Another C to K conversion

[4x4_76]

I will check for you on the clearance to firewall.
1" might be OK but I know I tried before to move 4" and it was not even possible.
I will see if I can get you this today.
The fact you will be raising the body will help too

Thanks, I appreciate all your help

 

[imiceman44]

Thanks, I appreciate all your help

OK, on my suburban stock with a 6.2 if you move the engine back 1" you have some air left, maybe 1/4", it's tight but it will not touch.
With a 1" body lift, it will help a little bit, but not much.
The vacuum pump in the rear is wht is closest, and the auto dipstick too.
If you flex it and the engine moves, the dipstic is OK if it rubs, but you don't want to rub on the vacuum pump it migh break.
If you have the plastic on the firewall that will give you a cushion, mine is still there.
If you don't that also is a little more clearance and you could always use the Ford Universal Tool and make some more room where things are close to the firewall

 

[4x4_76]

Thanks

Dipstick won't be a problem with manual, and maybe I take the vacuum pump off, too, because only thing that needs vac is heater controls, and I could go with some small electric vacuum pump that goes under the dash. Just need to find oilpump drive gear to replace the vac pump.

And just bemembered that I need vac for the clutch master cylinder with vac assist

One thing to consider is oilpressure sender. I remember it being really close to a firewall on Blazer. I could take short lenght of hydraulic hose, and take the sender, and oil pressure light switch higher to firewall.

Hopefully I got get something done within this week. It's been raining last three weeks, and 'Burbans frame and body are in Nothern Garage, and you don't do much sandblasting there when there's water coming from the sky. Forecast says that this week should be pretty dry.


Updated technical specs:

-Stock 6.2 diesel
-SM465 with hydro clutch and vac assist
-Divorced NP205 w/driveline brake and NWF sye-kit
-1410 rear d-shaft, and 1410/1350-CV front shaft
-Cross-over steering w/NWF steering arm and #1104 pitman arm
-Dana 60 w/4.56 r&p
-14FF w/4.56 r&p, discs and ARB
-Front radius arm suspension with panhard and coils
-Rear suspension stock leafs w/shackle flip
-37x12.5/16 Maxxis Creepy Crawlers on 16x11 rims
-T-Max 12500 winch up front, ABT 10000 rear winch
-York aircompressor
-2x Exide Maxxima Deep Cycle batteries

 

[4x4_76]

Allright, almost 3 months from last update, and what I've done so far... Not much Man, this thing takes forever to build!!!

Driveline brake is done, just need to find correct caliber. Now I have one from Saab, but it has brake lever on wrong side. I can make it work, but not worth, because I can use one from Volvo. Same as on Saab, just the lever works side to side compared to Saabs front to back.

I found flange from NP241, which I used to mount rotor. I turned shoulder to it for the rotor, then made conversion flange to fit DIN-120 (1410) driveshaft to it. I also made a collar to where seal runs, so I could use the seal that allready was on NWF retainer.

Caliber bracket is made from 11mm plate, which bolts to bearing retainer whit 5 screws, and it also bolts with two 16mm bolts to drivers side t-case mount (which is not done yet).

Rear axle is half done, it's shaved and welded, caliber brackets are half done, too. Luckily found a 1/4 NPT tap to drill and tap the ARB airline fitting.

 

[imiceman44]

Allright, almost 3 months from last update, and what I've done so far... Not much Man, this thing takes forever to build!!!

Driveline brake is done, just need to find correct caliber. Now I have one from Saab, but it has brake lever on wrong side. I can make it work, but not worth, because I can use one from Volvo. Same as on Saab, just the lever works side to side compared to Saabs front to back.

I found flange from NP241, which I used to mount rotor. I turned shoulder to it for the rotor, then made conversion flange to fit DIN-120 (1410) driveshaft to it. I also made a collar to where seal runs, so I could use the seal that allready was on NWF retainer.

Caliber bracket is made from 11mm plate, which bolts to bearing retainer whit 5 screws, and it also bolts with two 16mm bolts to drivers side t-case mount (which is not done yet).

Rear axle is half done, it's shaved and welded, caliber brackets are half done, too. Luckily found a 1/4 NPT tap to drill and tap the ARB airline fitting.

So where are the pics?

 

[4x4_76]

Pics are coming, if I just remember to take camera along. T-case is at my work. I took couple of crappy pics with cell phone, but I can't get those pics to computer.

 

[4x4_76]

Here are the pics. I needed to create photobucket account, because gallery in here didn't seem to work. Tried Firefox and Opera, neither opened it.

