ntsqd's '71 Wagon

[ntsqd]

You're welcome!

One of my HS shop instructors gave a VERY indelible presentation on "The more radical the temperature difference, the more radical the reaction." He'd be strung up, drawn, and quartered by the climate police for doing it now. Pour some liquid R12 refrigerant into a Styrofoam cup of cold water out of the cooler. It instantly froze the water in a very, very cool looking ice sculpture.
Then he poured some more R12 into a cup of hot water from the other side of the cooler.

It blew up the cup. Water and refrigerant vaporized, only scattered pieces of the cup to be found. Being HS boys we were all about "where do we get some R12?" Good thing we didn't really know. (Better that we never figured out where to source algin from either, that would have likely landed us in jail.....)

Based on that the "too fast thru the radiator to cool enough" ideology never made no sense to me either. We can all by myopic at times. It really wasn't until nvrstk's posting of his coolant jacket pressure experiment that I realized where that myth came from and what was behind it.

[Pressingonward]

Happen to have a link to nvrstk's experiment?

[ntsqd]

I'd have to search for it. I'll bet it's somewhere in his 72 page long build thread:
https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threa ... -s.278607/, but it could be in one of his other threads as well.

[Pressingonward]

Gotcha...I'll read through it and see what I find. Looks like a neat build

[ntsqd]

He started a thread on electric radiator fans that may be where that info lives if you don't find it there.

It's funny, I've known him for ~25 years, but we've only met in person 4 times.

[Yeller]

It's funny, I've known him for ~25 years, but we've only met in person 4 times.

That sounds familiar we've met once, hopefully we can work out to more than that

[ntsqd]

The coolant system pressure info may be in this thread: https://classicbroncos.com/forums/threa ... ns.256487/

It's funny, I've known him for ~25 years, but we've only met in person 4 times.

That sounds familiar we've met once, hopefully we can work out to more than that

I sure do hope so! I want to run Rimrocker and when I drove to Grand Junction to get our pop-top I spotted Eagle Cyn from the I-70 bridges. Looked like a great area. I've slowly been putting together a UT tour route much like my Big Bear to Bodie (& beyond) by dirt route here in CA. Just last weekend we were in the area of a possible alternate route to go North from Bodie that we'll be investigating soon.
If you happen to be on or near the Left Coast in May there's going to be a power-train install party in Davis. Date is fluid ATM due to surgery schedule slippage.

[Yeller]

Love the drive between Bodie and Bridgeport. We found out after we got to Bodie the road was closed for snow

[ntsqd]

Some time ago I was given a Warn old school winch front bumper. Intent was to use it on the Bronc-up, but I'm going to sell that vehicle. Although it will need some subtle widening to fit right this bumper will look period on the front of the Wagon so I started looking for a winch to put in it. No pressure because this is a ways off, lots more important stuff that needs to happen first. Then I spotted a Warn M8 up in Nor CA for $200. It was all there except for the control pendent. It happens that I've a friend not too far away, so he flew over to pick it up (he built a Vans RV7). I told him to donate the steel cable to the local recycler, which made it a lot lighter and was easy because it wasn't on the drum.
The pendent is no big deal, had to build one for the M8 on Snowball. I used this enclosed switch with the button relabeled to "IN" and "OUT", this socket, and this self-coiling wire with the female end cut off and wired to the switch. Got those parts, just need to retrace my previous steps.

I also scored a H-B unit from a late 3500 van last Saturday. Pondering m/c bore sizes for that. This too will be a bit in the future as I need to wrap up the trans cooler mount (~90%) and plumbing (0%) so that I can drive it for a while.

[ntsqd]

I thought that I'd asked this question, but I'm not finding the answer. Assuming that it wasn't altered at some point, what axle ratio can I expect this truck to have? I'm going to guess 3.54's, but.......

[Yeller]

Unfortunately, No way to know for sure since your front axle has been changed, 3.07, 3.31, and 3.73 are all options. And since there was a swap it’s possible that they were geared to something else entirely. Time to pull a cover……

[ntsqd]

ATM I'm thinking either 3.73's or 4.11's. The LM7 donor had 3.73's, but shorter tires (31"-ish), which makes the 4.11's an option. Gear it to pull, or gear it to step out? That is the $64 question.....
Since we don't own the Airstream that I'd want to pull with it and aren't likely to get it anytime soon I'm leaning towards the 3.73's.

Am thinking Tru-Tracs for both axles. Snowball, unbeknown to me, had that set-up after I had the 8.8 rebuilt and it just flat worked without drama. Like what a Detroit brings with it.

