Chassis has come up good. Alot of hard work looks like it paid off.

 

Yep.

Quite happy with the way the chassis has turned out.

Just need the lift kit and I'll be even happier, it's only 3 weeks overdue now.

Cheers
Ross

 

Week begining Monday 10th December 2012

Sorry no pictures this week, I'll take some next week and post them then.

I'm still waiting on the lift kit, it's supposedly in Brisbane.

Fitted the front brake hardlines.

Fitted the front brake stainless flexlines.

Fitted the front part of the rear brake hardline.

Then ran out of hardline, so will have to wait while Enzed get some more in.

Fitted the rear brake stainless flexline between the chassis and the diff.

Started taking things (water tank, toolbox) off the tray in prep for lifting it off the old chassis.

Then had to do some work on the Mav, make new driving light brackets. Old ones vibrated to death on the Gibb River Road. Work out why the fridge wasn't working, fortunately only a loose connection in the power plug.

 

Front brake flex and hard lines

Rear brake flex and hard line

 

Lift kit arrived finally.


So here's the difference between the old suspension components and new.

Coils 2.5" taller and 22mm wire new compared to 19mm old


Right Hand pivot


Left hand pivot, nothing to be replaced but this fits into the original pivot.


Radius arm drop boxes


Radius arms



And a couple of bags of bolts


So rest of this week will be spent putting this in and hopefully the engine, gearbox and transfer case.

 

I bought a replacement instrument face kit from ebay.

Just set it up temporarily for now.

Original cluster


New faces installed. This also changed the tacho to 0-4500rpm which is all that's needed for the diesel. I'm looking at using a Dakota Digital DSL-1 to interface with the petrol tacho and program it for correct rpm.


I like white gauges however I'm not so sure about these of a night time.



Although the globe on the far left is not working it's not really how I envisioned them appearing of a night.

Anyway I'll have a play and see what I can come up with.

 

Project looks great!


Can you not make the instruments back lit?

 

That's the way it's supposed to be according to the ebay listing. It's probably me that's not yet got it setup correctly.

I want to get another cluster and cut it up to see if I can get the light distributed better. Thinking of a sheet of clear acrylic behind the faces to disperse the light across the entire area rather than just the diffusers that are over the bulbs. Or get some electro luminescent cord instead of the bulbs.

 

can I send my effie up to you? You've done more in a month than I have in 3 years, great stuff!

 

Thanks.

I had hoped to be changing the cab over by now but the delay with the shipping of the lift kit has basically held everything up by about 4 weeks. Although I've done lots of other bits in the mean time.

I'll have to see where I get to by this time next week to see if I start pulling the cab of the old chassis as I've got about 6 weeks from end of Jan when I won't be able to do anything and don't want to leave it outside in case of cyclone, as it's getting to that time of year.

 

It amazing how much quicker things go when all the parts are here.

Lift kit installed



It's not immediately apparent from this pic but the new radius arms give about 5" more clearance to the tyres than the old radius arms. I'll take some comparison photos when I get the cab off the old chassis.

This is about 4 hours work. If your contemplating it at all make sure you do the pivots first and then the radius arms. I had the whole diff out and tried to put the radius arms on first, they just won't line up. With the pivots in and bolted up the radius arms just slid into the new drop boxes.

With the bare chassis the front lift is more like 2.75" than the 2.5" that it's claimed to be.

Any way biggest news of today, (Other than the world was supposed to end but we're still here)


....


The engines in the chassis




and so's the transmission




Just had to post this as it's been annoying as hell waiting for the lift kit to get here but now that it and the engine and transmission are in I'm happy.

Have to drill new holes for the trans crossmember which I'll do tomorrow and then put the transfer case on.

With the engine and transmission the lift is 1.5" so if you were doing this conversion without the lift you'd actually lose 1.25" in height and possibly more as the new springs are larger diameter wire.

 

Week begining Monday 17th December 2012

Well as above the lift kit arrived and has been installed.

Likewise the engine, transmission and transfer case have all been installed.


Completed the fuel feed and return lines, found one of the injector return caps was broken. This is the one on cylinder 8 and must have been damaged by the lifting chain. It's right next to the lifting point so quite easy to damage. Luckily I had already bought a complete kit so I installed this as well.

Test ran the electric pump to see if there are any leaks in the fuel system otherwise. None in the low pressure side so all good so far, will have to wait until the engine is running to check the injector lines.

Then started reorganising the shed. As it looks like the wet season has finally arrived and I don't want to be working in the rain, I've decided to put both the chassis and Effii in the shed so I can lift the cab and then simply move it sideways from one chassis to the other.

To do this I will have to move the vehicle that's currently in the second bay but to do this I've got to reorgansise the other two bays for somewhere to put it, so when I'm not socialising next week I'll be doing this.

Then I can continue working up to end of Jan and just leave it in the shed rather than having it outside with the possibility of cyclones this season.

Been investigating shock absorbers for the front. This is a quad shock setup and no one seems to be able to give me a definite recommendation with the diesel as opposed to the original petrol engine. Mind you it's hard enough getting sense out of most of them when it comes to these trucks anyway. So I'm going to go with my original thoughts of Rancho RS9000XL's from 4WD1. These are adjustable and what are on the rear. I've been very happy with the rear one's since they were installed and have them on the Mav as well.

So ordered a set for the front, we'll see how good there service is over the Christmas period. Took 2 days from ordering to receiving them when I was on the west coast last year for the Mav and I've always found them to be really helpful.

 

Week begining Monday 24th December 2012

So as above I've reorganised the whole shed and can now fit the chassis and Effii in side by side.


Removed the tray and all associated items.


The lpg tank is not going to be reused. It's for sale, holds 300lt, still in date.


Removed the bull bar.

And the rest of the front.


Removed the mid tank and cross member, ready for cleaning and painting.

 

The new truck is coming along nicely.

Is the old chasis going to break apart when you pull all the stuff off the old truck?

 

Thanks.


Quite possibly.

Found another crack when I took the left inner guard off.


That's the engine mount bolt in the center of the pic down to the hole where the brake line goes through the chassis.

You can also see some of the erosion type rusting in the lower part of the chassis.