The Green Grendel

[campfire]

Pictures of the Grendel in its new forested home. Moving under its own FWD 1st-gear-only power.





I really like the forest green color. Fits right in up here.

 

[campfire]

Started the pedal swap:

Out with the old, in with the new:



Got the steering column out of the way, but did not remove the seat.



Hole left behind by the column. Brake boost rod coming through on the right. Speedometer cable coming through hole on left.



Engine side of things:

 

[campfire]

My new pedal cluster came out of a truck with vacuum-boost brakes. My truck (like any 6.2 truck) has hydro-boost brakes. The pin on hydro pedals is located slightly differently than the pin on vacuum pedals.

I originally thought that I would be stuck either finding a hydro pedal or running it with less leverage than GM intended. SweetK30 pointed out that my new pedal already had the correct hole drilled for hydro brakes. I simply had to move the post over to the new hole (or add another post). Upon looking at the two pedals side-by-side, I decided that they were practically identical aside from the larger pad at the end. And the inboard side of the pads matched. It was only the outboard edge that was extended.

So I decided to simply use my old pedal with the new cluster.

Hydro pedal on top, vacuum pedal on bottom. Extra hole on vacuum pedal is where the post needs to be for this truck.



I placed it in the nearest vise () and cut off the extra pad area with my angle grinder.



And when I was done, the pedals were almost exactly the same size. During my quick trim job, I did run into very slight interference with the reinforcement rib on the back of the pedal. Instead of cutting through it, I opted to cut around it and wound up with a slightly bowed edge.



The bow was slight enough to not be a hindrance to the original rubber pedal cover:



This was much faster and easier than moving the post or tracking down a different set of pedals. So I was happy.

 

[campfire]

Removing the two unnecessary studs from the pedal housing took much more effort, but it also succumbed. I swapped the pedal return spring & cover from the old cluster to the new one, and installed my freshly shortened pedal. Here you can see how the reinforcement rib does contact the rubber slightly. You can also see the tools used during this project.



I pulled the speedometer cable and miscellaneous wire from the second hole in the firewall. The wire ran to the fuse block, where it attached to one end of an empty fuse holder. I pulled it through the firewall, and when I tucked it out of the way (on the engine side), I drew an arc to the block.

So I added one more thing to my to-do list: Figure out why an apparently hot wire appears to be feeding power backwards into the fuse block. I didn't take the time to trace it down, but it headed into the "special" glow plug wiring area on the firewall.


Anyway, with the hole vacated, I placed the MC from the donor truck in the hole and located the reservoir in its place (it shares bolts with the wiper motor):



Here is what it looked like inside the truck:



I then pulled the hydrobooster and MC away from the firewall and installed the pedals:



The section of firewall underneath the hydrobooster was very nicely painted. Fresh and clean like it was just done. The rest of this truck will probably never look like that, but I wouldn't mind if it did.

 

[campfire]

Inside the cab, I was surprised that the hole I vacated was not in the correct location for the clutch MC.

The two arms that flank the clutch pedal pivot are loose at this point (able to rotate up and down). But they are not lined up with that hole at all. The clutch hole will need to be drilled between them (and at the point where they are appropriately rotated up into position). It looks like they are going to want to rotate up into that brown spot, but that spot is the beginning of a ridge (not flat). So that might be interesting.




Anybody have a picture of what it's supposed to look like? I'm pretty much guessing here, since I don't have a truck to check. I don't have a dent or knock-out in line with the arms.



My other achievement for the day was popping the cover off the brake MC. I found soup:



Looks like brake work is in my future.

 

[campfire]

Finally started tearing into the truck this week. Finished up the pedal swap and reinstalled the steering column. Fired it up and drove it over to its winter home in the barn (FWD in 1st gear only). Pulled out my hydro SM465 bell housing and started fitting it to the NV4500:






As a memory refresher (It's been over a year since I first measured this out), the holes on the bell housing are closer to center than the holes on the NV4500. I am drilling new holes into the face of the NV4500. I have decided to use 3/8" bolts, as that is the largest size I can fit through the bell housing holes without removing more material.

 

[campfire]

Here are the locations for the new holes (pic #4 didn't turn out):



This hole (bottom left when looking at the face of the tranny) is the offset hole on the SM465 bell housing. It is further away from center, and it is the closest interference issue that I encountered when laying this out:



Measure twice, cut once:


Success!



