Humber SS's 4V Century V8 powered Dyna Camper

[HumberSS]

So ThePog convinced me to post up some info about my Camper Build. Its a 1977 Dyna U10 which was probably built as a camper straight from the factory - my guess is a CI Munro camper body, its very Caravan-esque. Its a cool thing in so many ways, Ive had for a bit over a year and probably done around 3-4000km in her - Far North, Raglan, Tahora...never missed a beat. Have fitted proper seats in the back for my kids, extended main bed, fitted good stereo and reverse cam, thats about it. It is on wof, which is nice, and has the mighty (79hp) 5R 2L petrol engine and 4spd L40 gearbox. As one might imagine performance is not 'spirited'... some of the best hills it will struggle to surpass 40km/h, which is not entirely conducive to making friends on the road... I am of course always willing to accept defeat and pull over. The 70s must have been glorious, certainly not in a hurry!

Anyway, the wof ran out late last year, I still did some adventures through summer because, you know, the fear of actually being pulled over was of little concern! The rust issues were starting to rear their ugly head, and the engine thing was becoming tiring. FYI, it is actually surprising that, given time it will push the camper to 100km/h (@9000rpm) on a flat road, and up to about 40km/h it all sortof works, then goes downhill rather quickly. The 5R is still in good shape, but out she goes...

So one night standing around having a beer ole mate from the workshop across the road comes wandering over for a brew, asks if any of us have use for an old toyota V8 hes had sitting on his floor for about 10 years. At that point, the consideration of what to put in the camper became abundantly clear. Somewhat irrational, but on-brand and period correct. Its a 4V, likely from a mid-70s VG30/35 Century. Its carbureted and came with the 3speed auto (I really want a 4 speed to avoid needing to lower diff ratio). Conveniently, it has also had a rebuild and some tickling. Has had a reasonable amount of port work, and a cam, we pulled it down to inspect and fresh hone marks on the bores, all new gaskets etc. Has the factory 4bbl Aisin Carb, which I will keep. The price ws also right at $1200..

So I have just really started, cab is nearly off and engine is likely to be slotted between the frame rails this coming week. The Cab needs an extensive amount of sheetmetal work, someones been pretty rough, lots of fibreglass, bog, gaffa tape... anyway will send cab and panels off for sandblasting/epoxy prime and then commence that bit in good time.'

Plan is really just a sweet cruiser, nothing too extreme. Id like to keep it pretty quiet, so will run full twin pipes and 4 mufflers. Cab is going to be decorated in some sort of 70s/80s Toyota Orange. The Caravan body needs some loves too. A couple of roof leaks, a few rivets to be fixed etc. Have a new Solar panel to replace the tiny one on it. Also will rejig the kitchen a little and add in a better inverter, new fridge and new batteries and charge controller. Thats prob about it for now.. 

[HumberSS]

Discussion here

 

[HumberSS]

Engines been cleaned up pretty good awaiting slotting between the rails. Still have to make alternator bracket, and the seals under the rocker covers which seal around the spark plug tubes are toast so machining new ones there too.. Will probably make a set of log-style headers. Next weeks job is to get some flanges cut. Tomorrows Job is cab off and old engine out..

[HumberSS]

Big day of mahi today. Started by making two frames which mounted on each of the door hinges/door catches, castors on the bottome so I could slide the cab off without lifting the camper body. Worked out pretty well, cab came off relatively easily except for the dreaded last two bolts.. oh and some minor inner guard grinder removal work 

Engine was revealed, lots of this shit has to go as going from manual to auto box really simplifies things.

So, dat what I did...

At the very worst at least I still have a caravan.. am actually now thinking Ill put coupling mounted on the front chassis xmember for towing it around..

 

Am now gagging to slot that V8 between the rails. It measures up pretty good now that you can see what you have to work with. There may need to be a little relief on the camper body itself for the weird bulge on the top of the bellhousing, but no biggy.

Apologies for grainy pic my camera is smashed.

[HumberSS]

Got Impatient/bored with work today around 3pm and wandered out into the workshop, decided to poke it in the hole. No amount of tape-measury can prepare you for the shear girth of this thing. You think you have room until you are trying to jam a 4V into something. Fuck me there is some thickness there. Chassis needs to be chopped....... actually at this stage fuck knows, time to talk to the cert man about what options we have. I havent fit the cab back over it to see what wriggle room we have, but suffice to say it needs to either come up (unsure if possible without losing the middle seat...), or the top edge of the chassis rail needs some massaging. Either way its tighter than tight thing.

