Astro van cat conversion

[loggah]

We used to heat up the bearings on a hotplate in a shallow pan of light oil. They slipped right on with the little bit of lube. Back when we bought ring and pinions,believe it or not the dealer,Oliver stores grabbed a pinion out of one bin and a ring gear out of another !!!!! Then we asked about matched sets, nope no big deal this the way they came !!!!! You are obviously doing a better job then most, good work. We also ended up using conoco 600 oil that was the recomended oil back in the 70's. Don

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Thanks for the compliment......

Hard to believe they sold the gears as "unmatched" sets....

But for the type of operation.....SLOW SPEED I guess they would not need to be as close tolerance as a highway rig....

Back in the days when I was working building big mill equipment we used an induction bearing heater....

Fast and clean....slip the bearing on the bar and place the bar on the machine...turn it on....

I just flipped to the parts book on the OC12 ...the ring and pinion DO HAVE separate part numbers.

Normally they would be a single number for the set....

Damn.... I WILL BE HONEST....Never seen R&P sold separately before....

But the gears should be able to be machined close enough without matching them.... May be a tad more noisy than a matched set......

Buttttttttttttttttttt....them heavy spur gears in the drop boxes are sure not gonna be quiet...not even..


I am trying to give this old girl every chance it can get to work again.

Water just raises hell with machined parts if allowed to soak for a period of time.....

 

[Jim_S]

If I ever have an OC-12 needing repair I know where to send it!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Thanks Jim

With all appreciation I defer to Snow Cat Pat....

He is the resident GURU on these bad boys.....

I have had experience with the Smaller Diffy's in the Oliver HG, OC3 and OC4 crawlers....this big bruiser is a tussle for sure.

Having it in the shop in a cradle with an overhead crane to deal with things would make life far easier.

The way I did it was not at all bad, just more cumbersome at times....

Li'll Red tractor gets to help do a lot of things around here..

 

[Snowy Rivers]

UPDATE....UPDATE

Went down a bit ago and wrapped up getting those lower bolts/nuts all in and tight.

Just need to bolt on the mounting brackets with the top 3 bolts on each side....


All went well with the Gorilla tape and modified wrenches....

That entire scenario makes me wonder WHY the engineers did not make the fasteners a tad easier to deal with on the 4 lower bolts in the drop boxes.

Just a bit too hinky for my liking..... a half ring with the 4 lower nuts and the washers tacked to it.
Held in the case with a couple 3/8 bolts....

Just thread the drop box bolts into the assembly and good to go....

No chance of dropping washers or nuts and having to fool around with tape and hinky bent wrenches....


Ahhhh well...it's done now.....


NEXT TIME....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Slow day...

Bolted the mounting brackets back on and finished up the last 6 bolts through the top of the drop boxes.....

Cleaned up the band anchors and bolted them back on... also cleaned up the band actuator rods, springs and such
Washed up all the drop box cover bolts/washers/lockwashers.

Sorted out the junk ones and replaced them with new.

Need all new cover bolts too.... old ones were trash.....Looked like they used whatever was handy...Some had stacks of washers on them as the bolts were too longs...OMG

Installed the pinion shaft back into the case and rechecked the back lash...ALL GOOD.

I need a pinion seal and a pinion gasket to finish things up there.

Went to town....AC in the Avalanche was a tad weak....90 F outside

Dragged out the pail of R134 and the charging harness...added a bit and brought the pressures back into spec....yeah buddy...NICE AND COLD...

Tomorrow we are busy..no cat work.

Next will be getting the band anchor links and the actuator rods back into the box..

Gonna stuff every nook and cranny with rags and make nice little nests under where I gotta work..

I DO NOT WANT TO DROP ANY OF THE PINS OR WASHERS/COTTER PINS DOWN IN THE OUTFIT.

NO WAY

There is going to need to be some mods made (Read this as a bracket) to the lid to support the Air chambers.....

Got some ideas....but the lid needs to be back on and the diffy in the cat to really scope things out and Make sure wassssup there.....


All for today....

 

[vintagebike]

Better get busy

Winter is coming

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Yeah buddy.

Don't think I will make it this winter.

My hope is to have the chassis pretty well done.

Diffy complete and in.....drive shaft complete (Its close now..just need to shorten the front section and build the carrier bearing cross member)

Front axle straightened

Yank the power train and clean up the engine/trans and finish weld the mounts and then bomb can paint the tub inside....

We are getting 90 F weather...I am not a fan of that stuff.

