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'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build
- Thread starter Greg72
- Start date
This is the build description. I will improve this later. (GB)
2008.08.10 - UPDATE! - SHAFTED....
Front driveshaft experimentation ended up taking all day. I started out building a mock-up 2-piece driveshaft based on a 12" straight output, but the effect was barely noticeable in terms of creating better clearance. Then I went to a 16" section....better but still not impressive enough to justify the effort and expense of building a 2-piece driveshaft. After a short break, and some more calculations in Excel I decided to try a 20" straight output and a 21" angled section.
When I finished tacking it all together, this is what I had:
The first section out of the Atlas is 20" long and slopes downward a total of 6" before reaching the carrier bearing. The next section is 21" long, and slopes downward another 10" (the measured angle is 27.5 degrees) to the front axle. The D60 is upswept 10* toward the Atlas, so the total angularity at the lower u-joint is only 17.5 degrees at ride height. Not bad.
Assuming that this truck could achieve 8" of suspension droop, that angle would increase to almost 34* at the u-joint which is just about maxed out even with a 1410-style yoke. I like the clearance I got and really like the look of the side profile, but I'll call Jesse at High Angle Driveline to see if he has any concerns with it.
Here's a difficult "D60 breather tube" view...just to show how I'm going to try to hug the driveshaft close to the TH400 pan, to leave as much room as possible for the exhaust. (the orange strings represent exhaust tubes running straight back from the collector flanges) At this point, I can pretty easily fit a 2.5" exhaust tube through the area.... I have a sinking feeling that a 502BBC might want dual 3" exhaust to breathe right.
Guess I'll have to ask Scott about that one.
The best part about using a 2-piece driveshaft, besides the obvious protection of the driveshaft from rock damage is that the front output from the Atlas is now completely underneath the passenger floor. With a conventional setup, I would have had to build a driveshaft tunnel right down the middle of the passenger floor to clear it.
Running a flat bellypan certainly creates it's share of interesting challenges...
Today (Sunday) now that I have the driveshaft finalized, I can start closing-up the floor and center tunnel with sheetmetal. Thanks to Kurt (VTBlazer) I have 3 extra tranny hump covers which will be grafted together to form a much larger (but still removeable) inspection cover for that area....
Yep, as you can tell I'm having a lot of fun in my manspace lately!
Front driveshaft experimentation ended up taking all day. I started out building a mock-up 2-piece driveshaft based on a 12" straight output, but the effect was barely noticeable in terms of creating better clearance. Then I went to a 16" section....better but still not impressive enough to justify the effort and expense of building a 2-piece driveshaft. After a short break, and some more calculations in Excel I decided to try a 20" straight output and a 21" angled section.
When I finished tacking it all together, this is what I had:
The first section out of the Atlas is 20" long and slopes downward a total of 6" before reaching the carrier bearing. The next section is 21" long, and slopes downward another 10" (the measured angle is 27.5 degrees) to the front axle. The D60 is upswept 10* toward the Atlas, so the total angularity at the lower u-joint is only 17.5 degrees at ride height. Not bad.
Assuming that this truck could achieve 8" of suspension droop, that angle would increase to almost 34* at the u-joint which is just about maxed out even with a 1410-style yoke. I like the clearance I got and really like the look of the side profile, but I'll call Jesse at High Angle Driveline to see if he has any concerns with it.
Here's a difficult "D60 breather tube" view...just to show how I'm going to try to hug the driveshaft close to the TH400 pan, to leave as much room as possible for the exhaust. (the orange strings represent exhaust tubes running straight back from the collector flanges) At this point, I can pretty easily fit a 2.5" exhaust tube through the area.... I have a sinking feeling that a 502BBC might want dual 3" exhaust to breathe right.
Guess I'll have to ask Scott about that one.
The best part about using a 2-piece driveshaft, besides the obvious protection of the driveshaft from rock damage is that the front output from the Atlas is now completely underneath the passenger floor. With a conventional setup, I would have had to build a driveshaft tunnel right down the middle of the passenger floor to clear it.
Running a flat bellypan certainly creates it's share of interesting challenges...Today (Sunday) now that I have the driveshaft finalized, I can start closing-up the floor and center tunnel with sheetmetal. Thanks to Kurt (VTBlazer) I have 3 extra tranny hump covers which will be grafted together to form a much larger (but still removeable) inspection cover for that area....
Yep, as you can tell I'm having a lot of fun in my manspace lately!
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NEK5
3/4 ton status
Thats awesome Greg! Lookin good!
Yukon Jack
1/2 ton status
Those pics help me understand what's going on, I didn't have an understanding that your front driveshaft was being connected like that - a picture IS worht a 1,000 words.
In regards to your exhaust issue, I think you're guessing right, 3" exhaust is going to be optimal.
