The WC53 Carryall thread .

[mcinfantry]

im running a jeep arm. reversed the taper and its hooked up. 3.5 turns lock to lock

[Bruce in BC]

Steering arms

This carryall has cross steering. The tie rod ends are the Chev - Dodge ones commonly used on the 77 -93 dana 60 axles. The rod ends are quite large and require a beefy steering arm.
I have a pretty good arm that would provide 3.5 lock to lock steering that would need the taper reversed. I am after a shorter but beefier arm and 4.25 lock to lock steering . I want full steering with as little load on the box as possible.
The Ford arm may not work . I will let you know later today.
edit - It is a good thing I looked . The ford arm went to 36 splines in the middle of 99 and the 2008 models are even bigger. What i want is a 97 some odd model with 32 splines and even then i have to modify the index splines and reverse the taper. Lots of meat on the arm though.
Bruce

edit 2 - the Ford arm does not work. The hole is 32 spline but it is 3/32 larger than all my other arms. The Ford arm can not be tightened on to the sector shaft of the saginaw box. The weird thing is I checked my arm against a Ford arm before ordering one in . Either the ford arm from moog was broached too far or my measurements were off. I am not about to order another arm to find out. I have to eat this one due to a screw up with my supplier missplacing the box the arm came in . We will not go there - he lost it not me but will not own up to it . Got 2 witnesses that say I got the arm less the box and I remember the purchase that way too.

[Bruce in BC]

A little detour

A little off track on my build here . Basically I am lacking in the enthusiasm department. Ripping out a part because a new part will not fit has a tendancy to take the wind out of my sales. Add to that a couple of purchases that did not work out and I am feeling a bit blue.
So in an effort to keep moving forward I freed the downpipe flange from the 2 1/2 inch pipe and I will use it on my new 3 inch pipe .
How does this work ? Well the 2 inch pipe went into the inside of the flange and the 3 inch pipe happens to fit on the outside of the flange. Add to this that something went right for a change - the welds were done with a tig or oxy/acet and are soft enough to turn in the lathe using a common lathe bit.

shot 1 this is the pipe as it arrived on the bread van

photo 2 Hogging out the remaining exhaust pipe and the weld . using the lathe seemed to be a bit easier than using the plasma cutter and a grinding disc.

best regards

Bruce

[MoparNorm]

You have your own lathe?

[mcinfantry]

what purchases wont work? i gave up on my mech fan idea....

[Bruce in BC]

Lathe ? Who me ?

I have had my own lathe - at present i do not own one but will pick one up in the future. this lathe happens to be one at the school shop.
What did not work ? Hmmmmmmm
(1) My drag link style steering needed to come out because the dodge starter was too darn close. That meant the adapter did not work.
(2) Ford steering arm does not work .
(3) There is a stack of other little details that have bit me. The ford high pinion front axle would have eliminated all of the problems and reduced the build cost too.

Bruce

[mcinfantry]

so what have you decided?

i was able to get a jeep pitman arm, taper the other end, taper the dodge steering (knuckle) top-down and get mine to work with a helitool kit. not happy about frame-cutting, but didnt see alot of options......

JUST took it around the block for the first time. no windows, front clip (well there IS a radiator) and no rear tailgate. the 4l80e shifts SMOOTH. my hats off to compushift.

[Jake]

I like the stance as well and the tires as well.
Did you fabricate the rear fenders Bruce?

[Bruce in BC]

squeezed another 2 hours in.

I am converting the original weld in transfercase cover to a bolt in cover. So last night from 8 to 10 I sat down with the wire feed and a piece of copper and proceeded to weld up the holes where the spot welds used to be. The cover is still not done but I did manage to get most of the holes filled and ground down . I also cut out a old torched hole and welded in a new patch . Once the holes are filled I plan on laying out some new holes for the screws to go through and attach the cover to the floor.

The reason I want the cover removable is to make servicing the drive train easier. It should be possible to take out the transfercase through the floor.
The same goes for the transmission . I can drop it down or take it out through the cab without pulling the motor or taking 1/2 the truck apart .

