Deuce Wrecker Engine Swap

[rdixiemiller]

Drilling the hot rivets does make them easier to remove. I have one front spring hanger that is bolted on, I would guess a field repair somewhere in the trucks life...

 

[Recovry4x4]

In spite of it being a work day I at least got something done. I went out in the back to a front cut of a deuce I have out there. Was able to remove the airpack (for a rebuild) and fuel lines for the project. Also cobbed a few small items. Once the wrecker is somewhat operational I'll remove the cab from the frame cut and pull the transfer case. Its an air shift and will work nicely in the wrecker. Tomorrow I plan on taking out the old fuel line (whats left of it) and installing these lines. Will also confirm that the in tank pump works on the multifuel tank. Need to craft up front brake lines too. If it keeps going like it has, this engine will be set in by Wed or Thur. I'll paint the frame rails later!

 

[mangus580]

Kenny, how will you set the engine in that early? I thought Bjorn wasnt headed down until saturday?

 

[Recovry4x4]

Well, I'll use my redneck engine picker upper of course. Didn't get pics of it but yesterday I had to take the front of the springs out of the hangars about 10". At first I was a little preplexed on how then I looked up to God and saw that chain hoist. Knocked the front pins out of the hangar and liftet the truck frame right off the springs and took care of business. This thing actually works very good. Moving the wrecker hasn't been a problem either, just use one leg of the towbar between the back of the wrecker and the front of the tractor.

 

[ida34]

With all the stuff you are doing I can't imagine how you had time to ship the PTO to me. If only the weather were better here maybe I could get stuff like that done. As it is my occasional use F350 showed me today that it did not appreciate the lack of attention lately. After plowing the snow out of my drive I took it to the scrap yard. It seems the y pipe is totally rusted out and it seems to be only running on a few cylinders. Hopefully the tune up parts I have had in the garage for the last year will fix the missing. I can't get that one in my heated garage just like the deuce. I've got to build a bigger garage. How about coming up hear and replace my cab and tune my engine, then put in the winch for my deuce? Kenny, I am exhausted just looking at your posts. If I had a wrecker I probably would just as dedicated to getting it running too. It makes it easier to drag home more projects.

 

[Recovry4x4]

LOL! Well Chuck, there's more to it than that. Most of what I do is at the expense of sleep. I work midnites so when I get home and get invloved, I get carried away and forget to go to sleep. Between the wrecker, and watching kids I'm all drained out. I've been planning this swap since I got the wrecker so I've researched it over and over again. I've also been stashing the stuff to complete it. Much homework and parts gathering has made the task much easier. I don;t think I'm over the hump yet though. Stay tuned, I'm getting of workk at 0630 and don't come back till thurday night so more stuff will be happening.

 

[ida34]

I have worked mids and I had the same problem. Three or Four hours of sleep is not enough. With the price of wreckers my only hope of getting one is getting an old non-runner. I can't wait till you paint it and get rid of that awful yellow.

 

[FSBruva]

Naw... he's gotta keep it yellow for when he takes the little'uns to school!!!!

Matt

 

[Recovry4x4]