Now that I look at that caliber bracket, I could've gone little less beefy, but it's all about safety and getting this truck rolling on public roads.

You can see that caliber barely clears the t-case, and lever has next to nothing room to move towards case. Nor there is no bracket to cable. That's why I need to change the caliber body to one from Volvo.

All the screws are stainless, on a bracket and on a rotor, I'll change them to better ones when I remember to go and buy them. Just used ones I found to get parts together.

Oil and 400 grit sandpaper got that shiny surface to seal collar. 800 would've been even better, but didn't have any at the moment. Maybe I should make somekind of shield to that, to cover the seal. Grass gets easily trapped on that, and eventually burns seal.

Also made shifter bar tabs, probably gonna run some 2-2,5 feet long bars because t-case is located somewhere under the rear seat. Umm, not really, more like between front and rear seats. Unless I find good cables to create nice cable shifter setup. Or airshifter...

Rear caliber brackets. Needs caliber bolt holes and threads.

Little setback last night. I was taking D60 knuckels apart, and didn't have proper socket to open the spindle nut. Socket was close, but wasn't deep enough so I had to keep it on an angle to open the outer nut. When the nut broke loose, there was also a cracking sound, and this was a result:

And on both sides Just looked at Rockauto's catalog, 2 Dorman spindle nut kits, shipped to Finland about $70.

 

[4x4_76]

Took the whole D60 apart, and just my luck, I have to replace both kingpins and diff and pinion bearings

I could go with them for a while, but now that it's in pieces, why not replace them? It was real pain to remove the lower kingpin cap, so I don't want to do it again anytime soon.

Got couple of loong front brake hoses from 2nd gen Dodge Ram, over 3 ft. long

They have this nice bracket that bolts right to the frame.

I'm still poundering the idea that should I get another set of those hoses to rear, and instead of going to center of the axle and hard lines from there to calibers, I could make hard lines go only inside the frame, and hoses from the frame directly to the caliber. It would be so much easier to change just the hose on a trail, than fix the the ripped off hard line. And best thing is, I have to carry only one spare.

About the brakes, many passenger cars have 2 circuit brakes. There is left front and right rear on one circuit, right front and left rear on the other. No proportioning valve. Master cylinder has to be one that delivers equal amount of fluid when pressed. Of course the sizing of this kind of system is crucial, but would it work on Suburban?

I'm really, really considering to build a six point rollcage. Clubmember rolled his Toyota on a nearby trail, and it wasn't even that hard place to go. Just really icy.

This shows the place:

And this is the result after 'Yota slipped sideways:

Luckily no one was hurt.

More pics: http://www.petrisimolin.com/ThePalsta/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=42462&whichpage=4&ARCHIVE=

 

[4x4_76]

This whole build was in danger to left unfinished. I just got tired to fact I didn't get nothing done as was planned, everytime something went wrong. And when they rised fuel prices 8% 1st of January (like it wasn't enough that it was done two months earlier, too. 8%), I thought that hell with this, I'll use axles and parts to FireDragon (Blazer), so I don't have to think about street legality. So, motivation gone, I let it be for while.

But now I'm back in business. It only took 60 ft. of tubing to get motivation back

We picked some to build cage to my brothers 'Yota, so we can participate in Lost'n Frost offroad orienteering competition, class modified. We could've compete without a cage, but that would've rule out some of the control points, that are considered dangerous (risk of roll over). We have four weeks to finish 'Yota, and I'll have to learn to use orienteering program on laptop

So, besides I got my motivation, I have to hurry to finish all the parts at my work. Both axle housings and t-case are in there, and some miscellaneous parts. I have less than month time to do them (because of the earlier mentioned job opportunity).

 

[4x4_76]

I was reading Ryoken's build thread, and his rear floor idea made me think. I was going to go with 25 mm bodylift to clear t-case, fuel tank and rear shock towers. I can make towers and t-case work w/o bodylift, but fuel tank needs it. So, it came to my mind that when I make a new rear floor from angle iron and flat sheet, I could rise it some 25 to 50 mm to create room for the tank. Or just the front section of the floor, where tank lies beneath.

For now I'm going to use 700 slushbox after all, even though I'd like to go with manual tranny. After playing with numbers, I came to conclusion that I like NV4500 better, just because the 5th gear. And I want the earlier design with 6.34 1st gear. Hard to find and expensive, so I let it be for a while.