It looks fucking cool in there, I really hope I can make it work. If I cant Im turning it into a caravan and towing it with a T-bucket fashioned from the remains of the cab with the motor in it - its the only logical maneuver

The way I saw it in my head was I would remove Cab, engine would drop in, sit perfectly where I wanted it and the factory mounts lined up.. I may not only be a cunt, but an unreasonable one.

Watch this space I guess, the next bits become infinitely more difficult and time consuming...

[HumberSS]

In terms of actual activity there is little to report, however the pondering, and opining from cunts like @ThePog and my worker - of near-equal cunt status - has been somewhat rampant. 

The main topic of conversation has over the last few days largely revolved around whether it is actually going to fit. It is largely a problem I have never encountered - just saying. 

So the motor has been sitting in the same position since we dumped it in there. I had to have a bit of a workshop tidy up. As many of you would well be familiar with, doing shit like this means sorting your shit out along the way and doing things in stages, so come assembly time you largely have all the shit in order, just requiring cleaning or a fufu can touch-up job. So I did that last night, and then suggested to Kyle that we wheel the cab back on, just to see (and to stop us thinking about the actual problems below). The carb had to be lifted off the engine to wheel the cab back over. But my oh my, doesnt it look pretty in the hole.  Confirmed, It is Gynormous.. Also confirmed, the fucking thing is going to live in that hole regardless. Chassis chop, mid mound, fucking whadeva G. Every other possible engine option is shit in comparison, so that bit is solved.

Now I need to solve the actual shit of ensuring whatever we do doesn't result in either a basket case chassis-hack job that will never be legal, or someones lunch being sucked out through their asshole by virtue of the carburetors somewhat prominent position inside the cabin. See pics - it is not optimal, the engine must go down in order for the carb to actually clear the engine cover and/or seat. The chassis rails actually widen where they pass under the camper body, and if they were that width in the engine bay we would already have that cunt mounted and half wired up - but alas that is not the case...

So the present possible solutions are as follows;

Option 1 - slice a 30mm ish slither out of the inside top of the chassis rails (removing some of top leg of C-channel), effectively continuing the inside line of the chassis rail (under camper body) further forward through to where the front of the engine is, then stepping in (see chalk marks). Then strengthening the Chassis with another plate on outside with folded edge to reinstate the 'beam strength' back into the chassis, or adding other folded piece over top extending further rearward and forward (kindof boxing the outside) This would allow the engine to drop down and maintain the current position. Tight set of log-style headers, removable from below should be achievable. FYI, Im an Industrial Designer by trade so drawing up, profile cutting, folding some shit, fabbing and modding the rails doesnt seem a terrible idea to me - but there are obviously rules and my cert man has already advised his 'preference' is for not modding the rails. I feel a CAD model is needed just to communicate my thinking further here..

Option 2 - start hacking out the camper body - this is effectively the area at floor level under the sink - possibly the most useless space in the entire camper. Making a removable section and shifting the motor back far enough (prob 250mm max further rearward of current position or roughly half of the engine under the camper body. Driveshaft gets rather short, as believe it or not the wheelbase of this thing is a tad under 3 metres. This area will need a massage anyway for the trans, so there is some logic in cutting here now and then reinstating removable infrastructure later for trans access etc - regardless of where the engine ends up - ie it would allow us to fully entertain that possibility. Doing this means the engine slots between the rails somewhat easier, but obviously engine access becomes more limited and opening the engine access hatch means the engine wont really be that accessible (prob dipstick, dizzy etc access but little else). And it will look weird - I like the idea of opening that hatch and there she is in all her glory.. Added bonus is there will effectively be a 'Frunk' under the seats where the engine once sat...

Option 3 - the oldschool hivemind give me your opinions on my discussion thread - maybe there is something I am missing here. Its hard to communicate how tight it is, hopefully the pics below tell the full story. Be great to hear others thoughts on what is possible here - I am actually also thinking of talking to one of the local Truck Chassis mod dudes too - given this thing is actually just a truck..

Chur.

 

[HumberSS]

It was somewhat depressing to learn today, when peering under the bonnet of my mates HQ Statesman, that an engine of near double capacity (ie a SB chev) is about 200mm narrower than this donk. Todays Fun fact.

