Rear Power Windows:
Such a simple concept right? Ah just slap in a PW motor and call it a day. Or so I thought….
The rear doors never came with power windows as an option so as I started to show above, I would use a Dakota window regulator. As I found out, the concept works but after I spent about 10 hours proving it would work, Dad decided he wanted to assist in getting this truck finally out of his garage so he would tackle the doors. To the time of this typing, he has about 35 hours into the doors to get them working perfectly. Here is a small sample of what he has been working on.
First off, you need wires to power the lock cylinders and window motors. So the door was removed and holes were drilled for both the wiring and the mechanical door pillar switches.
Then after much cutting and hacking of the donor door, it was decided on best position and then the cutting started on the real door. (Oh gawd……I cant watch!!!!)
Door pillar posts back from powder….
Glass channel gets removed due to the Dakota style regulator. Sadly, I had polyurathaned them on so they would never fall off….. Yeah, got the joy of very carefully cutting them off so as to not damage the glass!
Clutch:
Cant remember if I showed this or not so….. Also the clutch hydraulics were installed. I ended up using a full South Bend HD kit and as I could not find a good 1st gen fluid reservoir, I decided to use the 2nd gen unit but make an adapter bracket.
Also, the Ebrake cable was finally fully finished.
So that brings us again up to date. There will be good progress in the next few weeks as well. I am just starting rad, intercooler, and condenser mount fabbing. Engine starting should also be within the next 4 weeks. Rear doors should be done in about another 10 hours (working on the passenger side now). Once the doors are done, the wiring will be buttoned up and gauges will start going in. 🙂
One last teaser of whats coming…… 😀
All good stories are broken out into multiple parts. The intro. The beginning. The main body. And the concluding chapters leading up to an epic end. For the story of my crew cab, we are in the last few chapters of the book. I do apologize for the long delay on progress for this truck. As many of you know and have experienced first hand, life seems to have a way of getting in the way of one’s automotive projects. Time. Funds. Work hours (good for funding a project). It all takes its round. The hardest part of this though is motivation when you get out of the cycle. It is soooo hard when the weeks turn into months, and months into years to keep ones attitude in check. For me, this started back on Dec 24, 2006. And after 8 years, you start to wonder if you made the right choice. If putting every free cent and more into something like this is wise. If the not going out with friends and family to get a bit more work done was the right thing. And then you question ones sanity for starting something like this in the first place. LOL
Then there are those moments that somehow seem to bring all the above stuff back into focus and the battle cry comes back out: Let’s get this f**ker done!! This moment took place on the afternoon of October 31, 2014 and motivation for completion this winter took place.
The Engine:
October 31, 2014 officially marked the start of wrenching season for project Crew Cab. While a relative with 35 years of professional diesel industry background was over, we decided to look into my engine runaway issue. For those that need a refresher, this is where we last left off in May 2013:
So we decided to trace back my steps from several years ago. AFC spring. All looked good. Cam plate: All looked good. Governor springs: All looked good. After several hours or pulling stuff apart we came to a conclusion: Everything looked the way it should! While scratching our heads, we noticed that the fuel shut off lever was not fully seated on the stop. Within a few minutes we were in under the cam plate and watching the spring on the fuel rack stretch and the external throttle system move. My runaway engine issue was literally being caused by a stuck fuel rack due to having sat for close to 10 years in the same position. The fuel had gummed up the internals and despite moving the external throttle lever, it remained. With a little persuasion with a screw driver, the rack was broken free and then it was time to start the engine again.
After a few minutes of prep, the engine did fire and idled almost perfectly! Full thermostat opening took about and hour and we had about 2.5 hours of total run time before the new fuel had fully loosened the fuel rack allowing rpm to be revved to 3500 rpm without restriction. Here is the video:
https://vimeo.com/110743511
Wheels and Tires:
Committing to getting this truck done, it was time to get wheels and tires.
I have always felt that a 16” wheel looked too small on these Gen 1’s so I wanted to go bigger. In keeping with a concervative wheel that still had style, I decided to go with the Classic Alcoa look. Having spent the last few years pondering wheel and tires, I took note that 22.5s just look a bit too not proportional to the body so 19.5’s it would be. This started a long search for wheels that were styled the way I wanted and could be modified to fit my truck.
As the rear wheel studs are 9/16 and the front studs are 5/8” due to the hub centric vs stud centric nature of the 1993 Dana 60 vs 1998 Dana 80 axles, I was looking for stud and hub combos that would allow the same visual size for nuts and also allow the spare tire to be used front and rear (don’t want to carry two spares with me all the time). I eventually settled on American Force 19.5” wheels and Michelin XDS2 drive tires, and XZE steer tires in 245/70/19.5 size.
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Wheels and tires arrived and not I am in the process of modifying them. The rear wheels look OK minus needing a bit more polishing (they are scuffed). The fronts however I needed to ream the lugs open 1/16” to allow for the 5/8” studs.
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This was my test fit before rubber gets mounted in the next few days:
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Front before and after:
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That brings us up to speed! We will see what this weekend holds for progress!
So, I got the wheels and tires out to the tire shop. My buddy says it took them just over 3 hours to mount the 6 tires on them as they were being super careful not to do any damage! This is what I got back:
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To give you an idea of how big these things are, that is a 205/55/16 beside it. LOL
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So, I started mounting the tires onto the truck. Boy does this change the look of the truck!
Back view when only the driver’s side is on:
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Now, fine ladies and gentlemen of the diesel world, I present to you project W350 with her new boots, with air bags inflated.
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Now, upon this time I noticed an issue now that the bags were inflated and all body parts sat where they should. The drivers front and passenger front tires were not the same distance to the fender. After much measuring, seems the leaf spring pilot pin didn’t end up where it was suppose to so with some help from a buddy, the axle was disconnected from the leaf and adjustments were made to correct it.
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And the last thing tackled last was the cam plate. Now that I know the engine runs, it was time to slide the plate as far forward as she would go. 😀
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