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Project Snow Bear K20!

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So I'm back by popular demand. Got the project completed and got home thinking the weather would have shifted to better and NOPE. Snow and crappy still. Think that is going to slow me down? Damn skippy, got new parts on order, solid plan and a whole lot of "let's knock this thing out". Been thinking a good deal about the project details and I have LOTS of new ideas. Lots of little stuff to add and it might get serious, quickly.
 
Parts are coming in and so is the nasty weather! I swear it was pretty and nice last week, snow was melting and mud season had started. Then boom! Started snowing last night and so far we have a FOOT of fresh new snow. I swear I can't buy a break this season.
 
This year is weird. Yesterday we had an inch of snow on the ground.....twice.

Yep snowed an inch warmed up melted it off, then snowed another inch later in the day. Which by the way mostly melted off then snowed a couple last night. Kind of a weird day.
 
I pulled an idiot move and ran my Bulldozer out of diesel by sheer stupidity. I usually keep 20 gallons in the machine minimum of a 100 gallon tank. A couple weeks ago we had a bad storm and I thought "when did I last fill that thing up?" I know there was enough diesel in to plow the driveway and there was. Exactly enough for me to go down, come back up and pull back into the yard. It then died. For those of you that know, diesels don't just die. Unless they are out of fuel, and it was. I knew it was going to be a bitch to get back running so I left it. Mad at myself. Filled the tank up the other day when it was warmer and sunny. Remembered an old trick. Cracked all the fittings to the fuel filter then the fuel pump, injector pump and then the no.1 injector. Made up a stopper for the fuel filler neck and pumped compressed air into the tank with the air compressor. Got over and watched for fuel at the filter, tightened the fitting.... Then the injector pump, tightened the fitting. Fuel injector, tightened the fitting....Vrooooom. Damn I'm good. Took about 30 minutes instead of hand priming it with the revolution of the engine or the little primer pump on the fuel pump which would have took hours. Moral of the story, don't be stupid. Fill the thing up.
 
I air locked an old Perkins in a bale wagon a few weeks ago after servicing it here at work. Several days and a new battery and new starter and lots of cranking I finally got advice from my brother in law and got it bled correctly. The fuel filters have no way of prefilling them and once it was air locked it was done.
My brother lives in Rapid City, SD. It was like 60 the other day and now today or tomorrow they are supposed to get like 13.5" of snow and then back to decent next week.
 
Truckman4life said:
I air locked an old Perkins in a bale wagon a few weeks ago after servicing it here at work. Several days and a new battery and new starter and lots of cranking I finally got advice from my brother in law and got it bled correctly. The fuel filters have no way of prefilling them and once it was air locked it was done.
My brother lives in Rapid City, SD. It was like 60 the other day and now today or tomorrow they are supposed to get like 13.5" of snow and then back to decent next week.
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Sealed systems vacuum bleed pretty easily. I had a tool for that at one time that I made up. Just a vaccum pump with a canister about the size of a gallon jug. Draw a vaccum on the furthest point and pull the fuel through the system. Saved a few pieces of equipment in the field with that rig. I lost it in my move out to Montana and never setup another one. Having a standalone "pusher pump" that you can connect into the fuel system is another way to go. Just a simple electric fuel pump, fuel line and a diesel can. Done that one a few times too. The pressure tank method works best with heavy equipment. Just remember to open the throttle all the way to open the injector pump.
 
Got a little done today on the Snow Bear. So I thought I would take some pics for you guys. I'm working on the Ford NP205 transfer case today, mating it to the Chevy NV4500. Both have a round 6 bolt pattern but they are slightly off. One or two of the holes will line up but not all. However the larger issue is the input shaft. The stock Ford input shaft is 31 Spline, NOT 32 spline as the NV4500. So we will address that first. Removing the input shaft on these is a really straight forward deal. Remove the front bearing cover with the Allen head bolts. Two snap rings and the front bearing. You will notice the front bearing cover fits perfectly inside the recess on the NV4500. No need for a spacer if you plan to clearance the tail housing on the NV4500 for the shifter rail, which mimics the stock ford. One thing you will need to do to run this setup without any sort of spacer is change out the cap head Allen bolts for flush mount Allen head screws. It makes it so that the bolts heads are now flush with the bearing housing instead of protruding. I will also eventually twin stick this NP205, just for fun but that's another story.

Once the front bearing is out. Remove the tail housing bolts on the transfer case. Slide the assembly out and take care to watch out for the roller bearings in the output shaft housing. They will fall right out as they are retained with grease around the rear shaft of the input shaft. Pulling the transfer case into LOW will vastly help you when you put it all back together. It will hold the shifter fork on the cluster. Repeat the process and slide it all back together with new gaskets. Easy, Peasy.

