Engine Freshen, 4 Speed Conversion

[Rzeppa]

Jeff,

Are you sure about your clutch slave bracket pic/caption? The next picture looks like the one to me.

#93 is the driver's side, where the 3 speed slave will go. #94 is the passenger side, where a 4 speed slave would go. I went back and looked at my earlier pix of the still-mounted slave, and I'm just not sure, but fortunately I have all the bits that came off of it. There was a bunch of column shift linkage stuff on the slave mount area, not sure what gets re-used and what doesn't.

I have several newer style motor mounts if you need some. And I've got a ton of extra motor mount brackets, too.

I may have to take you up on that. Right now I have 3 options (make that 4 with your offer, thanks Chris!). (1) leave it as-is for now. It's the compression (passenger) side and probably won't make much difference, I can replace it some other time, (2) steal one off my 76 and order in another one to replace it (3) order in a new one and wait however long for it to come in (next Monday most likely), or see about coming down to your place and bumming one off you.

At this point I haven't decided yet. Scott and I worked pretty late last night and I'm a little burned out on wrenching, I'll see about getting back after it later this afternoon. At a minimum I want to see if the engine will fire up and run on all 6 cylinders before I start bolting everything back up.

 

[Rzeppa]

Sorry I broke the motor mount. I wasn't using enough finesse with the big pry bar I guess.

No worries mate, I really appreciated the help. It would have been a real bear to do by myself.

Let us know that the engine fired up this morning.

Haven't tried yet. As I wrote in my reply to Chris, I'm kinda burned out on wrenching and needed a morning to rest and recharge before I get back after it.

 

[wesintl]

Sorry I broke the motor mount. I wasn't using enough finesse with the big pry bar I guess.

I jinxed that motor mount. So, it's not all your fault.

 

[Rzeppa]

I jinxed that motor mount. So, it's not all your fault.

Actually, there was an unbelievable amount of upward and sideways force on it when it let go. I was jacking the front of the engine up a few pumps at the same time Scott was trying to rotate the entire assembly with the long pry bar. When it went, there was a big boom like a birfield breaking, and it separated by at least an inch or so. The JB weld actually held up, it tore the rubber just below where it was JB welded.

 

[Rzeppa]

It's ALIVE!!!!!!

Yeeee Haawwwwww! I just started it up and it runs on all cylinders! Good oil pressure, no horrible noises (other than the exhaust isn't hooked up yet). Yippie!

 

[Hulk]

Cool! That's always a great feeling.

 

[wesintl]

Nice job Jeff. Not too long before it's moving under it's own power

 

[Shark Bait]

I may have to take you up on that. Right now I have 3 options (make that 4 with your offer, thanks Chris!). (1) leave it as-is for now. It's the compression (passenger) side and probably won't make much difference, I can replace it some other time, (2) steal one off my 76 and order in another one to replace it (3) order in a new one and wait however long for it to come in (next Monday most likely), or see about coming down to your place and bumming one off you.

They're in will-call at A-1.

 

[Rzeppa]

They're in will-call at A-1.

Thanks Chris! If all goes well this evening and tomorrow morning, I might be able to drive the rig down there to pick them up. I discovered another D'oh! just now. I neglected to put my e-brake on before I put the engine in, and there isn't enough clearance in front of the rear crossmember. I'm gonna try Ige's suggestion of hoisting the front up to tilt the rear down. If that doesn't work, out comes the sawzall...

 

[Shark Bait]

Yeah. I had to Sawzall and chisel and stuff to clearance the brake drum on my '69 with the SM420..

It's interesting that at least 3 of us are building rigs. You, me and Ian.

 

[Rzeppa]

Yeah. I had to Sawzall and chisel and stuff to clearance the brake drum on my '69 with the SM420..

Looks like it's going to be sawzall time for me. I tried Ige's suggestion of lifting the front of the assembly to lower the rear to clear the crossmember. I got the backing plate on but couldn't get the drum on. Did you sculpt your crossmember or cut it out entirely?

