Gunmetal Gray Luber No More - Meet "Mallory," My Mallard Green Rig!

ProjectCumminsBronco said:

Where did you get that fuel line?

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BC Broncos, here.

Nice work and those wheels look great.

Got the Dana 20 case painted this weekend after soaking in a metal cleaner (which ate the red paint on the Dana 20 badge plate), then Evapo Rust (this stuff is fantastic, you can see on the transfer case the area I couldn't quite reach with the stuff in a Home Depot bucket). Couple pictures when pulled and tearing apart. Two coats of primer, two coats of gloss black. Soon gonna throw a set of Terralows and HD output on it, gotta get this drivetrain built!

Great Work

I am really enjoying watching the progression. Great work.

Dana 20 rebuild is basically done - 3.15 Terralows, and WH (AA) HD output. JD Fab twin stick waiting. Motor is with a builder. And this came yesterday. Getting it out of the foam was a major PITA.

Mocked the NV3550 up a little with the D20 and bellhousing. I had painted it a metallic silver, but seeing it there... meh . Think I'll respray it the same black as the D20.

Getting pretty excited about having a rolling chassis together soon that looks like the ones I've been drooling over all these years watching y'all's frame-offs.

what are you going to do with it once you finish her? sell it?

Very funny... ;D

What a great build. I love the Mickey Thompson wheels. It is looking sharp. Please keep the pics coming.

Hank

Couldn't resist. Took a half day today and got to work.

To clearance the bellhousing for the shift rail housing, I put the adapter plate in place and used it to hold a 1 1/4" hole saw, based on a tip I read here on some NV3550 thread. Worked like a charm. Had a little helper for some of the time today. Got the adapter plates and assemblies on. Put the BCB gear gawker on the D20 (with red high-temp RTV). It's the older version with the recessed washers. I ordered this thing like 18 months ago... heh. Dana 20 is done except I'm just waiting on some extra shims to give myself a little more endplay on the front output shaft. Crossmember is on the frame. Hoping tomorrow to get the tranny and TC on.

NV3550 and Dana 20 are mounted. JB Fab twin stick mocked up too. Progress!

Gotta say, so glad to be doing this with the body off. I was able to do this myself. In sandals. Both the transmission and D20 are heavy, but not so much I couldn't lift them each into place (after resting on the frame rail and hoping in between) and prop them on the crossmember enough that I could hold with one hand and put a bolt or two in with the other. A little 2x4 to take some of the weight of the front end, and easy peasy.

Just thought I'd show off my Core NV3550 short throw shifter with the James Duff billet shifter knob. I've got the matching Twin Stick shifter knobs, but have to have them re-drilled to match the JB Fab twin sticks.

Nice. Have any before and after measurement comparisons on the shifting? I realize it's not in the rig yet, so not as easy to compare, but a tape measure would have been cool to see.
Or is there a specific listing on how much they reduce the shift throw?

Thanks. Still smilin' at that pic from Sept. of your helper holding the bell housing in place.

Paul

Paul, I have read the throw on the core is 1.5". I'm not sure how that compares to the stock NV3550 shifter, but I still have it, so next time I'm out there I'll try to do that. Will have to use a tripod...

She's been helping me a long time, and gets more interested all the time. Always asking me what stuff is, how it works, if its for the Bronco, where it goes, that sort of thing. Teaching her right. I'm just worried she's going to want to take the Bronco from me in 15 years...

Nice build bond,

Keep up the good work , I'm not as far as you are but went down a similar path , with weeks of wire brushing , scraping , grinding the under side and frame , only to take off my body and start fresh with all new sheet metal , found too much rust . Tub is almost complete now. I enjoy looking at other builds to keep me motivated .

Thanks for sharing .

Dale

It was a big day for me today - more than two years after purchasing most the parts (see the very first post in this thread), I picked up my assembled engine today, and together with my little helper, got the motor mounted. Still some work to do to finish this off and mate it to the NV3550, but its progress!

I lucked upon a great builder, and there's kind of a story here, but I'm too tired to tell it now, so for the moment I'm just going to post some pics.

I've had a good deal of frustration trying to mate the engine and transmission. Bronco was an I6, so with no original 302 or 289, and so my drivetrain is a Frankenstein - '87 mustang 5.0 block, Explorer GT40 Cobra heads and intake, a 351W bellhousing (attached to an NV3550). Took me 3 tries to buy a proper block plate. Then I had 2 weekends of unsuccessfully trying to mate the engine and tranny on the frame, but while I could get the top two bolts in, I could never get any others - it was kind of pinching.

So I figured out I needed to remove both from the chassis, put the tranny on a jack, use a hoist on the engine, and try to mate them while they were exactly square. Well, it worked out (for the most part - somehow I did crack the block at the driver-side lowest hole, which is used for the clutch equalizer bracket, but I think it'll be fine as-is). But then after getting it mated, the whole shebang was very back-heavy, and I only have one hoist and one laborer (me) %), so it was a bit of a challenge to get it back in the chassis, but I eventually did.







Now I have a few questions for anyone willing to give some advice.

1) I'm not able to depress the clutch using the fork by hand. I can pull the throwout bearing back, but not push it forward. I'm assuming this is correct, and that the linkage combined with leg strength on the third pedal will be fine/normal, but just wanted confirmation.

2) The crankshaft side of the flywheel is touching the block plate, so that it seems like as it spins it will grind. Is this correct?



