Belafonte Reboot....Ambulance to 4x4 Camper Conversion

[tgreening]

Are you starting to rethink that, 'satisfaction of doing it yourself' thing yet?

Every freakin time I pick up a wrench, till I'm done. Then I start thinking about the next.


Didn't get everything done today. Got the shocks off, got my shock mounts welded on, and stared really hard at the transmission, but didn't get my cross member trimmed. Gonna hit that tomorrow, and try to get me a helping hand to get the tranny back in on friday.

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Yeah, not very sexy, but that's about all there is to show for todays pain.

 

[tgreening]

Went out today to do some work with the blue tip wrench. Burned off some old suspension brackets, but opted to not cut the engine cross member. I know it mentions doing that for the 4" lift, but it only looks like you're cutting an inch, maybe an inch and a half from the cross member. I'm doing a 6" lift so I'm going to see where I'm at after the axle is in. I'd rather not cut it. If it looks like its going to be close I'd rather extend the bump stops to limit the axle up travel a bit.

Why is it that when you're using a torch it doesn't matter how you position and/or protect yourself? No matter what a big fat blob of slag manages to find an open boot top, exposed sleeve cuff, or some way into your glove. Hate that ********.

Swapped out the pittman arm as well. Thought it was gonna be a bugger because it was close enough to the cross member there weren't no way that arm was coming off without either cutting the member, or removing the steering box. Turns out though that the steering box bolts are easily accessible and thread into the box without using any nuts. Remove two, loosen one, and the box rotated enough to let me R&R the pittman arm. Win! Double win because at some point in the past I had actually purchased a GOOD pittman arm puller after busting numerous junk ones. Cranked that bugger as hard as I could with a breaker bar, gave the pittman arm some motivational taps with the trusty BFH and BOINGGG!, off she came. The replacement from Ujor is BEEF compared to the factory unit.

Sadly, no pictures of any of that, not that there's really much to see.

Stared realllly hard at that transmission again. Finally he said "what chu lookin at foo?", and it was on! Grabbed that sum-biscuit and wrastled it under and slammed his sorry butt back up where he belongs.

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All by my lonesome. Bet he dont sass me no more!

Tomorrow I'll finish hooking up lines, torquing down the torque converter bolts, get the cross member in and hopefully get the transfer case bolted on. Oh, should be able to pick up my powder coat parts tomorrow as well, so it won't be long and I can have the front suspension hung. Making enough progress now I'm starting to feel the end is in sight. Better be, because till I can get that sucker out of my shop I can't get my mower out and the clock is ticking on that particular issue.

And where is everybody? Am I the only one working here? For crickey sake, a little bit of cold weather and everybody wusses out on me.

 

[patoz]

Good job on the transmission! I've 'been there, done that' and I know what a bear that can be, especially by yourself.

I'm working, not directly on my Ambo yet, but in that direction. Yesterday I was pulling stumps! I took out some dead palm trees, and a section of Azaleas bushes (hedges). I'm trying to make room on either side of my driveway so I'll have room to work. As it gets hotter here this summer, I may need to put up one of those portable car covers to give me some shade to work in. I have the frame to a double wide one but no cover, so I'll either have to use a big tarp or just buy a new complete one (which I hate to do).

I have a Warn 9,500 lb. winch for my F250, but no bumper to mount it with yet. I sure could have used it yesterday, and it would have saved my lower back a lot of stress and pain. I guess I need to get that project done also.

 

[tgreening]

Powder coated goodness.

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Drivers side front...

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required some Macgyver-foo.

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and the rear.

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Trust me that the passenger side looks pretty much just the same, so I'll drop the front pic and call it good.

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So. Front suspension hung. All that's left up there is mount the axle and steering/shocks/brake lines. And driveshaft. Got the tranny mounted and the xfer case shifter linkage mounted to that. Need to cut the hole for the actual shifter, and also hang the transfer case. Shocks and mod the rear driveshaft and I think we're in the neighborhood of donesville.

 

[rlrenz]

Every time I have to use a torch or a plasma-arc overhead, I remember the time a friend of mine and I bought an old stainless steel railroad passenger car and decided to cut it up for scrap - we used a plasma arc for the first time, and found that a bit of slag would jump up, slide down between your face shield and your collar, then slide down to your naval and stay there, smoldering the lint. Slag also liked to leap into your ear, so you could hear the wax sizzle.

