"Blanc-Oh!", my distraction

[toddz69]

Looking good!

Todd Z.

[ntsqd]

It's almost all back together. Waiting on a replacement reservoir mount. The shocks each came with one and they were carefully removed from the boxes and stashed in the same place, but one is AWOL and that is stopping me from finishing things up and trying to drive it with the vacuum booster. I have one inbound, but it isn't expected until this coming Sunday. The H-B conversion kit is due in the middle of this month, but I wanted to try driving it earlier than that so that I could get some initial impressions.
I moved to a same year application F-350 m/c and gutted it's P-Valve/RPV assembly and added a wilwood adjustable during the re-plumbing required by deleting the ABS pump/valve assembly. I was going to try just an LBS in the rear brake line, but I needed the distribution function that the wilwood p-valve offers so I took the easy way out. Once the H-B assembly in in place I hope to revisit the LBS install.

[ntsqd]

It moved!

Under it's own power even. Still badly needs an alignment. Have located a potential shop for that. The go-to alignment guy got kilt dead when a car crossed the center-line and head-on'd his Harley a couple years ago. Since then the area has been w/o any known alignment shops that can handle unusual or weird stuff.

H-B conversion kit is supposed to show up middle of this month. We'll see.....

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Nice job on the 8 lug conversion and bigger brakes. Its all coming along nicely.

[ntsqd]

Because we all like pics:

[ntsqd]

Oops! Thanks!

[ntsqd]

With the pending H-B conversion I ordered the Saginaw PS pump be rebuilt with a remote reservoir body on it. I plan to return the box and the H-B to the remote res individually. I've long thought that such a reservoir would benefit from having the usual de-aeration methods used in dry sump oil tanks and have sort of been looking for an excuse to try this out. When in college I made some metal spinning forms for a Tooling Class that created the top and bottom of such a reservoir and used Ag sprinkler pipe (tube actually) for the body. I couldn't find them or the piece of the Ag tube that I had so fall back to some alternate plan.
I was never a great aluminum welder, but before my eyesight started to go I could do better than this. Oh well, beats the alternative to aging.....

MISF used one of these to make a coolant recovery tank ($20 on amazon) and it occurred to me that it was just about the perfect size for a PS reservoir:


I carefully cut it at a scientifically arrived at WAG and welded the -10AN bung to the bottom of it.


I wanted the top to have a mild conic shape and I needed the mid-disc to be that way. Ordered some Shore 90A 1/2" thick rubber from McMaster and made a press-forming tool from a rem:


Mid-disc:


I used the same bung and cap that MISF used for his recovery tank. Welded some -6AN bungs to short pieces of tubing and then welded those into tangentially milled cuts in the upper part of the paint cup. The 'candy cane' is a piece of 1/4" aluminum tubing that will become the reservoir's vent:


Shot of the mid-disc and the vent tube - it goes all of the way thru the bottom of the paint cup:


Top section welded together:


Welded assembly:

[ntsqd]

I'm surprised that the reservoir hasn't caused some comments.

The Lee rebuilt PS pump is here. Trying to decide on keeping the recently installed full quart filter or changing to a smaller filter. Have held off on bleeding the system expecting that the H-B kit would soon arrive, but that hasn't happened and we're now a day or two past when the vendor said it would be here. Going to call them today.

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Why? The way I look at it is, either you're building it or you're buying it. Guys who buy can't talk, and the guys building typically respect hard work. Keep it up, I'm curious to see what you figure out. I'd image if you keep the air out, it'll be a smoother and cooler setup.

[ntsqd]

IME it's an unusual part to see someone build. Most buy one from one of the PS vendors, but I've not seen any of those that I thought really addressed cavitated fluid. Some seem like they're designed to increase the air in the fluid. Could be that I'm over-thinking things, but it should be an interesting experiment anyway.

[ntsqd]

On to vendor #2 for a H-B conversion kit. Second vendor at least sent me something. It was wrong at both ends, but at least I briefly had a H-B conversion kit. They're hoping for stock by next Tues, so with any luck I'll have something by the end of next week.

[ntsqd]

Closer.....

[ntsqd]

Small update:

Got it all plumbed and filled it with PS fluid, now to see if it is liquid tight. It's not. Took a lot of leaked PS fluid to find the problem. Need to make an AL crush washer to fix it. Brake pedal feels decent, might be able to use this Ø1.25" bore m/c.