One day I'll get it painted. Right now I just want to get it moved, under its own power. At least the color has been decided. It will be 34052. Today I stripped off the master cylinder, air pack, brake lines and remaining fuel line. Ran the main fuel line and return line. In the AM I'll run the front brake lines and move the air compressor line to the left frame rail. Also did a half buttted job of cleaning up the frame rails. Interstingly, while playing with the cheapo siphon blaster I found all the axle data stamped right in the housing. No wonder they don't have data plates. Also found a similar stamp on the top of the differential carrier. It even had the date stamped into it. I'll get pics in the AM. Bjorn should be here Monday AM and I might just wait till then to slide the engine in. Whats left before engine goes in! Move air line, finish brake lines, install master cylinder and thats about it. I can install the airpack later after rebuild. One more interesting discovery, the trailer air line was disconnected and when I tried to loosen the vent line, the whole ear broke off the air pack. This has been a most interesting repower.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Well no pics today either. Somebody said I was using up all my luck and maybe today I believe that. Today I lost focus on the project and decided to rebuild an airpack. The one I have to rebuild came off the frame cut in the back. After spending considerable time cleaning the outside dissasembly was completed. I was totally depressed when I found all the rust in the main bore. It was a good excercise in learning. I then figured that maybe the main cast piece on the removed airpack was better. I commenced to dissassembling that one and found that it had a wonderful clean bore. Unfortuately the thread are gone inside the housing where the plug goes that houses the brake switch. 2 packs down, batting 0. I crawled under the decrepid pipeline truck and removed the airpack from that one. Its still full of fluid but is that odd looking short one. Don't have a kit for that one. It might work but I want a new or rebuilt unit on this heavy truck. Giving up on this for the time being I turned to the multifuel tank and pump. Jumped out the pump and it roared to life, good thing! Next took the tank to the garage and removed the pump. Looking inside the tank is a nasty ransid pit of rust and nastiness. Tried scraping and wire wheeling the areas I could reach. Then took the garden hose to it. I might be able to salvage it but it's going to take a little work. I have one more tank in the semi trailer, I'll pull that to see if its any better. Need to get back on focus and do the stuff that needs to be done before the install such as the front brake lines and moving that air line. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Another day, another task, and finally some progress. Today I was able to reroute and run some new front brake lines. Also got the big copper air line from the compressor moved to the left frame rail. Starting to come together here. Got the other fuel tank out of the trailer and although not perfect, much better than the other one, I'll take it for now. I've added a few pics of the progress as well as others. Captions explain the pics.

 

[Wick246]

Looks good. I like the protected routing of the brake line.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Here's a few interesting shots. The second one is the top of the differential carrier housing next to the top cover. I cleaned and blasted this area and found the detailed stamp including date and ratio. Next one is the left front housing tube right next to the pumpkin. It has the model number, serial number, ratio and date. This is apparently why there's no data plate on these diffs. The first one shows an area of the diff where I was sand blasting. You can see the progression of colors starting with the red primer then the strata blue followed by some shade of green then the school bus yellow. The strata blue is evident all over this truck indicating that it was either Air Force or was originally bound for the Air Force. Since I'm not a big fan of blue this will not be correctly restored as an Air Force crane truck.

 

[mangus580]

Kenny, whats that funny blue color in the background of the last pic? And why is everything so bright? Not to mention that greenish substance covering spots of the ground??


seriously.... LOOKING GOOD!

 

[Recovry4x4]

Sky, sunlight and what you yanks refer to as crab grass. Its green but thats the only thing it has in common with real grass. Theres very little of it too. Mostly nasty sand which is hard on stuff. I'm tired of crawling in the sand to work on the pig. Just checked the temp, its a chilly 69 degrees LOL. Also, I think I'd be smart to wait on Bjorn to slide the Multifuel in. The only thing I really need to do before the install is bolting on the master cylinder and that will be done tomorrow. It won't be running anytime soon but each day it gets closer.

 

[Elwenil]

Looking real good, Kenny. Take your time, less mistakes that way, lol.

 

[Armada]

69 degrees.... you're killing me.
After out January thaw, it's now in the teens again and we're back to walking on water up here!
A little green and blue would be great.

 

[cranetruck]

Glad you found a better fuel tank. The tank I have was purchased used for the dual tank project and one concern I have are the tiny rust flakes that didn't get flushed out despite many rinses. The baffled sections are hard to clean without access openings. Take your time and do this right, I should have....

Snow flurries here this morning. Got to about 35F with lots of sunshine today.

Still go for launch Saturday morning.

 

[red devils dude]

nice kenny I'm stuck on my truck it's 25 so need to wait for warmer weather.

 

[Longhunter7]

Rust?

Ok, help me out here! Would'nt rust flakes stick to a magnet?

I don't have any rust flakes handy, (they are all frozen at the moment), but maybe kenny can try it down there where it's a frigid 69 degrees!

Maybe that would remove them from the fuel tanks!