Project Family Chummins

[jbclassix]

Originally Posted by ackattack

nice

where did you get the double din dash, or did you make it?

x2

[Shoppy2387]

I bought a kit from thedetailss.Com, but fibreglassed it all myself.

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by Shoppy2387

I bought a kit from thedetailss.Com, but fibreglassed it all myself.

A little too expensive for me, so I guess I'll just get a different single DIN head unit. Where I live, a big nice nav/dvd player headunit is just more tempting to get your vehicle broken into (had one stolen out of my 'burb)

[Ackattack]

The other day I finally got the hitch completely installed. It required drilling out 2 holes in the frame and grinding down some rivets a little. I guess that's what happens when you do a little modification.

In other news I finished up my MBA last night. So that will free up a little more time. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can finish up the last few things on the truck to do list. We're going to see what happens, but we may be moving as I start looking for a different job.

[Ackattack]

I removed the auxilary leaf springs. The weren't really doing anything since I had to remove the rear contact pad when I put the shortbed on anyways. In doing so I also cut a little length off the center bolt.

Finally, I installed the rear air bags. These came off the dodge, but luckily they were set up for both 2.5" and 3" springs so they fit the narrower chevy springs.

I had to order a few fittings for the air lines, so it will be a few days until its all operational. I have a small air compressor that I'm going to wire up that will keep a small tank full, and I can fill these bags. Should work pretty slick.

[jbclassix]

Now that you have been driving the truck for a while, do you think that the GM radiator is adequate or do you think that a 2nd gen radiator is in the future?

[Ackattack]

Well I have more than 3/4 of it blocked right now with it being winter.

Over the summer when it was 105 out, my temps would run under 200. Now when I hook up a trailer to it in 105 heat, I'm not sure. I figure the electric fan is more of a weak link than the actual radiator. No problems so far though.

[jbclassix]

Yeah, I honestly wish I had to block my radiator because of weather, but I was outside working on the "new" truck until midnight last night in SHORTS AND A T-SHIRT. So, since I am needing to install a new radiator, I was just wondering if I should upgrade to a 2nd gen radiator, or stick with the GM because it will hold its own. Haven't posted anything on the new truck yet, but I will once the time comes. I have read through this build several times now because you've gone the route I am thinking about going. Also, I am using some tips from your no-buck build on the suburban whenever I get back to that

[Ackattack]

I tried using the dodge radiator. It didn't fit real well, and would have required a lot more hacking on the core support.

[jbclassix]

Good to know.

[ryanroo]

core support hacking aint no thang!

[Ackattack]

Tonight's task was to get the air bags operational.

So first I had to do a little plumbing:



Hooked up the lines, installed the control valve and guages, and then filled the tank with my shop air.



Here it is "aired out"


And here it it is filled up:


Not a whole lot of change height was....oh well.

So I figured if I'm riding around with airbags, I better make sure people know it, so I slapped on a sticker:



I'll get the air compressor hooked up later.

[Palf70Step]

Nice low rider there. Bruiser may have to watch out ....it may sneak under em.

[RoadDog]

Might as well put some train horns on it as well.

[classicthrasher]

It was a few pages back...but Randolph just north of Manhattan has a decent park for your Jeep.The guys at 4x4 Land in Topeka can give you the low down...been a few years since I've been up there. Also pretty good wheeling around Lake of the Ozarks in MO, and Disney, OK (near Grand Lake). Very nice build. I have a 95 12 valve/nv4500 I'm attempting to stuff into a 49 Chevy 3600.

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by classicthrasher

It was a few pages back...but Randolph just north of Manhattan has a decent park for your Jeep.The guys at 4x4 Land in Topeka can give you the low down...been a few years since I've been up there. Also pretty good wheeling around Lake of the Ozarks in MO, and Disney, OK (near Grand Lake). Very nice build. I have a 95 12 valve/nv4500 I'm attempting to stuff into a 49 Chevy 3600.

I sold the jeep in January.....it was a rusted POS.

As for the truck, I got the front diff fluid changed. I inspected the gears while I had it opened up and everything looked great.

The truck is leaking power steering fluid, so I need to check into that. I'm not sure exactly where its leaking from. So we'll see.

