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Well, driving in to work the other day and hear what I can only describe as sheet metal vibrating against another piece of metal. Didn't seem to change much with speed, braking, cornering, etc. so I figured it might be something from the wreck a little while ago (maybe something loose). As the week went on, it got a little louder, but didn't change in pitch or frequency. Sounded like it was coming from the drivers side front wheel. That particular caliper has given me a bit of sticking issues so I figured it might be the pad squealer starting to touch the rotor. Jacked it up and pushed around on the tire to make sure the hub wasn't getting loose, removed the tire and inspected the brakes. All looked good. As I was turning it, I noticed the front driveshaft turning. Turns out the lockout hadn't unlocked the last time I used it and my transfer case has been spinning for several months now. Removed the lockout, tore it down and lubed it up and put it back together. Replaced everything, no more noise. When I rotate the front shaft, I get a squeaking noice in the area of where the front shaft couples to the transfer case. There's a double cardan at that end of the shaft and I'm pretty sure they're the original u-joints. Could be that too I suppose. Either way, all that's on the list for the Cummins swap anyway so I'll drive the beater for a while unless it snows up here enough to warrant driving the X. When I put it all back together, I cycled the lockout and it took some back and forth to get it to come unlocked again. New lockouts are probably added to the list. We'll see. Other side checked out fine.
Other decision point: Been doing a bit of research on the NV4500 I scored for cheap. It's an early GM model with the steeper first gear. All that's fine, but the problem is it won't accept the Dodge input shaft without a new countershaft. I also found a place in Indy that builds ZF6-750's that don't cost an arm and a leg. So, ZF6 it is. The NV will be used as a core and the plate I scored will be sold. At least now I don't have to find a dang bell housing and pay what people are getting for that hunk of metal. It's crazy what those things cost. Now to find an adapter for the ZF, flywheel/clutch setup/etc.
Went back and found the "cheap" adapter plate for the ZF6-750 (from behind a 6.0L truck). Best I can tell, there are two ways of doing this:
Spacer on the flywheel
Spacer on the starter
These guys do the starter spacer. Along with an NV5600 flywheel and 13" clutch of your choice, this is the configuration for the ZF6-750 behind the 12V Cummins.
id think a spacer on the starter is safer then on a flywheel since its a very important balanced part that cause some harm to internals learned this the hard way sadly
id think a spacer on the starter is safer then on a flywheel since its a very important balanced part that cause some harm to internals learned this the hard way sadly
Seems that way to me as well....though people are certainly doing it that way. I'd hate to see a catastrophic failure...that can't be pretty.
luckly for me it didnt become a complete failure but my rear crank bearings got destroyed on my 351m so gonna drop in a 6.9 and its all because few teeth on fly wheel cause a minor imbalance
Well, a couple steps forward finally....I'm chomping at the bit to get this thing torn down and going...just not there yet. I did score a wiring diagram book!
The best news of the day is I'm headed out towards my folks house this weekend to check out the workspace I'll end up using for the swap. Originally the intent was to get this done BEFORE winter hit...probably not gonna happen. So, I had resigned myself to doing the swap in the cold and weather. But, now I have access to a 25x50 heated/cooled barn that's insulated, has a pellet stove, and a LIFT!!!
So....body will indeed come off for the swap and the entire underside will be painted/undercoated. Super excited and can't wait to start!!
Removed the cladding over the weekend and really happy with the way it looks...though now I don't like the running boards and bumpers the color they are. I'm thinking black should do the trick. Or take the running boards off? What say you FTE??
Overall, the process took about 4 hours, though I could have cut that time considerably had I used the tools that I purchased.
By and large, the most time consuming portion of this project is removing the tape holding the cladding on. I used the plastic razor blade for most of it.
To get the cladding itself off, I used a pocketknife to separate (gently) until I could get a finger under it and hold it out from the side of the body. Then I used the knife to cut along the length of the tape, being careful not to scratch the side of the body. It actually works pretty well. I found that removing the tape from the body worked best when more of the tape was left on the body (thickness). To remove the tape, I simply grabbed the end and pulled gently while using a scraping motion with the blade (back and forth). On the last panel, I used the rubber eraser and man does it work well! I really wish I would have tried using it in the first place! the 4 door panels are the hardest to get separated because they have two strips of tape pretty close together. For those, I started with the top one and alternated between cutting the top and middle pieces. From there, the bottom was easy holding the panel out.
Overall, I have a bit of rust and flaking paint, but super happy with it. I guess I'll get to learn rust repair after all!
Original Cladding
Gently slide the knife in to separate
First panel off! A bit of rust/peeling paint
First door panel. Top tape is a bit of a pain.
First door panel off!
Drivers side rear rust
Drivers door rust/peeling
Front passenger door flaking
Plastic razor blade
This thing is awesome! Tape came right off!
Quick wash to get the grime off.
Last edited by EXSwap; Oct 23, 2017 at 11:07 AM.
