Berthas Cummins Build: Update 8/9/11 Drivetrain Assembly

[badriver19]

This is the build of Berthas.

At this point I am well underway on her.

I bought the 1971 Chevrolet in February 2010. I started collecting parts and pieces while I let her sit until about June due to the cold weather and a busy schedule. Once summer hit I started on her full out to create what I have so far today. I will post the specs and the pictures I received before I bought the truck for this first post and I will update here and there as I have time until we are caught up to present day.

On to the good stuff:

Drivetrain Specs:

1994 6bt Cummins
NV4500
NP205
D60/14 bolt

There are lots of plans for many different areas on the truck that I will cover as I go along. I have collected more parts than I even know that I have right now so I just have to wait to til I get to certain points to actually start putting those parts together to create a truck.

Here are some base pictures to give you an idea of the truck as it sat in the previous owner's possesion. Don't mind the creepy guy in the fourth pic......:

 

[badriver19]

I drove the truck onto the trailer with the 350/350/205 that was in it and she seemed to run great. I thought about adding a few things to get her road worthy but it just wasnt worth it to me so I just decided to dive in and start the disassembly. It had a 2 inch body lift on it to help clear the supposed 33 inch sidewinder mud tires that will be no longer. I will most likely run a 1 inch body lift to help with clearances for the new drive train.

And then I found these...

I started on the rebuild of the D60 and 14 bolt and between work and waiting on parts it took about 6 weeks and a small fortune to take them from that ^^^^^^ to this vvvvvvv:

While I waited on parts for rebuilding the axles I decided to "make" some parts on the waterjet for the axles in the meantime:

U-bolt plates:

Shackles:

Steering arm and springless kingpin cap for the 60:

In the middle of building the axles and all of the other parts for them I decided that it would be nice to have a good, solid table to work from. So I built one. The frame of the table was completely overkill being out of 2x4 boxed 3/16 wall tube, but I had the material left over from another project and I will have this thing to use forever. I cannot even explain how much it has helped me having this table for this project. The table is not finished yet as I plan to add brackets and shelves for my welder and other tools, but I could not have built it at a better time:

 

[badriver19]

When I finished the table and painted the axles and parts I put the axles under the truck and attached them with the ubolts and ubolt plates that I made. I threw on the wheels and tires I got for it and this is how she sat for a bit while I went to work on the removal of the Cummins and NV4500 from the Dodge.

Once I removed the engine and trans from the Dodge I pushed it outside, set the Cummins aside, and started on the conversion of the nv4500 from 2wd to 4wd. This was a bit of a process because my original plan was to just take all of the parts from the 2wd mainshaft and transfer them to a stock 4wd mainshaft then add the 4wd tail housing and run it that way since the trans seemed to be in good driving condition when it was in the Dodge. I then decided to order the upgraded mainshaft so that I wouldn't have the 5th gear nut issue to worry about. Then I decided that I might as well do it right and do it once and do a full rebuild so that I wouldn't have to worry about it for a long while.

Here are some pics of the rebuild:

2wd nv4500

Pulling off 5th gear with a tool I made

Empty Case

Sea of parts

Finally finished and buttoned up

http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo10/afrogs19df/71%
20chevy/Berthas/IMG_0118.jpg

 

[badriver19]

After I finished rebuilding the trans I set it aside and started working on the frame so I could get the the drive train together to start mocking up the motor mounts, trans mount and cross members. I removed the original Chevy motor crossmember, trans crossmember, and transfer case crossmember and then welded in a new temporary crossmember to keep the frame shifting to a minimum. From there I started filling in holes that I will not use in the engine and trans areas of the frame. I will fill the rest of the holes later. After the holes were filled, I tacked in some boxing plates in the motor mount and trans mount areas so that I could get the drive train in to start mocking the mounts for everything.