I don't last long in the heat......I try and get a couple hours work in during the morning early...

That snowy kitty looked great.


Just a lot of work.....

 

[MNoutdoors RIP]

Thanks for the compliment......

Hard to believe they sold the gears as "unmatched" sets....

But for the type of operation.....SLOW SPEED I guess they would not need to be as close tolerance as a highway rig....

Back in the days when I was working building big mill equipment we used an induction bearing heater....

Fast and clean....slip the bearing on the bar and place the bar on the machine...turn it on....

I just flipped to the parts book on the OC12 ...the ring and pinion DO HAVE separate part numbers.

Normally they would be a single number for the set....

Damn.... I WILL BE HONEST....Never seen R&P sold separately before....

But the gears should be able to be machined close enough without matching them.... May be a tad more noisy than a matched set......

Buttttttttttttttttttt....them heavy spur gears in the drop boxes are sure not gonna be quiet...not even..


I am trying to give this old girl every chance it can get to work again.

Water just raises hell with machined parts if allowed to soak for a period of time.....

Back when we made ring and pinions all ring and pinions start out unmatched
And then get put on a lapping machine and run in a slurry for a period of time
Then where numbered as a set.

We also used a electric skillet with vegetable oil to heat bearings works wonders
The vegetable oil does not stink the shop up like Dino oil

 

[Jim_S]

We also used a electric skillet with vegetable oil to heat bearings works wonders
The vegetable oil does not stink the shop up like Dino oil

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Yesssss...
The dino oil will stink things up for sure.

As I mentioned....we used the electric bearing heaters in the big shop I worked at..
The induction unit would heat a bearing QUICK

Any more I just grab the propane torch....not as hot as the Oxy/acet ones...tougher to get things too hot too quick.

As far as the R&P sets goes.....having worked in the auto industry we never saw anything that was not a matched set.

I do remember the first Ford 9" I ever worked on and learned that those teeth are timed....They had a set of paint marks on the ring and a single on the pinion.

Guess the mfg wanted the teeth to always touch the same place every time.

All considered....the teeth in my old OC12 are certainly not great on one side (Side that was in the water) but I have seen worse.... If a fresh set were available readily and at an affordable price I would consider replacing the old ones.

I was told that the 5.44 ratios were scarce items.....

Ah well.....she will run fine....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Well now....some interesting news.

I talked with Nancy at Spryte Improvement this morning about a pinion gasket.

I asked her about being able to tell when my kitty was made...she had the data

1972

48 years ago.....and been run hard and put away wet....waaaaaaaaaaay too many times me thinks...

 

[loggah]

What did you find out about a pinion gasket??? I remember on oc12 differentials i worked on there was a number of thin brass shim gaskets to get the correct pinion depth and wear pattern on the ring gear. I dont recall a regular gasket at all. But these were all on 1200 sprytes and not on 2100 tractors. Don

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The OC12 in the 1200 Sprytes without drop boxes and with the 6.14 gear ratio has a slightly different setup..

The shims go between the outer bearing cartridge and the nose of the main housing.

The gasket goes on the outward facing surface of the bearing cartridge and is sandwiched in by the seal retainer plate
Items 80 and 81
The piccy shows to two different layouts.

6.14 gears on the left and the 5.44 on the right.

Nancy at Spryte improvement has a gasket on it's way to me...

I could have done it with the goop in a tube, but I feel better using the gasket in this position.....


I have no aversion to making changes like I did when I machined the inner compensator case to accept far better thrust washers and also did similar between the drums and the case.....

The end result was a much tighter stack up and a very broad thrust surface that is a copper clad steel with anchors that lock into the case to prevent the washers from spinning....

The washers also have little oil holding spots that will aid in lubrication.

Far better than the sloppy thin steel shim washers...

These thrust washers are standard off the shelf tranny washers.

The ones behind the drums are the rear thrust washer from a GM TH400
The center ones are from a Ford A4LD tranny (Front drum to direct drum thrust washer)

Cheap and easy to get.

These parts fit around the radius on the parts in the diffy like they were designed for it...

Sorting through the washers at the local tranny shop was plus..

Guy had drawers full of washers all listed by model and application.

Made my life real easy....PICK WHAT FIT and then be able to identify it

Anyone interested...please make note of these washers and what was done here.

A simple modification that will make a difference....

NOTE

The cracks in the copper on the tangs is normal on these washers and they come that way....I knocked two of the tangs off the TH400 washers....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

No cat work done today.....but other important things happened.

