posted @ Friday, May 18, 2007

With the electrical compartment complete and the ventilation system installed, it was time to turn my attention to the Safety Vision backup camera system. So I headed out to the garage Wednesday evening and got things underway. I was concerned that mounting the monitor stand to the roof of the cab would be a challenge. It turned out that the way the monitor base is designed, it mounted easily and almost seamlessly. I was able to get the mount securely installed to the headliner, the monitor attached to the mount and the video cable routed down to the Consolidator console. That was about two hours to complete. Since it was a weeknight, I knocked off early. What really bothered me was that everything went incredibly smooth. There were no goof ups and no problems. It just didn't seem right. I'm not used to things working so well the first time when it comes to this truck.

I'll be headed out the garage again this evening to finish up and get the truck ready for the CBC car show tomorrow.

Link: The problem is, nothing went wrong...

posted @ Sunday, May 13, 2007

The Dana 80 is behind me now and this weekend, among other things, I worked on the ventilation system for the electrical compartment. This has been a source of much frustration as I tried to figure out how to ventilate the compartment without compromising the integrity of the weather seal. After a great deal of thought, I finally settled on an internal venting system. This ended up taking almost all day Saturday to accomplish. Between the venting and touching up the paint from the dana 80 installation, Saturday ended up being a full day. I'll be working a few nights this week to get the truck ready for a car show at CBC High School here close by next weekend. If you're in the area, come by and say hello.

Link: Installing the comparment ventilation system

posted @ Wednesday, May 2, 2007

The weekend was long, but the results were well worth the effort. The Dana 80 installation is almost complete. After spending all day Saturday and Sunday in the garage performing the solid axle swap, Project Responder is sitting pretty with the new Dana 80.

The Sterling 10¼ axle came off without any difficulty by Saturday afternoon. The Dana 80 was in place and ready to be bolted up by the end of the day Saturday. Sunday was the day when I found out that there were a few issues that had to be dealt with. First, it turned out that the new slip yoke for the driveshaft was not a direct fit. The splines of the driveshaft were set up for a "blind" configuration and the yoke was not. The great folks over at Inland Truck Parts did a fantastic job of modifying the driveshaft and making it all work smoothly.

The second issue was the fact that the banjo bolts in the TSM brake calipers were not the same size as what I need for the new Dana 60 calipers. So the brake lines still have yet to be installed. Fortunately I was able to find the correct banjo bolts and brake lines at a local hot rod shop.

So this coming weekend, the driveshaft will be cleaned and re-painted and the brake lines will be installed. If all goes well, the truck will be on the road by Sunday. The bad news is that it will not be in Springfield for the four wheel drive jamboree. But it will be at the next jamboree in Springfield, IL next month.

Link: The Dana 80 installation is almost complete