[HumberSS]

Rather large update today, its been about 2 weeks and progress has been steady. Finished stripping the cab and parts and sent all the metalwork off to the local panel shop for blasting and epoxy priming. So that came back, well about 60% of it came back, the rest got turned into some kinda ferrous red sand...suffice to say there is some cutting and welding to do. Im ignoring that bit right now, there are more important things.

So while the Cab was away I started looking at what was going to have to happen to get the motor seated in the right place. I decided it didnt really matter what I did, I had to cut a hole, and can always reinstate if plans change. The thing is, the entire kitchen and underbench area was on the list for the loving also. So I kind of started looking at all of that. I removed the cupboard doors and shelving, wooden framing etc. The underbench area is going to have a permanent step built into it for climbing up to the top bunk, presently I use a foot stool which gets in the way. Im also going to run a small gas califont inside a locker under bench in the dead corner. So I cut the exterior panel off on the RH side, which was all ugly anyway, had old fridge plastic grill hole thing, the fuel filler is fucked and an absolute dog, so that has been on the list also. Cut a nice big hole, hoisted the old 240V Hot water cylinder out of it, and am nearly at the point now where I can start reinstating material, lining etc and building the gas locker/califont locker. I also dropped the fuel tank and ripped out the battery setup - which was messy and needed the goodness also.

 

I measured the tank at 62L, which is borderline too small I feel. It has only every been able to take about 40L fuel due to the shitty filler setup spitting back at you. But anyway, it measures at 60, and ideally it would be good to have about 80. Will see, might shoot down the road to the truck wreckers and see what they have.

So once I had kinda mostly figured out what was happening in the gas locker corner, I got back to tending to the engine issue. I marked out a hole I though would work, and cut. It pretty much worked. First attempt getting it in the hole wasnt great, but then we took off the rocker covers and got fancy with a jack underneath, as well as massaged a little more material off the bodywork, and vioula! Its in the hole. Its kinda tight (again, fuck this thing is huge) but it sortof works the more I look at it. My worker Kyle is adamant its going in there, you can see him pondering the girth in the photo below. He was determined not to be beat, hence him grinding more shit away for a second attempt at stuffing it in there.

Feel free BTW to fully tell me Im being a total fucktard, as I have momentary thoughts like that. Its quite bonkers, its obviously not in there yet, but where it sits is looking about where it wants to sit. It would be servicable, it just would be a bit cunty, but then it was always like that anyway with the old motor, and this will probably be better than that for access once finished. Ive entertained different motors in my head, the next best thing would be a 1UZ, the internet tells me its about 80mm narrower across the rocker covers. It wouldnt be as cool, and would prob have to end up in the same place as this, so Im unconvinced there. I dunno, I think its just going in there.

[HumberSS]

[HumberSS]

Been a while since I posted anything, progress has been not too bad. The engine has been hanging out in there for a bit now, Im pretty comfortable with it. I decided to start working on the mounting and some of the other ancillary bits, as well as sorting out the gas locker and battery area. Got a sweet new toy too! 

So I threw the engine mounts and trans on and really got the engine into the final resting posi, or thereabouts. Started sussing out what to do re engine mounts, which necessitated starting to sus out what to do with alternator.. I have a 140A alternator form an old benz I scrapped so kindof dummied that into place, took original pully off old motor and bored centre out on my lathe for dummying purposes (still unsure if crank to alt pulley ratio is bang on - minor detail at this point). Anyway a bit of faffing about and we settled on a way of mounting and tensioning that ensured the belt doesnt foul the water pump housing (its pretty close). Made a cardboard template for the bracket, then drew it up in CAD, then printed 1:1 and cut out and checked fit. Was good. Did the same for header flanges. Also good.

Next mish was then to CAD up the engine mounts, or rather engine cradle... So I spun up dome hollow bosses on the lathe for mounting to the original mounts, then roughly figured the width across these. Did a butload of measuring and crawling around underneath, fucked off a whole bunch of shitty wiring under there while I was at it. Then drew up the engine cradle, which mounts between the original engine mounts and gearbox mounts. Ill make a gbox xmember later. Looks like tail shaft will be about 600 long. I CAD this up with the intention of mounting the engine without the alternator to get engin placement right, and for ease of fab, then Ill clearance the mount later to accomodate the alternator. I need to release all these files for cutting now, but just been sidetracked with other bits..

