84 Crewcab...AKA..Patches

[thrashingcows]

Well been working on a few things. Pulled apart the rear springs...to clean and drill for the wear tips to smooth out the ride a little. Man are these springs rusty! And they had worn their tips into the upper springs on most of them.



Spent about 3+ hours cleaning things...and still was not close to being finished. So I said F-it and took the springs, and all the rear axle pieces, and 4wd frame brackets to the sand blaster. Should pick them up later this week.

 

[thrashingcows]

Transfer case is all done.

 

[thrashingcows]

So today I official started tearing down the old crewcab. Pulled the 2wd NV4500 today.

You can see the hole butchered in the floor.



Think I will be finding a new tranny hump from a donor truck to make a complete removable hump.

Tranny out....



Came out pretty easy. Removed the fan from the motor so I wouldn't crew up the rad. Good think I did I had to lower things a lot so the bottle top shift tower would clear the floor pan.

 

[thrashingcows]

The throw out bearing was in rough shape. Think this why I got a growl, and scream, from it every once in a while.





I spin it and it's a little crunchy.

 

[thrashingcows]

When I bought the crewcab the guy claimed it had a new clutch assembly installed. I think he was right. Clutch, pressure plate and flywheel are in great shape and appear to have been replaced....even though I've personally put about 30K miles on the truck so far. Guess I'm easy on the clutch.





So I'll be replacing the Throw out bearing, and installing a new pilot shaft bushing. The re-install everything. Glad I waited to order a new clutch assembly...saved a few hundred.

Anyone have an clutch alignment tool they would part with...PM me if you do.

 

[thrashingcows]

Hope to have the front sheet metal off, and the motor out by Saturday. Then work a few days, and hope to start tearing the 2wd front suspension apart next week.

 

[68R/T]

Anyone have an clutch alignment tool they would part with...PM me if you do.

Most auto suppliers can you one of those plastic ones for a reasonable price. :hmmm:

 

[Dr.Jass]

When we do a clutch on one of those, it's par for the course to replace the "fork" and pivot ball. They take a lot of abuse, even with a stock clutch. Of course, we never put a stock clutch back in them, either. Still, you might want to take them out and look closely at them. A bad throwout bearing can really tear up the fork.

 

[thrashingcows]

The ball, and fork look good. Don't think I will need to replace them. But great advice Doc...thanks for the heads up on those.

 

[Fishy]

While you're in there and have it all apart, might as well do the ball and fork. One less thing to worry about later.

 

[69.5CUDA]

cow you might consider just grabbing the 4x hump from a 72-mid 80s truck..its a bolt in setup....and it seems even the 2wd manuals had the same removeable hump

 

[thrashingcows]

cow you might consider just grabbing the 4x hump from a 72-mid 80s truck..its a bolt in setup....and it seems even the 2wd manuals had the same removeable hump

I had heard about those...but when I was looking for a hump I could not find one. So I grabbed a hump out of a 87 Ramcharger. Will make it a removable set-up.

 

[thrashingcows]

Updates...

Still waiting for the sandblast guy to get my stuff done...he doesn't charge me much as long as I'm not in a hurry. I have plenty to do in the mean time. But hope to get the stuff back this week.

Got the motor out last Saturday.



Then had to work a few days. Got the front sheet metal, and all the wiring off the front end yesterday.

 

[thrashingcows]

The cowl area was in not bad shape. Few small cracks starting, but not bad.

 

[thrashingcows]

Then today I got the rest of the suspension torn apart.







So tomorrow I start drilling out rivets. Hope to have all the cross members out by tomorrow evening.

 

[69.5CUDA]

cow ive got one if you want it......
and that cowl looks great...ive seen ALOT worse

 

[thrashingcows]

cow ive got one if you want it......
and that cowl looks great...ive seen ALOT worse

Thanks for the offer...but I got that spare hump I'll make work. But I'm still looking for those steering components from the 70's ram....bracket and pitman arm.

 

[thrashingcows]

OK today I got the rivets all pounded out, and the cross members removed. Took me about 3 hours or so to get all the rivets out....about 20 rivets. Then I had to cut the inner brackets off the main center cross member...would not come out other wise.






And then a good pressure washing and scrubbing with so Simple Green.



Tomorrow I will get some paint on the frame rails...then start measuring and drilling holes to mount the 4wd cross members and brackets. Should have the front diff in by early next week.

 

[thrashingcows]

OK today...or I guess tomorrow now...

I worked on getting the frame brackets and cross member in. Started by pulling out eh old frame rails from the donor 93. Started trying to figure out how I was going to transfer the location of the holes from the donor frame over to the crewcab frame. I started checking the location of the reference holes in the in the frames. The holes were close....but varied by up to 3/8". SO this was not going to work. I finally decided I had to bolt back together the donor frame with the cross members and take some hard measurements.

 

[thrashingcows]

Once I took a few dozen measurements I disassembled everything and re-installed the forward cross member in the 84 frame. But before I got too far into that I decided to mount, and drill the needed hole for the steering box brace.

Installed....and punched



Drilled out to about 3/8"....



And then the final drilling was done with a step drill...worked like a charm!