CK5
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'89 R3500 Crew Cab 2wd to 4wd conversion & beyond

Started out with 2wd TBI350 with SM465 to current 4wd with 454, 700r4, NP241
Hope so. Good lesson to take a look around after removing stuff to make sure you don't have unintended consequences
 
I'm wanting to do the Art Carr/JB shifters for my TH700R4 and NP241. How hard do you thing it would be to get the NP241 shifter to work with a clocked t-case? Is there room to rework the original cable bracket or would another have to be knocked out?

Also, how is your transmission/t-case crossmember holding up? I'm wanting to use the same design for mine but wanted to check and see how yours was holding up.

Awesome truck man, I love the crew cabs. :waytogo:
 
I'm wanting to do the Art Carr/JB shifters for my TH700R4 and NP241. How hard do you thing it would be to get the NP241 shifter to work with a clocked t-case? Is there room to rework the original cable bracket or would another have to be knocked out?

Also, how is your transmission/t-case crossmember holding up? I'm wanting to use the same design for mine but wanted to check and see how yours was holding up.

Awesome truck man, I love the crew cabs. :waytogo:
I made the factory shifter work with the 1/2 clocked tcase in my K5. It worked okay but it took some fiddling to get right. I also made a 2" spacer between the shifter and the floor. I felt like that helped account for the increased height of the tcase.

Or are you asking about the JB Custom Fab shifter? I have my tcase 1/2 clocked now and it's fine. I'm using a bracket I made myself because JB wasn't making a bracket at that time. I've seen the bracket they are making now and it would clear better than mine. Since mine is only 1/2 clocked I can't speak for certain about a fully clocked case.

Haven't noticed a problem with the crossmember yet.

Thanks for the kind words.
 
I was asking about the JB shifter for the t-case because I don't feel like fiddling with the stock shifter. I figure the cable shifter would be better. Thanks for the info!
 
After the snow run in December I was getting a terrible cracking and popping through the stereo. I was also noticing the low speed fan wasn't coming on like it was supposed to with the temperature switch. Turned out the 2 things were related.

I thought the temp switch had enough clearance to the crossbar but apparently the heavy load on the drive train doing the snow bashing pulled the motor over harder than normal. The switch got busted up on the cross bar. You can see it below on the thermostat housing.

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The wire that was attached to the temp switch was bouncing around on the intake manifold and that was causing the interference with the stereo.

I pulled the crossbar off and cut a half-circle notch out of it. Welded that closed with a piece of flat strap. I also added another piece of flat strap across the top to add strength back. I still think I might need to replace it with a new unmodified bar as I'm afraid that despite entirely welding up the notch it isn't strong enough.

I replaced the temp switch in the thermostat housing and I also added another temp switch to the upper radiator hose to control the high speed fan. The low speed fan comes on at 195* (off at 175*) and the high speed comes on at 210* (off at 190*). Previously the low speed fan came on with the temp switch and I was manually controlling the high speed fan.

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The temp switch in the upper hose is a little complicated because the adapter housing needs to be grounded in order for the switch to operate correctly. The adapter is from Autometer. The hoses are the shorted 1.5" hoses I could get.

I also had to add a strap to pull the hose over so it wasn't sitting on the power steering reservoir lines. It is a strip of aluminum wrapped with electrical tape. I also like to use shrink tube for this purpose as well.

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I would like to add an LED light for each temp switch to give me an in-cab indication that the fan is running. Or at least that they should be running. At least now I don't have to worry about remembering to turn the high speed on when needed.

Cool thing is it's easy to warm up the system to bleed out any air. Just disconnect the wire for the low speed fan and let it heat up to 210* so the thermostat is definitely fully open. There were a lot of air bubbles that came out so I'm wondering if I had the system bled that well before. It was also cool to see the coolant expand as it heated up and then watch it quickly recede as the high speed fan cooled it back down.
 
I really like my fan controller that I got. Haven't really put it to the test to much just running in my driveway and down the street a bit but seems to work rather well.
 
I really like my fan controller that I got. Haven't really put it to the test to much just running in my driveway and down the street a bit but seems to work rather well.

Will that run 2 fans or, in my case, 2 speeds? I would love to have a setup that would run 2 different heat ranges with just 1 sender.
 
Yes it will and it starts out at the low temp just spinning the fan a little then increases the fan speed as it gets warmer.

I have it hooked up to my big fan only,for now, still have my little fan on a switch. Going to put small fan on the controller in the summer was a bit more work was being lazy.
 
Damn I spent about the same money for my 2 temp switches and the radiator hose adapter as that Spal controller! If I'd only thought of the controller you posted in your thread. Didn't think about how I could've used the same.
 
I will let you know how it is working this summer, I am trying to fall into another set of tires so that I can drive this thing on the street and not kill my 40's.
 
I will let you know how it is working this summer, I am trying to fall into another set of tires so that I can drive this thing on the street and not kill my 40's.

I like this. Going to put a windshield back in it?

Martin
 
He was talking about doing a short wind damn to redirect the air flow. We talked about something like a bug deflector on a semi truck.
 
Will that run 2 fans or, in my case, 2 speeds? I would love to have a setup that would run 2 different heat ranges with just 1 sender.

I used a BMW coolant temp switch that has two settings. 180* and 195* IIRC. Using the windstar e-fan, one fan hooked to each temp.
 
I have thought about the BMW switch but I wasn't sure I could get the temperature ranges I wanted.
 
After running out of gas on the last club run I thought I should get more serious about increasing my fuel capacity. I've been toying around with dropping in a K5/Suburban fuel tank between the frame rails. I'm not sure if that will work well with some of the future plans I have for the truck so I don't want to invest a lot doing it.

I decided to look into why the previous owner (PO) took the tank selector switch out. My hope was it would be a simple fix. This could possibly be the most cost effective way to increase fuel capacity.

I have no idea how the dual tank setups work, so I started out by making a trip to the junkyard. I wanted to see what kind of wiring runs to the dash switch so I could figure out how much the previous owner removed. Knowing the other stuff I've found, I figured he had just cut the wires somewhere. Once I knew what to look for I found the original switch wiring tucked up into the dash. The PO had just disassembled the switch so it was stuck on the driver tank. That was encouraging.

I went ahead and bought a new AC Delco switch. I also ordered a new fuel pump. I figure that is probably what failed since I already had to replace the pump in the driver tank. And even if it didn't fix the problem, I would have a spare pump.

I dropped the tank today and when I pulled the pump out this is what I found:

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The rubber hose between the pump and the sending unit line was completely broken. The rubber itself was like a gelatinous mush. Good bet that was the reason why the PO quit using the tank.

Everything else looks good. The tank had a little fuel in it but the inside is nice and clean. The baffle tray is still in good condition.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the work. When I was trying to slide the little rubber line on the sending unit I dropped the new fuel pump. That resulted in the hose barb breaking off the top of the pump rendering it useless. So now I'm waiting on another pump. I'm feeling good that once I have it all back together, both tanks will be working properly.

I was curious how the tank selector valve setup looked. It has a little metal cover that covers it. I took some pictures in case anyone else might be curious.

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Hoping I won't need to replace it. We'll see once I get the tank back in.
 
Remember what happened to me on Twin Cone last year? :D A good hose and some good clamps are a good investment so you don't have to deal with what we did on the trail....twice (actually 3 times if you count the weekend before that on Eagle Rock trail too :doah:)
 
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