Truck is looking good. Are you moving out of the area? Or just closer to town?
And congratulations. We need to get together and have lunch soon to catch up.
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Truck is looking good. Are you moving out of the area? Or just closer to town?
And congratulations. We need to get together and have lunch soon to catch up.
Congratulations on the marriage, Al! I'm happy to hear things have turned around for you and hope they continue to get better!
Thanks guys... It seems to be getting better. October 19th will be a very tough day. But getting past these first times for each thing is important for moving on. Liz is totally at peace now. And with her daughters. They are in a good place. My new bride is quite the gal. On board with the current day issues and a good match for me. My home has been on the market for about a hundred days now. Price lowered three times and not one looker. A year ago it would have sold inside of a week. Glenn to answer your question, I would like to stay here in the Panhandle, but I have been looking in Wenatchee. Moving internally into WA state is something I am really struggling with. A very corrupt and drunk on power governor and very new very stupid gun laws that only hurt the law abiding, I am second guessing leaving here. My wife has an 87 year old Mom she cannot leave. And a step dad with terminal cancer. Her mom needs us. There is more to be revealed here. Time will show it. I need to find a job too. Glenn I would make the drive down for a lunch. I know you are busy. You make the time and I will be there. It would be good to catch up.
I look at my truck every day. I intend to resume work on it this winter. With a goal of paint in the spring. I need to sell and move so that may change things. I do have some input about using a civi door. You need to add a bracket inside the door to hold the Mil wing window. I plan on detailing this in my next progress posting. An unexpected find there.
Good to chat with you guys...
Congrats on the marriage Al!! Where do I send the gift?
Congrats on being born in Christ as well!!
Major life changes...God bless you in all these new directions Sir!!
Thank you Jon. No gifts please... I have been meaning to get a post in here. I had a very weird summer. I did not get much of anything done. I did roast a boat motor from not watching my temp gauge. No smell either. I would have caught it. 109 days later I dropped in a rebuild, got the cam broke in, took it out for an hour of figure eights to seat the rings and then brought it home to winterize it. We have been down to 2 degrees already. I have been pushing the Mtruck around all summer to use the shop for stuff. I really lost a lot of time this summer thinking I was going to sell and move. Not wanting to get any big projects started. I had one looker from Seattle. He said he really liked the place but being in WA state by 1500 feet was a deal breaker. He is sick of WA politics and the wokeness everywhere. I agreed and wished him luck in his search. I am off market now. My sense of smell has gone haywire. Everything and I mean everything smells like over fragrant laundry detergent. wood smoke, exhaust, farts, dinner, everything... Hey it could be dog pooh instead... LOL Maybe it means I am supposed to do laundry. Ha.. I will be in the shop this winter working on the truck again. I need to change a ring and pinion, rebuild some gear boxes, look inside the motor etc... I will be bending up a rear bed rack to mount a Cal King sized 23 zero roof top tent on. I am eager for that to be done. Back soon..
Well snow is here and I have been laying on a creeper under the truck. I guess it is time to get more done. I am getting ready to bend up a rear bed rack to hold a roof top tent. This rack will fit my truck and M101 trailer. The M101 is 1.5 inches wider than the M truck. Oddly the bed in the M101 is just a tad bigger than the M truck. I have the roof top tent mounted on my little M410 trailer. My late wife and I slept in it one time in the yard and that is the only use it has seen. My intent for it was to be on the M715. And transferable to the M101. So I need to finish the doors and address the issue I found with using civi doors on an M truck.
And the reason for the creeper was to figure out the best way to fix my mistake of welding up the best exhaust I have done yet and I accidentally blocked my upper shock mounts. I blame that on the covid brain. I still suffer from being a little slow from the fog. I am trying to find a way to heal from that. So far it looks like just redoing the exhaust is the easiest ticket. Goofball.. I need axle shock mounts, a rear gearing change, skid plates, and some type of cage for the cab. The tubing I am using for the tent rack was supposed to be in the cab. Nothing like a plan change. I will get some pictures up soon.
Are you snowed in yet up there?
Heck yes... Had a solid 2 feet before December hit. That is a lot of snow way early. I will get 3-5 feet all year with settling to a pretty consistent 35-40 inches on the ground. I have yet to see just what this year will bring. I wish my shop roof would get rid of what is there. This could be a mess later.