In regards to your exhaust issue, I think you're guessing right, 3" exhaust is going to be optimal.
2008.08.10 - UPDATE! - ENDING THE WEEKEND ON A HIGH NOTE
Today was all about trying to cover that massive hole in the floor created when I installed the Atlas and raised the driveline several inches.
I had a fairly good idea about how I would do it....and now with extra tunnel covers to mess around with, there was nothing left to do but dig in.
I had already put a 2" spacer on the factory cover, so I started by grafting that same thing onto another cover to establish my height.
There is quite a bit of room needed in the back due to the High Angle Driveline pinion brake. The rotor sticks up almost as high as the raised floor area behing the front seats.
Since that one went so well...."Might As Well" add another one to the mix..!!
This one (green cover) was a little more challenging because the floor has a slightly angled transition from the seating area to the transmission tunnel area (not much, about 3 degrees). So I had to slice the cover up both sides and run a small crease across the top to get the shape I needed. Once this was done, it went into place fairly quickly.
Here's another shot as I started to stitch weld everything down a bit better. I also welded a temporary flat section of 1/4" plate down the entire length of this side (pictured) to create an I-Beam effect and keep things rigid. At this point, the tunnel is looking good but it's quite flimsy and I needed ways to hold everything in precise alignment so it wouldn't end up looking like a wavy mess when I was done.
The opposite side was trickier. With the clocking of the Atlas, I didn't really need a wide flat shelf, and didn't want to create even MORE problems with the passenger seat mounts than I already have. So I took one of the tunnel curves and gently un-bent it to give it a gentler radius and make it more space-efficient.
That part of the tunnel design probably took the longest. I tried a few options before selecting that one. After that, I decided to button things up and call it a day....
At this point all I need to do is round-off and close the front corner where the shifter cables go. Since I don't even have the bracketry installed (or the shifters) it probably makes sense to get that done next so that I know how much space is truly needed.
Overall though, I am REALLY stoked about how the tunnel came out. It looks almost like a factory job, and when I install the seats and shortened factory center console, most people won't even notice that anything unusual is going on...
It's Miller time!
Today was all about trying to cover that massive hole in the floor created when I installed the Atlas and raised the driveline several inches.
I had a fairly good idea about how I would do it....and now with extra tunnel covers to mess around with, there was nothing left to do but dig in.
I had already put a 2" spacer on the factory cover, so I started by grafting that same thing onto another cover to establish my height.
There is quite a bit of room needed in the back due to the High Angle Driveline pinion brake. The rotor sticks up almost as high as the raised floor area behing the front seats.
Since that one went so well...."Might As Well" add another one to the mix..!!
This one (green cover) was a little more challenging because the floor has a slightly angled transition from the seating area to the transmission tunnel area (not much, about 3 degrees). So I had to slice the cover up both sides and run a small crease across the top to get the shape I needed. Once this was done, it went into place fairly quickly.
Here's another shot as I started to stitch weld everything down a bit better. I also welded a temporary flat section of 1/4" plate down the entire length of this side (pictured) to create an I-Beam effect and keep things rigid. At this point, the tunnel is looking good but it's quite flimsy and I needed ways to hold everything in precise alignment so it wouldn't end up looking like a wavy mess when I was done.
The opposite side was trickier. With the clocking of the Atlas, I didn't really need a wide flat shelf, and didn't want to create even MORE problems with the passenger seat mounts than I already have. So I took one of the tunnel curves and gently un-bent it to give it a gentler radius and make it more space-efficient.
That part of the tunnel design probably took the longest. I tried a few options before selecting that one. After that, I decided to button things up and call it a day....
At this point all I need to do is round-off and close the front corner where the shifter cables go. Since I don't even have the bracketry installed (or the shifters) it probably makes sense to get that done next so that I know how much space is truly needed.
Overall though, I am REALLY stoked about how the tunnel came out. It looks almost like a factory job, and when I install the seats and shortened factory center console, most people won't even notice that anything unusual is going on...
It's Miller time!
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Looks good Greg. Might i suggest that maybe you make this tranny tunnel two pieces? Looks like the mid point is somewhere about where you sliced the green tunnel piece, maybe make it seperate at that point. Just a thought but it would make it a little stiffer and eaiser to remove.
nice ingenuity Greg, looks good...
One of the ideas I have is to cut out some metal that follows the profile of the hump underneath (basically like a stretched-out upside down "U" shape). I can weld a few of those in strategic spots to stiffen things up substantially.
There are a couple of challenges to deal with:
First, I'm going to need more structure for the Atlas shifter cage, I don't the unsupported 18GA sheetmetal is going to handle the leverage of those shifters being tugged very long. (the shifters are cable mounted so I'm not just cutting an access hole like a mechanical linkage needs) Creating a box-type structure will give them a more "solid" feel.
