How to build a Build Thread (Cummins Content)

Anybody who knows these trucks will know one of their fatal flaws-fusible links. I have been aware of the problem a while (Thanks Filthy Rich and others), but finally got around to it. 

The charging system calls for a 175 amp breaker or fuse. Since it has run for years with zero protection, I figured 200 amps was close enough. Due to some of my earlier hacking, that one ended up near the alternator and air filter.

The others (60 amp, 30 amp, and 3 40 amp units ended up wherever I didn't have to splice a wire, or really, just kind of haphazardly thrown about.

Also, a new distribution box.

An overview of the driver's inner fender. Trust me, as sloppy as it is, it is a major improvement.

And finally, a little glimpse of where this is heading:

I was so pleased with the truck for simply going together and working as planned, I took this afternoon for something totally aesthetic. 

Hopefully these Range Rover bits won't let the smoke out of all my recent wiring work.

A splash of paint.

The finished (for now) product.

I'll make some new bezels in the future to clean it up a bit, but we're back to functional for now.

Love that truck. 

I worked for Cummins for over 20 years. On of my bosses over time had a part in getting Dodge to put that in engine in that truck.

I aspire to forming Aluminum into graceful, beautiful shapes, a la Runge, and Wray Schelien, my internet gurus who make stuff look oh-so-easy. 

Well it isn't. Still, I have struggled through making a set of mediocre headlight bezels for the truck. Here's a photo montage of my journey.

The goal/inspiration:

I got started annealing two pieces of Aluminum of unknown provenance,

and making a hammerform.

I then made a jig on my welding table to account for the fact that the grill sweeps back at the outside edges.

Like so:

And a cover plate to hold the outside flange in place. screws locate, and hold everything together. The hole was to hopefully, help with the location. Well, that didn't really work. I could barely get the metal to move. Maybe a less malleable alloy? Dunno. So I beat the snot out of it with just about every hammer I own. I own a lot of hammers. I even used a splitting maul's hammer side some since I don't have a 20 lb. sledge.

That got me here by the end of yesterday.

Pitiful. So today, since I split my hammerform, I tried another approach. The press.

I also cut the centers where the headlight will go out. That seemed to help both annealing, and getting the metal moving. 

Less pitiful.

The brake came into action some, but was largely ineffective.

Best use hammers. I was annealing quite a bit at this point, and with a torch now, not the crappy MAPP I started with. 

The English Wheel even got in on the action. First time ever using it.

Getting there.

I just kept working them in to shape until I got to a reasonable result.

Definitely not great, but plenty good for a beat to E36 M3 work truck. I learned a lot, and showed the faithful old rust bucket some love. Maybe I should aim those headlights.

Pretty damned good for the first time doing it!

Do you have a 3D printer?  Lot of guys have printed out press forms for aluminum sheet metal.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Nope, no 3D printer. I'm largely old school. My new job forced me kicking and screaming to accept a work iphone. I hate it. Advertising comes up on my home computer for fluorescent light conversions and toilet parts, and my work phone advertises ahem, sensitive things. I hate that it all links together like that. (wow, tangential rant)

That said, I do find the stuff people are doing with 3D printers interesting and amazing. 

I would love a 12v cummins of this vintage. I am glad you brought the thread back up and continue to fix this awesome truck.

Good job forming that AL sheet!  She looks very surprised now!

In reply to wawazat :

yeah, I know exacrly what you mean.

Giving the truck some love now that winter's over. 

Boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits "wax job" after a 320 grit "wash". 

I tried painting my headlight bezels. I'd call it a marginal improvement.

I know patina and shiny rust aren't everybody's thing, but I like that^ quite a bit.

The truck has a 1200 mile round trip to Chicago coming up, and that forced me into some deferred maintenance.

The brakes have been grinding badly, so I've only been doing the one mile trip to the hardware store and back when absolutely necessary. The rears had been basically inop, and I did a quick front bearing repack and bleed, and the brakes worked much better. Only problem, pretty horrible grinding. I ass-umed the grinding was the rears being metal on metal. , so I ordered a fancy rear disc conversion kit. Forgive the cluttered picture.

Well, it turns out some shiny happy hat (me) put a front brake shoe on backwards, so it was metal on metal, and despite the very limited use, ruined a front rotor. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

"Since I'm in there", I figured I'd do 4 wheel bearings, a proportioning valve, and of course, the rear disc conversion. That has now expanded to redoing the front brakes, too. 

Only one problem. Like last time I did bearings and brakes, parts keep arriving that are wrong, or simply unavailable. Half my wheel bearings were wrong, all the seals, and rotors unavailable at the FLAPs. I used them for ease of return, and have had to employ that benefit. The up-shoot is all my front bearings and seals look great, so I'll repack, and move on. I have rotors ordered that hopefully will be correct when they arrive, and the FLAPS should have rear seals tomorrow.