So I have threatened to do a post for a long time now. I have been pretty busy and side tracked with trying to sell my home and bail out of here. Losing my Liz changed everything. It would help to leave here and start fresh somewhere else. God has a plan and his plan is much more important than mine. So I try to go with it. I did not take on any projects this summer because I thought I was going to be moving. Well here I am still here and I have actually started back in on the truck. Seems to be a winter only project so far. That is OK as I am almost done with the build. Except disassembly and paint. So I have a door issue to address. And my last few days were spent making a rear bed rack for a roof top tent. A cool tent that will transfer between my truck bed and to my M101 trailer. The rack fits both.
First off I thought using a civi door was a piece of cake. Cut the braze up front and unbolt the triangular wing window and remove it. The rectangular M truck wing window and brackets fit right down in the civi door but I discovered something. That hole up on the top of the inside of the door just below the back edge of the wing window is for a bracket that holds the wing window frame. That bracket does not exist in the civi full size jeep door. Without the bracket the glass tips up and down and is not held firmly in place keeping the correct alignment with the windshield gap. I took out the spot welds and removed a bracket so I could copy it. Here is all the detail.
So you can't use a civi full size jeep door without doing the following.
This upper hole and the bracket behind it. Spot welds cut and that is what it looks like.
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The OEM bracket behind my civi door. I still need to weld them in. But you can see the wing window frame threads back in there.
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My copy of the OEM part.
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Some dimensions in case someone needs to make some of these.
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The mounting hole was roughly 9/16 but I cut mine at 1/2 since I don't need all that fudge room.
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The height of the bracket. Get it close and it should work fine.
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I spent some time on you tube watching how to accurately bend roll cages. I have not used my JD Squared model 3 bender in over a decade. I bought 1 3/4 dies for the front roll cage hoop. I had the stick of 1 3/4 tubing but elected to make a mount for the roof top tent with it. I have 2 inch dies and have two 20 foot sticks of 2 inch tubing for a roll cage. I was going to use 2 inch except for the front hoop. I was going to use 1 3/4 to fit better. But I used it for the tent mount. If I can get 2 inch to work in the front I will. But till then I can now put my roof top tent on. The rack is not done as I am waiting for some gussets to get sent here. Other than that is is pretty complete. I wanted it to be at 78 inches high. I can still see out the back window and 78 inches is the height of my annex that zips on the bottom of the tent making another ground floor room. It will be slick.
I carefully bent up two hoops. They came out exact. I was surprised actually. They follow the profile of the cab soft top.
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I used 2x3 3/16 angle for the bed brackets. I cut them back some to lighten them up. I welded everything with 1/8 aluminum spacers between the angle and the bed wall. I am gluing on 1/8 high density rubber there later after paint. Some cushion and paint protection.
I found bending 1/8 TIG filler rod into the profile I wanted worked really well. I was able to follow it with the plasma cutter very well. I simply cannot free hand this stuff. So the welding filler rod was the ticket. It was very cold out. And getting dark. I could hardly see through the helmet from the steam.
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It turned out pretty well. I need to clean up some of my welds but overall I am happy with it. It is just high enough for good rear window visibility and the tent folded up will not stick up from the cab roof very much at all.
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This is the tent on my little M416 trailer. Same tent that will now go on the truck.
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Opened up no lower annex attached..
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It will make the truck a great back woods exploring rig and I guess it is called overlanding .. well it sounds like fun.
On a final note. I found NOS mirror arms at Midwest Military. That issue is solved. I read they shake though. I may modify them. I also found a CUCV 12 volt blackout light. Since I will be all 12 volt this is cool and I can keep the original look and have it work also. Good finds.
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And from many many years ago. I found this and put it on the shop wall. It is faded big time from being on my first trucks battery box, but oh the memories.. Made me smile. Circa 2005ish.
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More soon as I finish the gussets and get after my exhaust system correction. Glad to finally get this posted.
Got the wing windows done. If converting FSJ doors check the contact between the bracket and wing window frame. I had to rework even the OEM bracket since it only had contact with the frame on the top edge. That would have pulled the frame assembly away from the door frame when tightened up. I corrected both brackets. They don't influence the angle now.
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Got the seats mounted. OEM M715 bases were to tall with these seats I have. I dug out some low back seat mounts from a FSJ and they too were to tall. So I made new ones. I dropped the front of the seat by around 2 inches. Now I can get in with the steering wheel not being in the way. I did the bending on a bearing press with jigs..
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My new wife is short. Barley 5 foot tall I realized she would have a great view of the grab bar and bottom of the windshield if I lowered the seat like my side. So I left the height and raised the back some. I can rework these later if I need to. I am eyeballing the battery box mounts. Wondering what I could put between the seats. I will think on what makes sense.
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Her side is a shade taller. A 2 inch roll cage bar fits behind the sides and I still need to come up with seat belts. I will cover these seats as cloth seats in a rig like this seems wrong. I will make something or I am told Cabelas has great stuff for seat covers. Just something simple and weather proof.