Tomorrow we have a 70 mile drive to pick up the little S10 "The wretched little truck" v

Spent this morning getting all of the tackle needed ready and in the Suburban to load the rig on the trailer and bring it home...

I loaned out my pair of come alongs and one came home a mess...all bent and mangled....Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh


Stopped off at Autozone and picked up another one....

The Little truck is supposed to run, but the story is that the starter is DOA.

I want the cab and front clip for the Frankencat......

The old 95 Burb had not been used since we dragged the Camaro parts home to get the engine/trans for the 2100....needed a good bath and a check over.

Aired up the tires, checked the oil in the old 454....yanked the dipstick on the tranny too.

Evicted a damned squirrel from under the hood.....been pooping all over in there.


Fueled the rig and hooked up the car hauler....

Tossed in some tools, the spare tire for the trailer and a jack and lug wrench..

Chains, straps, and a ferw other things we may need.

If good Fortune favors the foolish the load up should go easy.....Wretched little truck does not weigh much and should roll up the ramps pretty easy.

The pickup will fill the trailer pretty well.....

We were gonna use the BIG TEX....But the parking lot where the truck is located is not very roomy, and fighting that 30 foot long goose neck was gonna be a real pain....decided to use the small outfit instead.....much lower deck height as well....


I think the S10 will be easy to yank up the ramps with the come along .......


Once we get the front end in thew rails it should go fast........

Weather is gonna get HOT come the weekend and I don't want to be fighting this in the heat.....

AC pump is trashed in the Burb.....gonna have to swap in a fresh one....just a leaky seal....it will cool, just leaks out in a day....


Easy fix.


I will get pix of the ROAD TRIP.....
Hopefully the next road trip will be to drag home another 57" track for the cat....

Be safe troops.....

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

why not add a deck winch to the trailer I have an 8000 pound winch on mine and I drag all kinds of dead shit up on to my trailer. its the smartest thing I ever did.

 

[KickerM]

My 12,000# Harbor Freight Special plus snatch block is key for rescuing untracked kitties!!! (It’s in the blue bonnet on the neck of the trailer!)

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet

My son in law and I been talking about a winch for the big goose neck (Big Tex)

Well....
The trip went off without a hitch.

Fella was there to meet us on time..
I pulled in, tossed the ramps on the back of the trailer, dragged out some rigging and he backed his pickup alongside my Burb and we ponied the "Wretched little truck" up onto thew trailer.

Only one little caveat....the truck has this huge "BUG BOMB" MUFFLER that hangs down under the RH side and it snagged on the trailer rail pan...

Had to toss a block of wood ahead of thew tire and stuffed a piece of 1/4" poly sheet in and that got the truck loaded.

Tied it down with the come alongs and down the road we went.

Left here at 8 AM and were back by 1 PM

150 MILES ROUND TRIP.

Looking at the tires and wheels on the S10.....Nice Cragar alloys with good rubber..

May get what I paid for the truck for the set of tires/wheels.

Funny thing.

Guy hands me a huge bundle of keys...NONE OF THEM FIT THE RIG :th_lmao:


But the doors are all open and the ignition lock ring has been removed.

I think the lack of keys may be why he never ran it.


No worries...

I am going to do a lot of mods to accomodate the steering valves....I want to keep the Ignition switch where it is and the wiper turn signal stuff there too.


Quite a bit of work to do in the cab.....
I want to get the bed off.....sell it.
Cab and front clip off.....for the cat.

Sell the tires and wheels and the frame, engine, 5 speed and rear axle.


The carpet is heading to the burn pile....as is the front seat.....

Headliner is a wretch but there. These years always sagged after some time....

I't that saddle tone color.....at least it was not some nasty color.

The color will go well with most anything...

Maybe do the cab in an orange and black camo :th_lmao:

Door panels are good and the windows roll up and down.....

Bucket seats, fresh headliner and carpet....woooo hooo....gonna be a spiffy cab for the Franken Cat....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Spent time yesterday fighting the locking lug nuts off the "Wretched little truck"

4 different kinds, and no key tools to unlock them.

The McGard was the worst to get off.

Did not want to booger up the wheels....They are salable items.....

Finally got all them suckers off and two standard acorn nuts on each wheel.

All ready to get a new home

Got back at the diffy this morning before we hit the Sizzling temps in a bit....

Packed the diffy full of rags and carefully installed the band links, pins, washers and cotter pins.

Decided to do as LOGGAH mentioned and double up on the band rod seals.

