ntsqd's '71 Wagon

[ntsqd]

GM 817A is what I painted my '67 Ranchero. So white it's almost blue. That flat hood made driving into a sunset very difficult. Definitely NOT the right white for this vehicle.

[ntsqd]

Just going to drop this right here and see what happens.....

[Yeller]

Hmmmmmm what ya thinkering on TS?

Looks like a motor mount or internal door brace. That’s my WAG lol

[ntsqd]

How about a Confer gutter mount clamp? Like, say, for an RTT? Only in 304SS and using 80/20 for the load bars.

[Yeller]

Nice!!!

[ntsqd]

Ordered a test pair set of parts. Vendor can't quite make them as an exact a copy, so once they're here (late next week I hope!) I'll need to perform some operations on the various parts to get them where they need to be. Found that 80/20 has an online bending calculator so I did a few "Engineering Studies". I found that the 1.5" X 3.0" extrusion will work well, so the brackets were designed for it. I may be redesigning the clamp to cross-bar brackets though. I modeled them exactly and it tuns out that they're a bit taller than I need for the wagon. OTOH my friend Lars is interested in 3-4 sets as currently designed for his Early Bronco.

[Yeller]

Excited to see where this goes. Your creations are always engineered to the point of ……… perfection

[ntsqd]

Decided to make this a separate post.

I was poking around the net and found a 40 gallon fuel tank, but only made for the '74-'79 Wagons & Chiefs. Is it safe to assume that those are the QuadraTrac years with the very offset rear diff and that is why it only fits that age range and why it can have that capacity? The very rusty Chief that I owned 20 years ago had this tank in it, and it was needed. Wish that I could fit one to my '71.

The old 33 gallon tank out of my FSB will fit under the rear and it even has the fill neck in the right place (pump/sender port faces forward) and has an EFI pump/sender assembly, but it hangs down much too far (15.75" tall). Might work under something on 37's or 40's, but not one on 33's.

[tgreese]

Yes, the Borg-Warner Quadratrac Wagoneer and Cherokee have an offset driveshaft and rear axle. This could make room for a wider toward-the-center fuel tank in the factory location. They better specify an automatic too - the manual transmission models are centered. The year range is almost right; '73 was the first year for the Quadratrac and it was optional that year. Became standard with an automatic '74 through '79.

[ntsqd]

Thank you for confirming my guesses.

I'll need to measure again, but it looks like I could fit an F-150 rear tank (18 gals) under the rear. Since none of the spare carrier parts are there I had planned on a swing-away carrier anyway. Been noodling on the design of that for a while now. Something like what I built for our camper, but w/o the strap winch and instead a worm and sector gear to lift and lower the spare.

[SJTD]

That's purty slick. Gonna keep it in mind when I get to building fun stuff like bumpers.

[ntsqd]

Thanks! The spare outweighs my wife and given where we go with that rig I wanted her to be able to change a flat if it became necessary and I couldn't for some reason. I need to get it put back on, had to remove it to replace the camper in the pic.

[ntsqd]

Prototype roof rack clamp parts arrived:



Now to make the tooling to finish forming and drilling them that the vendor couldn't do, and welding on the draw studs.

[Yeller]

Work this out… know a guy in OK that is following with great interest

[jpswapmohn]

Thank you for confirming my guesses.

I'll need to measure again, but it looks like I could fit an F-150 rear tank (18 gals) under the rear.

That is what i have under my wagoneer. I think we had to trim a little on the frame and the tank seams, but not enough to make anything worrisome. I am playing with a poly tank out of a '01 cherokee. It is 20 gallons and fits with more clearance but hangs down a little more. They discontinued them, so used is the only option. I have both tanks sitting on the ground under the rig. The cherokee tank is made for fuel injection but the pump has the regulator built in. It will support my '95 LT1 needs but would need modification for LS and new LTs, which is where my decision has stalled..again. Novak has a solution, but it is $300+..

[ntsqd]

Thanks for the confirmation!

If the LT1 has it's own regulator then could simply block off the in-tank regulator and use the LT's instead.

[NCStateBadger]

Prototype roof rack clamp parts arrived:



Now to make the tooling to finish forming and drilling them that the vendor couldn't do, and welding on the draw studs.

I would be in for 3 or 4 pairs if these become readily available. I called company a couple months back and confirmed they were discontinued. I begged for cad drawing/specs so i could have me some made. They obviously declined to share.

[ntsqd]

I have some revisions to make and then get quoted, but right now I'd guess that 4 pairs will run about $550. I'm hoping to get the volume up enough that I can get the price down, but that's where we're at ATM. Should probably take this discussion to some other part of the forum, not sure what the exact vendor rules are here, but typically a thread like this is the wrong place for them.

[ntsqd]

Thread for further gutter clamp discussion: viewtopic.php?p=225699

[ntsqd]

Pulled the steering box because I'd noticed that it had play in it pretty much everywhere. Need to find a shipping box the right size to ship it over to Lee PS to get it rebuilt. Figure that I'll have the pump done at the same time. The mounting bracket has seen some drama and now has significant gussets on it. Appears that I've yet to take a pic of that.
Unfortunately that serves to really bury the steering box mounting bolts. Whomever last put it together used some very nice reduced head 12 pt. bolts, but the top bolt is way down a tunnel thru the front bumper bracket and it was really hard to get the socket on it.
From my days in Square Body GM trucks/Subs I've learned that short bolts, as these are, are not necessarily the best idea. Longer bolts are less likely to snap from a brief over-load than are short bolts. I plan to make steel spacers, weld them in, and use longer L9/F911 bolts.
Rag Joint replacement spacer:

Column end:


While I was removing the steering box I noticed that the intermediate shaft had a lot of slop in it too. Looks like someone did the XJ steering shaft mod, and then later someone (else?) eliminated the rag joint and replaced it with a spacer. I ordered the parts to put a complete Borgeson intermediate shaft in there with the U-J at the box having a vibration reducing coupling. I really couldn't figure out what the bottom end of the column shaft was, so I included a 3/4-36 splined shaft in the order and I'll convert the bottom of the column to that.

Do I need to pull the whole column to get at the shaft, or can I pull the shaft out thru the engine bay once the steering wheel is removed?