86 chevy crew cab 12 valve swap

[84chevyguyid]

So, got a couple questions. First, how do I stuff the big rubber thingie in the small metal hole? Second, is there a way I can check/set the caster on my front axle. I am thinking that if I stack the air bag brackets on top of the u bolts and take it in to get aligned, I might have a pissed off alignment guy. Would like to get it as close as possible while I am putting it together.

[ryanroo]

White lithium, grease and some persuasion.

witht he truck sitting on level ground, put an angle finder on the kingpin cap. across the heads of two bolts is usually good enough if they are the same. then compare that to the angle reading of the the frame rail in a place where it is flat. it should be tipped back at the top 3-6 degrees.

the alignment shop will only be able to set toe. the other angles are hard set. if you need to adjust the caster a shim will work, but i doubt the shop will do that.

[84chevyguyid]

I checked the caster setting like you told me and I have 5.5, should be good. Didnt know what I might end up with since I built my own brackets and used the 52" springs. Spent a little more time on the sway bar bushings with no luck. The brackets for the rear bags came fri and i was able to use them with a few mods and got the rear bags on yesterday. With no box or load on it takes 25 lbs of air to lift it 2-3 inches. The level valve works good, pretty cool to give it air and watch it do its thing. Simple things for simple minds... Now on to the front ones!

[ryanroo]

Originally Posted by 84chevyguyid

I checked the caster setting like you told me and I have 5.5, should be good. Didnt know what I might end up with since I built my own brackets and used the 52" springs. Spent a little more time on the sway bar bushings with no luck. The brackets for the rear bags came fri and i was able to use them with a few mods and got the rear bags on yesterday. With no box or load on it takes 25 lbs of air to lift it 2-3 inches. The level valve works good, pretty cool to give it air and watch it do its thing. Simple things for simple minds... Now on to the front ones!

Haha, i've been enjoying the air bag game for a while now. i need to mount my controls, but i've had air in the bags several times and played with dumping it and looking at ride heights/etc. i might be in that simple minds category too!

[84chevyguyid]

Here is a different sort of diesel conversion, my dad built this about 10 years ago. This has been his hobby for the last 30+ years. He started going to Quartzite Az for the winter in the late 70's, had a fifth wheel trailer pulled with a dodge pickup. It was ok but he decided he would like a motor home better because there isnt much room in the cab of the pickup. He started looking at motor homes and couldnt see paying that much money for something he could build so he bought a 1968 International school bus that was 24 feet long and built a nice camper out of it. Has a 392 gas motor, would get 10 mpg and go about anywhere a pickup would go. Built like a tank, high ground clearance, easy to get parts for. That worked for a few years then he decided he want something bigger so he bought a 34 foot school bus, pulled the drive train out of it and bought a truck with a 3406 cat motor and overdrive trans, and a high geared rear end and swapped in it, and built another nice camper out of it. Still gets the 10 mpg, will roll down the road 75 pulling his jeep cherokee behind it. More room inside, better for full time living than camping. Used that one for 10 years or so then my uncle found a good deal on a couple of GMC city buses and he couldnt resist the bug to build and did this one. Took him several years to finish as he only worked on it when he was in Idaho for the summer. This one has 2/12 inches of urethane sprayed inside of it, and he used vinyl thermopane house windows in it to make it more energy efficient. Has an 8-71 detroit motor and a 3 speed overdrive trans, will cruise 75 down the road, all air bag suspension, rides really nice. gets around 7 mpg pulling his jeep. The sad part is he is getting too old and frail to use it anymore so I get to keep it "lubed up" for him and take it up camping/4 wheeling on occasion. Headed up tonight for the weekend to go play. Anyway so here is another type of "diesel" conversion...lol

[ryanroo]

That is a lot of work! looks sweet.

[84chevyguyid]

Ok so my ADD kicked in and I got distracted, found one of these and had to buy it so I can go ride the dunes with COS399 when he shows up next month. Even came with an extra set of paddle tires and rims! While I was driving around on the honda, I came across another truck loader sitting in a guys stackyard.

[COS399]

Good score on the Honda. A friend's Honda 250R is the reason I got the green light to buy my first Banshee. I was riding it across the Glamis dunes and it rolled over on top of me, pinning me face down, still running at about 1/4 throttle, with the rear paddle slapping the back of my helmet and shoulder. So the next weekend I went up to Alba Yamaha in Poway, California and picked me up one of their already modified Banshees. I will PM you with some dates.

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool on the bus/campers! I've had my share of nasty spills on 3 wheelers for sure. You guys have fun out there!

[84chevyguyid]

I know I will if I get a chance to go... Here are a few pics of our Memorial weekend excursion. The fourth pic down is our old climbing trail, even though it doesnt show it, its very steep. I used to get back a little and get a run at it with my old TT 500 Yamahammer and be full throttle in fourth gear when I hit the bottom of it. I used to get quite a ways up it before I either lost momentum, bounced out of control, ect. That was way back in the mid 70's, now I just putt by it on the four wheeler and reminisce, lol

[84chevyguyid]

A few more.

