84 Crewcab...AKA..Patches

71ChargerRT said:
Looks great Cow!!! Wishing I had a 70's-80's Dodge crew cab! :2thumbs:

Although a '73-91 3/4, 4X4 Suburban has been crossing my mind quite a bit. :hmmm:
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you need a ramcharger tub and a 4dr cab..and little else....the frame idealy needs to be a 4dr short box..but..its going to be a little too long in the wheel base by about 10 inches?(stock RC is 106 and a stock short base is 115 i think)...well this is if you do it the way the factory would have....IE drill out the spot welds and re-align the parts..especialy the cab striker riser panel of the RC..you fit this in place of the cab riser..the only actual "custom" parts in the end would be a slightly modified frame, and the roof....which personaly i would use 2 RC roofs as they will graft together better..but you slice it right at the rain gutter to graft into the 4dr cab front half......yeah shure you could just weld a bed to a cab and hope it holds but i dont see it holding well
 
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I'd love that 69, but I don't have the required skill level to pull that off. Though I have thought about something like that with my present truck.

I'll just need to source the 4X4 conversion parts as well as the Ramcharger to use. I figured a long arm suspension kit would be the easiest route with that. A new bed would probably be a good idea too, mine is a bit beaten up.
 
Ok I'll try again tonight....Have I mentioned how much I hate photobucket!! [verymad]

I have been working on the crewcab...just been too busy to update regularly.

So here's what I've gotten done in the last week or so. I got the fuel tank and lines in and hooked up.

I did do one little modification when installing the fuel tank straps. Since the 84 chassis uses a little different tank strap then the later ones. The 84 straps are bolted to the bottom of the frame rail with two bolts and nuts, behind the fuel tank. The problem with this set-up is that you can not remove those nuts since the bolts will spin once loosened.

So my solution was to weld a small piece of flat bar between the bolts. Thus making a simple U-bolt that can be unbolted anytime.

 
The nylon fuel lines were pre-bent for the clubcab chassis....but I made them work. Used a number of old heater hose zip tied to them to make sure they would not rub on anything.



Had to lengthen them 11". Staggered my cuts and used 5/16" brake line make the splice.



 
Removed all the dash cluster and wiring. Also managed to wrestle out the 7 5/16" bolts from under the window seal. Got the firewall all stripped out on the drivers side.



Man I hate people who do hack work!![verymad] Just makes more work for me to re-do it properly.





Going to finish stripping the dash out, then I can weld in new material and re-shape the holes, and add the ones necessary for the 93 wiring and such.
 
Also got my driveshafts all done. I ordered all new Spicer U-joints, Cardan joint rebuild kit, and carrier bearing.



Dismantled everything and cleaned it all up the best I could.





I called my local driveline shop and asked them how they wanted me to measure things. Turned out I needed 29.75" length for the front drive shaft.



Then the 2 piece rear I needed 19" for the shaft from transfer case to center line of the carrier bearing. Then 75" from carrier bearing center line to rear axle. They ended up having to replace both ends on the long driveshaft. The bores for the cups were worn out.




They did a very nice job on everything. Not cheap getting 3 drive shafts done. Shorten front one...then lengthen both rears, with 2 new ends. But they did install all the U-joints and and hardware for free. But at least everything is New and ready for another 260K Km's.... ;)
 
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Little problem I had. I have been trying to find the Moog K7282 axle bumpers for a long time now. Tried all the local jobbers...Canada and USA. I eventually thought I had found some through Jegs. Their website said they had a bunch in stock....so I went ahead and ordered them. I received notice that they were back ordered. This went on for almost 2 months before I cancelled the order.

I then was poking around my local Lordco and noticed some axle bumpers in the "Help" section. They sure looked like the ones I needed. I had the parts guy run the number...they were for 80-93 ramcharger....yup should work!!



So if you are looking for these...just look/order these ones and you should be good to go!!
 
Pulled apart the front of the motor to check the KDP and case bolts. Case bolts were still nice and tight. I tabbed the KDP with an old U-joint axle strap...someone mentioned doing this so I thought I'd try it.

Little work with the rat file to open up the hole. Then cut and grind until it fit perfect.



And a little trick I use to make sure I get the front timing case cover bolts back in the right location. Since there are short, and long bolts.



 
Fluidampr install

Then it was on to the installation of the fluidampr. Since this is a 93 motor I had to use the CPS relocation bracket. I looked on-line and could not find any pics of how this all went together...and the instructions that came with the kit were vague at best!

So I'll post up on what to do.

Once the timing case cover crank seal has been replaced, and the cover is back in place, you can install the fluidampr with the 4 - 15mm crank bolts. Then remove the two bolts on the lower LH side of the motor. The instructions that came with the CPS relocation kit were not very clear here. These are the ones you need to remove.