Original engine crossmember

engine crossmember out and original trans and rear crossmember

Original crossmembers out and holes filled

Boxing plates tacked in for mock up

After getting the frame boxed enough to mock up the driveline mounts I set the drivetrain between the rails and threw the cab on its mounts to start the process of figuring out the final location of the drivetrain.

Here is how she sits right now:

 

[yellowK20]

Bad-ass!!!!!!

 

[scottishdave]

Stupid .mil computers and their damn picture blocking abilities. I will be paying this thread a visit tommorow when i get off duty and get on a real people computer.

 

[kgblazerfive]

Yeah looks real nice

 

[max 02]

I`ll be watching. LOOKING GOOD MAN!!

 

[Z71paramedic]

That's a hell of a lot of drivetrain! That looks huge between the rails. I'm subscribed.

 

[Avery4jc]

Freakin' sweet build man. I love those tires too!

 

[Yukon Jack]

Gonna be a sweet truck!

 

[sledheadak]

nice whats the final plan for it?

 

[sponsoredbydad]

Looks like that truck is being made to maul it's way thru the Alaskan tundra, O-Wait it is Keep up with the pics. Love the barn as a shop (Wish I had one)

 

[acewilson]

I'm jealous already! Oh and subscribed.

 

[mosesburb]

A welding table AND a barn to work in?!?! That makes it so that you don't have to put all of your tools back in the garage and secure the vehicle when you are done working on it that day--then get them all back out the next morning. That's cheating!! My welding table and barn looked just like a saw horse and a driveway.

Looks great so far!! What did you decide on the compressor fitment issue??

 

[badriver19]

A welding table AND a barn to work in?!?! That makes it so that you don't have to put all of your tools back in the garage and secure the vehicle when you are done working on it that day--then get them all back out the next morning. That's cheating!! My welding table and barn looked just like a saw horse and a driveway.

Looks great so far!! What did you decide on the compressor fitment issue??

Ha its not too fun right now with the cold but I am working on getting some heat in there so its a bit more comfortable to work out there. I probably should have done that earlier

Thanks! I am going to go with the mid mount setup like yours. The different parts from different applications might be a bit of a hassle and the price to piece together this setup is definitely not ideal but I think it will be worth it to not have to offset the frame as much as I would have had to if I would have gone with the Dodge compressor setup. As for the hassle of the various applications, I will just have to make a note or log book with all of the unique and different parts on the truck for a service or repair manual, which really should be done anyway!

Would you mind posting the parts that you used for the mid mount setup and about what the cost was to convert to this setup? You are more than welcome to post pics in this thread if you feel the need to as well!

Thanks again moses

To answer the question about what I am going to do with the truck, I am looking to mainly daily drive this beast and possibly play around with it in some local sled pulls. Other than that just a fun street and off road capable truck to have fun in.

Thank you to everyone for the compliments as well. It really does make a difference in a build like this to help keep the motivation going!

 

[acewilson]

Just wondering, what kind and sizes are those tires and wheels on there now. I found a set of thoses wheels in 16.5x12 with 35x15x16.5 tsl on craigslist but i dont believe i want to go with that wide of a wheel incase i decide to get a narrower tire. Interco recommends a 16.5x9.75 wheel for that size tire.

 

[badriver19]

Just wondering, what kind and sizes are those tires and wheels on there now. I found a set of thoses wheels in 16.5x12 with 35x15x16.5 tsl on craigslist but i dont believe i want to go with that wide of a wheel incase i decide to get a narrower tire. Interco recommends a 16.5x9.75 wheel for that size tire.

These wheels are 16x12 Mickey Thompson Classic II's I believe and the tires should be 375/60/R16 which is a 33" x 15.50 x 16.

 

[AJs72K5]

And a waterjet at your disposal?!? Nice progress.

 

[badriver19]

And a waterjet at your disposal?!? Nice progress.

Yeah it has allowed me to do things I would have never even thought about doing like the steering arm and other brackets as well. It's such an amazing machine/tool to work with and have available.

Thanks aj