[ryanroo]

If you lift the truck with the air bag, you have effectively increased the spring rate of the rear suspension. that will decrease the ride quality. the benefit of an air bag is to allow a lower spring rate when the truck is unloaded and increase as the load is increased. it allows for a better ride when loaded often, as it can keep the rear suspension at normal ride height under load and that makes the truck feel better. it can also offer stability when loaded as it has an increased spring rate. to get the benefit of better unloaded ride, you need to use the airspring as the primary spring, not as a helper. as a primary spring it can offer low rates that have a good ride unloaded and extreme capacity when loaded all from the same spring. going that route can be like kicking a can of worms over... trust me, hahaha

[Ackattack]

My 4wd shifter had a really short throw, making it difficult to get it in the mode that you wanted. This was due to the GM shifter with the Dodge selector linkage and tab.

Basically I needed to increase the throw of the shifter. I could either shorten the shifter or lengthen the selector tab on the transfer case. I chose the selector tab.



The stock tab is approx. 1-1/2 inches center to center. I thought twice as much travel would work well, so I took a piece of metal and cut it 1-1/2 long and welded it into place:



The travel is just about perfect and its easier to get into the mode I want.

Then I moved onto the steering. There has been a lot of slop in the steering. I've had my wife help move the wheel back and forth several times looking for slop in the steering. All of the joints were tight, I had replaced the gear box (for the same reason). So I posted on the 88-98 section, and someone mentioned the rag joint. Well there was a plastic cover over the rag joint so I couldn't see it. When I moved the plastic cover up, sure enough the rag joint was shot. So I got a new rag joint and put it in. Took it for a test drive and its amazing how much better it drives down the road now!!!!

Next on the list is a sway bar. The crossover steering prevents me from using the stock dodge sway bar, the gm one won't fit, so why not try a ford sway bar? The ford swaybars (99 anyways) bolt to the back of the front axle, point backwards and then have links up to the frame. You can see them pretty easily if you look for them. So I went to the salvage yard and found one. I was hoping I could just mount it up to the axle and frame just like the ford setup. Well that didn't work cause it was hitting something.

So what I came up with is to mount the bar to the crossmember that the control arms attach to and then run it forward and attach it to the control arms. Doing it this way it won't be as effective as having it hook directly to the axle, but I figure it's about my only option and it should be an improvement over no sway bar.

I worked on modifying the straps that will bolt onto the crossmemeber, but I need to get some end links.

[jbclassix]

how did you determine where to cut the floor for your t-case shifter?

[ryanroo]

im pretty sure the cut out dimples are there in the floor pan even on a 2wd cab. so given that he said he used a gm shifter, i bet its in the gm stock location.

[Ackattack]

Yeah, the floor has the "indention" where the shifter goes, so I just cut out along those lines. Pretty easy.

[jbclassix]

guess I need to take a second look... and clean some grime off. Thanks man

[Ackattack]

I changed out the rear brakes. The passenger side was dragging a little. When I took the brakes apart, one of the shoe material was cracked, likely do to overheating from constantly dragging.

I replaced the hardware while I was in there. Hopefully my fuel mileage will improve a little since I won't have the dragging brake.

I also noticed that the outer seals were leaking, so that will have to get fixed shortly.

I ordered a new stereo head unit as well. The new one has bluetooth, so that will be nice. Hopefully it can cancel out the noise of the engine

[Ackattack]

The new stereo is in, and the bluetooth work's pretty good. It has a few adjustments for the mic, so I can dial it in so people can hear me over the engine and road noise going 70.

I ordered end links for the 99 F-250 swaybar I got. The plan was to mount it to my trans crossmember, running it forward to the control arms. While this wouldn't result in great results, it would have been better than nothing. Well when I went to put it in, come to find out that it hits on a different area of the crossmember, so I scratched that idea.

I tried a few different locations with the Ford swaybar and nothing was working out. So I drug out the stock chevy swaybar and decided to play around with that. What do you know, I came up with something that should work. Basically I moved the bar forward from the stock location (using the stock frame front bolt location in the rear bolt hole of the swaybar bracket. This moves the bar forward enough so the ends aren't in the coil spring.

I'll have to build some stands to mount to the frame since the frame bend up ahead of the stock swaybar mount. And then I will have to fab up where to mount the end links on the axle. And then make up some end links.

[y5mgisi]

Sounds like it should work out good.