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I have some gussets to weld on the roof top tent mount and some exhaust to reroute so I can put shocks on. Can't believe I did that. Onward..
Al,
I have said it before but WOW!! You do great work...I wish I had your skills!
Glad to see you making progress and doing really neat stuff!
Thanks Jon.. I have the seats in and the exhaust corrected. I can now hang shocks. I may move the brake line over an inch. Away from any heat. I could loosen it and turn it to get it to favor flexing the other direction. It won't me much to move it. I need to load the truck with some weight and get the pinion angle set, then weld the spring pads and get some lower shock mounts welded on the axle. All that would be left there is a gear change to 4:56 which are sitting over on the table. I have a message to Scassidy to ask how his Yokohama Geolandar tires are wearing. He has not responded. I am curious as they look like they will wear fast with the tread pattern and wide spacing on the tread.
Anyway. Some old rancho's to get my exhaust done were dug up..
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I may get back out there today after I watch my Church thing.. God first!
Looking good. I think it might be later in the spring when we come up the way winter is going this year. Are you ready for the cold snap mid week? Stay warm.
I am watching it Glenn. 12 degrees this morning. About three years ago I had 20 below zero for two weeks. Even the gas engines did not want to start. Hopefully that won't happen again. Trying to keep the paint and glues in the shops from freezing is important. And my big TIG welder cooler sprung a leak again. The plastic tank that holds the coolant is very old and brittle. It is cracking again. I am headed to get some windshield bedding glue to coat it with. It is rubber that is super strong. That stuff is impressive. Vent window gaskets?? LOL My exhaust is really done this time. All the hangers got custom made and put on yesterday and it looks good.
EDIT: -27 yesterday... 3 day shop clean under way...
I spent 5 days cleaning up my shop. It needs more. But I wanted to do something to the truck. Now somewhere I had posted about the Chevy K30 master cylinder and which port was the front. Online just about everywhere states the smaller port closest to the booster or in this case the hydroboost was to the front and is considered the primary port. . It seems that I found it was opposite for the K30. But I can't find the thread. And I can't remember... Thank you covid... Today I plumbed it out with a new line doing what all the reading said online. I can change it if I need to. I ran out of 3/16 brake line so time to go get more so I can do the back circuit. I did plumb the clutch master cylinder earlier to down below the steering column to a brake line tab with the 5/8 hole. It transitions to a rubber line and connects to the clutch slave cylinder. After line clamps get installed that is done. The roof top tent rack is done except drilling through the rack base to the bed. I got the gussets welded in. Then made clamps out of SS exhaust clamps with a piece of exhaust tubing welded in to hold the tent down on the 1 3/4 dia rack. I will put rubber on the clamps after it is painted. So no serious scratching from the tent clamps. Nice to be back on the truck today.
The gussets.
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The new clamps
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Clutch hard line lower section.
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One brake line to the adjustable proportioning block on the frame.
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I sure am liking the hydroboost Eightyduece set me up with. The truck is getting heavy and I will be glad I have it. Thanks again Eightyduece!
Hopefully I can get more done tomorrow..
2.5 hours of searching for which port is the front brake system. I cannot find the thread where I discovered this master cylinder was different with a diagram. I have searched GM parts sites, forums, you tube, and vintage chevy parts places. I am just about positive the CUCV master cylinder is not like the rest of the world. And the front port is the front brakes. The rear port closest to the hydroboost is the rear brakes.
Does anyone have a CUCV combined with weather good enough have a look under the truck to trace the master cylinder brake lines to the front proportioning block to verify what I am saying here?
I just want to get it right.
Attachment 3628Attachment 3629I went and looked at one of mine Al. Does this help?
M1009 which is not the same parts as a M1008.
Yes it does. It supports my front port to front brakes statement. I don't know if the M1009 would be the same, but I suspect it may be laid out the same. I am still hoping to have someone with a M1008 chime in. And or find the info online. I did find one K30 diagram that sure looked like it verified what I am wondering about. But the diagram was poorly done and it was a crap shoot as to the line layout. I really appreciate you doing that Tim. I think I will go get some brake line today. And change what I have done. If it's wrong, replumbing later won't be a big deal. But if anyone can still check a M1008, that would be super. Thank you Tim. Super helpful.
My experience is with disc/drum brake systems the bigger reservoir in the master feeds the calipers as they take more fluid than the rear wheel cylinders.
