75 Dually build

[aggie91]

Whoop!

[75Dually]

The big block is out! What a greasy mess it is. Glad it is going down the road, and eventually the Cummins will be going in.

At least there is some progress going on at the shop!

Stay tuned!

[rwade]

Do you know of any wheel locks to use on the adapters from the hub to adapter and from adapter to wheel? Mine is an 88 chevy one ton dually suspension.

Thanks, Wade

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by rwade

Do you know of any wheel locks to use on the adapters from the hub to adapter and from adapter to wheel? Mine is an 88 chevy one ton dually suspension.

Thanks, Wade

Wade,

The only place I could use wheel locks would be on the front wheels. I would have to use something on the stock Chevy lugs. I guess that would be a good idea to secure the adapters because it would take some very serious torque to undo the semi lugs, you would need more than a large breaker bar to break them lose on my truck. The rear wheels on my truck have chrome hats that are held down by the semi lugs. So you would have to get them off first before you even thought about attacking the stock Chevy lugs, and like the front wheels they have to be seriously torqued down so they don't come lose.

I'm glad that you brought that up. I'll have to look for a good set of wheel locks in the near future. However first I need to get the Cummins in....

Chris

[rwade]

Chris,

Do you know what the torque is on the adapters to the chevy pattern and what the torque is from adapter to wheel? How were you semi wheels put on so tightly? I’m new to duallys. I’ve got a 48 F**D F-5 that was my grandpas and bought brand new. Going to make a welding bed of sorts for it. I’ve got the adapters and tires/wheels and about to start a WHOLE lot of mock up. Thanks for your info.

Wade

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by rwade

Chris,

Do you know what the torque is on the adapters to the chevy pattern and what the torque is from adapter to wheel? How were you semi wheels put on so tightly? I’m new to duallys. I’ve got a 48 F**D F-5 that was my grandpas and bought brand new. Going to make a welding bed of sorts for it. I’ve got the adapters and tires/wheels and about to start a WHOLE lot of mock up. Thanks for your info.

Wade

Wade,

The torque on my truck's wheel lugs is 140 foot pounds, and the semi lugs are supposed to be torqued to 450-500 foot pounds. I bet the torque on your F5 is going to be higher than the Chevy spec, so check out the spec on it. The secret to my success is my new Makita battery powered impact wrench. It goes up to 750 foot pounds, and makes short work of those semi lugs. It is the only way to go as far as I am concerned!

Good luck on the truck!

Chris

[rwade]

Sure will. It should be the same, the truck is on a ‘71 LWB frame with ‘88 one ton front suspension and rear end. So that should be the same as your truck I’d imagine but I will look into it. Thanks again

Wade

[75Dually]

So it begins! We got the 1991 Dodge 2500 home today, and as you can see it had a ton of West Texas dust all over it. This was a manual transmission truck, but the trans was broken when I got it, so I am going to use the RE46 that I got with my first motor.

A couple of items really impressed me when I started to do some initial checks. First I twisted the radiator cap off and it was still hold a good bit of pressure, so that was good! Second I pulled off the dusty cap, after cleaning it up, on the power steering pump, and the fluid was clean and looked like it was new! When I pulled the dip stick the oil looked like typical motor oil from a diesel, and also looked to be in good shape.

It has the typical areas on these motors that always seem to leak oil, but nothing out of the ordinary that I could see right away.

Tomorrow I will start to pull it out of the truck and put it up on the stand. I'm going to pull a rod end and a main bearing to see what shape they are in. My bet is they are in great shape. Oh yeah the odometer says it has only 94K miles. It was a service truck for the city of Sun Ray, TX.

Keep your fingers crossed and hope that I don't find anything really bad...

Stay tuned!

[maxx442]

What are the details on the 1991 Dodge? 4x4? Condition?

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by maxx442

What are the details on the 1991 Dodge? 4x4? Condition?

The overall condition is rough in some areas, but it has a good flat bed, it was your typical service truck, which means the interior and exterior have lead a tough life, but mechanically it looks to be ok. Yes it is a 4x4. Both of the axles are in good shape, the steering pitman arm is broke for some reason...

Are you interested?

[maxx442]

Tried to PM you, your inbox is full. Possibly interested. Is it a cab and chassis or a standard long bed frame? Can you PM me some pics?

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by maxx442

Tried to PM you, your inbox is full. Possibly interested. Is it a cab and chassis or a standard long bed frame? Can you PM me some pics?

I fixed my inbox so you can PM me now. I think it was just a standard long bed frame.

[Dieselwrencher]

An intercooled one. Nice. Make sure you keep the intercooler and radiator. If the wiring on the truck is in good shape, those first gen guys will buy it. Wiring on those trucks is a soar subject for their owners.

[COS399]

Nice score. Sent you a PM.

[75Dually]

Today was a busy day in the shop. No one to bug Dad, so it was time to yank that big iron beast out. I have to say that pulling this Cummins out of this truck was one of the easiest I have ever done. Now it was easy because the trans was not in place... It is sitting in the bed when I picked up the truck... LOL I guess you gotta take them when you can!

So now it is in the shop waiting until I can get the engine stand mounted to it, and then the second stage of this story will begin. I am going to pull the pan and see what the shape of the bearings are in and then decide what to do at that point.

Stay tuned!