 

So I started sorting out the gas locker, random I know but I kindof want to get the fuel tank situation sussed (possibly going to find another slightly bigger one, different shape), anyway that kindof relates to the gas/battery locker as there is some encroachment there.. So I removed a shitload of shit out of there, cut and trimmed everything that needed to go so I have a nice simple rectangular opening I can start to work with that also maximises use of the space. There will be a fair bit going on in here. Starter and house battery, battery splitter rig and solar controller, inverter and gas califont for sink and shower (see below, I got me a Joolca!) For the battery splitter/solar controller I have done a bit of digging around, there appears many different ways you can do this, but I was really hoping there was a product that just did it all and sorted it for you...turns out I think Ive found it - https://www.kickassproducts.com.au/buy/kickass-25a-dc-charger-with-anderson/KADCDC25A-AND be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this, and also opinions on simple ways of doing this. For me this ticks a lot of boxes. Controls Solar, does battery isolation between house and starter battery, accepts alternator input. Only problem I see is I have got me a pretty big panel to throw up top, around 375w from memory. I recall it outputing around 40V peak in summer and this thing is only rated to 23V... anyway, good to hear peoples thoughts on this. Plan is to mount Joolca in the back, gas bottle in front and a floor between gas and battery cavity.

So I trimmed out the gas locker nicely, framed it up and instated a new rear wall for the locker from ply, reused some old bits of framing I chopped out. I gave the Joolca a good thrashing tonight. It pissed me off a bit, but I think it was because I was reciring water and it doesnt like the inlet temp of the water too high otherwise it cuts off the flame. I brought the Nomad kit for $650 thinking the shower head and tap looked the goods. They are, but I have since thought maybe I just hard plumb everything and only use the flash Joolca pump...will see. So the plan is to fully line the gas/califont locker with ally sheet and then duct from the door and have an exhaust fan sucking the hot air away through a hole behind the cab., go a nice louvred panel for this today and can reuse a few other bits of steel flashing I pulled from elsewhere. I also got some extrusion angle today for framing up around the gas locker opening.

 

 

Next mish is to get some 0.9mm ally sheet for the outside cladding and gas locker. I will prob just draw all this up and then order a bunch of laser cutting, as I dont have a guillotine. I am fortunate enough to have a brake press though, so will draw to spec and then fold everything. Id kinda like to get the gas locker somewhat completed before refocusing on the engine. I probably wont do that though and jump all over the show or start a new mission...I cant really fully sort the gas locker until I commit to batteries, inverter and the like. That shit is proper money which I dont have right now. so will need to wait a bit and plan as best I can for what will go in there. Ive also started contemplating a bit of body work. I have decided to mount the shitter in the cab under the middle seat as there is enough room for the cassette in front of the engine, and also, its pretty funny.

Anyway, thats my lot for now..

[HumberSS]

Time for another update. Slow and steady here, nothing major to report but just little jobs ticking along. I had a bit of a panic moment as I started thinking a bit more about the califont, and the legalities around that. I asked my gasfitter broher-in-law but he said dont touch it. So I stopped talking to him and went to my local gasfitter next door to my workshop, conveniently. He came had a look, basically I cant co-locate the gas bottle where the califont is so have to build a separate gas locker, and just fully line and vent the box where the califont will be going, as well as some separation from electrical. I was happy. He essentially said, its all down to the dude signing it off being happy - to which I asked "will you be that dude?" A bloody good cunt, even happy to guide me on what I can do without him, hes pretty disinterested in doing the actual job, and I am a cheap cunt, so I think we are going to get along just fine. 

I finished the ply lining in the califont locker, and decided to mount to the rear face of the locker. Made a couple brackets and got it dummied up. Now I can starat planning out some plumbing, and obviously the gas situation.

I need money for the next steps in here, so I have elected to keep moving on with tasks which are not of cost at this point.

I also went to the south island with my kids for a week and visited @ThePog - here is a picture of his ass sticking out from Uncivil Ian. I was also fortunate enough to convince him to let me drive The Dynafari. I nearly accidentally offroaded it - the look on that cunts face was priceless. It goes bloody good, I feel like my cock grew 3 inches that day from the manliness one is imbued with when driving. It has since retreated back into its tiny pocket under my beer gut. Also, Ian needs some love, so I think Dylan is tending to that.

