'90 K5 - Project Betty - LS3 Swap for a DD/Offroad/Utility Build

[cliles]

Cable Shifter For Tcase

I am about at the end of my rope here with this cable shifter. I made an adjustable bracket since there are no prefab available, and I am not going to pretend I would have gotten the fixed one right the first time. It can move in all three directions (excuse how crude the bracket is, a guide bearing broke on my band saw early into the first piece and I did not want to spend too much time perfecting something that may not even work).

Once I got everything spaced properly, gave it a pull and it did not want to shift. Wanted to rock the tcase forward (hence the strap in the picture), pull the shifter case backwards (why I screwed it to a board and put it in a vise), and ultimately bent the threaded end of the cable.

I think one of the problems is the clevis end is too small for the shifting arm. It has to sit completely flush against it for the pin to fit (you can see in the pictures that I actually could not get it completely through the other side). I think it needs some space to be able to rotate as the arm moves forward.

The second problem is that the arm rotates downward, when I believe the push/pull cable would like to move in a straight line. The only thing I can think of it is trying to put it in the middle of its arc.

I am not sure what I should do here, I am in too deep to scrap the concept, and plus I would still have to find a way to fab up a mechanical shifter if I chose to got that route.

How more force would you say it takes to rotate yalls shifter arms? I can do it by hand but it is somewhere between opening a bottled beer and a very tight jar. I talked to Greg at Phoenix, and he said that he didnt think the fact that it was dry would increase the required force to shift significantly.

 

[y5mgisi]

Is there enough throw in the shifter to make a longer arm at the transfer case? That would help some by having extra leverage lessening the amount or arc or downward movement your talking about. Also, instead of mounting the cable to be in the middle of the arc, I would mount it such that when it needs to push, it's straight on. And when it pulls it's misaligned. Lastly, you might go to mcmastercar. Com and try to find a female threaded heim joint for the transfer case end. That would eliminate the binding a use by the clevis not being deep enough and might add Some rigidity.

 

[cliles]

Probably not enough extra throw to warrant a change, the arm is made for the shifter.

Vendor says it should have came with a heim joint, is going to send one with another cable.

The other end I have from my other shifter may fit, and will try misalignment technique in the mean time.

 

[cliles]

NP241 Cable Shifter

Well it took me long enough, but I finally got this cable shifter for the Tcase put to bed.

Once the new, larger clevis joint arrived, it just simply worked.

Then when I went to install the tcase, I found that the bracket I made was way too large for the clocked Tcase, and I couldn't trim it down nearly enough. Not to worry, once it was up there, it became apparent that I had wasted a ton of time dealing with this bracket and I could fab up a very simple piece of angle iron to hold the cable and bolt it to the tranny channel.

I am still using the cable with the bent end. It doesn't seem to hurt the performance, and plus I got another one if I screw this one up.

 

[Chevy305]

Maybe I missed it but that's a lot of work for a cable shifter. Why not just use the factory floor shift?

 

[cliles]

B/C I do everything the hard way.

No really, posts 418 & 419 show the built in console/dash that I am building which goes right over the top of the floor shifter. I have always hated in my previous K10 how the floor space is wasted by the shifter. Nobody wants to sit in the middle of the bench seat b/c its in the way, you cant put anything down there (like a cd case, damn it was that long ago), and it is inconvenient to reach (if I remember correctly, you have to take off whatever seatbelt or harness you are wearing).

I did a cable shifter for the tranny (simply bc I like resting my hand on the shifter while driving), and it wasnt until after the console was built that I realized how much extra work I had made for myself.

In reality, the process is not much effort for whoever may follow. If you knew the shifter would shift, then you wouldnt bother building the test bracket assembly, and if you already had you tcase clocked, then you wouldnt be cutting into the floor, etc. Probably take 2 hours to do it again, most of that being making the angle iron bracket and mounting the shifter somewhere.