Another thing I still need to do is replace the structure that was cut out along the front seat mount ridge. That area is still quite delicate, but if I build the structure into the tunnel cover, I can have it land directly on top of the old rails and bolt down to them which should re-establish all the stiffness it used to have. It has the side benefit of NOT putting a permanent crossmember in place which would likely block access to the bolts for the transmission or intermediate adapter.
I could definitely see eventually building in an access panel or two. Maybe some way to add fluid to the Atlas from above if it ever needed it?
It's just nice to see things getting put ON this truck now.... so much of my previous work was about cutting things off, and now it's starting to resemble a Blazer again.
So Greg, 5 days without an update what gives man? People are watching this thread you know and we're wanting to see some new pics. 
Tomorrow....
All I've done this week is "stock up" on supplies.....more Mechanix gloves to replace the ones that shredded (they don't last long doing sheetmetal). Twenty more 4-1/2" cutoff wheels....about 12 more sanding flap discs.... a case of Brakleen
You know, stuff like that.
There hasn't been much active discussion on this thread in the past few weeks, it may just be that this type of progress is too tedious to be interesting to the majority of subscribers?? I'll keep posting stuff up if people want to see it, but it might make more sense to wait until something more "significant" happens...
All I've done this week is "stock up" on supplies.....more Mechanix gloves to replace the ones that shredded (they don't last long doing sheetmetal). Twenty more 4-1/2" cutoff wheels....about 12 more sanding flap discs.... a case of Brakleen
You know, stuff like that.There hasn't been much active discussion on this thread in the past few weeks, it may just be that this type of progress is too tedious to be interesting to the majority of subscribers??
I'll keep posting stuff up if people want to see it, but it might make more sense to wait until something more "significant" happens...
On a project of this caliber any progress is significant.
Now show us some pics damn it.
Now show us some pics damn it.
Yukon Jack
1/2 ton status
Definitely keep posting the progress - I for one enjoy continuing to watch the evolution of the K5 whether it be just little things or major portions of the project!
2008.08.17 - UPDATE! - CABLE SHIFTER INSTALL & TWEAKS...
I've wanted to finish up the center tunnel cover for a few days now, but I knew that there were going to be clearance problems if I didn't fully install the cable shifters and bracketry first. So I decided to tackle that today.
Fortunately with a bit of searching I found some good online instructions...props to BillaVista (of Pirate4X4 fame) for a great tech article outlining every detail of the Atlas-4 installation.
It is FAR superior to what Advance Adapters provides, and it made the job a lot easier. There were a few hiccups...like some missing parts, and a DOM spacer sleeve that was about 1" longer than the parts list description said it should be. AA could certainly use some improvement in the "details" department.
After a couple of hours of leisurely assembly, here's what I ended up with...
Everything was looking good, except for that planetary shifter which is inexplicably set up so that the cable exits opposite from the other two! It also creates a problem with the pinion brake, since the cable wants to rub against it pretty hard.... the cables aren't very flexible at the extreme ends where the fittings are.
It didn't take me long to get irritated with how the design looked, so I unbolted the supplied bracket and re-deployed it in a different way. Now it's welded to that DOM spacer, and I also added an additional triangular gusset (not pictured here) to add some extra strength. Here's a pic of it during mock-up phase.... the wooden dowel is to check alignment and insure that I get a nice straight "pull" on the lever to keep the motion as smooth as possible.
Now the bracket allows for the lever to be actuated from a forward-mounted cable instead of a rear-mounted one. This change turned out to be pretty simple, so it didn't waste too much of my day making this change. Now, all the levers will have the same function as each other.....all the way forward (toward the dash) will be HIGH range, and pulled toward the center console will be LOW range.
With the cables in position, it was finally time to do some more head scratching and come up with a way to close that final corner of the tunnel. I finally got a chance to use my final "extra" transmission tunnel cover (this time a blue one!)
It might not make sense yet, but stay with me... This is the sheetmetal from the side of the tunnel cover, sliced every 1.25" so that I can start doing some aggressive contouring to fit the space.
I'm not a hammer-and-dolly expert, but with a lot of patience in about 30 minutes I was able to get this shape out of it.
And here's how it fits into the tunnel puzzle....
This "proof of concept" mock-up strikes a nice balance between the clearance I need for the cable shifters, and trying to preserve the passenger footwell area as much as possible. At some point this week, I'll need to get everything welded and smoothed, and make a bunch of thin triangular patches to fill in all those gaps, but the final shape should be quite nice and unobtrusive.
Believe it or not, the factory seat WILL still fit on the passenger side with just a bit of tweaking to the mounts.