Then install the new spacer/bolts. These are 19mm.



And now the main bracket.

 
Now it should have been easy and just re-install the Crank Postion Sensor (CPS) and adjust the gap... 0.049 to 0.051, and your done. Nope not for me!

Turned out the CPS I have on my motor is a little different. I tried every way possible to get things to line up. I was just not able to get any clearance between the CPS and the fluidampr.



Turned out that after searching pics on-line I think the mounting bracket changed at some point.

Here's my CPS and bracket....after my modification with the rat file.




And I was finally able to get my .050" air gap.

 
Oh and one more thing with the fluidampr install. Make sure you put your belt over the crank pulley before installing the CPS relocation kit.

Also While I had the front of the motor apart I decided to pop out the water pump for an inspection. Glad I did because I could see that there had been coolant weeping out of the water pump. So I tossed in a new one I had in the garage.
 
If your installing a fluidampr on a non-IC motor (89, 90, early 91) then you should be OK with fan blade clearance, but double check first. On the 91.5 to 93 motors you are more then likely going to have clearance issues between the fan and fluidampr.

I had a new fan from a 2nd Gen on my 89 motor, with a new clutch assembly. I decided to compare it to the original assembly I pulled off the 93 motor. Turned out the fans are the same, but the clutches are a bit different.



but the distance between the end of the clutch bolt, and the body of the fan was different. The OEM 93 unit was a tad longer then the 2nd Gen fan and new clutch. The difference was about 0.20" longer for the 93 clutch.



So I swapped the fans around and used the OEM 93 clutch.
 
So I first modified a washer that was about 0.125" thick. Wish I had a milling machine...I had to resort to rat files, and drum sand discs, and round flapper discs.



Once installed the fan was just kissing the fluidampr. So I needed a thicker washer. I found one spot welded to the old 2wd front cross member from the crewcab. Had to drill out 3 spot welds.



Then used a 60 grit flapper disc on my 4.5" grinder to slowly turn down the outside diameter....You can see it was a fair amount!!



This washer was about 0.20"...and was perfect!!
 
Thought I had a fix for the E-brake system. The axle cables from the 93 are a lot longer then the 84 cables....where they come through the bracket on the driver side.

I swapped over the 93 clubcab e-brake assembly and main cable, but was still about 14" short. So I thought I would just add an extension to the threaded end of the E-brake cable.

I got some ready-rod, and a couple threaded couplers that I welded together. Viola I thought I had it!



Turns out that the axle cables don't pull the same length. So the bracket twists and bent the ready-rod.



Guess I'll be swapping the E-brake cables from the 84 Dana 60 over the 93 Dana 70.
 
I also ran into an issue with the flex line from the rear axle, up to the frame. Originally the flex line ran up to the bracket with the female threaded end pointing towards the front of the truck. But with the RWAL valve, this required the brake line to do a tight 180* turn.

So to make things easier I had decided to install the flex line pointing towards the back of the truck. Thus eliminating the 180* brake line bend. But what happened with this is that once the fuel tank was installed it was hitting the flex line.



I had been thinking about how to fix this, without bending new lines. I finally was able to find a short 90* brake line fitting...or should I say a Tee...with a plug.



Then I bent a spare bracket I had 90* so that the flex line would now be coming straight up.



And installed...



The only thing I'd change is the tee. If the male tube flare had been in the center port of the tee, then it would have been easier to get the brake line lined up. And not have had to crank the begeezis out of the fitting I used to get it to line up.

Hopefully I don't have any leaks.
 
I'm kind of surprised you found an inverted-flare run tee in the brass cabinet, and not a regular I.F. street elbow (which would've eliminated the need for the plug).

Keep pluggin' away. It's fun progress to watch! :dance:
 
Dr.Jass said:
I'm kind of surprised you found an inverted-flare run tee in the brass cabinet, and not a regular I.F. street elbow (which would've eliminated the need for the plug).

Keep pluggin' away. It's fun progress to watch! :dance:
Click to expand...

I was looking for a tight 90* with teh inverted flare...but no one had one locally. When the guy showed me this one, I snapped it up. At least it was usable. ;)
 
I know I have not been updating regularly...trying to get the crewcab done ASAP. I'm starting to jones hard on not driving my cummins.....[laugh]

I will try and update a bit over the next week or so...when I find time.

I stripped out the firewall and got the dash out of the truck...without having to pull the windshield...Woohooo!!



And you can see some of the butcher job they did installing the clutch bracket, and the hole in the firewall.....



 
So since I couldn't live with the butcher job, I decided to weld in some patches and then I could redo it properly.

I made up a one piece patch and welded it in.



But after some measuring I noticed I needed a bit more material on one side. So welded in another patch.



Now I needed to mark out the new hole. Little thinking outside the box got me what I needed.

 
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