I am going to go with that Glenn. I am getting to wrapped in the details. Thank you.. And it it does not work right, I will just quit using my brakes. :cool:
Agreed. Big reservoir for disc and small for drum. Before I went to the hydro I used a MC that had a small and a large reservoir but disc brakes all around. Didn’t have an issue. As long as you add fluid occasionally as the pads wear it’s fine. But going from manual to hydro was a huge improvement. Al I think you’ll find that brakes are somewhat necessary sometimes…
Well brake lines are done. Big reservoir to the fronts, small to the back. I ran a couple coils around some 1 3/4 tubing for body to frame flex. I think it just might stop now. I need to change the rear axle gear ratio. To 4:56 like the front dana 60. Dana Spicer makes a thick gear set for a three series carrier. I have them here..
Well I decided yesterday to get after the rear gear ratio change. This is a big axle!
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The 4:56 gears to match the front dana 60 are Dana Spicer and a thick gear set to use on a three series carrier. That saved a lot of money by not having to change the Powr-Loc out. I really like Powr-Loc's. The design is genius. The 3:54 gears I took out ( on the right) have a thicker tooth than the new 4:56. Probably not enough to matter, but I noticed it.
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The Powr_Loc is easy to identify even through a fill hole.
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I had a very strange diagonal contact pattern that was very hard to interpret. I have never had that happen on all the gears I have set up. I changed a couple things to move the pattern around, that took a long time, but settled on what I have now. I can run a pattern after break in and see if there is something amiss later. But it was weird.
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Glad to have this done. I will land the shock mounts after cleaning up the tubes and soon I will clock the axle and weld the spring perches. After setting the U joint angles.
The brakes looked good. But someone put the shoes on backwards on the drivers side. The primary shorter shoe is on the back and should be on the front. Easy fix. But lots of material left.
Looking good. Ready for winter again, sounds like it's coming back this weekend.
I am watching a major cold front coming down from Canada right now. 100% chance of snow tonight. I spent the day tearing down the front Dana 60 to replace seals, clean up wads of grease, get black paint where I might not reach later. I needed to order up some kingpin parts. I am impressed with the Dana 60 and how stout it is. I need to clean up a few more parts and then wait on the kingpin parts. Just burning up winter on the truck build. My first truck was named snowball by the folks at the Arizona observatory where it lived for a long time. I should find a winter based name for this one. Anyway...
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Might as well call it Blizzard Al. That is kind of how your life reads the past few years. Like you were hit by a blizzard and this thing is helping you get through it
If that over steps on getting too personal. Then, I apologize. What I wrote is the first thing that popped into my head when you mentioned it needed a name.
Good description Tim. Never too personal coming from you. Yep life has had some turns. Every day I wonder where I am headed now. And trying to get over it. Liz would always say just do the next right thing. She was wise beyond her years. So getting this truck done seems like the next right thing. I get a lot of enjoyment from building jeeps. I would like to use it before it becomes illegal to drive a gas powered vehicle. Sarc.. Thanks for the reply.
The ultimate site for info on the Dana 60.
http://www.billavista.com/tech/Artic...ble/index.html
Decided to go ahead and reduce the gear backlash. I was at the max spec and I can't leave well enough alone. Thought I was pulling threads as it would not reach torque. 80 Ft Lbs for a Dana 60. I figured I would go head and pull the threads and get out a helicoil repair kit. I won't do that again because it was the bolt and not the threads. I barely had enough to grab and fortunately it twisted right out. Whew... I never have had a bearing cap bolt fail before.
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And cleaning up each part one by one. Electrical tape on the seal surfaces works better than masking tape. Looks like I painted them, but they are masked off. There were no roller bearings in the long side axle U-joint. Probably was noisy.
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It is snowing again. Painting weather!!
There is an old thread somewhere in which Doug had his bolt stretch when putting the bearing cap back on the diff...I remember he had a pic of a good bolt and the stretched one...will have to find it and see 0if the pic is still working...
He felt it happen when he was torquing it down...seemed to get almost tight then looser...pulled it out and there was the damage...
Seems this bug bit you too...at least you caught it before it got worse!
Havent found the pic but the details are in this thread...Barrman, Gonz, Doug and bump_r all had issues with torque below the book spec.
http://www.m715zone.com/vb/showthrea...Locker-install
That was an interesting read. Good memories with those guys. Gimpy and Bump_r and I wonder what Doug is up to. From now on when I am putting a differential back in I will be paying attention to the torquing and if there is any doubt, replace the bolts. So I have an even better one for everybody. I was cleaning up my front axle parts and removing my high steer and cross over parts I found something I am really glad I spotted. A huge safety issue. The high steer kit comes with 1/2 x 20 studs to mount the arms on the top of the knuckle. Now keep in mind I have not torqued the nuts down on these studs. They were only installed to steer the truck and get it out of the shop to work on other vehicles last summer. No driving on them of any sort. 4 of the 8 studs were cracked all the way down the whole length of the studs. It looks like a heat treatment issue. I sent these three pictures to Ruff Stuff Specialties. I have looked for THREE SOLID HOURS NOW and cannot find 3 inch long Grade 8 1/2 x 20 studs with the same thread on both ends. Amazon ads up the ..... Well you know. I just can't find them. I think a 3 inch piece of grade 8 all thread will have to do. They tighten with lug nuts on top. It should work ok. But geez my luck with bolts and fasteners lately.
