Yet another 6bt swap...

[BA_051]

Here are some pics of the 14b front build.
Also thanks to Childers Machine and welding for doing a fantastic job pulling the one tube and retubing the long side and using 3.375in, 1/2in wall tube.

the solid inner C tapped on before pressing. The short (drivers side) is 12in tube while the long side is a 24in tube.



One side pressed on and the other being aligned to have .2-.3 degrees lower caster to compensate for road crown.



Both sides fully pressed and upper kingpin installed along with the lower race and shield.



The crane revolution seal kit. It replaces the factory adjusters with ones that can hold a dana 60 seal.



The outers assembled without stubs. I machined the hubs down to accept a chevy 2500 HD rotor.




And finally the dry fit build without axle shafts. The calipers are the JB8 code and the pistons are 60mm diameter each. These calipers are huge. I am using the WFO concepts ford caliper brackets to mount the factory 2500 HD calipers to. i decided to get the JB8 calipers vs the JB7.




More to come as i finish the build this weekend.

[rang-a-stang]

Holy bulletproof Batman! That looks great!

Are these pictures taken in your garage, your shop, or someone else's shop? I envy the room and tools you have!

[BA_051]

Very long story and multiple locations... My 6.5 swap was done in my driveway... then I moved to Everett WA where the block cracked and it was put in a 15x40 storage unit where I swapped the 5.9 into it... That is where I learned to gas weld (oxy acetylene). Then I moved back to Albuquerque and was working part time at PepBoys. So all the tools are mine, but in PepBoys shop. The manager let me work on it on my lunch and before and after my shifts.

I’m currently using my brothers garage he just built, it’s 24x24. We are neighbors and he’s letting me keep my tools in there.

It weighs in about 800 lbs, a bit more than the rear. And the inner shafts are massive compared to the 35 spline stubs. I didn’t get pictures in all my excitement... Branik used 40 spline Yukon blanks and cut the 30 spline GM profile and turned the area for the seals. The shaft measures 1.625 in diameter, necked down to 1.565 for the seal and splines.

Only reason I even considered a 14b front was I had a spare housing... I had no donor D60 axle so I bough inner Cs, outer knuckles, spindles, everything. It did not matter what center I put them on...The 4340 inner shafts for a D60 are about 200-225 each and my custom 4340 were $225 ea so the cost is the same. In the end it came down to $300 more to build the 14b front over the D60 front strictly for the Crane Revolution 14 seals (175) and having a shop pull the old tube, machine the tube, press it in, and machine the knuckles and tubes to press together (125). Thanks to Childers machine and Welding here in Albuquerque for doing all the machine work. And of course the 14b gears are suuuuuper easy to set up, only took me about an hour to set them up.

[BA_051]

It has been a while since I posted anything. A lot has been going on around here, including a divorce. We decided it would be better if we part ways.

Ok back on topic. The 14b is assembled, geared, and under the truck. I did have to shorten the ford 11.375in 35 spline stubs by about 3/16 of an inch but that was easy. Obviously the gears were super easy to setup being it has the adjusters like every other 14b axle.

Some other aspects are starting to get finished as well.

1. I finally installed the 1in body pucks under the bed so the body and bed line up. I put a 1in body lift on the cab to help clear the driveline when i swapped the cummins in.

2. I purchased a 24x12x1in radiator from frozen boost that I installed infront of my primary radiator to cool the JWAC charge. I have some 3/4ID heater hose cut to length, but I need another fitting for the water pump outlet before I can plumb it in.

3. I have decided to get rid of the mechanical fan. It is so close to the radiator and within .032in from the crank fluid balancer. I even had to shave the blades to make it clear the balancer. I am going dual electric fans! If the air flow is correct, both fans on high should move between 7800-8400CFM. I dont have to worry about amp draw because I am running a 280amp alternator from an N14 tractor.

4. I narrowed it down to 2 colors I am wanting to paint it. The fenders and lower portion of the body will be black bedlinered for stone chip resistance. The rest will be either Silver, or Safety Red.... What do you guys think?

[BA_051]

Here are the air-water charge cooler radiator. If you look really hard in the last pic, you can find where I cut off the radiator cap and tapped the hole to 1/2NPT and put in a plug. It will be plumbed into my engine cooling system and run at 20psi like the current 6.7 cummins are.
Original with grill removed.




Charge cooler radiator mounted.




And just of the radiator with my brackets bolted on.

[BA_051]

It has been quite some time since i posted any updates. Well, here goes.

I have installed a Vintage air Gen 4 magnum under the dash and routed the lines through the firewall; but have not hooked them yet. I also made my own head unit using some 1/8in ABS plastic and a front decal from vintage air. It looks almost factory.

[BA_051]

While I was swapping the Vintage air unit in, I made a few modifications to the engine bay and engine.

I removed the underhood heater components to allow room for a second 31 size battery, the massive BHAF air filter, a 3 piece T4 exhaust manifold (flipped) and an HX55 from something that I bought for $100. I also installed a billet tappet cover without the vent tube and installed the dual valve cover breathers which I will plumb into the airbox I am going to fabricate.

The HX55, it is a 67x99 billet wheel, 84x70 turbine, and 11cm housing. Slightly different than a T4 bolt pattern; but easily elongated the holes to fit a T4 manifold.



