'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build

[Greg72]

2010.06.06 - UPDATE! - LOOK.....A SQUIRREL!!

I'll admit it....I definitely have a hard time staying focused on tasks from time to time. My wife calls it the squirrel-phenomenon. I am working along on a project and then almost ANY new stimulus that happens to come along will pull me in a different direction (Look! A squirrel).... next thing you know, I'm wandering off to go look at the squirrel.

In this update, I can assure you that is not the case.

I am still focused on getting that rear suspension mock-up completed, but there are a few obstacles and delays that need to be addressed:

1. CTIS parts - eXaXt has just finished my central tire inflation adapter parts, and I just finished paying for them too . They are now en route from Canada and should be here in the next few days.....

2. Hydraulic Press - I need one, but I'm trying not to buy an ultra-cheap Harbor Freight 12-Ton model, nor a $1500+ high-end model that I don't have space for. Right now I'm considering a Greg Smith model that looks pretty decent and has a small footprint for my tiny shop space: http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/40-Ton-Air-Hydraulic-Shop-Press-p/ht0806.htm

Without those parts, I can't assemble the Mog portals...and without the portals there is no way to set my axle track width to do the remaining checking for tire/wheel clearance with the struts and rear wheeltubs... so for now I'm in a little bit of a holding pattern.


In the meantime, I decided to build myself a new piece of gear for the shop. Cruising the interwebs, I saw this photo of an engine break-in stand:

I liked everything about it except the $1800 price tag. The features I liked were that the crossmembers are adjustable so it will accomodate any engine I want, it has provisions for a fuel cell, battery and radiator so the engine can be run for an extended period of time to check for leaks, overheating issues, etc.... and the entire unit can be collapsed down for storage. To me, that base looks like a really nice basis for a heavy-duty furniture dolly simply by dropping a sheet of heavy plywood or steel down on it.

This will allow me to get the engine and transmission up off the floor and onto a much simpler to move cart, and I should be able to fold up the cherry picker for the time being and collapse my current engine stand down and store that away too. It's all about finding space in this little shop...especially if I'm going to be adding a floorstanding hydraulic press in the near future.

I think that being able to roll the engine/transmission out into the driveway...turn the key and fire it up will be a HUGE boost to my motivation as well. The EFI setup I'm looking at comes with software that provides all the data necessary (RPMs, temperature, etc) so I won't even need to buy a set of gauges for the cart......maybe just one for oil pressure?




I went down to my local steel supply shop and traded $90 for a 20' stick of 2x4"x.120" wall tubing and got to work... eBay was a good source for a set of 8" heavy duty casters. I was even able to find some in red polyurethane to match the original photo! Those are on the way, so for now I just built the mounting plates for them and will drill the mounting holes when they arrive.

At the end of the day, I was able to get the outer frame cut to size (54" x 30"), square it up and get it finish welded. I also build the small stubby legs for the casters. The idea is to have the cart sitting at a comfortable 18" off the floor. That allows space for the cherry picker legs to slide underneath it for loading/unloading and also keeps it low enough that I can tuck it away under a workbench later on when it's not needed anymore. I got one adjustable crossmember built with a simple clamping system so when I get some more time in the shop I'll need to build one more just like it. From there I can work on engine/trans mounts...radiator/battery mounts etc.

So far with the steel and casters, I've got less than $200 into this engine break-in stand. I'd bet that there's less than $100 left to spend to get it finished..... SEE?! Now this "Might As Well" build is actually SAVING me money!!

 

[ryoken]

very cool.... i just stick em in an old tire at work and run em...

 

[4X4HIGH]

Greg, that engine run stand should look good once it's done.

About that press, it doesn't appear that the ram is capable of moving side to side (not a good thing) and also the distance between the uprights is small (mine is 30.375" between uprights and I sometimes have issues when trying to press odd things). I just seen a press for sale on craigslist here for 500.00 and it looked to be a quality press and IIRC was a 50 ton (not sure what shipping would cost from here to you or if the guy would even consider it). Then again there's always the option of me picking it up and somehow trying to ship it.

 

[Greg72]

Do you have a photo of what a moveable ram setup looks like? How hard would it be to modify a fixed-ram setup to allow it to be movable? The nice thing about the Greg Smith press is that it's located in Delaware, so the shipping will be reasonable. I keep checking Craigslist too... but I see a lot of junk with simple bottle jack as the press advertised as a "Dake 50-Ton Press" etc.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Here is a link to the brand of press I own. It may be hard for you to see or understand how the ram is able to move but I can take some pics of mine that should make it alot more clear. http://www.nugier.com/home.html Mine is the 40 ton hand operated press (someday soon I will convert it to air/hydraulic).

Depending on how any given press is designed will depend on if it can be made adjustable and how easily. Like I said though, i've run across many times when the distance between the uprights on mine wasn't wide enough to do some stuff or made it very difficult and mine is 5" wider than the press you linked to.

