'39 dodge truck powered by a 6.7 cummins

[8literbeater]

Difference in height? As long as you keep those angles equal and opposite, you'll be fine.

 

[Gunzenrosa]

Thanks for the answer of height difference. I was getting some outside input which made me stop and over think things. Funny how that happens.

 

[King Herald]

Yes, the way you have it setup is normal, the angles must match up. there is another school of thought, that the angles can by opposite, which theoretically works exactly the same, but I hear people saying it simply does not work.

Either way, this looks like it'll be a great buildup, and a good reliable drive afterwards.

Connecting all the electrical and electronic stuff would scare the **** out of me though.

 

[Gunzenrosa]

Just updates of the rear end that I thought would be simply. Not sure why but it took longer than I had thought up in my head. Oh well.

 

[Willowbilly3]

Cool truck. You can avoid ring but if you put a pad on that bucket, I upgraded to a snap on stool.[ddd
Ok, so tell me I read that wrong and you really didn't have a baby in the truck going 120 when you wrecked.

 

[Gunzenrosa]

Thanks for the kind words.
No baby in the truck when I wrecked. Baby came into the picture afterwards. I'm fortunate to be here to tell the story.
As for the bucket upgrade that's what I asked for for Christmas lol. Something with a pad and wheels. For now the bucket works fine but it don't slide around very well.

 

[8literbeater]

Yes, the way you have it setup is normal, the angles must match up. there is another school of thought, that the angles can by opposite, which theoretically works exactly the same, but I hear people saying it simply does not work.

Either way, this looks like it'll be a great buildup, and a good reliable drive afterwards.

Connecting all the electrical and electronic stuff would scare the **** out of me though.

Opposite, meaning one is angled up, and the other is angled down. Both can be the same way, after all, that's how a double cardan CV joint works. Usually it isn't used on driveshafts (except for the double cardan CV), because then the pinion would have to be pointed way up, and the don't get oil to the front pinion bearings that way. Also, when suspension travels, one angle would get smaller, and the other would get bigger. So when you put the pinion parallel with the transmission output shaft, the angles stay equal (or close) throughout suspension travel.

Good:
http://youtu.be/gBoJT_Pl-RA
Also good:
http://youtu.be/cydmR0lX2t8

Bad: (because of wrong yoke timing)
http://youtu.be/4CYnLyTsYOA
ditto:
http://youtu.be/IttUsogU4AQ

Bad because of mismatched angles:

You want them to be within 1° of each other. The above example is off by 9°.

 

[Hollow65]

the drive train alone out weighs most complete rat rods. I am excited to see this build. my daily is an 04-1/2 cummmins, 4x4, love it!

 

[Gunzenrosa]

Thanks for the info 8literbeater. Can never have too much information.

 

[Gunzenrosa]

Well I lied about doing the back first and then moving forward. I got a little side tracked and took the turbo and exhaust manifold of and shined them up.
I decided to install the manifold inverted to get the turbo up out of its hole only to run into a few snags.
One being the turbo ends up to close to the plastic valve cover so I'm going to have build an adapter to bring the turbo up and out. Just another thing to wrap my brain around.
So I tied in the rear brake lines and set the cab on in preparation to build a mount for the air tank and batteries.

Good thing I'm taking pictures. I noticed that gasket hanging out on cylinder #5 of the manifold. I won't take any credit for that boo boo as my uncle dropped by and gave me a hand and I let him be in his glory for a bit lol. Oh well, he felt pretty darn good for being able to help. He's one of those guys that drops by and gives me his opinion on everything and I have to figure ways to explain nicely how I'm actually going about things. God bless the helmet wearers in our families.

Here is the room I have to work with to accommodate the air tank and batteries, still not 100% sure where I'm going to spot the fuel tank yet[S

 

[Gunzenrosa]

More of an idea of what little space I have.

Here was a thought that didn't last long for placement of the batteries. I was thinking a hinged floor and passenger seat to access but that sounded like a lot of work to be inconvenienced when needing access to a battery

So now my thoughts are to place the batteries on either side of the diff attached down on the frame and mount the air tank above the rear diff. (As I write this I'm realizing battery access still won't be the best in this location)
So while I ponder what I thought would be an easy process I decided to add more ideas to the brain.(don't mind the welding shoes lol). This is the factory pedal assembly out of the '11 cummins which will mount up against the fire wall using the master cylinder which bolts to the pedal assembly. The steering column also bolts to the pedal assembly. Initial thoughts are pretty straight forward..... But I'm slowly realizing imagineering and real world or different things at times.
So last night I figured I'd have a look at the front end again and decided to start cutting things up. I had clearance issues as the front frame bowed out wards just forward of the engine mounts

 

[8literbeater]

Here was a thought that didn't last long for placement of the batteries. I was thinking a hinged floor and passenger seat to access but that sounded like a lot of work to be inconvenienced when needing access to a battery

Lots of cars have had batteries mounted under the seats. It isn't that much of a problem really. It would probably keep your battery cables shorter too.

