to tiller arm to steering arm ratios all the same and everything in the system as flat as possible? Any of these lengths being different will create an amplified response ratio and therfore make the steering wheel bump when the suspension cycles. A steep box to tiller arm angle will do the same. I can't remember your steering setup exactly though.

[Bruce in BC]

The inspection dance.

I think my steering geometry set up is picture perfect. The only issue I have is the steering arm needs to be shorter to get full range from my box. The stops on the axle hit and I think there is 1/2 a turn or more left in the box. Not sure if it is 3 turns or 3.25 turns from lock to lock. I think the box is 4.25 or 4.5 from turns from end to end.
By box is on the outside of the frame and the drag link runs fully across to a top mount tiller arm on the dana 60. It is not flat but the angle is the lowest I have seen on this type of cross steering set up.
What you describe as to steering feel is pretty much how it feels to drive. Very little feed back. The system works great in a tight turn. Feels like a sports car with rack and pinion. Just no feed back. I may plug the ports and go back to just the box but I will drive it for awhile and see how I feel about it. I think the king pin inclination is 5 degrees. Keep in mind this was my first trip and in my view the truck has not been dialled in. It takes quite a few trips to get a vehicle dialed in.
I have rattled a few bolts and screws loose in that one trip. Either they were not tight or there was no locket on them. Every major bolt or nut was marked with yellow paint as it was torqued down on my final go around.
Front shaft - I am going to use a Ford super duty unit, either brand new and sized for the job or I will shorten up a used one. There is a chance that a stock unit will bolt in place but I think it will need to be a few inches shorter. The shaft will use 1350 u joints all around. My rear is a 1350 1410 combination.

Take care
Bruce

That one trip got me a few smiles from some joggers. I will fill in some other details later.

[Bruce in BC]

Speedometer parts source, worth bookmarking

As you know my speedometer was not working and I was thinking of going to a GPS unit. Although Speedhut has 85 MPH speedometers they do not have the equivalent in a KM unit. Personally I like the ones with both KMs and MPHs but Speedhut has no such animal. Considering how many factory vehicles have both units I think it would be smart to offer their after market speedometers with a dual reading option. Then I saw that it could take up to twenty days before the speedometer would get to me and the cost to my door would have been close to $500 Canadian, this encouraged me to suck it up and look at my manual drive unit with more of a critical eye.

After spending the better part of an hour plus two trips to different stores it became clear that the only way to get at the transfer case end of things was to pull the floor and seats. It took me about an hour to strip it down and I then spent a couple of hours jacking up the truck , blocking it and pulling the parts out to test them. Cable was fine, right angle adapter was fine, and the tang adapter that runs out of the transfercase to the right angle adapter was turning when the truck was put in gear. Turns out the Right angle adapter has tang fittings at both ends. The speedometer cable is square at both ends. After about 2 hrs of trolling and finding numerous folks who had the same issue but no solution ;several old Dodge military posts had the same issue with a speedo that would not turn; I found a source for an adapter and at a darn fair price. http://www.texasindustrialelectric.com/speedo.asp
Take a look you would be amazed at how many adapters there are for mechanical speedometers.

Now for the punch line. I went out to the shop to clean up a bunch of the old speedo parts that I had pulled off the shelf. Tucked away was a tang adapter. strange part was the tang was plastic, I gave it a tug and low and behold the plastic bit slid off to reveal a square drive. This was the exact part that I was after and planned on ordering.

Got the whole shebang together and it works . I walked in to the house and thought " Oh Oh was the trans in reverse? Do I have a reverse drive? They do make them for quite a few vehicles." I am happy to report that the trans was in first and the speedometer travels in the right direction.

I am still learning stuff
Bruce

.152 tang to .104 square hole GM# 25032338

edit: http://www.partshp.com/speedometer_gears.htm I have used this source in the past for odd ball gear drives and parts to true up a speedometers accuracy.

[Bruce in BC]

Drive shaft flange

This took about 3 hrs to track down. I contacted four drive shaft places in the states and two in Canada. One of the places in Canada said they would order some in from the States the next day but it could take a week to get to their store and several more days to get to me, The punch line was the price that was listed was what it would cost out the factory door in the states, all shipping , brokerage fees and taxes would be added on top. Trust me this is not a good deal, been there done that. Same thing with two other suppliers in the States " we have them on back order" I contacted one of the major drive shaft builder in the states the price for the flange came in at $140 US, but he would only ship UPS. All of a sudden that flange comes in at $360 Canadian or more.
Then I played telephone tag with the fine folks at Pats Drive Line. In the middle of the call I dropped the line to pick up a SAR call. Through all this they were patient and understanding as I attempted to describe what I was after. It took awhile but I new I was going to be all right when one of the guys said "We have several on the shelf, what you are after is the 32 spline adapter that the rock crawler guys are running on their 205 transfer case" that was when I new we where both on the same page.
IMG_1442.JPG IMG_1443.JPG

The reason I went this route is that it is easier to get a drive shaft to bolt up to this arrangement than the common yoke that was on the transfer case. Both Dodge and Ford use the 3x3 square style flange. I plan on using the Ford unit because Dodge is now using a less common 1355 joint that is 10 thousand different in size. DUH! The Ford shaft uses the old standard size Spicer or AAM/Saginaw 1350 U joint.

So a big thank you to the folks a Pats driveline for their fast service and courtesy. It is pleasure to do business with people who are enthusiastic and like what they do. http://www.patsdriveline.com

[Bruce in BC]

oops, That!!!..... is not original, me bad.

IMG_1444.jpg

I was at one of my local garbage stores. This one sells used and new boat stuff. Most of the used has 10% life left in it and they ask 80% of the original cost. I was after a SW gauge I had seen there in the past. No guage but I did spot something dumped on the shelf and out of place in the paint section. A heavy brass thing that looked somewhat like a old style oil filter. I thought it might make a decent rad overflow container.
So I adapted it, tapped it, cut it, drilled it and plugged it. The part was clean as a whistle when I picked it up and looked half polished from handling. This got me thinking about what it was.
Yep I cut up a lubricator for a steam engine. 120 year old part in my local used marine store. Did not see that coming.
It is now a rare dodge accessory only offered on their Dist 51 Test vehicles.

Still waiting for other parts to arrive via mail.

[Bruce in BC]

Gots me a drive shaft

I was down at my local metal recycler, wrecker, dump place doing just that. Dumping off some scrap that was in my way at home. As I left I noticed a burned out Ford F350 being backed in to their shop for a fluid drain before getting crushed. Part way home I got to thinking, I wonder if the front drive shaft is toast? Then I realized " heh it is on the hoist, what more could a guy ask for when it comes to easy access?" And then I realized I had a 60 dollar credit with the wreckers from about a year back. So I got my self a drive shaft and it is in the Carryall.
Drive shaft - basically free + $30.00 U joint + $80.00 to have it shortened + $ 50.00 for a new bellows or boot. So the front shaft came in at $ 160.00 and a mess of time driving around. At least this way I do not have to wait a month to get a new drive shaft delivered to my door. Just have to screw everything back together and take it back to the mechanic for the inspection papers and the bill.

vrooooom
Bruce

yard drive tomorrow