Have a look at these!
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Deep cracks too!
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Never a dull moment around here.
That is crazy...seriously!!!
Glad you caught it for sure!
You must have the patience of Job with all that keeps getting thrown at you...or maybe I dont know how much you throw when your offline to get the frustration out...
Keep up the great work...it WILL pay off one day.
I think Job had it worse. I think of him when I am feeling the pity party surface. Serious... At least I don't have leprosy.
And cracked and broken fasteners are just nothing in the big picture of today. That needs to stay in perspective for sure.
So Ruff Stuff called me first thing this morning. They want back all the studs and are sending me all new ones. I can not speak highly enough of them. Back when I ordered my high steer kit, it showed up box crushed and torn open from UPS. Several expensive parts were missing. Ruff Stuff graciously and promptly replaced them. Now this time they were very concerned and they called ME. I have ordered a lot from them. And if I need more stuff I will do so again. I highly recommend them. I told Eric how I looked for three solid hours for a 1/2 x 20 high strength stud and no go. That the slew of page after page of amazon ads was disgusting. Bezos is a richard for allowing that to happen. To many counterfeits from amazon now. I avoid them like leprosy. lol I had better shut up since free speech does not exist any more. And I would hate to be fined by paypal for misinformation. So, How about that weather? It was minus 15 this morning. More painting weather...
I am happy this turned out well yet again. And no signs of any lesions.... yet. :)
The replacement studs from Ruff Stuff showed up right away. The seem to be a darker tint. They threw in a Tee shirt. They have been great to deal with and compared to other companies they are outstanding. Consider them if you need what they sell.
So progress is slow but steady. Today I should get my dana 60 king pin parts. I have been cleaning up parts and getting some black paint on. I want to get right after painting the truck but if I sell my home, I can't have this thing all spread out everywhere. I want to leave here though. It feels like what I should do for now. But wait ten minutes.. :rolleyes:
Progress...
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Beefy tie rods from Ruff Stuff. You won't bend these.
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11 degrees this morning. Painting weather... Remind me to move somewhere where you can paint longer than two weeks out of the year.
Onward.
A stand up company...getting harder to find these days but good for them!!!
Leprosy...yeah...Job did have it pretty bad...I have had to remind myself as well about such things when I hit the bumps in my life and get my "the sky is falling" mindset going...
So the front axle is just about all done. Today I mount brake line tabs on the frame and shorten and reflare the hard lines where they meet the soft lines. I have kind of a weird issue. The rotors are new, reman calipers, new pads. The caliper piston is fully retracted and the fit on the rotor is tight. I know it will get hot. So I am wondering if I should have the rotors turned. And just who around here within a 3000 miles radius actually does that. AND comma I am waiting for the hub rebuild kits that are supposed to be here today. I called Warn industries in Oregon and asked them if they sold the locking hub decal that they include in a F*rd kit separately. Nope ... They were not helpful at all. The opposite experience I had with Ruff Stuff. I used to 4 wheel with the senior design engineer at Warn. He would have set me up. But he retired out years ago. Warn got purchased by North West investment group. They ruined a good company. Stopped all the full floater kits, all the good stuff. Vintage Reproductions ( clickitandstickit.com) will and has made me every single decal I have requested. I should send them an email. I am going to get drivelines made soon. Onward...
All my axle works is done. I got the rear axle pinion angle set after putting about 200 pounds of stuff in the bed. I put it at 0.7 degrees low because the pinion will climb under load. That should put it right in for being hopefully vibration free. And I welded the shock mounts on. I got the front brake line tabs welded on the frame. AND bonus, the Warn hub rebuild kit came with new decals. The Warn customer service guy could have told me that.. I am going to order a front CV driveline and get the rear shortened. The rear has 1410 great big 1 ton U-joints, and the front will be also 1 ton at 1350. Just don't have a look at the dinky little u-joints between gear boxes. :D
You're making good progress, better than me. Looking forward to coming up this spring, hopefully in one of my rigs. Still planning on moving? And where too?