So returning home from a bout of inspiration from my southern friends rather impressive workshop, I set too on the camper again almost immediately. I have decided that I am going the full hog, as its already pretty deep and Id be fucked off it it failed wof on some scabby bit of rust I missed or whatever. So next inexpensive job on the list was to whip the chassis out from underneath the body. Not exactly easy, just a cunty job really. I made these sweet stands one arvo out of bits of shit lying around the workshop. 

There was a bit of maths involved in figuring how much I needed to lift it, and a bit of pondering over how complex to make them. It would have been great if I could have essentially made them jacks, but my brain hurt thinking about it, and I wanted it done in an arvo so I just made something simple.

Unbolting was a bit of a cunt, and I had to kindof lift, then slide forward, then lift some more, teetering on one jack I got up a few notches then decided it was getting dodge, so borrowed some jacks to get it up higher. Ended up lifting it about 600 off the ground, not quite high enough to clear the wheels, but high enough to remain safe, which was starting to be my greater concern. Anyway, finally slid the entire chassis out a few nights ago, then finished pulling the loom out. Next job it to xy12 and steam clean, then start the glorious task of wire-wheeling, rust converting and painting in black enamel (eventually once fab is complete). While it was half-way jacked I slipped the cab back in. It looks rather Over-landy and quite beastly. There was some conversation around the potential to pursue this vein, but I just cant be assed, and the thing will handle like a pig. It handles pretty sweet so Id rather keep the weight low. But it does look cool lifted!

So we whipped the wheels off and rolled the chassis out on a pallet jack and trolley jack. Its good, cause I can stow it back away each night and it doesnt take up space.

Also I have included another gratuitous engine (and trans) shot, just for good measure.

So after all of this, we have now started really thinking out the chassis tasks. There isnt a hell of a lot to do really. Mount engine and box, make a disk handbrake setup mounted to the Diff Pinion, driveshaft and hoop, radiator. Fuel tank. Ok, there are a few things.

We finally also measured the diff ratio - a very spritely 6.2:1...By my calculations at 100km/h with the original 5R was spinning at about 4150rpm - obviously 85-90 is a more realistic cruising speed for that, but anyway, thats not really going to work on the V8. I want to cruise at 100k. My original thinking was to find a 4speed overdriven Auto, but I couldnt conclusively find anything Toyota that would bolt to the existing bellhousing, dont want anything electronically controlled, and basically got lazy and/or didnt like the price/hassle on the GM and ford 4speed boxes. So that necessitate trying to find another diff head. Which luck would have it, I think I may have done from an early 80s diesel Diahatsu Delta - just down the road even. Im going to look at this on Sat, and if its the go Ill load the truck on the trailer and bring it home. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/daihatsu/delta/listing/3615732978 The dude has already given me some critical measurements/pics and spun the wheels to count the driveshaft turns - its looking anecdotally around 5:1 or perhaps a fraction under ratio which is way more acceptable - cruising rpm should be around 3300 at 100kph. Anyway, fingers crossed this is the same diff head. If anyone wants some Delta parts hit me up!

Thats all for now

[HumberSS]

Last few weeks have been semi productive, if a little convoluted in terms of achieving the desired outcome - but achieve I did. Following on from last thread, I brought the Delta, turned out that was a comedy of errors. I asked the dude what the diameter of diff head and bolt count was - around 320mm he assured me. I had roughly measured mine at 300mm...it was close enough to warrant the half hour trip south the confirm exactly. Got there and scoped it out with a mate of mine who knows more than a thing or two, measured diff head at 300mm - what I had hoped. Good to go. Also started talking of other bits we were going to raid off it, I think at this point the dude had a few regrets as he had another one with some fucked bits on it...so I threw the cash at him and loaded that fucker on and hightailed it. Got it back to work, double measured both diff heads, turns out mine was 320mm. Dumb Cunt. Spent an arvo ripping some other shit off - most of which was done to make me feel good about the wasted effort, and little of which I may actually use. The fuel tank however was a better size and shape, 80L was ample. I got to Monday morning and thought to myself - well what am I going to do with this half fucked POS that I no longer want in my workshop... Rang the local truck wreckers and told him of my conundrum - all I need is a diff of better ratio, are you interested in a swap for a half fucked Delta that supposedly runs. Its on the trailer and I can drop it off now - I was persuasive (/desperate..). He pointed us to the earliest Dyna diff he had lying about in his stack, we ripped an axle out but it was bigger than mine so we proceeded to rummage through an endless pile of dyna diffs ripping axles out and measuring - but to no avail. It was a biting cold miserable day so we ditched the Delta there, not before actually firing it up so as to make good on our end of the deal - it lived! We resolved to come back when the weather came good, and also rip the fuel tank off the Delta, about the only truly useful thing from it... When I got back to pick up the diff and rip the tank off a few days later ole mate Rodge, with all the requisite finesse of a ballerina had managed to stove in the fuel tank - avoiding every other fucked bit of shit around it - shot bro. Anyway  I grabbed the diff and he let me rummage through his pile of tanks - turns out that was a far better outcome..

