88' K5 Family Mountain Mobile (Fam.lee Moun.ten Mo.beel)

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

Good Work!!

So Blazer Bash 2013????

Well I was planning on BB12. But getting vacation days was a bit of a hurdle. Then I broke my steering gear on Pougkeepsie gulch a few weekends prior...so it wouldn't have worked out anyway. However I have my new PSC assist kit in now, so yes...BB13 is in the cards.

I'll be chatting with you about planning, lodging etc., since you are the only guy I personally know that is a BB veteran.

Maybe tonight or tomorrow I'll post up more pics of the build to get caught up to where I'm at now.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

Love the pic of your little girl.

My daughter who also was teething on wrenches and stuff like that at that age has some good knowledge know.

She is 6 now and someone said something about a certain job being for a boy, she said I work on trucks I can do anything I want too.

Cool ride man

She would actually rather hang out with me while I'm outside wrenching or welding than play inside. My wife is that way too, she actually has a horse training / boarding business, so we are all the hard working, outdoor type. Our little girl will probably follow in our tracks.

She even likes watching King of the Hammers videos rather than kid movies ....pretty cool.

Thanks

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

........Continuing through 2011. I decided to swap some other stuff from my GMC before I put it on the market. I swapped the bumpers so I had a little more front end protection. Also a good pic to show the new stance on both trucks after the swap.



Also since the PO on the Blazer robbed the A/C compressor and lines...and my GMC had it all but never a charged system, now was a good time to switch all of that over. My wife and kid will enjoy the hot wheeling days if I can have some cool air flowing.



After the A/C swap I took it to a friend who did A/C work to get it all running. After finding a hole in the condenser tubes and one condenser later, I had some cool air flow.......just in time for winter , oh well, ready for next year.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

....Now we are finally into 2012 and as we get ready to do some more wheeling, I'm getting more and more nervous about busting an axle or u-joint....you know, 38's on a 10 bolt. I really hate the thought of getting my family stranded or having to hike down a mountain that we planned on driving down.

So I got more serious in my search for a D60 and 14BFF. I wanted an axle that was already set up with lower gears and hopefully lockers...or...a good enough deal on a builder axle to set it up myself without breaking my axle budget. After several months of searching locally, I realized that the good deals on these usually disappear within a day or so.

I finally located a set of built axles with about 700 miles on them, then the guy rolled his truck and decided to part it out and build something else. He was giving me a smoking deal, unfortunately, the guy lived in Illinois which is several hundred shipping miles from CO.

But when I learned of POORBOYK5's epic parts run to the east coast, I finally had a way to get em home . I met Geoff in Colorado Springs when I had to go for a wedding. In between the church setup and the actual wedding I was able to sneak in enough time to load up the axles and the bonus crossover steering setup.

Now I just need to prep, paint, and swap. I had some nice rust remover from another project and a grinder with a wire wheel, so I went to town for a few days.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

I got so wrapped up in axle prep that I painted them too soon. I forgot to move the spring perches out to the proper width. So out came the grinder , hammer and punch.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

Now I remembered that my old miller stick welder wasn't running and I had not figured out what was wrong with it yet. After indexing and marking the perch location I dragged the 14 bolt over to a neighbors house and borrowed his little mig welder. Worked great until the wind started blowing...but they stuck anyway. I did learn that I need more counter-weight on the front of our little 51' Ferguson if I am going to lift 1 ton axles with the auger boom .







I also received the ORD steering box brace in the mail. Luckily there was no frame cracks yet, so hopefully this will alleviate any frame issues down the road.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

All done and installed. They sure look like a better fit than the little 10 bolt and 14 SF. The steering box brace went in great, thanks ORD. I just needed to zip tie a little chaffing protection on the hoses that contacted the brace.






On the rear axle I set up the spring perches so the axle pinion was pointing almost directly at the transfer case. Hope this and some driveshaft yoke grinding will help the vibes until I can get a different drive shaft.