 

[Skip]

Lots of cars have had batteries mounted under the seats. It isn't that much of a problem really. It would probably keep your battery cables shorter too.

True story. A door or removable panel makes for fairly easy access. If jumpers are the concern, they can be mounted in a convenient location in the engine compartment near the starter. If the exhaust isn't "right there" it is good use of otherwise wasted space.

 

[Gunzenrosa]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. At this point I'm thinking of using the space under the cab for a fuel tank. I've checked the area for volume and I could get a 12 gallon tank down in there. So for now that's the direction I have decided to go.
I have moved onto the front part of the frame for the last couple days (even though my plan was to finish up the rear of the truck before moving forward...plans change). I'll figure out the details as I go I guess.[S
Here is the idea of what's happening up front.

I'm going to re weld that 3" tubing back to the frame pieces and it's going to act as a chin of the frame so to speak. When the frame is lowered when parked it will rest on the tubing. That's the plan anyway.

Here I'm just doing some finishing of the front frame 'rounding' it of a bit to clean it up. Don't mind the welding. I'm new, what can I say. Lol. Although I am improving and I'll take that over getting worse.


These last two pictures give you an idea of why the frame needed altered in the first place.
Before:

After:

Lol and there's the 'ol bucket' replacement to the right of the last picture.(pondering in comfort lol) The bucket has made its way inside the cab for seat height mock up purposes for now.

 

[440Clark]

Keep on going, this is going to be super-cool!

 

[clamor]

...
I decided to install the manifold inverted to get the turbo up out of its hole only to run into a few snags.
One being the turbo ends up to close to the plastic valve cover so I'm going to have build an adapter to bring the turbo up and out. Just another thing to wrap my brain around.
...

Have you considered making or obtaining a metal valve cover, rather than spacing the turbo away from the plastic one?

-Chaz

 

[Gunzenrosa]

Have you considered making or obtaining a metal valve cover, rather than spacing the turbo away from the plastic one?

-Chaz

I did consider the aluminum valve cover combined with the crank case vent cover among many other neat things for the engine but I'm content with the almost stock form for now. I lifted the head once and replaced the head gasket and used ARP head studs. The emissions doo dads are obviously removed as well as a tuner has been used to tune both engine and trans. I'm content with what I have. This thing will be a handful as it is. Lol


In the picture of just the exhaust housing on the manifold the exhaust housing is backwards so that it mated up with the manifold, in turn it would put the turbo on backwards. Not sure that would work but it wouldn't look right anyway.
In the above picture it shows the exhaust housing and compressor housing installed,( the flange on the turbo is in the right of the picture) I cant even get the exhaust flanges to line up. So a new 'adapter' is being made to bring the turbo out away from the valve cover.
I've also looked at using a 2nd generation cummins exhaust manifold which locates the turbo in the center of the manifold instead of on the end. Probably could have worked but I would have had to make an adapter flange from the manifold to the turbo anyway and the way I'm going now I just have to build two flanges and weld in a 45 degree kick off. I'll be sure to put up a picture when it's done.

 

[Gunzenrosa]

A little bit of progress as I started lining up the front frame and figuring how and where the control arms were going to be situated. I have about six feet total left of the original frame left after reconfiguring.

Got everything welded in place, still need to cut some fish plates yet.

Received my heim joints in the mail yesterday. I think they will be big enough. I'm trying to be a little bit over built and I'm sure these fit the bill. These will attach to the stock location of the 2011 dodge frame.

And here is what I came up with for the air tank and battery mounts. Still going to jam the fuel tank under the floor of the cab.

Keep in mind I'm new at welding so to be sure I was making this thing safe I bought a bottle of vodka and called my welder friend over to burn in some nice beads on everything I had tacked in place. He does some nice work.

That's all for now, I've been reworking the cab some. Channeling it deeper and started some of the frame work of the floor, cut out a slot for the rear drive shaft to ride in and did a small shear metal patch.
Tomorrow I'll get the control arms prepped for welding and get a template made for the front fish plates.

 

[sgtpontiac]

Well alrighty then

[P[P[P

 

[Sam_Fear]

Wow! I hadn't checked in for awhile - cool build! I'm excited to see how the front axle works out.

Since you're running bags, pay attention to which direction the driveshafts move when raising and lowering. If your axles are higher than your trans/case the driveshaft will push in instead of pull out of the tail when raising.