 

We werent hopeful with the diff situation but it was kindof our only choice. Got it back to work, ripped the cunt apart and low and behold the diff head looked near identical internally (despite the external casting differences) and all the key measurements stacked up. It was a 4.7:1 ratio too, which is ideal. My math tells me that the little 4V will be humming to the tune of about 3150rpm at a hundy in top which is far better than where we were. A few days later we ripped the other diff head out, pulled the diff center out and swapped the new ring gear onto it, then dumped that all into the new diff head. This obviously negated the need to pull the pinion, which as some would know is kindof a cunt of a job, and also my original pinion was leaking like a motherfucker - this one was dry so a no-brainer really. So we then dropped the freshly assembled new diff head back into the diff after a nice cleanup, as well as gave the brakes a tear down and inspection. These have clearly been done in recent times - the cylinders looked pretty new and the pads had barely bedded in so its good to know the whole arse-end is now in tip-top shape.

Once that was all back together I then finished ripping off the last few bits of shit left on the chassis before giving it a full steam clean. I then pulled it back in the workshop, sprayed a bit of caustic cleaner on it for the night and then followed up with a second steam clean the following day to neutralise - its pretty raw now so the decision has been made to sandblast it in the next couply weeks. Undecided if I will pay someone to blast and paint or bother doing it myself - the former option will be relatively cheap but consume 2 days of my life. The latter option means I get the desired result and keep 2 days of my life. If Im honest it will probably work out better in many ways to just outsource this whole cunting bit of the job. The former option also requires much more logistics than my forklift and a 5 minute trip around the corner. Speaking of forklifts, I hammered up a BBall hoop out of some square bar to entertain the minions.. 

 

So whilst I have been figuring out the paint situation (or rather coming to the likely inevitible conclusion of spunking money I dont have) I thought Id set-to with getting a few other bits sorted on the chassis before it gets a lick. I mounted up my new tank. Fuck I am stoked with this, it was a totally mint tank, much shorter than my original, which means no encroachment into my battery area now and it measured up at a very healthy 87L capacity - fully in the pocket.

 

I also started to mount up my radiator. A few months back I randomly happened upon a 4-core 70 series Landcruiser radiator on FB marketplace locally for $150 which looked like it had potential. It was re-cored, had never been used and just been sitting around in someones shed for years. She gave me a few measurements and it looked like it could be the go - so I lowballed her and got it for $130. Criminal. I offered this up into the original position but it was about 80mm taller than the original, which necessitated some minor adjustment to the chassis xmember. I havent quite finished this as I keep forgetting to order a couple of universal rubber mounts for the bottom, but Ive trimmed some shit and mostly done the necessary fab to get it sitting exactly where the original was - will finish in due course.

I then cast my mind to the handbrake situation. I actually started a bit of a sub-thread here as I thought it might be useful info for someone else in a similar conundrum at a later stage (will update that thread too..)

