1970 Jeep Gladiator 1 Ton 6BT 12V Cummins Build

[Showngo]

Have it run to a smaller fake tank filled with colored water

[Resbum]

Got a fair amount done today. Started by finally labelling everything and removing the wiring harness off the engine. It's amazing how much less complicated it now looks with all those extra wires gone.


Next I moved on to installing rivot nuts for things like mounting the heater to the firewall, mounting the wiper motor, mounting the trans shifter to the tunnel, etc. Instead of buying the $200 tool made to suck down the rivot nuts I just cobbled together a combo of nuts, bolts, washers, and wrenches and sucked 'em down that way. I've never used rivot nuts before. These things are slick and I'll definitely remember them in the future.


Then, just as I was wrapping up for the day, my rear driveshaft arrived from High Angle Driveline (middle). I had the rear shaft made with .120 wall tubing, so it should be able to handle a accidental hit a little better.

The bottom shaft is the rear shaft from the 1991 Dodge the front axle came out of, and it has 1410 u-joints at each end. Instead of having a whole new front shaft made I'm thinking of using it in the front. Just have it cut down, recondintion, and adding a 1350 CV. I need to do a price comparison betweeen that and all new.

The top shaft is one of the old front Jeep shafts.

[twisted frame]

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing all those accessories like the heater and wiper installed. The firewall on my truck needs some tending to and we don't always see improvements in this area in these builds. Looking good!

[Resbum]

The new High Angle Driveline driveshaft has found a home. 1350 CV and 1410 u-joint. After I got it in I measured the compound angle at the axle and it's less than 5 degrees. I was shooting to keep it under 7 degrees since that's what the math said the safe limit for the 1410 is for the rpm's the shaft will turn at highway speeds with my tires and gearing, etc.

[twisted frame]

Did you bend your own brake lines? That bend near the crossmember looks sweet. If so, did you lay it out with rod first to get the bends? Did you use one of those cheapy benders or a better kind?

[Resbum]

Originally Posted by twisted frame

Did you bend your own brake lines? That bend near the crossmember looks sweet. If so, did you lay it out with rod first to get the bends? Did you use one of those cheapy benders or a better kind?

I posted other pics of the hard brakelines back in #80.

I guess you could say I bent my own brakelines. I bought a kit for a newer model year thinking they would be close and they were totally different. For the most part I ended up having to straighten and rebend all the lines. Because tubing work-hardens I was very careful to only straighten and rebend one time, so I worked slow.

I didn't lay it out with rod first, but I would have had I been starting from scratch.

For most of the straightening and bending I used one of the better benders, but I also used a cheaper one if it fit and I couldn't get the good one to fit.

Warning- Unsolicited advice coming:
I also had to redo a lot of the ends. For that I used a GOOD quality DOUBLE flare tool. I think mine cost $60. This is something that IS NOT optional. All brake and fuel lines should be done with a good quality double flare.
OK, I'll climb back down off the soapbox now.

Resbum

[twisted frame]

Nice, thanks. I just did some brake line work myself and was pleased with the double flares. My bends could've been smoother though.

[Resbum]

It's been a long three days trying to get everything fitted into their final spots on the firewall, but the heater, wipers, and shifter now have their mounting points installed.

It took many trips to the store, eight bags of bolts, rivet nuts, sheetmetal screws,, washers, and two different taps. All my prefit pieces fit really well. Trying to get the fasteners into all the blind, tight areas turned out to be ONE GIANT P.I.T.A.

The wipers


I made this out of a bunch of the old parts. It mounts over the old passenger side foot fresh air vent. It will be a cable controlled flap that will let me choose variable fresh/recirculating air.


Flap mounted over old foot air outlet. Air will come in through a combination of either opening, travel upwards, then behind the heater housing to the squirel cage fan inlets.


The wiper motor, Air inlet flap, and bottom heater sheetmetal in place.


Everything mounted on the firewall. I'll finish the rest later, while installing the interior of the cab.

[Resbum]

Some pictures with the dashboard in place.