Ordered a couple more....have them tomorrow.....

Sweat bullets working with the little parts even with the diffy stuffed with rags.

After getting what could wrapped up I was studying the odd wear pattern in the lower bearing bore of the drop boxes.

See two pix


It seems the ends of the axles have been "Thrusting" on this surface.....

I measured the axle length, the outer bearing bore in the axle housing (Depth) AND....The axle bearing can move in and out a LOT

This would explain why the outer axle seal in the retainer is worn to rat chit.

I don't know exactly what has transpired over the decades this machine has been in service.....but allowing the axles to thrust against the drop box has to stop.

There is plenty of room in the axle tube to insert a machined ring that will allow the bearing outer race to come against it and let the bearing deal with any thrust.......

My book shows a snap ring on the inner side of the axle bearing instead of the pressed on steel rings... (OLD TYPE ME THINKS....AXLES WITH THE RING WERE PRONE TO BEAKING)

Also there is not an inner seal in the axle like the book shows.....several changes have been made.......for sure..

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Some recent revelations that have come to light (A good light) since the S10 came into the picture.

Now that the "Wretched little truck" is on home soil....I can actually make plans and do some engineering to things that I think are going to make this a lot nicer to operate and keep the cab interior very "Stock" looking.

The underhood area is a lot more roomy than the Astro van.....this just really changed the game plan as far as the steering goes.

Decided to scrap the steering wheel mounted air valves and all that stuff....

"Change order # ????????" :th_lmao:

The S10 cab will allow mounting (2) air treadle valves opposed to one another on a bracket and adding a "Wand" connected to the steering shaft to actuate the valves RIGHT AND LEFT

The brake pedal can easily be connected to a third treadle valve to provide "service brakes" A pair of double check valves in the air lines between the service brake setup and the Right and Left turn valves that connect to the R6 relay valves will allow both bands to be applied at the same time for stopping.....

The steering wheel "Should" have about 1/8 turn from center to actuate the application valves.

Simple, will keep all the air lines OUT OF THE CAB too.


The factory steering column in the WLT (Wretched little truck) has been violated bad.

Somebody lost the keys and did not know how to access the lock cylinder and just butchered things......but that's life.....

Easy to find a good one cheap.

Last night we tooled over town and picked up a matching pair of decent front fenders cheap for the WLT

Doors are fine, windows roll great, locks all work, all the glass is good.

Sliding rear window is good..... Sadly it will be looking out on the factory 2100 fuel tank....

This thing has AC too....make our own snow :th_lmao:

Sizing up what it will take to do the tilt front end.

The fact that the engine is way down low will make things pretty simple.

Likely be fastening the hood to the fenders with some brackets ????? to stiffen up the entire assembly.

Not sure yet on what will transpire as far as a stop for the tilt assembly..

Cable maybe.

I had a Peterbilt 379 with cables on the hood....might be just the ticket.....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Got after the front end on the WLT yesterday.....

The bumper bolts came off waaaaaaay too easy for a 1993.....YUP....BEEN REPLACED.
Front right side had been smacked and worked on.

Fender, grille, front frame horn welded on.

Sadly the core support got hit too and wrinkled a bit.

That is fixable....just gonna take a bit of massaging.

As things sit at present the front mounts under the core support will likely be the focal point for the HINGE

Looking at the front of the cat last night...... a nice box tube cross member mounted above where the radiator will sit in the nose should work sweet to anchor a pair of heavy fabricated hinges that can fasten to the core support..

I have seen a few tilt front ends and they always seem to use HARDWARE STORE hinges....YUCK

I am thinking about using a couple pair of urethane spring bushings and make my own center tubes...

Far less rattle, and no grease needed with the urethane bushings.

Preliminary tape measure routine looks really good as far as positioning of the front end goes.

Going to have to cut the rear portion of the front fenders where they go down the side of the cab....probably up near the top of the wheel house opening to make the tilt setup work easy......

Biggest NECESSARY ITEM in locating the cab is to have enough room to be able to remove the distributor on the engine.....(Should be a simple thing)

Firewall location is the key....the fact that the engine sits low in the tub may make all this worry a mute point.

Throttle cable is about the only other issue is see so far that needs much in the way of concern...I want to be able to use OFF THE SHELF PARTS in this area......NO MICKEY MOUSE HERE....FACTORY STUFF THAT'S EASY TO GET....


Yesterday was HOT AGAIN AT 100 F
not really pleasant outside.