Of course, "as long as I was in there," I decided to change the gear oil. Unfortunately, DANA didn't see fit to put a drain plug in the 70.

So this happened.

That way, everyone will know I've been in there recently.

Brake Knowing People: I have questions.

My thought was to bypass this block (rear circuit only), and put the proportioning valve in its place.

My reasoning is because I see no residual valve, and am making the guess it is in there. We're talking about the upper block, with the wires coming out of it. Lower block seems fine(?!?!?!?!?!). Also, I like having good access to the prop valve for easy tweaking, but not to the point I want to put it in the cab.

This is the ghetto ABS module as delivered by Dodge. 

It is on the driver's rear frame rail near where the spare tire goes. My thought was to bypass it, and put the 2lb residual valve I got from Wilwood in its place.

Please, anyone, explain to me why my ideas are unsound. I've been on borrowed time way too long, driving a 6000 lbs vehicle with bad brakes.

I believe I have all relevant parts on hand. Parts Geek ended up being where I sourced front rotors after several failed attempts with others. So I managed to get the front rotors replaced, the bearings repacked, and that's one axle done.

Now for the hard one.

The races are in the freezer now, and I have a slew of parts to throw at the old goat. Chicago, here we come (in a few weeks).

Can you do an 8 lug Little Red Express Truck with stacks that actually smoke?  You might have to shorten it but it'd be great 

In reply to A 401 CJ :

Not to be a party pooper, but I'm trying to avoid smoking. Also, a stepside is not on the to do list. All that said, I do sincerely love those Lil Red Expresses. This too:

I'm having a little trouble figuring out my disc conversion sans directions, so here's a photo dump from the manufacturer's website I can use as a reference.

Edit: <This guy's got the bleed screw pointing down. Nice.

Got a fancy new battery installed.

I used old junk sockets as spacers so the stock hold-down would work.

Also, got new rear shocks on, and, of course, screwed up one of the rear hub seals putting it on. Baby steps.

Nice how I have the same jackstands as the picture above with the bleeder pointing down.

I've been fighting with this for a bit. Lots of different sized fittings on brake lines, Lack of instructions, and a HF flaring tool have conspired against me. Still, I got here:

I ended up deleting the old block. My dash brake trouble light didn't work anyway. I also deleted the ABS from the rear. Sticking with my "simplify" mantra. The old block bracket got modified and reused as a proportioning valve mount. Far from neat, but hopefully functional.

I got the seal, and got the hard parts in place out back, but am still sweating the details. 

Whelp, tough weekend for progress. I ended up having to cut almost half the e-brake cable brackets off so they would clear the caliper brackets.

I braced the side I didn't have to clearance for good measure.

It's not so much that I had to modify the parts that ticks me off as how much time I wasted trying to figure out what was wrong. Again, some instructions, be they online, or in print would have been nice. 

Next gripe: the parking brake actuator arms let the return springs slide off. I couldn't stand it, and will weld something on to them to keep the spring in place tomorrow. All this stuff is laser cut, and, I suspect available through a number of sources. Nowhere near the quality of factory pieces, but I'll get there eventually.

Final gripe. I'm re-using brackets, lines, and especially fittings as it saves time, and should simplify things. Well, should shouldn't be a word. The frame bracket where the rear hard line and soft line should have been an easy re-purpose. Nope. It looked like a symmetrical hexagon to my 51 year old eyes, but had one corner rounded off, so it was a one way only fit. Thanks, Dodge. That took another frustrating hour under the truck to suss. Oh well, all the plumbing is done, and looks good enough-we'll see if it leaks. The brake cables are routed, and look like they'll work. I understand how to adjust the rear calipers, and hope to move forward soon.

Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.

Those ABS modules used to be NLA, I couldn't find one anywhere when I was doing my truck 5 or 6 years ago. I just bypassed it since it was frozen solid with rust anyway and wasn't doing anything either way.

In reply to chandler :

Good to know. Thanks.

Like a lot of stuff on this truck, I bypassed it, too. The proportioning valve and careful driving will have to suffice. 

The truck is still fighting me. Surprisingly, none of my flared sections are leaking (yet), but the banjo fitting that attaches the stainless line to the rear calipers leaks on both sides, despite what I consider excessive tightening. I've called it quits for the night to ruminate. Thread I started on leaky banjo fittings, but haven't read yet. 

Pictures, just because.

Above and below, pictures of the e-brake actuating arm. I ended up wiring the spring into the cup I made (above). I'm still not really happy, but will see how it works, and potentially revisit them.