Ignore the foil tape over the old air hole in the firewall. It was just temporary while I was test fitting everything. The 4 Vintage air ports are blocked by the air filter as well.


I will say, The HX55 spools about 100 RPM higher than the modified HE351 I had previously. Turbo Labs modified the 351 exhaust for a 76x67 turbine wheel so the HX55 84x70 is not much bigger. Spool is about 1750 rpm vs 1500ish, but develops 8-10 psi greater boost across the board. I have pegged my 45 psi boost gauge at 2000 rpm using the hx55 even with the port on the compressor open. I need to put a plug in it still.

[BA_051]

I cant believe it has been almost 2 years since I posted anything here. Well there have been a few updates.

First thing, I killed; or rather the Cummins, destroyed my NV4500 from the inside out so I finally swapped the G56 in with a Valair dual disk clutch. My NP205 bolted right up having the Advance Adapters 29 spline input. All I had to do was notch the crossmember to clear and a local driveline shop modify the driveshafts 3in longer F/shorter R. I did not get any pics of that. Fairly self explanatory.

With my hydro boost and steering, the 40's were causing a lot of stress on the frame, steering gear, and suspension. I have gone through 3 steering gears in the past 2 years. I had a new pitman arm made from 1in thick 4140 that is a 3in drop and 7.5in center to center. I had to have one made because all of the pitman arms I found were 6.25-6.75in center to center. I also replaced the factory ford outers with Solid Axle outers (Already had solid axle inner Cs) with their keyed HighSteer arms. I drilled the highsteer arm at 8in from the kingpin center and that worked great with the 7.5in pitman arm for the 4 turn, big bore gearbox.

I also disassembled the current gearbox and drilled and tapped for the -6 fittings. I was able to drill both passages out to 5/6in for full flow to the PSC Cylinder. I originally was going to use 2 cylinders that were 32mm bore, 20mm rod, and 200mm stroke that were opposing so the steering was equal speed in both directions. After swapping to the Solid knuckles, the 200mm travel was insufficient and I replaced them with the PSC 1.75in bore, 8.75in travel cylinder. Space is also a premium between the diff cover, 1.5in tie rod, and the leaf springs. The single PSC cylinder fit easily. The cylinder, steering stops, and gearbox all hit their limits at the same time as well.

The cylinder mount is built into the Diff cover armor. I purchased a 3/8in thick ring for the 14 bolt and welded up 1/4in plate to made a new diff cover. Unfortunately, the tie rod made contact and I had to resort to cutting a section out. I left the bottom for armor and the top and sides for structure for the cylinder. I think it turned out pretty good. I only have 1/8in clearance between the tie rod and the diff cover.

[BA_051]

To power it all, I replaced the standard PS pump with a Ross/TRW hydraulic pump. The part number for the pump is PS221612R32601S. It flows about 4.5 gpm at 1750psi. The hydroboost and steering gear all worked fine when I swapped this pump in about a year ago. I also had to change the location on a few things as well as the brake master (old one was starting to leak) and I had to flip the hydroboost 180 degrees because of the long accumulator. I added a reservoir that holds around 3 qts and works very well with the whole steering setup.

Not only can I steer a lot easier, all the stress on the frame, steering gear, and suspension has been minimized. The system also returns to center; not as quickly as before, but it still does. I only have about 4-5 degrees of caster angle and will remove the 2 degree shims to increase it back to 6-7 degrees. There is no noticeable lag in the steering responsiveness either with the 1.75in bore cylinder. It will steer as fast as I can turn the wheel. I wish I had done this upgrade years ago.

[Heep-J4000]

Very good to read that you made some new things for your Jeep truck!

[rang-a-stang]

Wow! Amazing! How often do you wheel it? Does it see a ton of road use? Can we get a whole picture of it? Have you been happy with the performance of the drivetrain (other than torching the trans)?

[BA_051]

I honestly have not had much time to wheel in the past 10 years. I did wheel it a few times when it was the stock 360/th400/QT on 35s. Never with the stroker I built, once with the 6.5TD, and have not with the cummins yet.

I do own a 38ft travel trailer that I do tow from time to time and it weighs about 13k lbs. The G56 is a very different animal compared to the nv4500. The 4500 could shift faster, but was horrible when I was towing. The G56 is stronger and much better suited for moving the travel trailer. I was also worried about the G56 factory shifter failing and swapped it out for a B&M short throw shifter right from the start. It drives great, ride is better than my parents 2019 Nissan Frontier. If I was to do it all over again; I would go strait to a 12v (or a p-pumped 24valve) with the g56 and np205.

When I was working, I would average about 2500 road miles a month. It averages about 22mpg on the highway keeping it between 65-70. With the 40s and 4.56 gears, it runs right at 2000 rpm at 67-68 mph. I averaged 24.8 mpg driving from Albuquerque to LA and back to pick up an 82 j20 cab last year. Now it barely sees 100 miles a month.

I will have to get some updated pics. Finally finished my OBA setup using a York 210 from OffRoadOnly. I called and had them make a York that would work for my positioning; laying on its side instead of vertically. It will fill the 5 gal tank from 0 to 100 psi in about 30 seconds at idle. My NP205 is also air shifted now. I could not get the shifters to fit or work right with the much larger G56. Had to use an industrial thermostat housing that actually uses the same thermostat as the original AMCs and has a top outlet.