23 December 2016 The new mock up and a Merry Christmas

Last Tuesday (20 December 2016) Patty and I went to Mesa/Gilbert to pick up the new transmission and transfer case. We stayed the night to go to the temple on our temple day (Wednesday). Back to the transmission, we ordered it a week ago from Midwest Transmissions in Gilbert, but it was made or remanned in Canada. It is a 47 RE and a transfer case married to it. I took in the old transmission for a core return, that saved a couple hundred $$. I brought it home and finally got George over to help attache it to the engine. It seems we need to change the flex plate, the torque converter had to be removed to attache it to the engine. This of course is temporary, everything will come out later. Finally Farmer, George and I dropped it in the frame. We moved the Cab back, set it in place and then looked it over to see how it fit and what modifications need to be made. Actually it fit fairly well, we will need to modify 2 cross members. It looks great, and the engine isn't even rebuilt yet. It wasn't cheap, but hopefully worth it. It is called a Heavy Hauler, it was built for towing. Anyway below are some pictures. Enjoy!

 These two pictures are when we picked it up in Gilbert

We slid the cab back on the frame to get the tranny and engine in.

 We used two engine hoists, one for the engine and one for the tranny/transfer case

 Tranny is in place and now lowing the engine in.

 George checking it out, he is good.

 Checking the fit, and making a few modifications 

 Moved the cab back in place, engine fits, tranny fits, need just a couple of modifications for the transfer case

 The 12 valve Cummings, stock (for now)

 Transmission in place, nice fit.

 Just another angle

   I thought this was a cool picture of George and Farmer

Next?

Make the modifications, reassemble the torque converter, strip the engine down to the bare block (to rebuild it) and many more things. One step at a time. So until next time, next step: Merry Christmas 

PS: we are still working on the garage too. Maybe I'll get some pictures of that.

5 December 2016 Surprise surprise

As some may know Patty and I went on a river cruise in Hungry, Austria and Germany, which hasn't anything to do with this blog except, while I was gone Farmer, Jeremy, George and Jeff (Jeremy's brother, Farmer's best friend for years) worked on the truck. I was surprised when I returned to see the work. What they did was remove the Cummings engine from the Dodge frame along with the tranny. Then they set it in the Ford truck replaced the cab (temporary) to mock it up for placement. This means they set it in and made sure everything fits and that the mounts work. It does! I think though we may have to find a transmission from a 4X4 Dodge so that the tranny and front differential will be compatible. When we find the tranny we will set it in and mock it. When everything fits right we will re-pull the engine and tranny and the cab. Then get it ready for the frame to be powder coated, the springs re-arched ( maybe add a leaf to it so it will be as a 1 ton frame). So I decided to start working on the cab a little bit more. Farmer and Jeremy and I removed the front window, and the dash, it's almost all out now. Anyway here are the pictures Farmer took while they worked.

Jeremy with the hoist removing the engine from the Dodge frame.

George guiding the engine into the Ford frame 

 Jeremy and George

 Engine is in, of course it's coming back out to be rebuilt.

 The guys set the cab back on the frame to see if everything fits

Farmer said he was taking all the pictures and he wasn't in any, so he took a selfie.

inside the cab, with most of the dash gone 

 This is the front of the dash, coming out. 

The whole cab needs to be cleaned out and everything removed

so we can paint it and sound proof it. 

Looking out the front of the cab with no front window 

The window was in really good condition for a truck that is 41 yrs old.

However we will replace it  

 I like the way it looks, but it will look a whole lot better soon.

Until next time,