Reason: Misspelled word
I do really like the clean look...never was much for plastic on the side of a car. Local yard had an XLT with those already on it but I think someone may have come and bought the whole truck. I’ll find some at some point.
Well, last week when I got to work and went to back into my spot, I felt and heard a nasty grinding/binding somewhere in the drivetrain. I've had come issues with the divers side lockout getting stuck in the locked position and have torn it down several times. So, first step was to get that thing unlocked and functioning properly. Removed the lockout and eventually ended up wiping ALL of the grease that I had put into it out. Works like a charm now. So, the lesson on that was, they don't need much lubrication to operate properly. A very thin film of grease, light assembly lube, motor oil, automatic transmission fluid, etc. will work for the locking mechanism. Too much grease in there won't work because the tolerances in the locking gears are too tight and the friction created by the grease won't allow it to work. So, problem solved.
Once I got that done, grinding and binding are still there. So, since I haven't touched my u-joints since I've owned the vehicle (100K miles), I figured I'd get a set for the rear driveshaft and go ahead and change out the rear differential grease as well while I was under there. I was concerned that I had chipped a gear because that's what it sounded and felt like and needed to inspect to make sure. So, pulled the differential cover, put it up on jack stands, checked the driveshaft for play in the u-joints, nothing. Started turning the passenger side rear wheel, binding and grinding. Ugh. Rotate back and forth while looking in the differential, nothing wrong that I can see. But, I could feel it in my hand while moving the wheel back and forth. Took a look at the rear brake, and metal parts are falling out. Turns out, the parking brakes had started to come apart on that side. Dust cover is also pretty rusted and coming apart. So, time for rear brakes. I hadn't checked them in a while being that I've been neglecting my drivetrain in prep for the cummins swap. Not smart on my part. Not smart at all, as you can see by the pictures.
Props to Nicmike's thread for great ideas on painting bolt heads and the like. I took several cues from him on this work.
A bit rusty, though I had sprayed it with undercoating last time I had it off.
Overall, the grease didn't look terrible. A bit on the brown side. Taking a hint from Nicmike's thread, I won't be putting RTV back. Gasket will go back.
Clean and shiny. There is a small rust spot bottom right that was taken care of as well before installation.
I picked these up from Walmart. Super handy for removing RTV and gasket material.
Painted bolts (again from Nicmike's thread.
Painted the cover with undercoating again. Wire wheeled the crap out of it and wiped everything with mineral spirits this time. Hopefully adhesion will be better.
The clips that hold the parking brake drums were broken off and floating around in there (the grinding binding culprit)
No pads left. This is the passenger side.
Drivers side
What's left of the passenger side after removal.
Drivers side removal. More on this below.
Top interior spring removal.
So, I didn't want to remove my axles to remove the parking brake pads. I'm not (at this point) putting them back on. So, essentially you can remove these without taking the hub/axle out, it's just a pain. It helped that mine were already coming apart. Straight screwdriver, diagonal cutters, and a hammer. Cut the bottom spring with the diagonal cutters, pry the clips loose that hold the drums in (center of the pad), cut the outside top spring (it's tough to cut, but can be done), then stick a flat screwdriver on the end of the top inner spring and smack it with a hammer to pop it out of the hole. It's tough to do, but it will work. I didn't find a way to cut that inside spring, and I'm not sure you could. It's pretty heavy/thick. Once you've removed the springs, they come right off.
When I tear Clifford all the way down, I'll probably put them back being that it'll be a manual trans, but for now I don't need or use them.
Went ahead and wire wheeled/sanded the caliper brackets and painted them black. All slide pins were in really good shape and they got a light sanding to clean them up, lube and reinstall.
These are the Duralast black oxide coated rotors. I wanted to put powerstops on it all the way around, but this'll have to do for now.
Brakes back together.
Total cost for this repair was a whole days work (my time, in the rain, soaking wet, and didn't think about the beer until almost done), and about $300 in parts.
Rotors and pads: $195
U-joints (Moog greasable, yet to be installed) and grease, anyt-chatter additive, and gasket: $105
This'll keep me going as I prep for the cummins swap, which is really turning into a resto-mod. What the pictures don't show is the amount of rust I need to deal with on the body. The supports that run from the inner rear quarter up next to the tail lights are toast. The fuel tank cover is getting bad, and the rockers are getting bad.
Can't wait to get the body off of it and go all the way, but my pocketbook says no right now. Such is life.
Removed the lockout, tore it down and lubed it up and put it back together. Replaced everything, no more noise. When I rotate the front shaft, I get a squeaking noice in the area of where the front shaft couples to the transfer case. There's a double cardan at that end of the shaft and I'm pretty sure they're the original u-joints. Could be that too I suppose. Either way, all that's on the list for the Cummins swap anyway so I'll drive the beater for a while unless it snows up here enough to warrant driving the X. When I put it all back together, I cycled the lockout and it took some back and forth to get it to come unlocked again. New lockouts are probably added to the list. We'll see. Other side checked out fine.