Also forgot to add that a table winch is just about a must have unless you have someone to help you move the table up or down if needed.

 

[LVJimmy]

Great! You know you might want to set it up to test run the tranny and while your at it the transfer case. You could also make sure the the drive shafts aren't out of balance and the lockers work right. Since you've gone that far you might as well test the portals. All that will be kind of heavy so those little 6" casters won't cut it anymore so you should supersize them too. D
bumps in the driveway could also be a problem with the fixed wheels so you might want to add a 4 link set up and..........

 

[supersize75k5]

Greg here is a couple pics for the one used on my 5.3 and 6.0 that i put in the buggy.


It now has a 3 gallon tank on it now with a ball valve to drain at the bottom too.


I think I have better pics if you are interested

 

[Greg72]

Here is a link to the brand of press I own. It may be hard for you to see or understand how the ram is able to move but I can take some pics of mine that should make it alot more clear. http://www.nugier.com/home.html Mine is the 40 ton hand operated press (someday soon I will convert it to air/hydraulic).

Depending on how any given press is designed will depend on if it can be made adjustable and how easily. Like I said though, i've run across many times when the distance between the uprights on mine wasn't wide enough to do some stuff or made it very difficult and mine is 5" wider than the press you linked to.

Also forgot to add that a table winch is just about a must have unless you have someone to help you move the table up or down if needed.

So I've been doing more research online and there seems to be a fundamental difference in design on presses. Some use a C-channel for the uprights, which make it tougher to deal with long parts... it would be good to have a movable head with this type of setup. The other type uses flat plates for the uprights instead, so there is a "pass through" area between them. This might be a good option for long or awkward parts. Here's an example of a beefy one:

Baileigh 66-Ton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97qh6N6QSq4

I like the idea of the lift chains. No need for a cable winch...just hook up the chains and use the ram power to raise the press bed into position. Of course it helps that their ram has something like 16" of stroke on it too, otherwise that system could be really tedious.....move, stop, re-pin, reset chains, move...repeat.

Anyway, I really DON'T want to have to build a shop press myself but at this point maybe I will have to. For a few hundred dollars in steel I can build a beefy frame, and for now maybe just use a ghetto bottle jack for my immediate pressing needs (pun intended). Later on, I can invest in a nice hydraulic ram with dual-speed controls, etc.

I'll keep scanning Craiglist and eBay. I've got a keyword search for "Nugier" going now too.



LVJimmy,

Touche! I was sort of thinking the same thing...with a small seat installed my engine stand could almost drive around the driveway! LOL.

 

[Chevy305]

So I've been doing more research online and there seems to be a fundamental difference in design on presses. Some use a C-channel for the uprights, which make it tougher to deal with long parts... it would be good to have a movable head with this type of setup. The other type uses flat plates for the uprights instead, so there is a "pass through" area between them. This might be a good option for long or awkward parts. Here's an example of a beefy one:

Baileigh 66-Ton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97qh6N6QSq4

I like the idea of the lift chains. No need for a cable winch...just hook up the chains and use the ram power to raise the press bed into position. Of course it helps that their ram has something like 16" of stroke on it too, otherwise that system could be really tedious.....move, stop, re-pin, reset chains, move...repeat.

Anyway, I really DON'T want to have to build a shop press myself but at this point maybe I will have to. For a few hundred dollars in steel I can build a beefy frame, and for now maybe just use a ghetto bottle jack for my immediate pressing needs (pun intended). Later on, I can invest in a nice hydraulic ram with dual-speed controls, etc.

I'll keep scanning Craiglist and eBay. I've got a keyword search for "Nugier" going now too.



LVJimmy,

Touche! I was sort of thinking the same thing...with a small seat installed my engine stand could almost drive around the driveway! LOL.

Greg, pull the ram off your bender and use that instead of a bottle jack.

 

[rdn2blazer]

My buddy made an engine break in stand for a 396 big block out of some UniStrut and a couple of quality carpet dollies. Had a bunch of the UniStrut brackets and strut channel and just bolted it all together with a radiator and a switch panel and a gas can just like in your pic. Only thing he bought was a cheap set of gauges from the local auto store. Everything else he just had laying around. He would roll it out into the driveway and fire it up. It was a bad ass little setup. Yours will be alot nicer setup, but for on the cheap his worked perfectly. Wish I had pics of it. Everyone was totally impressed with it cause of it's simplicity. He had the auto trans hooked up to it and shorty exhaust pipes with mufflers on it too so it was not all open header loud.

 

[Chevy305]

can you run an engine with no trans on it?

 

[JDNobodi]

can you run an engine with no trans on it?

Yes.

 

[Greg72]

2010.06.21 - UPDATE! - TIME TO "PRESS" AHEAD...

