Worst time to join the site

[skewbe]

Originally Posted by Red

...
True, but he would still be lugging around a now useless transfer case and front diff.......

Or.. leave the front hooked up to the engine and hook the rear driveshaft up to a motor/generator and a bunch of batteries (and add some controls) for a regen braking/plugin thingie?

[GasSavers_Red]

He might not have to worry about a slip yoke

http://www.high-impact.net/transmiss...case_NP205.htm

He could have a fixed yoke already on the rear output. Which leaves a perfectly good engine driven output shaft for something, though a useless rear diff which is probably heavier than the front

[skewbe]

no motor/regen via the rear diff and part of the rear driveshaft?

[GasSavers_Red]

Originally Posted by theclencher

He needs good load capacity on the rear so a permanent FWD conversion could be done for practically free by pulling the ring gear out of the pumpkin although there probably isn't much drag caused by that little pinion all by itself.

Yeah, I'm just thinking about the weight of the iron axle assembly (14 bolt or Dana ?)

skewbe,
Power or hook up what? He is massing around 2-3 tons...... The outputs could power his alternator or something

[skewbe]

Originally Posted by Red

...
skewbe,
Power or hook up what? He is massing around 2-3 tons...... The outputs could power his alternator or something

I dunno, maybe tuck a vw engine behind the transfer case with a compressor cam installed, add an air tank and a lever in the cockpit (forward=go, backwards=brake/recharge the airtank/reverse if you hold it too long)

Of course this will hurt hiway mileage, which I see is where this vehicle will be, so yah reduce weight/rolling friction/drag sounds like a good plan.

[GasSavers_Randy]

It could be the carb. My '79 F250 dried up the bowl from sitting and was gagging pretty bad. So I yanked off the carb and cleaned it up, especially the gunk on the main jets. Went from 8 mpg to 11. The 8 was when I bought it and it was running fine. I didn't buy anything except a can of carb cleaner. It's got a fixed fan, a C6 tranny, 351M motor (factory 8.5:1 compression), 3.71 rear, etc.

Of course, that's still horrific, but the Civic uses more gas overall. The big trucks all sucked from '75 to '89, Fords worse than Chevys. I haven't heard anything good about the diesels from that period either.

[occupant]

I now have a LONG list of things to do.

The grille blocking sounds very good. Will help warm the engine up quicker, and will keep it warmer. The temperature gauge hardly goes beyond what I would consider 160 (halfway from 100 to 220). But come Texas summers I'm sure I'd have to remove it. I'll also be going over the cooling system in a month or two and I'll see what temperature the thermostat is for. I'd be afraid to put a hotter 'stat in but if it's a 160 I'm sure a 180 would be fine since it holds 160 pretty good as is.

As soon as my wife has her strength up again, the running boards will come off. I know they may not weigh much, but they are definitely a drag on aerodynamics. The grab handles on the pillars will have to stay. Those front bumper guards will go away when I get a set of bumper bolts. I need to replace the rusted rear ones so I'll buy enough to do the front bumper, too.

If the receiver hitch is an easy removal, I'll pull it off, too. I think it has four or six bolts, shouldn't be too tough to get off the truck. Shouldn't be too heavy to carry into the garage, I have a 2-wheel dolly if needed.

They made wheel covers on the late 80s Suburbans that are pretty flat, cover the whole wheel, no dish, and they even made them with the center cutout for the front hubs. I'm looking for a set but they are hard to find. Has to be better than the small dog dish ones on there now.

As for lowering the truck, it sure would eliminate the need for the running boards, and it would give me an opportunity to replace the body to frame bushings while I'm under there.

X-pipe dual exhaust with Magnaflows would be my preferred setup for exhaust but I'm thinking cheap, and I'm thinking the exhaust on there is brand new, so I'll let it rust a bit before it comes off. No point wasting a perfectly good set of pipes.

I've been told the medium duty trucks had those factory vacuum gauges more often than the C/K trucks. So when I get a chance, I'll hit the truck junkyards and find a nice C50 or C60 or Kodiak or something, 81-84 or so, should have the same gauge panel. If nothing else, the Mileage Monitor gauge is the exact one I had in my last Delta 88. They sell them on their website and also on eBay. It's the right size to fit in the C/K panel and I could print out a factory looking gauge face and put on an orange needle to match the others. I'm pretty picky about the looks of it.

And window tint will get done the next time we drive to Waco. We have credits on MerchanTrade and there's a couple shops down there who will take them and it shouldn't take but a couple hours. We'll drop the truck off, wander around downtown Waco for awhile, grab some lunch, and go back and wait on it. The tint on there now is horrible, wrinkled, bubbling, scratched, and purpled. I'll scrape it off myself before we take it in. No defogger grid to worry about damaging.

I guess I ought to remove the gun rack, too, eh? Except it is plastic and weighs a little bit of nothing. We use it for fishing rods and such.

[hotroddr]

I took the liberty of doing the modifications for you in paint. You burb is lowered a bunch, has no more push bars on the front bumper, no more running boards, has a 2 piece aluminum grill cover, an air dam, no back bumper, no side mirror, no windshield wipers(they are under the seat just in case), and there are no stickers on the front windshield for better visibility. It now gets 20 mpg on the freeway at 65 mph(I imagine).

[occupant]

I could always paint the grille on like a picture, LOL! Would be able to paint it to LOOK like the 89-91 grille I like the most. And at that point, no reason why I can't put smoothie hubcaps on it (either the stock P05 hubcaps or rat rod full moon discs). They make roll pans for the back end to smooth out where the bumper was. I'd also have to get the bodywork done on the rockers, rear wheel arches, and tailgate so it'd be smoother.

I would need to keep the stickers on the windshield, those are registration and inspection and they're good to 11/07. Have to have them or get tickets daily. And luckily, if I DON'T tint the back window, I could leave the outside mirrors off. But if I tint the back window I have to put mirrors on both sides. Maybe those little makeup-sized rat rod mirrors clipped to the vent window frame would be enough, convex to show the most area.

BEST NEWS I have is that the vacuum advance is now hooked up to manifold vacuum. It made a HUGE difference in acceleration, idle quality, and general engine smoothness. I now have to use much less throttle to maintain speeds over 30mph. I can almost coast at 45-50 on level ground and not lose speed. I made the repair halfway through a tank of gas and that tank measured out to 12.8mpg. So it is possible that I am near the 15mpg I was shooting for, and after a few more tanks, I'll know for sure.