Son in law was up and we grabbed the hood off the WLT and set it aside......

Thinking about adding some lifting lugs in the wheel house openings so the entire front end can be handled with the skid steer and some easy rigging.

I can't always depend on having muscle handy to lump stuff around.....

Not building something for Concours d'Elegance.....this is a beast of industrial origins.....and needs to be easy to work on by one person.

Ahhhh yesssss...the fun begins......

More pics when I get "SUMTHIN" to look at.

Waiting for the last 2 bearings for the drop boxes, the pinion gasket and 2 seals for the remaining band rod setup....

With these the box can be pretty well finished up..

 

[Snowy Rivers]

AXLE BEARING UPDATE

Sitting here sucking coffee and looking at the outer axle bearing and the retainer ring.

A bit ago I posted about the axles rubbing on the inner surface of the drop boxes...

The retainer is chewed up on the outer edge.....

Went down and took a peek at the axle tube on that side of the rig.

Yup....Retainer ring had been chewing on the end of the tube in the axle housing where the tube welds in.

The ring was acting as a thrust face and had chewed things up...

The metal that had been chewed up by the ring contacting the tube is likely the reason the bearing was busted up......

This mess probably cause some of the dings and nicks in the ring and pinion.


Definitely going to need to make sure the new retainers are well chamfered at the outer edge where they face the tube.

There also MUST be a spacer in there to stop that bearing from being able to slide in.....


That bearing and retainer has been sitting here on my desk for months since I pulled the axle shafts out.

Such a mess in there at the time that I really paid little attention.....

NOW WE KNOW WHY.....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Had a great day...got a fair bit of work done too.

Slow slog on several of the lower fender bolts.

LOTS OF SKUNK PIZZ AND PATIENCE TO REMOVE A FEW BOLTS WITHOUT BREAKING THEM...

Both fenders removed.

The core support was slightly damaged butttttttttttttttttttttttt.....quite easy to straighten up.

The body is in great shape with little to no rust.

I need to get the skunk pizz on the cab bolts asap and let it soak a bit so they will come loose.

May even be able to use the mounts ??????? we shall see....

Carefully removing all the wiring for the lighting off the front end....

Once the cab is on the cat....the wiring can be massaged to length to allow all the factory lighting to function as it did when new back in 1993.

The wiring looks great as do the plugs.

All the engine wiring needs to come loose to allow it to conmnect on the cat.

Using all the S10 sensors will make life easy and the dash gauges should work.....

The speedo is likely not going to be worth messing with.......


Fuel gauge on the early GM rigs is 0-90 ohms and with any luck the original setup that was in the 2100 can be replaced with a sender that will get the dash gauge operational.....

Temp gauge is a simple type sender with a single plug

The oil pressure switch is a tad more complicated....but the factory sender will work.

The original sending unit has the pressure sender and 12v feed for the in tank fuel pump.

The feed to the electric pump can be terminated and abandoned at the harness where it fed the fuel pump... Simply cut and tape up the unwanted wires.

The 305 Chevy in the cat has a mechanical pump on the block.....this will be used as the supply pump....May add an electric pump as a primer pump.



Getting all the wiring off the engine and bundled up so it can be sorted out and routed to the 305 in the cat will require a bit of patience.

Same goes for the frame wiring that feeds the rear lights .

My intent is to have 100% of the factory lighting connected.....

The rear lamps will likely be the type used in heavy commercial trucks......

These are cheap and work well.....

If memory serves...we have a plastic tub of new lights on a shelf in the basement left from my trucking days....these new lights need a job....


In looking over the air plenum in the cowl after removing all the sheet metal and grille work and the wipers....lots of pine needles and junk.

Great time to get the heater fan out and clean the area up.

All in all this cab is in great shape.....

I was worried about rot/rust.

The truck appears to have come from a dry place with pine trees.....

Definitely getting exited about getting the cab off the chassis and being able to start designing the mounting hardware.

Should be really simple based on how the cab sits on the frame now.....

A pair of box tube cross members should do the trick really well.

Reuse the factory cab mounting holes and the rubber mounts (May need new rubbers)

 

[Snowy Rivers]

More ripping on the WLT.....

Cab mount bolts out...(Was very worried about those....as they are usually a royal pain to remove after 20 plus years.

The factory had used a sealer on the threads and they came right out....

LUCKY DEAL.

Bed is just about ready to come off.....2 bolts left.

Rear bumper was a little snot though.....


Mounting the cab on the cat is going to be easy.