It didn't matter what you had on for protection - the best leathers you could get still let chunks through, and a long-sleeved shirt wasn't any help, because you'd burn holes through it that let more slag through.

 

[tgreening]

Woo Hoo! Got the xfer case installed today, which turned out to be not so straight forward.

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I couldn't raise the xfer case high enough to mate up with the back of the tranny because of that black crossmember you see up there. Not even close. So what I ended up having to do was unhook the passenger side of the transmission cross member, and loosen the drivers side, hoping to get enough drop to get the two mated.

Passenger side:

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I got the two mated, and raised the tranny cross member back up into position, and it seems like I didn't need to force it, but as far as I can tell there is about zero clearance between that black cross member and the top of the transfer case. I don't know if there are different transmission rubber mounts but this is the one that's in there.

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All told I think that's about 2" thick or so, but I didn't measure it while I was out there. It would be great if there were a version about a 1/2" thinner.

I also tore into the front axle today. Torched off the bracket that needed torchin, got the calipers off because I'm pretty sure they're toast anyway, and started pulling the hubs apart but didn't have a decent set of snap ring pliers on hand so had to give that up till I picked up a set. Got that covered now so I can get back at it tomorrow. Rotors are trashed as well but I knew all this going in. Once I get all that apart and I can pop the knuckles off and get my new ball joints installed. Barring any nasty surprises I should be on the down hill side at this point.

 

[flightcancled]

Sorry for the silence. My rig was under 3 feet of snow and temps didn't get above -20 with wind chill for the better part of a month. Now that we are thawed I'm going to be back at it.

Plan is to be 2wd but basically done with the rest for this summer, then find some sucker to agree to do the conversion for me over next winter. No way I can do it myself. Nope nope nope!

Man you are looking close! Remind me, are you redoing the rear axle as well?

 

[tgreening]

No plans at the moment to redo the rear axle, if you mean replace it. It might end up with new gears (and the front) depending on how much of a slug it turns into with the 37s. Other than that and/or basic maintanence I think she's in there for the duration.

 

[Bikersmurf]

I wish I could still do stuff like this. I've hand built/bent floors out of 1/8" steel, replaced frames, replaced bodies, swapped transmissions, converted to disc brakes... And now struggle to turn a wrench to do basic mechanical work.

 

[tgreening]

My days coming. This all used to be a piece of case from a physical standpoint, but now I crawl around under on the concrete, hop in and out, crawl around some more, and the next morning feels like somebody kicked the crap out of me. Getting to the point I'd rather write the check than install the part.

 

[patoz]

Looking good Tom!

Alex, you made it back from your trip, so I guess you're not radioactive or anything?

Our weather is pretty good here right now, so I hope to be able to get out there and get a little done on mine this weekend also.

 

[Bikersmurf]

Sounds familiar, trouble is I still feel that way a week or two later. In some ways I'd rather write a cheque... But I don't trust anyone to do it right, and it'd likely bounce... Just kidding, just can't afford to.

 

[patoz]

My problem is I don't trust very many people to work on any of my vehicles, plus I have a hard time paying someone else to do what I can do. I have an even harder problem admiring to myself that, even though I think I can do it, I really can't any longer.

You used to be able to watch when you were having something done, but now days most shops won't let you anywhere near the work area due to safety and liability reasons. Or, you have to drop it off and they will get around to it when they can, so waiting is a waste of our time.

 

[flightcancled]

Nope, still in the nuke.....

My plan is develope a relationship with someone willing to do the conversion, mount the hangers myself, take it into the shop on a Friday and tear down myself over the weekend. From there let them get them deal with getting it lifted and on the axle. Drive it to a transmission shop and have them take care of that portion and order the front drive shaft.

I do have a buddy that has offered to help me do it in his garage, but I doubt that's what will happen.

 

[tgreening]

If I were going that route i'd do just the opposite. Let them do the brackets and shackle bushings, and you hang the axle. Its heavy work but a floor jack simplifies that big time. Drilling all the holes for the front brackets sucked great big goats,and burning out / welding in the rear shackle bushings was another example of black hole level suckage. Hanging the springs was easy peasy and hanging the axle should be another cake walk. The drilling / welding was much more of a chore than the rest is going to be.