So essentially in most trucks, the handbrake is affixed to the back of the trans rather than how cars work. Its clever, but given I am running a car motor and box this presents challenges - namely there is nowhere to confidently mount a handbrake mech to the back of the box without considerable brain-hurt. So I found a bit of info on pinion mounted brakes, which seem common on rock-crawler type stuff and various other things. I had semi settled on the idea of using a disk to ease aforementioned brain-hurt - but then went round in circle a bit on the thread entertaining all possibilities, with @smokin'joe rightfully re-questioning the disk logic...it got me to further thinking. Anyway, I had to go back to the truck wreckers to get a driveshaft as the flange bolt pattern was slightly different to my original. I thought while I was at it, Id give him back the diff I had brought instead of scrapping it for $5 with some fucking scum cunt ripoff scrap metal dealer. I was happy to pay for a driveshaft, and a brake setup, suffice to say Rodge is genuinely a fucking good cunt (Lorryland Tariki FYI) and let me once again rummage. I found a drum brake off an Isuzu which I thought might be workable. Got it back to work and by-fuck the thing just about slipped right over the pinion flange. A little massaging with the die-grinder and it was loosely in the posi it needed to be - so I basically now need to machine up some sort of alignment piece to mount/align it to the pinion so as I can then fab the bracketry to hold it. It will be a mish, but Im glad I have a fairly solid direction now, and of course with it being truck-spec my cert dude should be happy.

I managed to track down a king-pin kit in NZ also as one of mine is marginal so may as well sort, but just need to pull one out and measure before ordering. Will sus.

So the most recent task has been to jump back onto the motor to get this ready for firing up. There are a few things left to sort here, the first is the alternator bracket, the second is the degraded bakelite-looking bits around the plug tubes which seal to the rocker covers - which I need to machine up, and the last is the headers. I had already got bits cut for my alternator bracket so I proceeded to start sorting that. My CAD was not as ideal as I had originally thought so once I finally offered the actual plate up to the engine I realised two things - I made the holes stupidly oversized.. which kindof doesnt really matter, and the shape was a bit shit and needed some additional massaging. Anyway, it all worked out not too bad - on the second attempt. I think a few less doobies would have helped.. This was really the only posi it could occupy, and of course being both free, and of considerable amperage it fit the bill rather well. Main problem is owing to its girth and position there is not a lot of swing for tightening the belt. My worker is a rotorhead and brought in a tensioner off an RX7 so I hacked that up for belt tensioning duties and just fixed the alternator in posi using a U-bolt. I spun up a little ally idler pully on the lathe and replaced the bearing. Its a bit Heath-Robinson but fuck it, it will work. 

Basically I am now waiting for the 1st of the month to roll around so I can order a bunch of profile cutting which I wont have to think about paying for for 2 months... this will be engine mounts, header flanges and handbrake bracketry, which should keep me fairly well occupied for the next month or so. Also @ThePog will be an old cunt (50!) this week so Im heading down to remind him so on Friday - and get shitfaced courtesy of Richmond Fresh Choices amazing beer selection. It inconveniences my progress, but man-love knows no bounds.

Chur.

[HumberSS]

pics relating to above ..

 

[HumberSS]

Im also just posting this here so I can refer back to it, this was a thread started before the main thread, and one which I will revive here/in discussion

 

[HumberSS]

Last update August...fuck where did that year go?? I've been at it, but in fits and starts. There was a solid month where I just walked past it every day and got depressed, but work was just too full on and other life shit as well. If only we could just live in our sheds and tell the rest of the world to fuck off. Oh, and someone else picked up the tab...

I'm gonna update pics tomorrow as my puta died..

So some time about way back then I finally located an A42DL 4 spd OD Trans w lockup torque converter. (After much subsequent reading on Trans cooling I am now very glad for the lockup converter) It's essentially the same as my factory 3spd Toyoglide that came behind the 4v, but with an extra gear thrown on the front and the bellhousing lengthened to accommodate. The lazy bastards at toyota even stuck with the same locating diameter for the bellhousing to Trans, which makes life infinitely better. After fully scoping the plan I actually put this to one side for a bit, but in the last few weeks finally got to chopping up the A42DL bellhousing to weld to the 4V bellhousing. I'm keeping the 4v flex plate, and have redrilled the mounting holes for the 4spd torque converter as they were 1mm out - fuck you toyota. Have done a butload of measuring to ensure the whole sandwich will fit together, and then attacked the bellhousing with the angle grinder, followed by some finessing on the mill. I am going to have to apply liberal amounts of Weld in a few key areas owing to my roughness. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but it'llbesweetbro. Welding not yet done, and spigoting torque converter to crankshaft is also on imminent list.