Bled the H-B /PS system the way that Vanco suggests, i.e. to run the steering wheel lock to lock about 20 times with the front tires off the ground and the engine OFF. Then start it and try the steering. Suffers from cavitation. Seems that my trick reservoir isn't so trick. Pushed the easy button because I need this truck operational and ordered a Lee PS reservoir. I'll think on why it cavitated and revisit my reservoir later. When I removed the cap on my reservoir with the engine running at high idle the box return port was freakin' fire-hose of fluid! Didn't expect that, but then I looked up the pump's specs and saw why. 3.0 GPM and 9/10 of quart reservoir fluid capacity. The pump completely exchanges the reservoir's fluid ~15 times a minute!

Put the rear axle up on jack stands to spin the rears under power and check for VSS signal, none. No speedo, no upshift, nada. Picking up a new sensor this evening, hope that fixes it. PSOM is off due to the change in tone ring tooth count. Given the limited opportunities to change that I only want to do it once. If the new sensor doesn't fix it I'll consider the Solo relocation kit or I've read of someone using the earlier rear output shaft driven VSS sensor with some rewiring.

[ntsqd]

Well, fark! Took it for a test drive yesterday. Made it 3 miles and something let go in the D60. When in neutral the drive-shaft spins freely by hand in either direction for as long as you want to spin it and makes horrible noises when spun by the engine. Local shop is going to try to squeeze it (they're usually booked 3+ months out).

[ntsqd]

3 Miles:


That's a ~Ø1.55" shaft twisted off from 3 miles of surface street driving. The problem was that it was only just barely making contact with the housing at the inner end of the spindle's Ø1.563 bore. I did check it and I knew it was close, but I could not feel any contact, high spots or anything else.

[ntsqd]

Wheeee! Does this truck stop!!! 40 to 0 feels like about 2.5 to 3 truck lengths. 50 to 0 isn't noticeably further. I ended up dialing the p-valve down to it's bare minimum and might just be able to run w/o it at all. Simulated panic stop slid all of the tools sitting in the pass Mastercraft seat up, out, and onto the floor. Best part is that while not even slightly touchy the pedal effort is very low.

It has picked a bearing whine/growl in the accessory drive somewhere. I replaced all of the idler bearings and even though they were all varying shades of bad that didn't fix it. That leaves water pump, alt., & A/C. Located a long piece of rod to see if I can better locate which is the problem.

I suspect that it also has a vacuum leak because the idle will not drop below ~1200rpm unless it is put in gear. There's only two places that I've had apart recently. Had the TB off to replace the TPS that went bad while sitting for so long. And I plugged the big vacuum port for the old booster with an 1/8NPT plug, but that plug has a hex head and it felt like it might have bottomed on the underside of the hex and not have sealed when I installed it. Was hard to tell. Haven't been happy with it, so it gets replaced regardless.

[toddz69]

Glad to hear it's back on the road!

Todd Z.

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Nice!

[ntsqd]

Well, it was one the road briefly but it's had a noise in the front accessory drive that I hadn't been able to isolate. Using a Ø1/4" rod as a stethoscope. Past experience with this technique has been that when you place the rod on the culprit that it's really obvious. Not so in this case. Sounded like the bearings in all of the idlers might be it. Popped the belt and some were a little noisy or crunchy so those all got replaced. Then it could have been the alternator so it got replaced for no gain. PS pump is new, so unless I kilt it in sorting out the cavitation it should be good. That leaves the water pump and the A/C pulley. In the process of accessing the w/p I discovered that the fan clutch would allow the fan blade tips to move fore/aft about 5/16" That's probably not good. Since I was in that deep I went ahead with the w/p replacement on the logic that if the noise is the fan clutch that those harmonics probably did not do the w/p's bearings any good. Got the new fan clutch tonight, hoping to get to put it on tomorrow night.

[ntsqd]

Got all that above sorted out, and got it aligned. Has some serious bump-steer and the box was about to time-out. Replaced the box with a supposedly new Ford part because I could get it fast. Lee PS was 2+ weeks out and I'm now needing to drive this truck. I've kept the old box and am tempted to have Lee rebuild it. In the mean time I discovered that the miles since I last inspected it have not been kind to the LS drag link. I'll get that sorted out hopefully this week.

But onto the bump-steer. It has a clone if not an actual Autofab drop pitman on it (came to me that way). Someone at a shop who should know a thing or two about these suspensions commented that they've seen better bump-steer characteristics from a stock pitman arm. Worth trying? Short of something swing-set what else can be done?