 

[4x4_76]

Anyone knows that what is the purpose of the box at the fuel fill, one that's spot welded to fuel fill opening? Does it prevent fumes getting to passenger compartment, or to guide fuel spills to ground?

This box:

 

[4x4_76]

I wanted a fixed yoke for 700 tranny, but since I never seen one, I made one. That's half done, needs to be welded and then bearing surface machined down for precise fit.

 

[noJeepshere]

The fuel fill box is for spills, keeps the petrol off the body (right) also, since these rigs came with diesel options, you can also keep gloves in there to keep the stinky fuel off your hands.

Nice build, any pics of the whole truck?

 

[4x4_76]

Nice build, any pics of the whole truck?

Well, at the moment Suburban is in pieces in two garages and at my work

But I've done some interesting body mods to it, I just need to wait untill the next issue of our 4x4 Magazine is published, I've written project story on it and I don't want to spoil suprise Deadline was last friday, so within a month I can upload pics to here.

Just remembered, if I upload pics to CK5 gallery, only paying members will see them. Maybe I'll show something...

 

[4x4_76]

There's couple of hints of what I've done

 

[throttleissues]

The fuel fill box is for spills, keeps the petrol off the body (right) also, since these rigs came with diesel options, you can also keep gloves in there to keep the stinky fuel off your hands.

Nice build, any pics of the whole truck?

I think it had more to do with tilting the filler neck so the new(at the time) fuel nozzles would stay in.

 

[y5mgisi]

subscribing. Sweet thread!

 

[ankarback]

I haven´t been her for a while so I've missed this thread. This is a really cool project.

What magazine is it going to be in?
I'm going to Åland in June, maybe I can find the magazine over there?

 

[4x4_76]

I haven´t been her for a while so I've missed this thread. This is a really cool project.

What magazine is it going to be in?
I'm going to Åland in June, maybe I can find the magazine over there?

Thanks.

It's in 4x4 Magazine Finland. First part of the build was on 2/2008, and second is on a 3/2008. I don't know deadline for the 4/2008 issue yet, but I need to get frame done for that, and hopefully I get ES bodymount kit and rear spring bushings for that, too. Been waiting them for almost two months now Guess I have to cancle my order and get those from Summit myself.

 

[4x4_76]

Ok,here's some pics.

When I started this build, I made inspection to body, and it looked to be almost rustfree. I was little dissapointed when I discovered that every crossbrace under the cargo floor were rotting away. Also the rearmost crossmember on a body was totally shot. Notice the excellent condition of the front part of the floor (right corner on picture)

Easiest way to fix this was to remove everything from the rear.

While I was there, I cut off the rear rocker, it gets mangled to rocks anyway.

Then the fun started. I made some measurements to where to cut, and I did it so that there is one horizontal, and three vertical planes after the rear is welded to front. I figured it would take some strain out of the weld seams when they are not in one straight vertical line. Besides, it was much easier to joint the front and rear part when I just lifted the rear on top of the front.

50cm, or 19,7" off.

I used engine hoist to support rear half after the cut. First I placed it under the roof, but it was really unstable and I thought that it might fall to the floor and bend. So I looked for some plate and steel ring, that I cut in half and welded to the roof.

Then I just strapped the hoist to the ring and vóila, safety first.

After rear was aligned with the front, I tacked the lower part of the body, so I could remove the engine hoist. First impression was "Damn, what did I do??", but when I went to the garage next morning, body looked really nice.

Problems arised when I noticed that roof line did not align. First I thought that it was just crooked, and was going to force it in place, but then noticed that it was only the sides, top of the roof was fine.

First I tried to fix it by cuttiing lines to roof, bending them, and the welding. Result was more or less f**ked up roof. Welded part warped, started to resemble a bowl. Also you can see that it bended roof line up. Even though I used pressurized air to cool welding seams, heat still warped everything.

After I considered different sollutions to fix this, I cut part from the chopped roof and tacked it in place.

I relocated the fuel fill to the front of the rear tire. I'm going to mount 16gal Jazz tank to the front of the rear axle, so this was a perfect place for fill opening.

Then I continued by cutting of the rockers between the wheel wells. Thanks to dleroy43 for giving this great idea
I used 150x50x4 millimeter tubing (5.9x2x0.16 in inches). I cut 2" up from the lowest part of the door, so I also had to cut bit over 2" off from the doors. Little extra work, but this way I gain same amount under the rockers if I'd be using 3" bodylift. T-case and fuel cell would need that 3" bodylift, but instead I just raise the floor for those parts. Low CoG rules

Overall, I love the way Suburban looks now.