1978 K20 farm truck "Boring maintenance phase"

[78K30]

Build thread?

Since Brian wanted some pictures of the wheeling rig here they are.

"New" 8.8 rear axle ready to go in. Had to swap the flange from my old unit over as well as replace the pinion seal, wheel seals, and a new diff cover with lube locker gasket.



The '78 doing work to haul the old busted junk away.

Bending some tube for the new bed. 27 years of Iowa and 2 years of my wheeling had destroyed the old one. Sad that I've had this bender for two years and this is the first ive used it. Has to be some kind of sin.



Main hoop in place. It looks crooked in the pictures but the battered cab makes it appear that way. My digital protractor puts my angles within .5 of a degree. Not bad for my first time ever using this bender. And before someone jumps me over it the Hobart 140 is not being used to burn the bed together. Just tack it so I can drive it down to where the big welder is.



I would've gotten farther but I had 4 "service calls" from my grandfather while he was out mowing pastures. He barely ever uses the 560 anymore so it keeps getting crap plugging the valve in the bottom of the fuel tank and shutting down. This picture was taken after time #2 of getting it fired up again.



Hoping to get more tube work done tomorrow evening. Hoping to atleast have it in wheeling condition for the Fourth of July. Fingers crossed!

 

[82355]

Don't the cattle mow the pastures?

Martin

 

[78K30]

Don't the cattle mow the pastures?

Martin

Normally yes, this little section is fenced off right now so the fence along the road can be repaired. So he's mowing it to keep the weeds down.

 

[campfire]

Alright, James, you got me. I don't think I've seen a 504 in person, much less one with a Detroit.

Nice work on the trucks, though I think that cutting the bumper was a bit overkill.

Sounds like we might be heading down for the fourth. What sort of wheeling will you be up to?

 

[78K30]

Alright, James, you got me. I don't think I've seen a 504 in person, much less one with a Detroit.

Nice work on the trucks, though I think that cutting the bumper was a bit overkill.

Sounds like we might be heading down for the fourth. What sort of wheeling will you be up to?

I've only seen a couple 504's myself, this Detroit swap was done many moons ago by the looks of it.

That bumper was bent decent there and I was getting sick of burning myself with the torch, so I decided to heck with it I don't need no suburban rear bumper

It's a place called Miobi (make it or break it) down near Hamilton. About 45 minute south of home. The wheeling is pretty serious terrain in spots. It's a relatively small park that has been beat on guys with large rubber. It used to be a strip mine so lots of steep climbs as well.

 

[campfire]

Well, lemme know if you want a passenger that weekend.

I like my sheet metal too much to run mine with yours.

 

[78K30]

Well, lemme know if you want a passenger that weekend.

I like my sheet metal too much to run mine with yours.

Will do! I have been know to use the drive by Braille approach. And have what's left of a body on the truck to prove it

 

[78K30]

Working slowly to get tube fitment good and close takes awhile but I'm happy with how the cross bar fits. Somehow failed to get an installed picture but here are a couple tube fitment pics.

 

[GWeakland620]

Tube work looks good. The fitment is nice, one thing I wish I would have spent more time on.

Will do! I have been know to use the drive by Braille approach. And have what's left of a body on the truck to prove it

I also speak brail with my K5...

 

[78K30]

Tube work looks good. The fitment is nice, one thing I wish I would have spent more time on.


I also speak brail with my K5...

It was actually fun taking over an hour to makes two notches. I used to just be the "get after it and get it done" guy but I'd like to drive this on the street and not be embarrassed by the craftsmanship in the future.

 

[GWeakland620]

So when is any of your stuff going to make it down here to Tuttle?

 

[78K30]

This year I will be completely out of PTO between going to Michigan and the Knoxville nationals in august so likely I'm 2018. Our local park is fun but totally rutted up in a lot of places and it's mostly mud which gets old fast.

 

[GWeakland620]

This year I will be completely out of PTO between going to Michigan and the Knoxville nationals in august so likely I'm 2018. Our local park is fun but totally rutted up in a lot of places and it's mostly mud which gets old fast.

That's what is nice about Tuttle, even a couple weeks ago when we went, we had just had a few inches of rain and you can still get around the mud.

 

[82355]

Mud sucks.

Martin

 

[campfire]

Martin is right. As usual.

Ethan

 

[78K30]

Tuesday nights progress. The bulk of the time consuming notch work is done.




Didn't get much done last night due to heading out dinner with the family. After eating way to much I came home and thought about toolbox mounting and how I want to build the bed around it.

Mud sucks.

Martin

That's what sucks about wheeling in Iowa, that's pretty much what it is.

That's what is nice about Tuttle, even a couple weeks ago when we went, we had just had a few inches of rain and you can still get around the mud.

That'd be dang nice. Memorial weekend last year was the last wheeling I did. And it rained for three straight days. It with a welded rear and open front it was full throttle EVERYWHERE. Even on mildly flat ground you had to be careful or you'd slide off into one of the very very deep old mine pits that are full of water. Kinda takes the fun out of it. Also makes radiators plug and electric fans die. Which is why the 5.8 it's on its last legs. I managed to limp it home 40 miles with no engine fan in the rain that night to put the mechanical fan back on it. The temperature gauge hit 270 degrees about 4 times going home. It still runs pretty good somehow. As gutless and inefficient as the 5.8 is the thing is very tough.

 

[78K30]

Did some more work on the K20 today. I've had this column laying around since I did the 465 swap over a year ago. Figured no time like the present to get the tilt tightened up and installed.

the only disassembly shots i got.





And installed, had to swipe the steering shaft out of my 84 since the steering column in the truck was the older splined end not the D style like the tilt column.



It is nice to not have to slide across the seat cover now to clear the steering wheel.

More updates to this thing are to come. Boxes have slowly been coming in from summit and Amazon with parts for the 350/NV4500 swap and I bought the flywheel this morning. May tear into the engine this week if time allows.

 

[78K30]

Also has anyone tried these before? I ordered a set. Lifetime warranty and priced competitively with warn so I'll give them a shot.

 

[campfire]

Did some more work on the K20 today. I've had this column laying around since I did the 465 swap over a year ago. Figured no time like the present to get the tilt tightened up and installed.

the only disassembly shot i got.

And installed, had to swipe the steering shaft out of my 84 since the steering column in the truck was the older splined end not the D style like the tilt column.

It is nice to not have to slide across the seat cover now to clear the steering wheel.

More updates to this thing are to come. Boxes have slowly been coming in from summit and Amazon with parts for the 350/NV4500 swap and I bought the flywheel this morning. May tear into the engine this week if time allows.

Cool stuff.

I have a spare steering shaft if you want to put the '84 back together.

And I assume you used plenty of loctite?

 

[Bent77]

Also has anyone tried these before? I ordered a set. Lifetime warranty and priced competitively with warn so I'll give them a shot.

Can't be worse than the super winch hubs. I think I bombed 6 of them before I gave them up