Then I just used a temporary mount for the rear shocks until I can set up a better design and get some remote reservoirs in there.




I had to do another flex test before I tried to wheel the new axles....just to be sure that everything still twisted and turned the way it was supposed to, also to check front and rear locker engagement. So far so good.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

Next was to wheel it and see where my next weak link is. Story and pics to come.....and more parts to buy .

 

[K5 Jess]

 

[82355]

Glad to see you not only kept the AC, but kept it after having to throw parts at it.

Martin

 

[Deuling]

Next was to wheel it and see where my next weak link is. Story and pics to come.....and more parts to buy .

Whad you break?

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

Well since you ask and I've got some time to type......

We finally took the rig out wheeling in the mountains around Ouray, CO. We took a trail called Poughkeepsie Gulch which is the toughest trail in the area as far as obstacles go. It is just a bumpy trail for the most part but it does have a few challenging areas to negotiate. I did well on the first little rock maze but the water fall was lined with others debating a turn around to go home.

It isn't too bad with dry ground, but when its wet, the rocks might as well be covered in 80-90 gear oil. I saw that a few jeeps had winched themselves up to the top and were waiting for others to attempt it. Most other rigs were only mild built trail rigs so they werent about to risk the damage or roll potential.

As I waited my turn I saw several Jeeps with an excess of $25,000 to $40,000 in accessories, head up the obstacle. Problem is that they didn't even try to drive up, they pulled up to the base and threw a winch line up and let a little 12 volt motor do all the work..... not even one attempt.

So I had to at least put on a good show. I gave it several runs on different slippery lines.....tires smoking, metal grinding, engine revving, exhaust growling...after about 9 attempts, it was a no go. A jeep at the top threw a winch line down to me and up I went. But one of the guys at the top said, "Well you got half the money in your rig and at least you gave it a try." I felt good representing for the full size rigs .












I completed the rest of the trail with out any real excitement and we hit the highway to head home. There we are driving back towards Ouray at about 25 - 30 MPH and hit the brakes for a sharp curve. BOOM, death wobble so bad that I couldn't hardly come to a safe stop.

I pulled to the next available shoulder and crawled under my rig for about 15 minutes and couldn't find anything. I re-torqued my U-bolts, all my steering linkage and hit the road again.......aaand......death wobble again . (Note: Colorado 550 "Red Mountain Pass, Milemarker 87 - 91 is not the place you want to lose control of your vehicle. 2 lanes with no guard rails and 200' - 300' cliff to the next level ground.)

I nurse the K5 home and begin my investigation and discover nothing in the next few weeks. All of my research points to steering slop somewhere, but where . Stay tuned........

 

[Cucv_M1008]

did the k20 get its axles back ? lol

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

I still had not figured out the death wobble source yet, but I had also figured out that easy braking would lessen the frequency with which it would occur. I decided that it was safe enough to wheel again, and I was kind of up against a wall because I planned a 4 wheeling trip for our church. It was just a mild trip that could be done with stock vehicles and mostly in 2wd if needed, so I wasn't too worried.

We head out and I have 15 vehicles following my lead. We get about 2 hours into the trip and I smelled some serious fluid leakage. It was the seal on my power steering gearbox...and fluid had run allover my frame, trans crossmember etc. Oh well, I have a few quarts of fluid to add as we travel, so onward we go.

After another hour or so, boom I hear some crazy sounds underneath and my transmission is acting very wierd. So I throw it into park....errr, force it into park because the shift lever wont hardly move. I get out and find that my transmission crossmember bolts had loosened and fallen off, leaving my crossmember hanging down on the driver's side . I can only figure that the PS fluid worked its way into my bolt threads and lockwashers and all the frame twisting worked them loose.

I scratch my head and decide the only thing left to do is start walking back and look for any missing hardware that I can find. I couldn't believe it, but I found every missing washer and nut within 1/8 mile of the breakdown. Bolted it up and off we went. I was foolish to think it was the worst thing that could happen all day.