3) What is this part of the bellhousing for??? ?:?




4) Now that the drivetrain is finally together, I'm nearing the time to put the body back on. I've got the gas tank in, fuel lines run, and will shortly put together what clutch linkage I can, as well as the upper plenum and other parts of the engine not yet together (fuel rails and heater tube, injectors, thermostat, saginaw pump, dipstick, probably a few other things I'm not thinking of right now). I have not yet run brake lines. Other than those, anything else anyone recommends I do now while the body is off?

Thanks!

ILikeBond said:

...Now I have a few questions for anyone willing to give some advice.

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ILikeBond said:

1) I'm not able to depress the clutch using the fork by hand. I can pull the throwout bearing back, but not push it forward. I'm assuming this is correct, and that the linkage combined with leg strength on the third pedal will be fine/normal, but just wanted confirmation.

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Yes, perfectly normal. The springs are quite stiff, so pushing by hand is a study in applied strength and leverage!

ILikeBond said:

2) The crankshaft side of the flywheel is touching the block plate, so that it seems like as it spins it will grind. Is this correct?

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Negative there ghostrider. No interference or rubbing is allowed anywhere. It can definitely be close, but no touching allowed.
From the pic, it does appear to be a manual flywheel, and not an auto flexplate, but if it wasn't you'd not have been able to bolt the clutch up normally.

Any issues installing it? Is it a correct 50oz imbalance flywheel for a late model 5.0? Or is it the original one out of your EB?
I can't remember any spacers or such that need to go in-between, or any other reason it would not fit, but maybe someone else can lend some detailed knowledge in flywheel tech.

ILikeBond said:

3) What is this part of the bellhousing for??? ?:?

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It's where your stock clutch linkage bolts up. The engine side bracket has two mounting points. Hence the additional adapter bracket you have installed so that the original bracket still has two good anchor points.

ILikeBond said:

4) Now that the drivetrain is finally together, I'm nearing the time to put the body back on. I've got the gas tank in, fuel lines run, and will shortly put together what clutch linkage I can, as well as the upper plenum and other parts of the engine not yet together (fuel rails and heater tube, injectors, thermostat, saginaw pump, dipstick, probably a few other things I'm not thinking of right now). I have not yet run brake lines. Other than those, anything else anyone recommends I do now while the body is off?

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You could run the rear half of the wiring harness. Won't be able to connect it to the lights of course, but you can connect the VSS (if applicable), fuel pump(s), sending unit(s) and get the wires clipped up tight and out of the way much easier before the body is mounted.
Driveline is ok too, as long as it's long enough to connect without the weight of the truck on top. Same thing for the steering linkage. Tie rod is easy, but you can leave the draglink and trackbar off until the weight is on, to save some grief.
If you haven't already decided this, now's the time to add a 1" body lift for the trans and stuff.
Plumbing an EVAP system in by any chance? Now would be easier to run the tubes than later, but not a huge issue.

I'm sure there are some things. I just can't think of any others at the moment either.

Good luck. Have fun and keep the pics coming.

Paul

DirtDonk said:

Negative there ghostrider. No interference or rubbing is allowed anywhere. It can definitely be close, but no touching allowed.
From the pic, it does appear to be a manual flywheel, and not an auto flexplate, but if it wasn't you'd not have been able to bolt the clutch up normally.

Any issues installing it? Is it a correct 50oz imbalance flywheel for a late model 5.0? Or is it the original one out of your EB?
I can't remember any spacers or such that need to go in-between, or any other reason it would not fit, but maybe someone else can lend some detailed knowledge in flywheel tech.

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Thanks, Paul.

It is the correct 50 oz. manual flywheel for a late model 5.0 (original engine was a 200 I6, did not re-use any parts), along with the clutch disc that came with the NV3550, and a centerforce pressure plate. I did my research and bought the parts very carefully, so I know (or at least 99% sure) all of that is right.

The block plate I bought had a soft, black, foam circle on the crankshaft side surrounding the center hole that slips over the crankshaft. It was so soft I figured it was supposed to be there and would just compress and not be an issue, but I'm thinking this is maybe kind of acting like a spacer behind the block plate, rather than it sitting flush against the block as much as possible. Hoping this is the culprit and that I can get it off without having to take everything apart.

Just found a picture of what it looks like online. Just like this.

I was actually able to go out in the garage and take a picture of it from the drivers' side.



Only thing is, with the bellhousing pushing the block plate against the block anyway, I don't see how removing the foam could allow the plate to back off the crankshaft side of the flywheel any more. ?:? ?:?

Rather than starting a new Tech thread, think I'll just bump this up - anyone have any insight on this problem? Did I need to remove the foam circle - and can I do it without taking everything apart now? Feel like I'm banging my head on a wall with this stupid drivetrain. Grr.

Edit: Good news for me. I just went out and took out the starter to check out the spacing again, and while it had looked like it was rubbing, or would rub, when I was close, but not done with mating the tranny to the engine, it looks like by pressing the block plate all the way against the block, I in fact do have a space between the block plate and flywheel, maybe about 1/8". So I drove myself nuts with worry all day (dreading having to take everything apart again) for no reason.

Kinda hard to see, but...



I did think of another question, though - in mating the tranny and engine, I didn't use any grease, for example on the transmission's input shaft and pilot bearing (it's a needle bearing style). I wasn't required to grease anything, right?