Had planned to do this further down the road, but the local ace diff set-up guy is getting ready to retire. If I want him to do the work I need to move that part up in the schedule.

[Yeller]

with the LM7 and 4l60 I'd do 4.10's with 33's and not look back, even if running 31's. IMO 3.73's are just a bit too tall, works but 4.10's make things happier. I feel 4.10 is the best compromise. The OD in the 4l60 is tall at 0.70. its a little tight without OD but managable.

Even though I've never done it TruTrac front and rear would be nice. I was looking to do that with my J Truck and the Grizzly was just too cheap and I left the front open. I'm actually considering a E locker for the front, just for those times it would make the magic happen without a winch or a tug but its happened twice in 3 years so it certainly is not a priority, especially with the difficulty level of trails I have run with it, went in knowing a pull was probably happening. 1 time was due to conditions of the trail and 100 yards away due to driver error, and its been on countless trails that were at that level.

[devildog80]

Not to keep stealing the thread here, but I have 3:31's in my '84 GW w/401/727 and expect I can pull a newer/lighter (4800 lbs) 28 ft camper easily. My rpm's are right at 2900 & 70 mph, so feeling I can pull hills just fine in that range, without having to lockout any OD. Running Pathfinder 235x75Rx15 XT Owl, so factory size for best torque, per design.

[ntsqd]

The PO had told me that the front of a Snowball had 'some kind of limited slip' up front. Didn't know that it was a TruTrac until I disassembled it all to put in better beams. Which was unfortunately after I'd bought the rarer non c-clip front diff assembly in prep for putting an ARB up there. The pair of TruTracs worked extremely well. Never knew that they were there, never felt a tire slip. Not my choice for a pure crawler, but for the way that I use these trucks they're great! And my wife doesn't have to remember to turn on a diff when she's driving on a technical stretch. At this point I'm doubting that I'll want an ARB in the front of that truck.

I pulled up the available Dana ratio offerings and found a couple interesting things. They are 4.09's for the 44, no 4.11 listed that I can find. Aftermarket, yes. Not from Dana. Also found 3.92's and 4.27's. Neither offered by the aftermarket and both a little uncommon. Being an Enginerd I built a spreadsheet to look at the comparable RPM's of the different gears. The 3.73's are too tall and I'm not seeing much penalty in going with the 4.27's over the 4.09'.s ~100 RPM difference at 80 mph is insignificant. Then I borrowed a term from the bicycle rider/racers, "Gear-Inch" and looked at the distance moved by one crank revolution when in low range. I assumed an unlocked converter with a fairly typical 2.5:1 torque multiplication to get a crawl ratio and the Gear-Inch distances. Since an unlocked converter isn't a fixed coupling the Gear-Inch numbers are comparative, but not what can be exactly expected to happen. The 4.27's Gear-Inch distance is a little over 4% less than the 4.09 Gear-Inch distance. Not huge, but I think a gain in the right direction.

[Yeller]

I usually use 2000rpm at 65 with OD and 50 without it. 4.27 is very viable. I’ve been revisiting this topic the last few days with the recent addition of the explorer to the fleet, that’s the gear that drivetrain really wants for the same tire size but isn’t available for it.

[ntsqd]

4.27's @ 2k in OD = 64.7 mph, that's likely close enough.
2k in direct is only 45 mph. Takes another ~200 rpm to reach 50.

Guess I'd better call Ruben.....

[ntsqd]

Well, of course Dana has discontinued that ratio and there haven't been any to find at the usual retailers. Did find one Dana kit on ebay and have it coming. If I can't find another Dana kit I'll use a Yukon set in the front axle.

[Yeller]

That sucks but at least the front gear noise is the only real potential issue so it’s minimal. I know Rueben won’t let you install junk lol.

[ntsqd]

Their preferred alternate Mfg. is in stock with their semi-local guy in the 4.27 ratio, so that'll likely start coming this way maybe tomorrow. They're in the middle of significantly down-sizing the shop and semi retiring right now. I told them I'm not in a rush. Likely be a month or a little more before they're ready for me. Gives me time to save up for the TruTracs.

Maybe I can have the trans cooler plumbing done by then? LOL.....

While I'm here, this is the current PS return line from the cooler on the engine side of the core support:



I'm not sure that I like it, but it will work for now. I forgot to slip some adhesive lined heat shrink on before flaring the tubing so I'm using some 3M Self-Fusing splicing tape to seal the ends of the heat shielding from dirt and grime. Can see the currently capped H-B return port in the reservoir.

This is as far as I've gotten on the trans cooler plumbing, and I'm not sure that I like those tubes at all. I may end up remaking them.