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Next step will be to remove the tail housing from the NV4500 and mate it to the NP 205. Clearancing the inside shifter rail. Then install the PTO on the NP205. Stay tuned!
 
For reference to someone reading this in the future, even with the spacer between the 205 and 4500 you’ll need to clearnace a bit for the shift rail. I had to on mine anyways. Been sort of following this build for awhile, glad to see it moving forward!
 
78K30 said:
For reference to someone reading this in the future, even with the spacer between the 205 and 4500 you’ll need to clearnace a bit for the shift rail. I had to on mine anyways. Been sort of following this build for awhile, glad to see it moving forward!
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Haven't done one with the spacer. I'm mimicking the ford tail housing that came with the 205 I have. I was just recessed and looks like there is plenty of room in there to shift without doing anything crazy. I am wondering about a shifter however. Most likely going to build my own twin stick. Lots of materials laying around here that would do it. Had to help a friend wire a cabin today but I should be back at the nv4500 tomorrow. I did get my case all cleaned up and put back together today. Also got the PTO hung on it. Once the transmission tail housing is mated, I'll put it all together for moch up. Clean, paint and work on the shifter for the transfer case.
 
Here is my NV4500 tail housing mated to the NP205. Tried to get good pics and describe them as I go. Transfer case was clocked to about 75 degrees to the transmission. It was one of the locations that the bolt holes would line up naturally, ended up being just about exactly where I wanted it to be anyway. As you can see in the pictures 4 of the bolt holes in the tail housing line up perfectly on the NP205. Two of them will need to be moved over slightly. I will use the old ford tail housing to locate the dowel pins in the new tail housing as well. At this point I am undecided on using the aluminum tail housing or buying a new cast iron replacement. With the assembly being as short as it is and the notion that it will get a custom cross member that not only supports the transmission at the trans. Mount but also fully supports the transfer case I am inclined to leave it as is. PTO is mounted and will end up hanging directly behind the transmission tucked up as high as it can go. Offset on it will be to the left, rear facing so I am hoping I don't have too much interference with the rear driveshaft to get it back to the PTO winch. I will shoot it over to the frame rail and back to get as much clearance as I can.

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Now that it is all together, I can get the whole assembly mocked up together. Possibly start on the crossmember this afternoon. I have a good amount of square tubing and flat plate to get going. Once the crossmember is mocked up and located, I can mock up the rear control arm mounts for the lower links on the suspension. Pretty much everything is being held up by this crossmember right now. Then things should move pretty quickly.
 
Transfer case/NV4500 is fully assembled and mocked up now. NP205 is clocked up as high as I dare which will surely aid in front driveline angles for my high pinion front axle. Rotating it up also essentially moved the front yoke to the right about 2" which will relieve some of the angle needed to get to the differential on the extreme drivers side. All this in an effort to resolve issues before they begin. Of course by doing this I know I have created other clearance issues. Most likely the bottom of the cab will need to be bulged or relieved to accomodate the transfer case height. I'll cross that bridge when I need to. Next step for me I'll be working on twin stick shifters. I'll get the assembly up on stands and leveled out so I can start some fabrication there. Also once it is suspended level I can measure and start working on the cross member. I am pretty sure I know what I want to do there but without a tubing bender I am more than likely going to use 2x2 square tubing. First things first, get it up on a stand, cleaned up and decreased.

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Somewhere on pirate some guy chopped off the top corner of the 205. Gained a few inches of clearance.

Worth a look to see if you feel like jacking with it. What's the exhaust plan?
 
83ChevyK5Blazer said:
I saw this at a local show and thought of your build.

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Thanks for the PIC! The mods I am planning for the bed are actually quite extensive. The one I found has a good amount of rust in the bottom of the boxes. The plan so far is to chop the rear box off at an angle to relieve the departure angle. I am also looking at ways to get a topper or cover on the back to protect the bed contents. I was thinking a soft top possibly but I do want some sort of roof rack over it.
 
obijuank5 said:
Somewhere on pirate some guy chopped off the top corner of the 205. Gained a few inches of clearance.

Worth a look to see if you feel like jacking with it. What's the exhaust plan?
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I'll look at it but I got enough fab work ahead of me. Bulge in the cab floor or small body lift might be plenty to negate the 205 angle. The "HOPE" is that there is going to be enough room on the drivers side to get it between the frame and transfer case up high. This is one of the potential problems I created for myself later. Since I will be removing the cab to get all of the drivetrain in place before setting the cab back on I am sure I will be able to deal with it....someway. The ulterior motive is to get the belly of this beast as flat as absolutely possible. In an effort to run a nice heavy belly pan, we'll see how it works out I guess.
 
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