[84chevyguyid]

Back to reality, when I got to work this morning, the local crop duster was hard at work. Incidentally, my daughter in the above pic works for the crop duster. While I was out filming the plane I thought, hey perfect time to try out the panorama feature on my Iphone. Even posed a couple of squares in the pic too! The blue one is a 79 silverado that the school dist has had for years. This is where I spend my week days...






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOt9...ature=youtu.be

[84chevyguyid]

Here is a closer pic

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice! Crop dusting should start in the next couple weeks here. Guys are still trying to get stuff in around here. They best hurry.

[84chevyguyid]

We made a run over to the St Anthony sand dunes last night, was pretty fun. The 3 wheeler does pretty good on the dunes. Went with my nephew Dougie, and Carl. Doug has a 450 honda 4 stroke and Carl has a cr 500 in a 250 frame conversion bike. Took some getting used to over my 4 wheelers. Here are a couple of vids.
It was really warm yesterday but by the time we got on the dunes, a storm rolled in and the wind picked up and it rained a little. Still getting sand out of my eyes this morning. That little lake is kinda cool, makes me want to go sit out in it in my lawn chair!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgmXwp5UDdU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA6JFnojX4k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNGoiucibI

[COS399]

Cool. Last year my kid and I were riding around the "lake" and he told me that there was an elk in the water. Of course I didn't believe him but sure enough there was a big ole elk lounging in the water. We also got hailed on twice last year about a mile from camp.

[84chevyguyid]

Hail sucks to get stuck in. I ordered a new wiring harness from a guy on here, gmachinz, for the doors on the crew cab. My pickup has power door locks but no power windows and I liked the idea of the relay system to give the window motors full voltage so he made me a new harness that has the door locks, and power windows with express down modules for both front windows. He uses all the factory color wires and stock connectors, it looks pretty sweet! I am going to have the widow circuit hot all the time, have my other pickup that way and I like it much better than having to go turn the key on to roll a window down. Here is a pic of my latest toy, 02 hesston rotary swather, my old one cuts hay at about 4 mph and this one cuts at about 10 mph. Pretty fun to run, and it only cost me 41,900. Has a good old 12 valve in it too!

[COS399]

Nice score on the wiring harness and your toy.

[shopteacher]

Greetings from Mountain Home!

You talked about a spread sheet for keeping track of expenses and I thought about it on three or four conversions, but I think it would scare the heck out of me (mostly my wife) so I just Guesstamate ! LOL

Your probably Knee deep in Haying over there like we are over here so I'm glad you can take time out to play and work on the projects!

Great build and keep up the great work !

[COS399]

Originally Posted by shopteacher

Greetings from Mountain Home!

You talked about a spread sheet for keeping track of expenses and I thought about it on three or four conversions, but I think it would scare the heck out of me (mostly my wife) so I just Guesstamate ! LOL !

I kept a spreadsheet and it's amazing how fast you can blow through a budget. Of course purchasing the project truck and the donor truck were a big chunk of it. It's a good thing we have understanding spouses.

[84chevyguyid]

Hi there Mountain Home! Yup trying to get hay put up. To many things going on this weekend, farming, a fun car show saturday at the Rexburg chevrolet dealer that I always go to, a family reunion, and COSS is coming to the dunes to ride..... hmm, which direction to go??

[84chevyguyid]

So the idea is to not have a budget, just spend, spend, spend! Got a bunch of stuff done the past few weeks. Got the core support cut up and fitted the radiator, intercooler, a/c condenser, and the trans cooler. With a bunch of shifting stuff around, adjusting stuff with the torch, hammer, ect, I finally got everything to fit and clear the grill on the front and the fan on the rear.
James, (COS399) was a bunch of help and after multiple phone calls, and picture text messages from him, I was able to come up with the right combination of first and second gen dodge pieces to make it all work. Ended up using a first gen fan mount and pulley with a second gen fan and fan cutch, radiator, shroud, and intercooler. I got a new parallel path condenser from Rockauto that is a replacement for the condenser in my 87 burb. Its a few inches shorter that the old tube and fin stock condenser so that gave me a little more room to fit the trans cooler next to it. The trans cooler is a Derale plate cooler with 10 an fittings. The tech at Derale says it should be big enough to do the job but I am a little skeptical. Got the intercooler piping tacked together, just got to finish welding the joints.

[84chevyguyid]

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[84chevyguyid]

Now I gotta tear everything apart and spend some time with the hand grinder on the core support, cleaning things up, a little finish up welding, and degrease and slop some paint on it and put it in for good!
I was at the gas station tonight and one of my friend's kid was there in his truck, I thought the two Ryans might like it. The wheel/tire combination really isnt my favorite but its still a sharp rig!

[84chevyguyid]

There was a benefit put on sat to raise money for a local family's medical bills and one of the things they had going on was a "moto rodeo". There was poles and barrel racing to run around, attempting to get the fastest time. Decided I had to go try it out on my 3 wheeler. Turns out mine was the only 3 wheeler there, also the only atv to do the poles. Was a blast to participate in! My Nephew, Doug, has a go pro camera on his helmet and it made for some fun videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3m4gKpw94

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dVbePQXqFM