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I missed my May deadline for having the truck on the road and driveable. It was on the road, but not driveable at the time. That little defeat really took the wind out of my sales and I basically ignored the truck all summer. This fall, I summoned the gumption to remedy my issues and actually drove the truck out of the shop about 2 weeks ago. Naturally with winter being here however, I've got wait until spring to see if the I've solved the driveablilty problem or not.
My primary issue with driveability actually stems from not having a level floor in the shop. On the first test drive I discovered that the truck handled like a shopping cart with two bum wheels on the front of it. It shook so bad that it was undriveable at anything over a walking speed. At first I figured it was the tires, 44" biasplys are unpredictable most of the time and only marginally civil to drive on the rest of the time. As it turns out, it was the castor angle that needed some major adjustment; with no flat floor, and no front driveshaft installed, I had no frame of reference to tell my eyeballs that something was wrong. After I put the front driveshaft on, only then did I realize the pinion was pointing at the ground! Hopefully the issue has been solved with the addition of some 6* shims. This should set my castor now around 4* positive - which should - in theory - solve the shopping cart death wobble. Only a test drive in the spring will tell though.
Otherwise, the truck is fully wired and plumbed, the hanging pedal conversion from Ugly truckling works great, the brake pedal is firm, and the power disc brakes stop the truck with enthusiasm. I decided to not use the OEM pto winch setup in favor of an Electric 10k lbs. super winch - it was so much easier to install than to figure out the hydrualic winch re-power I was considering (not to mention cheaper). I also decided to not use the 44" Ground Hog tires as well, as I found a screaming good deal on a set of Michelin 1100:16's that fit the truck nicely and should take me everywhere I desire to go. With no wheel spacers, the tires just peek out past the fenders, so I'm not going to worry about tire coverage.
The only real issue left is that the transmission may need to come out in the near future, as first gear now make a terrible racket. I'm fairly certain that the issue stems from the custom adapter that mates the Dana 20 tcase to the NP435. I think its missing a spacer shim between the transmission case, and the adapter. This has led to the adapter pushing the transmission output shaft forward just a touch, and is causing the first "gear" to either rub on the inside of the case, or on another gear. It only makes the noise in first however, and it shifts through all the remaining gears nicely and quietly. For now, I'll leave it be, but its high on the list of mystery's to solve.
Last to do on the upgrade list will be some new seating, and some form of internal roll cage to attach seat belts and what-not too. After all that, its the usuall things like new window rubbers, door seals, some fine tuning, and then regular maintenance.
Here's a few shots of the interesting stuff...
Here I've repurposed the starter switch plate to hold the throttle cable
This is an outer tube seal for the front Dana 60 - it keeps all the crud out of the axle tube, and should prolong the inner axle seal life. Its filled with grease, and just lightly press fit into the end of the axle tube.
Gotta just love yards and yards of wiring...
Here's the dash panel ready to go...
This is the propane fuel tank being loaded into the box - at about $3.30 cdn. a gallon for propane, its the only affordable way to run a big block engine. This tank will hold about 80 gallons of LPG fuel.
This is the new winch mount - it shares bolts with the suspension and is welded in as well. I don't forsee it failing any time soon.
Here's what the truck looked like in the shop, in May, before the first test drive.
It looks a little different now with the narrow rubber, I'll try to get some more pictures when its not burried hip deep in snow as it is now...
