Hey Chase! Thanks for chiming in.

The "More Steel=More Strength" was kinda a joke. Although not really worried about weight on this project, I AM concerned with integrity of the design.

I'll draw up something tomorrow to show the forces and structure of the frame and support. What makes it hard is its very tight on the passenger side where the AC compressor is. I need to add some pictures to show this, but my drawings should show whats going on with enough accuracy.

I also want to put a cross member brace at the front of the frame where the leaf spring hangers are.

-Kyle

 

Ok, so I drew up some things real quick this morning for the engine x member. The first picture is of the DOM tubing. The red lines are guessets (made from 3/16 plate). The second is of square tubing, 3 peices, prolly 2x3.

I'll try to remember to take a pic of the frame tonight, it will show better the orientation of the two frame pieces and the engine.

 

I know the exact thing you are running into with the AC compressor. Here's a pic of mine while I was building it


I've said a few times before I wish I would have dumped the factory cross member & gone to a custom one, but hind sight is 20/20.

Either of the above sketches you did can work for what you want

 

you are lucky I don't come and pickup the whole bronco. It just sits there anyways. HA

 

Bring a truck, its in pieces! haha

 

Well, I decided to do away with the round tube cross member. Just didn't seem like there was enough stiffness in the tube. So I had some 2x3 1/8" wall rectangular tubing laying around, I think this will be much better.

Made the side pieces and tacked them in place so I could make the bottom piece. The whole thing will be taken off and welded, then welded to the frame. There will also be plate guesses on the joints, much like as if you were plating a frame that was spliced together. Pics:




Its tight around the AC compressor. Might have to notch the crossmember to clear the leave springs. We'll see. I want to get at least another 1" lift with the Superduty leaf springs.....oh yeah! I didn't tell ya! I got Superduty leaf springs for the front....




Some more bushings from Ruffstuff Specialties for the Tranny Crossmember:


Also ordered a new flywheel housing. Should be here Friday. Put that in and I'll be able to build the Tranny Crossmember.

-Kyle

 

So its been a while since I posted up. Lets see...what's been going on since I last posted...Well I wrecked my bike (bike and I are fine), been traveling alot so that cuts into Truck Time, did some landscaping, put in a ceiling fan and AC unit (yeehaw for cool air!), and I got drunk a few times in there I think

Engine and tranny mounts are mocked up. I pulled the driveline and finished the engine cradle:



Added some more bracing to the front end before I pulled the engine:



Next step is to redo the front spring hangers and bumper mount. Get rid of the ugly stock Ford crimped frame and put in something stouter and simpler.

Made some bushing sleeves for the shackle mount for the front leaves.

cut to length:



Plow through the center with a 1" bit:



Now this is the boring part:



I've got some pics of the tranny cross member somewhere. My phone took a crapper a couple of weeks ago so I lost all my pictures. I-Phone 5 if anyone was wondering. Love the phone but COME ON I only had it like a month and it just died. Apple Crapple.

Stay tuned for upcoming adventures. I'll be doing some more traveling next week, and then vaycay, so prolly not going to get much done until August.

-Kyle

 

So here's the latest update. Got most everything welded up on the frame (engine mounts, cross members, etc.). Started working on the bumper mounts yesterday. This took some thought, but with the help of Reuben we figured it out. Here's what we came up with:







Drivers side done:



Going to weld a plate flat against the front of the boxed frame, and the bumper will be bolted onto that. That little top lip will be welded to the box also. The temporary frame gusset was in the way, so couldn't do it while that was on there.


So I believe I mentioned that I hit a deer. Well it seemed to have bent the drivers side frame a little (measurement for the spring perches are about 1/2" too close in the front). So I rigged up a jack to open the front of the frame up. I braced the passenger side because it looks like the drivers side is the one that is bent (which makes sense because that's where I hit the deer!).



I'll be welding a piece of 1.75 x .120 wall round DOM tubing as a cross brase for the front of the frame (pretty much where the jack and wood blocks are). That should keep everything aligned even without the bumper on, and hopefully survive another deer hit!

So you're prolly wondering where the hell I've been, and why I haven't been working on my truck. Well I've been pretty busy at work. And when I'm not working I've been playing. See pictures below for explanation:

Coil springs for a steam valve on a 750 MW steam turbine. Thats a standard size pallet. I will hopefully be able to get some video of these things in action.


Any my newest toy. 97' Honda CR250. Alot of fun she is!



I'm hoping to get some more stuff done this week. Making good progress. I'm like butter, I'm on a roll!

-Kyle

 

Hello all! Its been a while, I know! It was a slow Autumn season for the ol' Ford. Had my basement flooded, and have been spending most of my time and money on this mess:



But thats all fixed now! And the paychecks are finally going back toward the truck . So I got a new ride over Thanksgiving. Picked this beauty up from my parents. 2006 corolla. Nice little DD, only 115K miles:



Hangin out with batman just watchin some tube:



And I got a new toy! KTM 300 MXC. Great trail bike!



Oh yea, so maybe not ALL of my money went into fixing the basement .

 

Ok, back to the truck stuff. Got the frame all welded up and painted (FINALLY!!).













Got the axle under the truck, and installed the "Spacer add a leaf" things, that will push the axle forward 1.5". Reason for this is the 99'-03' Superduty front leaves that I'm using push the axle back 1.5", so I needed to push it back forward 1.5". Hopefully they don't add too much more axle wrap when breaking, thats my only concern.

Oh yea, my brother bought a new Truck! Traded his 2012 Titan in for a 2000 F350 7.3 Powerstroke. 4 door long bed, now thats a truck! Good runner, besides a bad steering box (thats what he's working on):



In the process of rebuilding the NV4500 right now. I'll snap some pics tonight. She's coming together! Should be on the road late spring.

-Kyle

 

I'm extremely motivated to get this truck done! Finally got my 5th gear nut wrench from Freedom Racing Tool and Die (thats the tool to the left under my gloves).

So Riley isn't strong enough to hold the transmission, so I strapped it to the work bench!



Tranny rebuild was pretty straight forward. My first tranny rebuild, but theres a few good writeups out there on rebuilding the NV4500. I'm using the stock main shaft, with the 5th gear nut fix shown below. I put locktite on the threads and cranked her down damn near as tight as I could. As seen in the picture below the "retainer" won't allow the nut to back off. The retainer is splined and slips over the splines on the shaft. Pretty slick!



I've been working on the tappet cover also. I should have this done by the end of the week. Just need to spend a few hours in the machine shop milling out some clearances for the injector pump. Hoping to do that tomorrow. Also I'm going to take a fly cutter to both sides of this plate, since its all scratched and gouged up. It'll look all pretty and seal nice too.

 

subscribed. Good work man!

 

Looking good. Interesting how you, chasetruck and myself are all attacking this in different ways.

 

I just checked out your build. Looks like you'll be the first one done out of all of us haha. Always good motivation to see other builds.

 

Agreed. I love watching how people approach builds. Makes me wish I did things a bit differently on mine sometimes, but that's life & how we learn.