I don't have my bolts yet, nor have I tapped the holes. But I mocked up the fitment with drill bits, and it looks like the holes are all centered well enough to avoid any interference issues.

 

[campfire]

I then turned my attention to the inside of the vehicle. First up was pulling the transmission tunnel:



It's a shame that a lot of the trucks out there don't have this feature. It made this job so much easier to have access from the top. Doing the Suburban will be significantly less fun. :/

And here's the freaky finding for the day:


5 of the 6 bolts holding the tranny to the adapter were finger loose. These 2 weren't even touching.

It also looks like I found one of my major tranny fluid leaks.

 

[campfire]

That view then turned into this one:



No more NP208:




Case next to tranny:


Thoroughly covered in oil:



The inside face had a sludge at the bottom and on the bolt heads. Wasn't expecting that, nor am I quite sure what it is.



And it's officially time for a new U-joint on the axle end of the front drive shaft. In addition to being stiff and crusty, it is now of the capless variety.



The double cardan end was quite smooth. The steady oil bath back there probably didn't hurt.

For reference, the front driveshaft from the donor rig (1993 K30 dually) appears to be exactly the same length as the Grendel's driveshaft (but it doesn't have the double cardan joint, so it is shorter overall):

 

[campfire]

Working in the dark barn with a bright spotlight led to some interesting sights. Here the Great Smaug fades into the blackness:



Nose to nose. Almost.

 

[campfire]

This picture is for Martin @82355:



Even with the (shorter) fixed-yoke output, the BW 4470 is noticeably larger than the NP208 or NP241. It's also heavier.

 

[campfire]

Test fitting the NP208 onto the NV4500. Even though I was expecting to see it fit, I was still quite happy to see it slide into place.




Next challenge: The tranny lengths are different. Measuring from the block face at the top right bell housing bolt to the corresponding bolt on the transfer case flange, the TH400+adapter is about 28" long:



The NV4500+tailhousing is about 27 1/4" long.




How much sleep should I lose over 3/4" of length difference? Is this just a situation where I throw a zero-rate in the front to eat up some of the extra length and forget about it? The front slip does appear to have some extra play in it, even if I don't add any height.

I don't know yet about the rear driveshaft. I have what purports to be the stock shaft (with slip yoke), but I've never tried it, and the 14BFF yoke does extend a little further forward than the 10-bolt did. So maybe this is a non-issue.

I'm open to input, as always.

 

[campfire]

And I finished up tonight by pulling the rear diff apart.



Had a fairly stupid moment as I spent several minutes trying to remove the carrier....just to remember that I hadn't removed the axle shaft yet.


Success did eventually happen, though:



And now I'm all set for the next project:





There is some surface rust on the locker. Any magic ways to remove this, or am I just scrubbing it down with PB Blaster?


And that's all for tonight. I think the last 2 nights have seen more progress on this build than the entire rest of the time that I've owned it.

 

[diesel4me]

Soaking it in vinegar will take most if not all the rust off,cider vinegar works better than white but its not a must--might take a few days though...Evap-o-Rust works good too,but its pretty costly and not that easy to find..(Harbor Freight has it I think )...

 

[Rugby_7]

Looking good! Greasy parts keep things from rusting

 

[GWeakland620]

Very nice updates! The productivity has been strong with this one.

 

[campfire]

Soaking it in vinegar will take most if not all the rust off,cider vinegar works better than white but its not a must--might take a few days though...Evap-o-Rust works good too,but its pretty costly and not that easy to find..(Harbor Freight has it I think )...

Ok, I'll have to try that.

Looking good! Greasy parts keep things from rusting

Yes. I'm actually not in a hurry to clean all the grease off of the NP208. The mud/dirt/sand junk on the NV4500 is a different story (though I still don't feel like spending very much time on cleanup efforts).

 

[82355]

This picture is for Martin @82355:

View attachment 192110

Even with the (shorter) fixed-yoke output, the BW 4470 is noticeably larger than the NP208 or NP241. It's also heavier.

Okay?

Martin

 

[82355]

How much sleep should I lose over 3/4" of length difference?

None.

Martin

 

[campfire]

Very nice updates! The productivity has been strong with this one.

Just the last 2 days. The last 3 years, not so much.

Looking back at the pictures, I'm again thankful for the full-floating axle architecture. I realized that I was able to yank the gears without having to deal with supporting the axle or removing the wheels & hubs. It was a pretty straight-forward and quick operation.