A small glovebox will be made through the old speaker opening, above the heater housing. The bottom of the heater is only about a half inch lower than the bottom of the dash.








Now I can strip everything back off, take the cab back off the frame, get the prep work done on the bare metal, and put a coat of primer on. I also need to finish the mechanicals on the frame. I just threw everything on temporarily to deliver to the school so they could fit the cab to the frame.

Resbum

[billyrb]

cool build sir!

[Resbum]

Thanks Ryan.

[COLOFIREMAN]

I do really like how your taking the time to make it both work and look good. Again, Very nice build!

[twisted frame]

Do you think you might try to incorporate the Kaiser-ear speaker grille into the glovebox door somehow?

[Resbum]

Thanks COLOFIREMAN.

Twisted frame, when I took the speaker grill and other tidbits off I was careful not to damage anything. I'm going to see what can be done to use it for the glovebox door, but I also have a backup plan that I may go with because it will tie in better with the rest of the whole dashboard.

This is what I've been doing for the last 4 days. Standing around thinking a lot, then running around collecting the last of the parts needed to install the whole fuel system. My goal is to have it done by the end of the holiday weekend. The old fuel filter and mechanical lift pump are now gone and getting replaced with an Airdog FP100.

[gotmike]

just a tip... you might think about trimming the front inner fenders about half way up the sides... with where the fuel filter, and oil filter and everything sit it's soooo much easier to change when you can just reach in through the wheel well and get ahold of them to change them out...

build looks great though... wish i had as much time and effort to put into my build... looking forward to seeing it done...

[Resbum]

Thanks for the tip gotmike. I'm losing the stock fuel filter, but I'll definitely consider your words when thinking about the oil filter.

I decided to switch over to the AirDog 100 pump and filters for two primary reasons.

After researching a bunch, and advice from knowledgable Cummins mechanics, I'm convinced the stock mechanical lift pump leads to a lot of the fuel system failures. Not that it isn't pretty reliable to begin with, but if it does start to fail it can lead to a more expensive p-pump failure.

The second reason is room. Because of how far back I had to set the engine the stock fuel filter would have almost been touching the firewall sheetmetal.

This pic was taken while the cab was still about 4 inches back from its mounting points. The mechanical fuel pump is below the fuel filter.


Here the cab is in place. You can see just how much room is left for putting the fuel filter back on.


This is all the stuff the AirDog allowed me to remove from the engine.

[Resbum]

And this is how it looks now, with the stock parts gone. I still need to do some final securing of things, but will hold off until I run all the wiring.


When I got the truck back from the school, while the cab was still in place, I took some pics and measurements of where the steering shaft, hydroboost, and brake master cylinder were going to be. Referring back to that info I plumbed the fuel lines so they wouldn't be fighting for the same space.


The wiring harness runs along the fuel lines from the AirDog to the front. I should have taken a picture after I'd installed it, but forgot to.




The fuel system is installed from the engine to the AirDog. Today I hope to finish the rest.

[Resbum]

I had to figure out how to mount the fuel transfer selector valve between the pump and the tanks. I rummaged through all my leftover metal and came across an old spring perch I decided not to use on the rear axle and a u-bolt of the right size. Weld a couple tabs on the perch and I ended up with this.


Painted everything with the can of Cummins Titanium Black I bought earlier and mounted it. Next attach the selector valve to it. I still had a tab to use, so....


... I welded another tab to this cross-member and painted it.

[Resbum]

When all was finished for the day I had the fuel system all plumbed in up to after the transfer selector valve. And, my onboard compressed air tank now has a home.


The tank will be single point mounted on each end and ride on top of a 1/2" rubber pad. That should allow it to take any frame flex.


I had 2X2's resting on each side of the frame. The top of them sat about an 1 1/4" below where the bed sheetmetal will be. I kept everything at or below 2X2's, so there shouldn't be any interference fits with the bed.

[Resbum]

The air tank looks a little nicer now. Sanded off the top layer of paint and rust, primed and painted it, and let it cure over night. Mounted it this morning.