84 Crewcab...AKA..Patches

[thrashingcows]

So the I built the frame out of steel. 1" square tubing by 1/8" wall. The holes I drilled at 7/16 for the 40/20/40 seat and then 1/2" to mount ot the original bracket.

And someone asked if I could post all the measurements and such in a drawing. I did one up in paint works last night. Not to scale but shoul dhave all the info for others to build there own.

 

[thrashingcows]

Next came the trial fit. I mounted everything on the frame, with only tack welds to hold it together. Then put it in the truck with the help of my neighbor.
It went in no problem and everything looked good. I had to also drill 2 new holes in the buddy seat since the frame did not extended to pick up the 2 rear mounts.

 

[thrashingcows]

I ordered some special fasteners to secure the frame to the stock bench brackets, but they didn't arrive in time so I decided to make my own. I needed a deep socket type fastener to go down into the 1" tubing and fasten to the stock 5/16 NC thread stud.

Here's what I did.

Bought four 5/16" joiners, taped them off leaving just under 1" of metal showing.

Then used my air sander to round off the exposed end to just under 1/2"

Once that was done rummaged through my tin of washers to find 4 that would work.

Then i had to figure out how to hold the washers secure and level while I tacked them in place with the welder. I have a few small but strong magnets and these did the job.

Few minutes with the welder and I was done.

 

[thrashingcows]

Here you can see how the new fasteners work.

Only problem I found was when I was doing my final install the rear fastener was too tall and was hitting the padding and would have dug into the seal when I sat in it. So I trimmed it down.

 

[thrashingcows]

So here's the last trial fit before I started to install the seat.

So the buddy seat had to go on first before the bracket went into the truck. No room to get the bolts up and under the new bracket.

Here's a couple shots of the bracket bolted to the seats, from down low.

 

[thrashingcows]

And the final install, all done!!!

So I sat in the seat and there is a ton of head room, and lots of leg room!

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Very nicely done!
Thanks for the detailed pictorial.

 

[J.C. Corbett]

Nice bit of engineering and fabricating!

 

[Fishy]

Sweet! A detailed reference for when I do this to my Ramcharger!! :giggedy:Looks pretty damn good Cow!!

 

[mopar_man]

That's some pretty awesome fab work/engineering there. :clap: Is there material around resembling the old seat to recover the new one?

 

[thrashingcows]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Hope the diagram helps you out there Fishy... And MoparMan...the interior is a hodge podge...Brown dash, with red trim parts, beige front door panels and now gray seat in the front and red in the back....going to switch the interior over to black and gray...eventually. For now front and rear seats will get gray seat covers.

 

[thrashingcows]

Well yesterday I decided to pull the vacuum/power steering pump assembly. If you don't know they are a two piece unit that is attached and then drives off a gear in the timing case.

Got the pump assembly out and fired the motor up, no more noise! But I could still hear a slight ding in the gear train after my KSB cut out. What the KSB does is advance the timing some and increase the fuel pressure during a 1-2 minute warm up cycle. SO I thought maybe my injection pump (IP) timing was retarded to far.

SO today, in the pouring rain I might add, I advanced my IP timing by about 1/8th inch. What a big difference! The motor is was more responsive and just sounds better all the way around. Also the slight dinging I could hear in the gear train was now gone. I was running the motor with no KSB as well.

I then thought maybe I should double check the vacuum pump assembly and see if the noise would now be gone.

Re-installed the vacuum/power steering set-up. Got it in a fired it up, rattled like before for a couple minutes then got quiet. I was thinking I got it all sorted out and was pretty pleased with myself, but had a sneaky suspicion and thought I'd let it idle for a few more minutes. The noise came back...but definitely not as loud. I can hear it but it is not as noticeable. My guess is the noise was there before my whole fiasco with my IP and I just couldn't hear it. Now that I know what the noise is, and can pick it out of the other engine noises, I can hear it.

I'm guessing the timing was retarded too much with the new IP and was allowing the gear train to have a little more "slop"? or what ever you want to call it. So I will definitely have to replace the vacuum/power steering pump assembly.

 

[71ChargerRT]

Just caught up with this, VERY COOL!!!

 

[thrashingcows]

Wow been a while since I updated this thread. Done lots since then.

I ended up upgrading to the later 91.5-93 vacuum/power steering set-up. Got a complete set-up from Mark Nixon and was very happy with my dealing with him. Bought a reseal kit off e-bay and redid the entire unit. Came out great. And works even better....I have 25" of vacuum at idle!!

The system when I got it....

Then after a cleaning and reseal....

Installed...

I had to modify the throttle bracket a bit to work with the new unit and brackets. Had to cut off the bottom of the stock bracket, and then drill a hole to mount on the new lower pump bracket. Turned out great and was a very simple fix.

 

[thrashingcows]

Repainted my front door panels. Will eventually get the rear panels and the other dash and trim pieces all painted in the gray and black theme.

Before...

After...

And installed...

While I had the door panels off I lubed everything and put on new door plastic to help keep the dust/water and noise out a little.

 

[thrashingcows]

I've also since installed my gauges, Pyro, Boost and Tach.

Pyro and Boost on the dash....

And the tach I used the old nub from the column shifter to mount it. Almost looks like it belongs there.

 

[thrashingcows]

Will update some more when I have more time...

 

[Fishy]

Lookin good! Clean work.

 

[Jester]

Great work! Looks clean

 

[71ChargerRT]

Lookin good!!!