Two 2 x 4 rectangle tubes can be massaged to accept the factory rubber mounts......

Bolt the tubes to the cat tub flange and life will be good.

The overall layout seems to be a good jump so far.

The cab on the WLT is pretty roomy.....Get rid of the bench seat and install buckets.....Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.


Dash is basic but has full gauges....


The column is just hacked.....need to scare up a better one

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The last of the bed bolts came right out..

Bed off and ready to be RE-HOMED.....

The next step is to design and fabricate a lift rig for the cab...

Thinking about a simple H beam with bars on each side that can be slid back and forth to adjust the lift point and locked with a set screw (Bolt)


The cab can be lifted on the front using the top door hinge bracket where the fenders bot on.... Good stout materials that can withstand some weight.

Next comes a permanent set of lifting eyes that can be fastened onto the rear of the cab near the corners.

This will allow easy lifting and locating of the cab.

Using the skid steer and the extension lift I built to lift the engine should make handling the cab pretty easy.

The skid steer has plenty of vertical lift to be able to get the WLT cab up on the 2100 tub......


And on we go....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Nearly 100 F outside now....really happy to be inside where it is MUCH cooler

This truck was a standard cab short bed at a skosh over 6 foot long......

Too many bed lengths......

Ahhhh well...The cab is gonna fit quite nice on the old packer frame.....


I scared up a factory wiring book on ebay for the WLT

I may need top wring out a few circuits.

The previous crew made a mess out of the wiring in places.

Sure looks like the same crew that had been working on my 2100 worked on the WLT... GAWD....WHAT A MESS THESE TYPES MAKE......

But things are looking good...

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Today is gonna be rather mundane....

Gotta head off to the steel yard and get the materials needed to fabricate the cab lifting rig.

A fella from down state about 3 hours called and wants the rolling chassis...

So this revelation has definitely motivated me to MOVE A TAD FASTER....

Cooler weather for a few days so I hope to get the cab off ASAP

Gotta build an "H" RIG with the center bar capable of sliding....this will allow a straight pick and not have the cab leaning forward/backwards (As mentioned before)

With luck this will also allow an easy way to get the cab up on the cat.

May have to use the attachment I made to lift the power pack and maybe add an extension to get extra height.....not sure about the elevation yet...


Pretty boring stuff today.....but the tools will be needed several times during the fitting and possibly later to do service if need be.....

As soon as there is iron ready I will get pics.


At least it is going to be cooler over the weekend.....

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Well the day is done....dinner in the tummy and the cab lift itself is all welded up.

Nothing pretty, but it will allow the rigging to be set right on the center of the load.

Tomorrow I have to fab up the front lift bars that will bolt to the rear attachment points of the fenders.

Makes a great lift point.....

Also need to finish the lift pads that fasten to the back of the cab.

Down really low and inline with the cab mounts....

A simple flat plate with a 1/4 x 2 flat bar welded to it with a hole for the lift strap hook to grab on.

This little rig should allow the cab to come right off easily.

Be sweet when sitting the cab onto the cat chassis....nice and easy down into place and then locate the mounts......


Yeah....getting closer.......

As soon as the cab is off the chassis has a new home.....

 

[KickerM]

Looks very nice! I usually just run a scrap thru the doors and lift, but much can be said for doing it the right way! Might want to beef up your center lift piont as all the stress is on that one piont and no one wants OSHA to pay you a visit!!!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Those guys GAWD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....

I have lifted cabs with a 4x4 through the open door windows.....BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT....IT CAN CAUSE ISSUES.

The cab is not all that heavy.....I just want to be able to control things well and not worry about having a train wreck.....

Actually that center lift will hold a lot of weight....

Cab is in the 400 pound range me thinks.....

I will watch things on the first lift and if it looks at all hinky I will add more metal.

Second washer along side the first...


I wanted to keep the profile as low as possible so I don't lose any lift potential.


Another thing....IF the cab needs to come off in the future for repairs on the engine/tranny.....I want to have tools ready to go without having to worry about HOW TO DO IT AGAIN.....

I can hang the rigging in the barn on the back wall for the "JUST IN CASE"


Right now I want the cab off and sitting on a big tire so I can OFF THE CHASSIS.

In a few days a complete factory electrical book will be here and I want to wring out the wiring in a few places that have been thrashed by the P O ....

The plan is to use all the S10 wiring, gauges and such....the ignition key and all the controls.....Once it is in place ...I don't want to screw with it....