mknittle

I am looking forward to seeing how it goes. I wont be far behind you starting mine but I have some work to do on my wife's Cherokee before I get started on the Dodge. always something!

thrashingcows

You'll probably have a bit better weather then me being down in Cali and all. I'm up here in the Pacific "wet" coast...so sure I'll be a bit damp around the edges.

simplysmn

Bannerd send me a PM I have 1

thrashingcows

If I do have one the shipping will be a lot more getting one sent from Canada to the US. If Val has one, go for that one.

simplysmn

Besides your going to need your's for the crewcab aren't you ? you useing the wiring and all from the donor right ?

mknittle

I live in the in the northern part of the state in the sierra Nevada foot hills so we do get more rain than the people farther south. I think we average 35" of rain fall a year and that is form November to may We also have had up to 20" of snow. But that is rare. Still nothing like you get up there

Seems the hard part is getting started. I should have started this about April or may. Hindsight is 20/20 vision.

simplysmn

Heck MKnittle send it down here it only took me 6 month's of Sunday's to Put mine together . 3rd time around should be even quicker .

Alec

The GM splash guards, for all of the model years I've seen, come out & cup around the edge of the disc, so I don't think that any of the GM ones match the Dodge design. As for why they felt the need to add that stiffener to the fenders, I can only guess -- I don't know what year it was. It can't be any worse than their reason for changing the shape of the upper flange of the frame in '92 to make that huge stress riser right where the steering gear attaches.

Thanks for the info on the guards!

thrashingcows

Ain't that the truth! I spent my whole summer rebuilding all the suspension in the donor, and then stipping the truck out.

Tomorrow is the official start of the crewcab tear down. Hope to have the NV4500 out in the next day or so. So I can start tearing it down for the 4wd conversion and rebuild.

simplysmn

AWWWW come on now guy's send em both my way and I'll put them together side by side .

thrashingcows

Well been working on a few things. Pulled apart the rear springs...to clean and drill for the wear tips to smooth out the ride a little. Man are these springs rusty! And they had worn their tips into the upper springs on most of them.



Spent about 3+ hours cleaning things...and still was not close to being finished. So I said F-it and took the springs, and all the rear axle pieces, and 4wd frame brackets to the sand blaster. Should pick them up later this week.

thrashingcows

Transfer case is all done.

thrashingcows

So today I official started tearing down the old crewcab. Pulled the 2wd NV4500 today.

You can see the hole butchered in the floor.



Think I will be finding a new tranny hump from a donor truck to make a complete removable hump.

Tranny out....



Came out pretty easy. Removed the fan from the motor so I wouldn't crew up the rad. Good think I did I had to lower things a lot so the bottle top shift tower would clear the floor pan.

thrashingcows

The throw out bearing was in rough shape. Think this why I got a growl, and scream, from it every once in a while.





I spin it and it's a little crunchy.

thrashingcows

When I bought the crewcab the guy claimed it had a new clutch assembly installed. I think he was right. Clutch, pressure plate and flywheel are in great shape and appear to have been replaced....even though I've personally put about 30K miles on the truck so far. Guess I'm easy on the clutch.





So I'll be replacing the Throw out bearing, and installing a new pilot shaft bushing. The re-install everything. Glad I waited to order a new clutch assembly...saved a few hundred.

Anyone have an clutch alignment tool they would part with...PM me if you do.