[3757chevy]

Pretty clean .

[Dieselwrencher]

You'll be glad you weren't pulling it out of a 2nd gen!

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by maxx442

What are the details on the 1991 Dodge? 4x4? Condition?

I now have pictures of the Dodge for you to look at. I sent you a PM.

[75Dually]

There has been a bunch of stuff going on at the shop the past couple of weeks. I have been tearing apart the Cummins. I got it on the engine stand and took off the oil pan to check out the stock bearings. Actually they are in good shape. I also pulled a couple of the mains and they too were in good shape. Just pull the crank, get the crank polished, and get a new set of main and rod bearings.

This motor had 94K miles on it so everything we have seen thus far has been what you would expect with that few miles.

Thursday evening a good friend came by and helped me pull the head and the injectors. Again pretty clean for the age, and each of the cylinders still had some good hatch on them. So yeah I'll take that!

I now have to order a rebuild kit with gaskets, head gasket, rings, pistons, and the like... I have found some really good sets with all OEM Cummins parts. So I will get all that stuff ordered in a short while. That will give me time to have the injectors cleaned and tested, and get the rest of the parts in ship shape so they are ready to go back on. When I get some time this weekend I will take some pics, but all you would see right now is a disassembled Cummins, and that is some boring stuff right there...

Stay tuned!

[deejaaa1]

i also just finished reading your thread. took a few days but worth it. low’s not my taste but your style is top notch.
one thing bothers me: you don’t show the dash enough. only see it now and again in the background. that to me is the coolest feature. my 93’s so cracked and dry, with no aftermarket help, i’m gonna rebuild it with recycled aluminum (signs) i’ve collected.
i’ve got some vinyl and lettering for my tailgate coming and will try my hand at a little wrapping.
don’t forget the KDP mod before you drop it in.
keep up the good work. i’m subbed.

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by deejaaa1

i also just finished reading your thread. took a few days but worth it. low’s not my taste but your style is top notch.
one thing bothers me: you don’t show the dash enough. only see it now and again in the background. that to me is the coolest feature. my 93’s so cracked and dry, with no aftermarket help, i’m gonna rebuild it with recycled aluminum (signs) i’ve collected.
i’ve got some vinyl and lettering for my tailgate coming and will try my hand at a little wrapping.
don’t forget the KDP mod before you drop it in.
keep up the good work. i’m subbed.

Thanks so much for reading through the whole thing!

I like everything from from jacked up trucks to slammed down on the ground too, so yeah it's all good to me...

I should show some additional pics of the dash, what would you like to see? I know I never really covered that section of the build in great detail because I was like "Ok it's in and there are bigger dragons to slay!" and never returned to the subject.

If you are going to try the vinyl I really suggest Avery Dennison. I also suggest you try to do something small at first to see if you like it or not. It can be a technical material and can be frustrating if you are nor patient with it. I want to suggest you watch Justin Pate and his videos on YouTube. He is a master at this stuff and you can learn a TON from him.

The KDP is on my list to do. Thanks for the reminder!

[deejaaa1]

do you have pics of how it’s attached, contoured to fit firewall and the gauge area?
i’ve seen others graft dashes but none have caught my attention like yours.
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[Dieselwrencher]

When you get your rebuild kit, use the big bowl non intercooled type pistons. (286210) This will allow you to run more timing and different nozzles too. I wouldn't waste the time having your injectors cleaned and tested. I'd have new nozzles put on your bodies and start fresh. Long idle time kills those pintles in these and I'm betting that truck had plenty of idle time as it was a service truck.

[75Dually]

I want to start out this post by saying that the dash has not even close to being finished. I got it in and the new ends on, and then got the cluster in it and that has been it so far. It is one item on my to do list, and it will get finished to a much higher degree in the near future. Unfortunately there is nothing on this truck since coming home from LST that is even close to clean.

I did make one promise when I started this blog and that was to show the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm not a pro at this just a passionate DYI builder. So with saying that let's get into where the dash sits today...

As you can see in the below shots what I did initially was take the dash out of the donor truck and simply fit it to it's new home. Now I did a ton of measurements first, but found that it would fit really nicely. The important part was making sure it would work with the existing steering wheel, and it did that with ease. It is lightly tacked to the existing structure on the top and better welds underneath where they cannot be seen. What I had to do was make some simple sheet metal ends that would blend the rather large gaps. Those ends are going to get redone. They interfere with the door panels and are angled out to far. Sometimes stuff just does not work...

I have yet to figure out what I want to do with the old center vents. I would like to run some AC vents out those holes, but have not found a vent I like, and those outside square body vents are going to have to go when I redo the ends at some point.

The center console is not finished either. We busted a hump to get it done enough to drive to LST, but we did not finish the 2 upper side panels. They are supposed to link together with a bridge piece that fits right under the dash. Hard to describe but you will understand it when we get it done. It just looks so unfinished right now...

The gauges are out of the donor burb. I mated them to the 61 original dash panel, and so far they have been serving me well. When I was doing this my budget was a bit short and this was an easy way to go. I might get a fancy set of gauges but that is a long way away...

So I hope this gives you a current idea where I am at with the dash and where we are headed in the long run. Still under construction would be the best way to describe it!

Stay tuned!

[Palf70Step]

Dash setup looks really good!