Yeah, it just sucks because I was hoping to make a bunch of progress today.

So that is my second setback. The first being that my driveshaft that I bought for the truck, and the radiator from the step van walked off. I can see why someone would want a radiator, but the driveshaft was all rusted up.. the nice painted driveshaft from the stepvan (which is too long) was sitting right next to it but it wasn't touched.

 

Interesting. The 4 cylinder is a good choice for that truck. My buddy is in the midst of installing a Cat 3208-4 with an Allison MT640 from a 76 Ford C-900 fire truck into an 88 GMC 4wd. (Yeah I was pissed, cutting up a sweet 21k mile short wheelbase truck) He is fortunate to have a scrap truck to do his mock-up in before the final piecing and welding in the real deal. I sent him the link to this thread.

Bill

 

Switch, if you have the tranny out can you weld a nut to the broken bolts?

 

I could but I don't have a welder at the moment.

 

So the transmission is back in. Clutch master and line are in, and I bled the system. I read of other people having a lot of issues bleeding the internal cylinder, it was easy.. too easy perhaps. The pedal is nice and solid. Plus the speedometer cable from the C6 seemed to be a perfect swap for the ZF5 after changing the gear..



and.. I installed the starter the other day.. plenty of frame clearance, i'm sure everyone here likes pictures so here:



The starter has the connection for the large cable, and a seperate little terminal with a screw for attaching a smaller wire. I remember that the wire was connected in the stepvan, is it supposed to be a 12v? ground? I don't see the point of it when this starter still uses a fender mounted solenoid.

 

It may be a signal wire. The starter should be grounded to the engine and tranny. Did the stepvan have an independent solenoid on it like your truck? I like to add an additional ground from the starter to the frame just for the sake of over doing stuff.

 

I also picked up four quarts of transmission fluid for the ZF5. "Valvoline Maxlife Mer/Dex Mercon LV Full Synthetic" Hopefully it will work well, it was on sale at $18.99 for four quarts.

Good to know. And yeah, everything was the same. Solenoid and alt. voltage regulator on the firewall.

I know I said earlier the van was a Grumman Olson. I should have specified that is a 1986 E350 "Manufactured by Ford, for Grumman Olson" Originally powerd by a 300-i6. One thing to mention is that the radiator in the stepvan was slightly smaller than the one in my truck, and the van had no engine driven.. or electrical cooling fan.

 

That would be a little strange for the radiator to be smaller Usually diesels have bigger radiators. They heat up a lot quicker than gassers. You can drive a gasser with no coolant at all for a little ways without it causing problems. Diesels even half full will try to over heat within the first mile.

 

I finished up a few more things. The alternator and starter wiring is complete; plus I connected up the heater core hoses. I also installed the shifter and layed the carpet back down.

To do:
Lower Radiator Hose
Driveshaft
Fuel Lines
Install rear gas tank/modify filler neck to fit the diesel nozzle.
Install Oil Pressure Sensor
Coolant Temp Sensor
Power Steering Pressure/Return Lines
Finish drilling the crossmember holes. (It's just sitting in place right now)
Modify downpipe to fit between the firewall and turbo.
Connect the two wires on the transmission (I assume they are exclusively for the reverse lights..?)

These engines are known to run surprisingly cool, in comparison to the older V8 diesels like the 6.2/6.5 and 6.9/7.3.

 

I'm on a hunt for a one piece driveshaft which is 75 to 76" (U-joint to u-joint, fixed yoke at transmission)

Anyone know if that size was ever installed in a truck? I was quoted $270 to lengthen an existing driveshaft.

 

I haven't really gotten much done, but I found a two piece driveshaft that was exacly the correct length. It was from a 2wd 1986 F250 diesel, standard cab, long bed with a 4 speed. I think the side said Borg Warner. The length was just right at 76" but the trans was slightly shorter, and being an F250 the axle sticks farther forward than my 9 inch. All this means is that I will have to make a custom mount for the carrier bearing because it is a couple inches off.

I also finished installing the coolant temp sensor and got the tank ready for install (but not in yet). I need to modify the fuel filler neck to fit a diesel nozzle before putting it in. For the oil pressure sensor, I need to come up with some adapters from a hardware store to go from 1/8" NPT to 1/4" for the Ford sensor.

Power steering pressure hose: Most people seem to go custom on this, the line doesn't connect to the Cummins pump.. I unscrewed the valve deal from the Ford PS pump and put it into the 4bt's pump and that surprisingly fit fine... but then the hose would be too short. I read on another forum that the PS hose from a 1986 E350 diesel will work, so I'll be picking up one of those to see for myself.

Lower Radiator Hose: I keep on holding out on finishing this up because I want to be sure that what I do will last without having to pull it back appart and dump antifreeze. I may end up settling for the original lower hose from the bread van, and using the original top hose coupled together. Just need to find something that connect the two together, lots of people use pipe.. but I'm looking around for something that looks better.

 

Here you go - hose joiner with temp sensor capability, or if in lower hose - drain bung.

Steiger Performance - Inline radiator hose temperature sensor adapter

 

That's a pretty slick solution. But it does require quite a bit of real estate for installation.

 

I think that will work well. Thanks

I could even use the extra port for an electric fan thermostat sensor.

 

This forum is worth its weight in gold. Especially our section where everybody wants to help each other.