I actually momentarily diverted to cab things also for a night, and set to work drilling a fuckton of spotwelds and prying rusty panels apart. It was a good feeling, as the cab is rather a daunting project in its own right. But cutting shit off it was kind of cathartic and reduced the enormity of it in my head somewhat. I'm pretty capable at fixing rusty shit if I do say so myself, but this will nonetheless be a big push. I farmed the bolt on panels out to my mate who is properly good at making rust-be-gone, so that too has lightened the load.

Just as a segue, strategically the planned order of events is to finish driveline tings - fabrication etc (which is not terribly far off, some cunty shit around handbrake though), finish the underside of the camper body, which is mostly cleaning and painting and a little bit of minor fab, blast and paint chassis and all recently fabd stuff, including wheels and fuel tank etc, then start fitting the whole chassis, diff, driveline back together, get wiring tidied up and rerun, and then bolt the chassis back underneath the camper body so it's all rolling again, then I'll be aiming to fire that sweet bitch up. Then I'll probably focus on getting the camper body watertight and painted, and the cab will be last. Then I'll probably finish all the actual internal camper amenities such as solar controller hot water etc etc at the very end. I think. 

Anyway, the story goes. After the minor deviation on the cab I got back to business mounting the engine. I'd drawn it all up in solidworks and had a bunch of profile cutting done and spent a few nights knocking that together. It was a little bit of educated/tape-measure/best guess work, but after tacking the subframe together I was pleasantly surprised that the engine bolted straight in and everything lined up reeaal nice, both engine to subframe and subframe to chassis. My mig was giving me the shits so I decided to tig it, which turned out much tidier. Pics to come.

So the engine is now fully slung in the chassis, and I've had the box hanging off the back of it - sans bellhousing- but all bolted up to flexplate and torque converter etc. Welding bellhousing is now becoming a priority so I can sort crossmember. I brought a new rear Trans mount as mine was toast. I also picked up a new set of king pins and a facet fuel pump in anticipation of the main event. Once I have the Trans done and crossmember sorted I will whip the diff out to finish the handbrake setup.

Recent weeks have seen me revisit the radiator, which if you see the previous post was all but sorted. I decided to build a fan shroud and buy a 14" electric thermo fan. I was able to adapt the original shroud and I'm pretty happy how it turned out. @ThePog is giving me ass about needing a mechanical fan as well but I'm just ignoring that know it all cunt until I'm proven wrong. 

Also, I've now started building the headers. Who knew how cunty a job that is?? Owing to the smallish capacity (around 1.7L per bank, 3.4L Total) and the port sizes I opted for 1-3/8, (or 35mm for you millenials) primary tubing. I therefore had to make my own collector. I remain eternally thankful for the gear I have to make shit with, and the relative ease it affords me for such tasks, seriously. The linisher was my friend here. The original plan was a quite elaborate set of headers which were trying to approach equal length (again solidworks/thinking mans tobacco). I had my flanges profiled from 10mm plate and have jigged up a setup to build them on a pallet as I'm fucked if I'm building them in-situ. Anyway, YouTube wormholes, opinions from cunts, and the practicality of only buying 8 u-bends have led me back to more of a shorty style header design, which also happens to be way more simple. I'm about to finish the first one so watch this space.

Yeah so, shit has happened, and it feels like I'm getting close to the hump of the major 'engineering' work. I'll get pics up for all you window-lickers asap.

Chur

[HumberSS]

Nursing hangover. Some pics relating to above. Probably self explanatory. If anyone knows the pinouts on the trans or has a wiring diagram on how to hook up the OD that would be mint. Happy new year.

 

[HumberSS]

 

Someone had had a go at repairing the chassis. It was technically sound enough but I dont think the authorities would have liked it. I ended up re miging it then grinding it back then fuse tiging it to ensure a fully penetrated weld from both sides. As good as new in my opinion.

This was made entirely from scrap. Its nice to have quality scrap lying about.

[HumberSS]

my grinder bit and swung around and fully slapped my arm. It took 3 weeks for the purple to go away. Note to self, pay attention...

most of the framing mods on the body complete, a little more steel required around the top then will make engine cover accordingly. Probably way later on though.

There are some horrible shit traps under the camper body, places where stones and shit just collects en-masse. It actually is corroding the ally from the inside - galvanic shit. I reckon I dug/blew about 5kg of shit out. This will all get painted, then soft-seal, then Ill bend up some ally flashing and glue in place to stop it happening any more.

 

[HumberSS]

[HumberSS]

Finished a header today