The offending banjo bolt and fitting:

You would be forgiven for calling my cable, hose and line routing ahem, rudimentary. 

I'll be pleased if it can be called functional.

Turns out I had the banjo fittings backwards-Thanks Patrick, and others.

That little shoulder kept them from seating fully. Silly me. The brakes work great now. Sure the pedal is a bit spongy, like a mid 60's Cadillac, but the truck stops with authority now.

Remember all those circuit breakers I put in up at the top of the page?

Well, they are hot all the time, and I suspect the spark that flew when I dragged a brake line over one of them might have been the final nail in the computer's coffin. At any rate, the computer is fully zapped at this point. After the incident, the speedometer worked very sporadically, overdrive not at all, the grid heater packed it in, and the dash lights for water in the fuel, wait to start, and the like bit the dust. The computer controlled voltage regulator ceased to function some time ago. What does a bulldozer engine need with a computer anyway? 

Not to worry-these trucks are darlings of YouTube, and there are several ways to get the essentials going again a click away. To that end, I aborted the offending light panel, and replaced it with a blank piece of metal that will someday house gauges and more switches. For now, that momentary rocker switch actuates the grid heater. This also killed another vestigial dash vent. 

I know, with work so pretty, this truck should be in the Riddler. 

As far as overdrive goes, I have to give a shout out to Decent Garage out of Utah on the fix. He is super helpful, and a good watch for all things first gen. I used an old school floor dimmer switch to turn OD on and off. A blue led went behind the old button to remind me of the inevitable.

Bonus: while I was in there, I cleaned the contacts and got the cargo light working again. Snazzy. Since this truck leaks like a sieve, switches are always getting corroded, particularly when it sits.

I have a 12V to 8V step down thingie ordered to power the speed sensor, which should have the speedometer running better than ever soon. All other gauges seem to have hung in there. For our imminent trip, theGPS speedo will suffice quite nicely.

And, finally, because mojo is important, and because it was laying behind the seat from a Christmas past, Stimpson J. Cat got a place on the dash.

So there was one thing that kept bothering me-a rhythmic banging on right turns. It was bothersome, because it didn't seem to be engine or wheel speed related. 

Today, I performed an overly complicated, yet still ghetto fix.

It worked.

We're going to Chicago.

Today it was raining buckets, so I did one last shake down run. Good thing, too, as the wiper linkage E36 M3 the bed within feet.

It was the same thing as some pages ago. The factory bushings disintegrated. So, I turned up some steel spacers, drilled holes for cotter pins, and slathered the whole mess in axle grease.

Still some things to get together, but I'm feeling pretty good about stuff. Now the whole wiper linkage is metal on metal. should be fine.

I'm back from Chicago, and the truck ran like a banded steer. Some vehicles just have soul, and this truck is one of them. It broke the windshield wipers here in TN the morning before I was to leave, giving me a chance to fix them at home. Good thing, too.

Yep, sighted tornadoes in Monee, Il, where I spent the night. I was awakened at 5:something AM by notifications on my phone. There was weather, and some downed branches and the like, but I made it to Robbie's unscathed. We had a nice chat, and got lights mostly functional, and then I was off. 

Between Chicago and Indianapolis, there was heavy traffic, torrential rains, and road construction. I was white knuckled all the way, but the truck and its ghetto wiper fix performed flawlessly. I was sincerely glad for my improved brakes. 

There was a section of road where 15+ cars and semis were pulled over  on the shoulder, all seemingly with their left blinkers on (some may have been caution lights). The rain and traffic were so heavy, they stayed put, and I steered straight-an approach, however flawed, that worked. At another point, I was squeezed between a semi and the temporary wall on the shoulder. I had nowhere to go, and hit one of those "puddles" you can feel through the floorboard. I got more than squirrely, but made it through. 

The rest of the trip was largely uneventful, with clear skies until the last 100 miles, but the later rains were mild in comparison. 

Once home, I inspected my prize.

I like it. The paint even matches. Unexpected bonus: Tire Rack. Thanks, Robbie.

It needs some love, and I think a drop hitch of some description would improve the situation, but I am nothing but pleased.

One glitch: I lost a ramp somewhere along the way. I failed to secure it, and didn't stop until Ohio, to find it gone. I hope I didn't drop it in someone's path. Not cool on my part.

Somehow, the speedometer that has only sporadically worked in the last month fixed itself, and worked the whole trip, save one momentary glitch 100 miles from home.

So yeah, my step down unit never arrived, so I broke down and bought a GPS speedometer. A short drive confirmed it works as advertised.

It even has red back-lighting. Not that I really care as long as it works.