My daughter works until 10. I plan on forcing myself into the shop on my way to pick her up. I will work on any part of the truck in no particular order in an effort to achieve some progress. Last night was a good example of what can be achieved even when I am not firing on all cylinders.


Of course my bush truck just ate its transmission , I put a few hours in on it too.

Jake - my rear fenders are stock . One I straightened and the other one is still pretty bent up , although I have put about 3 hours in on it , the fender is not really savable. Building a new one has its own set of problems.


best regards

Bruce

[Bruce in BC]

Splice and dice front cross member

To get steering rod clearance I needed a thinner front cross member. I considered fabbing one up but I really did not feel like trying to locate the front rad bracket . I am definetly a bit burned out right now , so progress is slow and seems to have no end in sight .
I did swap the trans in my other 4x4 . I managed to do this without removing the trans mount or the married transfercase from the truck . The process was absurd but worked slick and certainly could not be found in any textbook .

(1) this is the shot of the diced front cross member . 1/2 sand blasted the other in it's natural aged state.

(2) This shot shows spliced member tackwelded and placed for a trial fit . I will add 2 extra holes to replace the 2 that were lost when one inch was removed from the cross member.

Considering the amount of dead threads and blogs out there that have attempted to cover the WC 53 I want to thank those of you who have contributed to this thread . Personally I wish there were more posters showing what they were up to . The imput helps me to stay focused.

take care
Bruce

[MoparNorm]

Bruce, do you realize this thread has over 300 posts and nearing 9,000 views!
We are all rooting for you!

[Bruce in BC]

Hi there Norm

All that support has got me this far. When I started I did not know how to post pictures . Yesterday I burned my first disk . The trick will be not to take 6 months to mail the pictures to Gordon .
Scored a 1 ton Chev 4x4 yesterday . One of the reasons I bought it was I new a guy who wanted to swap me a fresh set of rims and tires for the trans /transfercase out of the truck .
I was planning on tossing the 1 ton axles and fresh tires under my pile of pooh backup truck.
The tires were sold about 10 minutes after I got the truck . Now I get to decide on the cheapest aproach to keeping the pile of pooh mobile.

Dana 60 , 14 bolt , 32 spline 205 , bigblock 454, hydro brakes , turbo400 , all for 1200 bucks and a rusty but unmolested truck at that. It would be perfect for a carryall parts truck .

I was chearing for Kieth? and his "green machine " posts over on Joe's site and I have noticed that I now get about a hundred hits after each post. That kind of WC stuff is kinda fun.


Bruce

[Gordon Maney]

All that support has got me this far. When I started I did not know how to post pictures . Yesterday I burned my first disk. The trick will be not to take 6 months to mail the pictures to Gordon.
Scored a 1 ton Chev 4x4 yesterday . One of the reasons I bought it was I new a guy who wanted to swap me a fresh set of rims and tires for the trans /transfercase out of the truck .
I was planning on tossing the 1 ton axles and fresh tires under my pile of pooh backup truck.
The tires were sold about 10 minutes after I got the truck . Now I get to decide on the cheapest aproach to keeping the pile of pooh mobile.

Dana 60 , 14 bolt , 32 spline 205 , bigblock 454, hydro brakes , turbo400 , all for 1200 bucks and a rusty but unmolested truck at that. It would be perfect for a carryall parts truck .

Bruce

The trick will be not to take 6 months to mail the pictures to Gordon.

Here, here..... yes. These will be your high resolution images, right?

....also, what are hydro brakes? Hydraulic brake booster? What year is the Chevy?

[Bruce in BC]

Hi there Gordon

On the disc the photo's should be high resolution. My teenage assistant is still in bed.
I do not know what year the truck is. Some sort of mid 80s chev . I will update you later.

Bruce

[MoparNorm]

Bruce, one thing to check on the gm axles is this: they should be about 3/4" longer than Dodge Dana's, but the gm frame is a 1/2" narrower, so pay attention to the frame Centerline otherwise you will be off of the frame centerline by about an inch. I had to grind the passenger side spring perch and re-center the drivers side perch to place the axle in the proper, side to side location. other wise she'll "crab" going down the road.