Re: An introduction/hello and my project.
I ran class 8 heavy haul dump trucks for years.
Every air pump was bolted to the front gear case (Cat power) and was supplied force fed oil off the engine and the compressor drained back to the gear case out the drive end of the pump.
Water cooling was also supplied to the compressor head.
The 4x4 guys use the YORK A/C pumps as air pumps and they seem to do well.
I am liking the idea of a belt drive and using the electric clutch on the compressor..
IF the pump dies.....the belt will fail and not tear up things.
Having the electric clutch on the pump will make life easy as well..
Pretty easy to install an unloader/check valve in the tank to control the shaft driven pump.
Having the electric pump will certainly be desirable to charge the system from a dead start....
Also be handy if the shaft driven GIZMO fails.
Some guys are using the A6 Frigidaire pumps off older GM rigs.
These are a tough pump with cast iron cylinders (6) and will pump huge amounts of air.
They have an oil sump too.
I got out yesterday afternoon hoping to get the cat home (Sitting in a pond on the trailer...4 inches of wet slop we must back through to get the truck in there....)
Gotta wait for the weather to cooperate more.
I did get some more peeks into the rear frame/tub area ahead of the OC12
My Micky mouse drop box will be able to sit down in the tub just ahead of the OC12
Looks very promising that there will be enough room on the LH side of the tub right alongside the drop box to mount the compressor.
May need to do some rearranging of the frame work in that area though.
The Cat has a heavy tube platform/frame that a big azz cylinder is mounted bolted to the rear area.
Since my application is only for a cruiser....all the heavy rigging in the rear is not needed.
Should be plenty of room to get things snuggled in there.
I am thinking that we are going to need to butch some fairly large round access holes in the tub near the area where the drop box will mount and up near where the vans tranny (Rear output) is located to allow access to the drive shaft.
THE PLAN is top be able to run the van up a pair of temporary channel ramps and locate it on the cat frame....
Until I can get the van and the packer close to each other and do some measuring I can't do much more than speculate....but the idea looks good.
I have a complete two piece drive shaft from an S10 Extended cab with double cardan joints on both ends of the rear shaft..
Thinking seriously about adding another double cardan joint where the front shaft plugs into the 4L60 tranny....
This menagerie of goodies called a drive shaft will allow rules to be broken in a big way.
GM used the "Double Double" setup to fix issues with the layout on the extended pickup..
They were a failure....
Issue being that the center ball of the CV unit was usually never greased..
Once the ball wears out the CV started to wobble and will vibrate badly...
The shaft I got was bad, but not destroyed.
The centering ball was shot and the grease passage was totally devoid of grease....not one bit..and the ball and its socket were dusted dry.
I have the rear shaft all repaired and ready to go.
Not sure yet on the overall length needed in the cat, so just cooling my heals until a time when we can see exactly where stuff will end up.
The length of the cat, location of the diffy, wheel base of the van and probable spot the van chassis will end up all seem to indicate that the van may be able to be moved a bit fore/aft to be able to get the parts to all talk to each other without a lot of trouble...
I will need to mount a REMOVABLE bracket to hang the center carrier bearing for the driveshaft as well.
Must be removable to allow the van to drive over the cat frame to mount it...
The Astro drive train is offset to the RIGHT 5.750" this creates issues...hence the drop box and the weird shaft set up.
I am still trying to stay with as much off the shelf parts as possible
The OC12 uses a 1410 u joint on it's input yoke.
The plan is a short shaft plugged into the slip yoke on the output of the drop box (NP241) with a 1350 slip yoke and u joint at the case end
(Setup maybe a foot long max)
If all goes as planned the drop box may wind up being just ahead of the vans rear diffy.
Once the tires/wheels are off and the chassis is lowered into position and the hub mounts are attached, the drop box input hopefully will be close to the same elevation as the vans pinion shaft...
A lot of WHAT IF's at this point... but the preliminary measurements look promising.
The big V8 power and auto tranny that was in the Packer (Plus pumps etc) was heavy and far forward.
The Astro powerpack is a lot lighter....so this certainly should allow some discretion on locating the van fore and aft on the cat chassis.
I do not want it nose heavy..
BUT.....I may well need to run things forward some to allow all the goodies to fit.
The only other Astro I have seen on a cat was on a 3700 hydro and the van had it's power pack removed and they used the Cats power.
Just a lot to think about.
Lots of engineering to make sure things can/will work and that we don't end up with an issue here and there.
The more room we have the better life will be.....
I am just sitting here chomping at the bit wanting the cat home.....
Oh well.
Pix of the Doble double shaft.
Getting the centering ball off the little stub requires a special tool.....
$300 special Kent Moore tool... remover and installer
Found one on ebay for $12
The shaft uses readily available Saginaw 3R CV JOINTS/PARTS
With the proper tools these bad boys are a snap to rebuild.
The one shot of the ball that LOOKS LIKE A PEAR Supposed to be round
No grease being the cause.
With some care in locating the shaft it should run smooth.
Luckily the shaft was still in factory trim and had not had the plastic melted to remove the u joints...marked everything well before the tear down...
Balance should be fine.
The front shaft tube will need to be cut and a CV installed...so it may need to be balanced.
We can get this RUBE GOLDBERG together and do some testing and react accordingly.
Sort of like building a boat in a basement I guess...need to be sure we can get it out the door..
Couple pix of the Slam bang We had up until I retired in 2012