 

[y5mgisi]

Well thanks for learning a lesson for the rest of us!

 

[cliles]

Front Drive Shaft Issues

So other than needing a longer drive shaft, I guess I am going to need a more flexible CV joint? At this angle it binds and wont rotate unless lifted (angle reduced).

Any suggestions or thoughts?

 

[y5mgisi]

Most folks will gain the needed clearance by grinding the limiting tabs on the CV. Other than that, its a custom driveline.

 

[Kay86K5]

I'm curious as to why you stuck with a 241? (If someone already asked this question, please ignore...I didn't really read, I was just looking at pictures ) Don't get me wrong, I love my 241 with an SYE on it and I think it's a great way to go for a little lower gearing with a fixed output on the cheap, but it seems like you don't mind spending some cash on this thing...why wouldn't you go with a doubler or maybe even an atlas?

Looks good by the way

 

[y5mgisi]

I bet its to do with the ease of bolting it to the 6l80 and also that it has the VSS sensor on the back.

 

[cliles]

You are both right. The vss and while this build has gotten very costly, it was never my intention.

That is probably the worst part of this build. It is spendy for those on a tight budget, but cheap for those who have means

 

[tgs30]

What angle is your engine/trans at?

 

[drew4x4]

with a CV shaft... isn't the rear diff supposed to be pointed directly at the transfer case? it looks like you could pinion your rear axle, moving the rear yoke upwards.

 

[cliles]

My rear pinion is more less pointing directly at the tcase output, however the tcase output is not pointing directly at it. Quite a bit higher.

 

[cliles]

Tcase Angle

I have a digital angle finder that I bought after I built most of my cage, never used it, brought it out, batteries dead. With this POS it looks like tcase is around 10 degrees from horizontal, and tranny is more or less horizontal which is confirmed by its position relative to the frame.

What angles should I be shooting for?

 

[cliles]

If I ground the tabs, the driveshaft would still have to be lengthened. What parts of the shaft are reuseable? I know that the local axle and gear shop told me that they could not really use anything from my rear one.

 

[jekquistk5]

I have a digital angle finder that I bought after I built most of my cage, never used it, brought it out, batteries dead. With this POS it looks like tcase is around 10 degrees from horizontal, and tranny is more or less horizontal which is confirmed by its position relative to the frame.

What angles should I be shooting for?

I was at 4.5 degrees.

I think dave(76zimmer) was at 5 degrees

In both cases the pinion angle matched the tcase angle.


The problem with your front shaft is how much you clocked your tcase. When you clock your case like that and do not have a doubler you end up spending money on the high dollar 42 degree cv's. Also do you have degreed shims on your d60? That might help as well. Id check the caster in the front first though.

 

[cliles]

Tcase and Driveline Angles

Got some batteries, looks like I am looking at 6.5 degrees from horizontal at the rear flange, and more or less horizontal at the transmission (which seems odd, bc the union doesnt look like it would promote angle, and I didnt think the tcase had much built in).

I lined up the front driveshaft (pretty decent, it obviously doesnt fit), and it appears to be at 24.5 degrees from horizontal. I guess I could measure the hypotenuse, a & b and calculate the exact angle. I dont think it could be more than 30 degrees. Is this the angle I am looking for when deciding how intense of a CV shaft I need?

I zero'd the angle finder on a level prior to taking the pictures. Pictures are ...

1. Mock Up
2. Angle off rear tcase flange (should be rotated 90 degrees clockwise)
3. Angle on bottom of front driveshaft (should be rotated 90 degrees clockwise)
4. Angle on top of front driveshaft (should be rotated 90 degrees clockwise)

 

[cliles]

I was going back through old pictures to try to guess at the old angles, and I realized that my front driveshaft looks a lot cleaner than it use to. I then remembered that I just had a new one built when I swapped gears and installed lockers (in late 2011, so I guess a long time ago, but has more or less 500 miles on it, less than 1/4 mile in 4x4).