I've wanted to finish up the center tunnel cover for a few days now, but I knew that there were going to be clearance problems if I didn't fully install the cable shifters and bracketry first. So I decided to tackle that today.
Fortunately with a bit of searching I found some good online instructions...props to BillaVista (of Pirate4X4 fame) for a great tech article outlining every detail of the Atlas-4 installation.
It is FAR superior to what Advance Adapters provides, and it made the job a lot easier. There were a few hiccups...like some missing parts, and a DOM spacer sleeve that was about 1" longer than the parts list description said it should be. AA could certainly use some improvement in the "details" department.After a couple of hours of leisurely assembly, here's what I ended up with...
Everything was looking good, except for that planetary shifter which is inexplicably set up so that the cable exits opposite from the other two!
It also creates a problem with the pinion brake, since the cable wants to rub against it pretty hard.... the cables aren't very flexible at the extreme ends where the fittings are.It didn't take me long to get irritated with how the design looked, so I unbolted the supplied bracket and re-deployed it in a different way. Now it's welded to that DOM spacer, and I also added an additional triangular gusset (not pictured here) to add some extra strength. Here's a pic of it during mock-up phase.... the wooden dowel is to check alignment and insure that I get a nice straight "pull" on the lever to keep the motion as smooth as possible.
Now the bracket allows for the lever to be actuated from a forward-mounted cable instead of a rear-mounted one. This change turned out to be pretty simple, so it didn't waste too much of my day making this change. Now, all the levers will have the same function as each other.....all the way forward (toward the dash) will be HIGH range, and pulled toward the center console will be LOW range.
With the cables in position, it was finally time to do some more head scratching and come up with a way to close that final corner of the tunnel. I finally got a chance to use my final "extra" transmission tunnel cover (this time a blue one!)
It might not make sense yet, but stay with me... This is the sheetmetal from the side of the tunnel cover, sliced every 1.25" so that I can start doing some aggressive contouring to fit the space.
I'm not a hammer-and-dolly expert, but with a lot of patience in about 30 minutes I was able to get this shape out of it.
And here's how it fits into the tunnel puzzle....
This "proof of concept" mock-up strikes a nice balance between the clearance I need for the cable shifters, and trying to preserve the passenger footwell area as much as possible. At some point this week, I'll need to get everything welded and smoothed, and make a bunch of thin triangular patches to fill in all those gaps, but the final shape should be quite nice and unobtrusive.
Believe it or not, the factory seat WILL still fit on the passenger side with just a bit of tweaking to the mounts.
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I'm loving the build Greg.
I'm not much for trail rigs compared to most folks around here, and I drive an '86, not a 1st Gen...
But I love out-of-the-box thinking and plain old ingenuity. This thread is chock full of both.
I'm not much for trail rigs compared to most folks around here, and I drive an '86, not a 1st Gen...
But I love out-of-the-box thinking and plain old ingenuity. This thread is chock full of both.
Greg that looks really good. 
Yukon Jack
1/2 ton status
Man, you just continue to impress the heck out of me with your ingenuity! I spent a while under my 69 K20 this weekend doing some thinking about how to proceed with my realitively simple T221 to NP205 swap and the whole time I kept thinking in the back of my mind, Greg would have this figured out and half way done in the time it is taking me to just figure out what to do!
Keep on inspiring me!!!
Keep on inspiring me!!!
Xtremegmc80
1/2 ton status
that looks great!
come on over n do my rig..
come on over n do my rig..
That looks way nice!
Your attention to detail is pretty amazing especially for your first big (understatement of the year) project. Most pros wouldn't spend a third of the time you've spent getting things right. 
Everybody I've talked to that has seen pictures of what you're doing are either calling you crazy or an animal or an animal in need of meds.
Your attention to detail is pretty amazing especially for your first big (understatement of the year) project. Most pros wouldn't spend a third of the time you've spent getting things right. Everybody I've talked to that has seen pictures of what you're doing are either calling you crazy or an animal or an animal in need of meds.
That is just freakin amazing work Greg.
Everybody I've talked to that has seen pictures of what you're doing are either calling you crazy or an animal or an animal in need of meds.
I can only imagine what non-1st Genners must think about all this...
There are certainly moments when I wonder about myself, and what must clearly be a rampant case of OCD showing itself in parts of this build. Is there medicine for that?
This build is really fun for me, but I occasionally think about the amount of work still remaining and I realize that this thing probably won't be done for maybe another 2 years. That bums me out big time.....
I'm sure that's why I just keep plugging away and posting pics. When I feel a little discouraged about the progress, I can always go back an see where I was 1 month ago, or 6 months ago....and I realize that I've actually accomplished quite a lot.
I appreciate the words of encouragement from all of you guys.
