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Testing "Thundercat"...

redsqwrl

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
BTW i'm still in the design phase of my resto-mod ( extremely modified Thiokol 2100). ( fingers crossed). Cheers. Desmond

Whoops I see you let your crazy slip out a little......

2100

extremely modified

design phase......

Start a thread, and share that crazy please.....
 

toyrocs

New member
Whoops I see you let your crazy slip out a little......

2100

extremely modified

design phase......

Start a thread, and share that crazy please.....


Its a Military SECRET Ya Know. Can't show or tell ( MUCH)!!! Think lighter weight LV1 aluminum V6= removal of the old 391 big block Ford. It's a life time project! :multitask I do things real SLLOOWWWW.
 

redsqwrl

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Its a Military SECRET Ya Know. Can't show or tell ( MUCH)!!! Think lighter weight LV1 aluminum V6= removal of the old 391 big block Ford. It's a life time project! :multitask I do things real SLLOOWWWW.

Now you are really starting to concern me.

that is my quote.

"Yes I will do that, I however work slow, but I never stop working" kind of like rust i guess.

From my confidential 2100 files.... Move the motor back..... cut off about 20" of the tunnel...... then hang around to pull venerable tuckers out.:shitHitFan:

To be fair, this machine was in nasty conditions and pulling a 600lb ice house. "each cat has favorable conditions to excel in. "
 

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Blackfoot Tucker

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I guess it's time for some more "teaser pics"...

We’ve been waiting for some drivetrain parts that were ordered... back in January, and Thundercat progress has once again come to a virtual stand-still. The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight, but…is it a locomotive?

Here are some more pics, this time of the floor. Just like the 1642 we re-cabbed, we built all new floors for Thundercat. These are also aluminum, though we went with .080 rather than the .063 Tucker used. I won’t go into a lot of detail on all the changes, but just some photos with a few captions.

Rear floor area. The wires coming out of the rear cab wall feed the custom center console we built. It has three switches; two are for the individual seat heaters and their’s a switch for the rear dome light. There’s also a power port to charge "stuff”.

IMG_1998.jpg

Another view. The empty holes are where the seat brackets bolt to the frame underneath the floor’s sheet metal.

IMG_2001.jpg

This is the front floor area. The forward portion of the transmission tunnel is attached with truss head stainless steel screws that thread into nutserts. The idea was to make this panel easy to remove for access to the top of the transmission.

IMG_1995.jpg

On this vintage Tucker (1980) the steering column goes through the floor. One needs to be able to remove the floor, so we cut a section and made a special panel to fill in the gap. We used a rubber grommet around the steering column which is grooved to fit into the floor sections and seal the column. Aluminum POP rivets are used to attach the various floor panels - which are easily drilled out, should removal be necessary.

IMG_2006.jpg

Here’s the center and front floor areas. The wires through the center under-seat area are for the seat heaters for the front seats. Note the six-way valve for the front blade.

IMG_1999.jpg

Here’s a closeup of the valve and the detail of the hydraulic tube and floor interface. Each tube has an individual rubber grommet for sealing, and obviously the floor panels had to be cut precisely around the tubes and with correct clearance for the grommets to fit properly. It was a time consuming detail! The empty holes are for the box we made for the valve assembly. The front and rear tubes are slightly larger in diameter as they are the hydraulic supply and return lines respectively.

IMG_1997.jpg

Here’s the front floor area from the left side. The rectangular hole below the brake pedal is for the floor mounted accelerator pedal and its through-floor linkage mechanism. Note the bracket we made for the transmission shifter. That has bent flanges that add considerable rigidity, and it's welded to the dash panel. The idea was to position the shifter in a more ergonomically correct position than either mounting it to the right of the instrument panel, or hanging below the dash panel. (Both of which are methods Tucker used.) The wires coming out of that bracket feed switches in the box surrounding the six-way valve, which has yet to be installed....

IMG_2002.jpg















 

Blackfoot Tucker

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
What is your take on the 545 with the addtional power?

It works well, though I don't have experience with another automatic transmission for comparison.

If you look at the AT545 specs it would seem the engine exceeds the power limits/recommendations. However the transmission in Thundercat was originally in a Schwann's Ice Cream truck...behind an 8.1 Vortec and that was a factory GM installation.
 

olympicorange

Active member
……… the AT 540's generation is a pretty rugged unit, specs. were probably ''derated'' back in the day , for warranty guidelines,... ''over engineering '' like CAT , comes to mind. ive had customers with these in skidders, tough. if you want to test a component, put it in a skidder... :thumbup: I think it's safe to say , that you won't see a Tucker ,'' reared'' up on it's back set of tracks..... lol
 
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