Yes, it's time to press ahead, with about 20 Tons of force. After a lot of fruitless searching for a "cheap but good" hydraulic press... I decided to just go with cheap.

It's actually not terrible....just a bit sloppy. With a small amount of work I should be able to improve it substantially, and I can't believe that I got it delivered to my house for less than $180!

The final custom parts for the Mog portals arrived recently. The CTIS (Central Tire Inflation System) parts are now here... so it seemed like a good time to take a photo of everything that I've been accumulating for this buildup. This will be my only chance to get an exploded-view of everything before it starts getting assembled....so I rolled out some underlayment paper and took this photo for internet immortality.

Enough of that.... time to get to work and try out the new press. The original portal boxes still had the large lower gear installed, so I loaded it up in the press and with very little drama I was able to coax the gear out of the housing.

The next step was removing the 4 long studs from the backing plate. I always thought that studs were supposed to be "hand tight" but apparently nobody ever told the German engineers! It took a substantial amount of effort to get them out.

In this shot, you can also see a bearing race pressed into a pocket... I still have no idea how to remove without damaging the housing.

Final shots of the backing plate after some rust removal and general cleaning (Back side)

And the front side:

I need to gather a few more materials (like anti-sieze and good quality grease for the trunnions), but it feels good to finally be working towards assembling these portals after such a long time.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Looking good Greg.

Is that a Wilton vise sitting on that bar stool? If so that vise will outlast you.

The bearing that is pressed into the housing, what is the inner diameter of it? It looks pretty large from the photo but sometimes pics are deceiving. At any rate a blind hole puller is the proper tool to use to remove it but that is going to depend on the inner diameter. I just bought a Snap-on blind hole puller set off E-bay recently.

 

[smartcarkiller]

I know I've said it before but man I love your attention to detail! Even just for the simple fact of the way you line up all your parts so they look like a million bucks just sitting there. It's for that reason it would take me twice as long as you to get it all together because once I got them all lined up like that I'd just sit and stare at them for days on end and worry about getting them dirty. Gotta love your initiative and your getter done attitude.

 

[4X4HIGH]

I know I've said it before but man I love your attention to detail! Even just for the simple fact of the way you line up all your parts so they look like a million bucks just sitting there. It's for that reason it would take me twice as long as you to get it all together because once I got them all lined up like that I'd just sit and stare at them for days on end and worry about getting them dirty. Gotta love your initiative and your getter done attitude.

That's because they cost him a million bucks and he's proud of them.

 

[Greg72]

Looking good Greg.

Is that a Wilton vise sitting on that bar stool? If so that vise will outlast you.

The bearing that is pressed into the housing, what is the inner diameter of it? It looks pretty large from the photo but sometimes pics are deceiving. At any rate a blind hole puller is the proper tool to use to remove it but that is going to depend on the inner diameter. I just bought a Snap-on blind hole puller set off E-bay recently.

Scotty,

The bearing ID is ~ 2.375" and the OD is ~ 3.500"....it's a pretty good size, but only about half the size of some of the other ones in these portals!

I was already warned that I need to shim the new bearing to set the correct end-play. If there's a way to remove this original one cleanly, I can turn it down a little and use it as a "drop in" bearing for setting up the next one. If you have a link to a photo or eBay auction showing what a blind puller looks like I'd enjoy seeing it. A man can never have too many tools!

I'm embarrassed to say that the vice is not "sitting" on that stool.....it's BOLTED to it! It was one of those times when I just needed a quick solution to make the vise useful; now almost 5 years later it's still set up the same way!! It's generally convenient, since I can move it around the shop and position it however I want... the only problem is if I open up the jaws too much it gets unbalanced and wants to tip over. I don't know if it's a Wilton or not the only writing on it is "Mechanic 600" across the body of it. It's got a set of replaceable jaw pads and one broken set screw (another thing I've been meaning to fix for 5+ years) so one of the blocks wiggles around a lot until it's got some pressure on it. The vice was a gift from a machinist friend of mine many years ago...

 

[4X4HIGH]

I'll see if I can link you to the e-bay auction I won my blind end puller so you can at least see what they are (unfortunately I don't think you can get one anywhere near as large as you need).

Yes that vise IS a Wilton then. That is the same vise I had at my shop and it currently goes for anywhere between 900.00-1200.00 new depending on where you look.

Greg, see if this link works. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270560039277&viewitem=

 

[BGKYK5]

Is than an HF press?


BTW, your bling bling parts are hurting my eyes. try not to look directly at them without a welding hood or something on.

 

[Greg72]

Yep H.F. .... Made in China probably by little sad children.

It was on sale for $169.99 and even though it weighs almost 200Lbs, shipping somehow came to a miraculous $13.99!!


$183.98 total <- Looks like I exaggerated in my previous post.