It's interesting that at least 3 of us are building rigs. You, me and Ian.

LOL! Actually I'm *still* building my 76 too, even though I haven't worked on it in months. DDs always get priority ;-)

 

[Rzeppa]

So I ended up cutting off the crossmember. Lance at Iron Pig suggested cutting it, then welding on bolt-on plates. Part of the reason for this is that the frame gets wider and wider as you go back. Another part of this, is that you can unbolt the cut-out section of crossmember whenever you need to access your e-brake. The top photo is where I cut it off flush with the inside frame rail. The next photo is where I cut it off well inside the frame rail on the other side. The reason for this is two-fold. One is to clear the exhaust, the other is because of the angle of the tubing there. The bottom photo is the farked up sawzall blades when I was done ;-)

 

[Rzeppa]

I didn't really have any 3/16 plate handy, just 1/4" diamond plate and 16 ga (.060) sheet metal, so I used the flat part of some 5" c-channel I have leftover from my front bumper project. It was about .200 thick, pretty close to what I wanted. It takes a long time to cut, even with a chop saw, so I use bungee cords to keep tension while I go about other parts of the project. It's kind of like one of those gravity-fed bandsaws, just not as clean and not nearly as quiet. I use masking tape to mark where to cut, it are easy to see through the goggles, and stretch to make a straight line. The plates will be 3.25x3.25.

 

[Rzeppa]

Over the last several weeks, my air compressor has been dying a slow death, taking forever to get back up to pressure. Day before yesterday, it decided that it wasn't going to make more than about 50 PSI, plus take forever to get back there. I was getting more and more frustrated every time I needed to use air tools, and finally decided to install the rebuild kit I had gotten a couple weeks ago. The first photo is what I saw when I took the plastic covers off. The next one is what the head and cylinder sleeve looked like when I took them off. In the middle photo, you can see that the piston's ring looks a lot like the F engine rings looked like when I dismantled those engines. No wonder it couldn't make any pressure!

Next, I have installed the new piston and sleeve, and in the bottom two photos you can see each side of what the air compressor's head looks like. It has flapper check valves on each side, one set for intake and the other to exhaust into the tank.

This whole rebuild took less than half an hour. I'm really glad I did it, because I still need compressed air for the rest of this project, and others beyond!

 

[Rzeppa]

After the air compressor was rejuvinated, the next thing I needed to do was to clearance the hi-lo shifter lever on top of the t-case. It was hitting on a body crossmember, so I used an air chisel to cut the crossmember section out. I also had to bend the lever itself downward a little to clear the remaining, uncut body crossmember. You can't tell in these photos, but the front of the engine is held up, tipping the tranny and t-case down, pivoted on the bellhousing mounts. When the front is down on the engine mounts, there wasn't any clearance for the shifter.

 

[Rzeppa]

To lengthen the hi/lo shifter rod, I cut it, then welded in a section of 1/2" square tube.

 

[Rzeppa]

For the vacuum 4WD shifting mechanism, I got some 3/8 hose and cut it to 7.5" and connected it to the hardline barbs for the t-case and chassis lines.

 

[Rzeppa]

I put the tranny hump in as lined up as it would go on top of the 4 speed shift tower. Then I got underneath and marked all around with a sharpie. I took it back out and the laid out the boot frame and marked around it for where to cut the hole.

In the middle photo, you can see where I cut (poorly with the sawzall) the hole, and welded in the M6x1.00 nuts. After I was done, I threw a coat of Krylon Celery paint on the whole mess.

 

[Rzeppa]

After I cut all four crossmember plates, I ground them to nominally square and even. Next, I stacked them, clamped them and drilled pilot holes for the four mounting holes.

 

[Hulk]

So you're going to floor shift for the tranny, but maintaining the vacuum shift for the transfer case? Why not make both floor shift?

Great write up!