After we stopped for lunch we headed back toward the highway via 3 windy, off road passes at near 13,000 feet elevation. Within 15 minutes my steering started to wander and I could turn my wheel almost 180 degrees before any change tire direction . I was on annarrow portion of trail blocking all up and downhill traffic, so I had to continue about 300 yards to a safe turnout.

I hop out and find my steering gearbox flopping around on the frame with a busted flange and all 3 other bolts are broken or stripped. After some head scratching and answering questions from a bunch of other non-mechanic friends. I dig deep in my McGyver memories and come up with a solution.

To make a long story...less long. I ended up using rachet straps and eventually a come along to secure my gearbox to the frame rail. I make it over 3 off road passes and 40 miles of highway, back home, even through the previously mentioned section of Red Mountain Pass.










After discussing the necessary repairs with my wife and several days of begging. We decided to use a 0% credit card to purchase a PSC hydraulic assist kit and ORD tie rod to resolve any future steering issues. That install is done and pics will be downloaded soon.

I love all the upgrades, but only when I plan to do them, not when they are forced on me. Oh well, still upgrades .

 

[y5mgisi]

Fun story!

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

did the k20 get its axles back ? lol

They are sitting in my driveway and posted on the CK5 sale forum...I'll sell them for $5 more than the scrap yard will give me for them.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

Time to catch up some more....................

I got all of the stuff from ORD and PSC and I was like a kid at Christmas...driving my wife nuts. Bummer is that I had to wait about a week to start setting everything up. My work schedule and the weather was slowing things down (remember, I don't have a garage, just a gravel drive).

I ground off some of the paint that I just sprayed on a month prior. I took all my measurements for rod travel and marked my mounting points. I decided to use a clamp on the ORD tie rod so that I would still be able to make some fine adjustments on my toe.

After some welding and chipping, I repainted the whole set up again.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

After the cylinder was installed I installed the new PS pump and the PSC steering gear box. Now the part that requires some fab work. They recommend mounting the reservoir as high and close to the pump as possible, without kinking the feed hose. I have seen guys mount these things everywhere and as far away as the firewall or fender wall. I decided I better do it right and make a bracket to mount on the engine somewhere.

I could have gone to the get some new material with the correct dimensions, but since I am cheap. I decided to use a rusty old sheet of plate that was lying around. It was 1/4" thick so I just torch cut some 1.5" strips and ground all the slag off and wire wheeled the rust. I made a mock up and decided to mount it off the A/C bracket and PS pump mounting bolt.......It actually turned out better than I thought.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

I mounted the reservoir and then had to figure out the next part.

PSC recommends a fluid cooler and I opted to install one. The only problem is that there was no room in front of the radiator. It was full of a trans cooler, oil cooler and A/C condenser. I decided to remove the knock out in the core support behind the driver side headlight area. I completed some more Farm boy fabrication and mounted it (notice my coffee mug in the pic).

Next I had to cut, assemble, clock and route all the hoses. All went well except I am not too happy with the feed hose. I had to run it around the belt and to the pump. It clears everything well but the only problem is that I will have to remove the hose any time I have to replace the belt, not the best, but oh well.

 

[B.N.Z.MTNS]

For the rest of the lines, all the fittings were correct and I had plenty of hose to work with. PSC has a quality kit from the shipping to the install and component quality. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to improve their steering.





Then came the road and off road tests. First thing I noticed is that all of the wandering in my steering is gone. I can roll down the highway at 75 MPH with no steering issues......but the best thing is that all of my death wobble is gone. It doesn't matter how fast or hard I apply my brakes, there is no death wobble at all.

Off road it works great. One handed steering on everything. I can park next to a rock and turn my tire into it at a stop and my rig just moves sideways from the rock. This will make any future trips much more pleasant.




Hopefully I can save up some more cash before next wheeling season comes around so I can start beefing up the drive train between the axles.