'46 Chevy Shorty

[ol trunt]

Glad you thought about the way these 4 bangers dance around. It took only 4000 miles for one of the brackets on the top-of-the-motor mounted air cleaner to fatigue and break. I've now mounted the air cleaner on small rubber isolators similar to mini engine mounts. We'll see how that goes. Jack

[opus]

We've got one in a 580 Case backhoe that had a bad rubber mount. You'd have thought it was an earthquake!

[Tango]

Hey Jack --- how are your motor mounts configured? Are they solid or fluid and what position are they in?

I had to go solid due to space but mounted them on a 45* angle just above the cranks' centerline. I also moved my attachment points from the front of the engine to the mid-point to try and help balance the total load. That new Allison is quite a bit longer than the old AT 545.

Curious to hear how the NPR is set up.

[ol trunt]

Hey Tango, the NPR has 4 mounts. Two, 3" x 3" x 3" solid blocks located just below the crank and at the center of the second piston at 45 degrees and two, 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" solid blocks located one on either side of the rear of the tranny at 45 degrees and just above the center line of the output shaft. As an unrelated note, the steel fan shroud is firmly attached to the engine block and then attached to the radiator with a spongy rubber band connector. The radiator itself is mounted on large mushy rubber mounts on either frame rail. I don't see much torquing of the engine and tranny when it loads and unloads, but they sure dance around when unloaded at idle--even more when I shut the engine down. Jack

[Tango]

Sounds pretty much like the mounts I have but I have not cranked this beastie since installing it. Still have a lot of plumbing to sort out.

And everything I have read and seen concurs with the shakes, particularly on start-up & shut-down.

The fours are called "paint-shakers" for a reason. The sixes balance out much, much smoother.

Thanks Jack

[nat_ster]

Yup.

Haste makes waste.

Of time and money.

Nat

[Tango]

Roger that Nat --- As you no doubt know, a project of this scale can be daunting when it comes to planning out and considering how things go together. If not thought through it is easy to construct something that cannot be serviced in the future without taking the whole bus apart. Your project is a whole lot bigger and more complicated than mine so I'm guessing you spend as much or more time thinking every feature through as you do building it.

I could have been done a year or two ago if all I had to do was build out an interior in a ready to roll chassis. But...I made the mistake of falling in love with the looks of an old rig that needed just about everything rebuilt or brought up to current driving needs. No complaints though. One thing we have in common is a desire to construct a unit to our own needs and standards. And that "path less taken" calls for an extra measure of care and patience.

I'm over three years into this project and still have at least another two or more to go given the time I have available to work on it, but since this is going to be my mobile retirement home...like you, I want to try and do it right.

Onward!

[Tango]

Rant Warning!!!


Finally found a critical component I have been trying to track down for months. Since my entire driveline is all home brewed, locating various parts can often be tricky. This discourse may or may not be helpful to anyone one else, but if you are running a 1000 or 2000 series Allison tranny, it could apply.

The Issue: Adding a Parking Brake

There are basically two types...hydraulic & mechanical. For medium to heavy duty vehicles the mechanical is preferred and is mandated in many instances so that's where my search began. There are three types of mechanical park brakes these days...

1. Wheel Mounted - Mounts on one or both rear wheels. Depending on the axle it may involve Drums or Disks. If Drum, it will usually be a cable pull system that is already built in. No big deal. If it's a disk system, you will likely have to add one or two additional calipers on the rotors that are mechanical and cable actuated. Mounting hardware can be a beotch.

2. Axle Mounted - There are now axle mounted, mechanical disk systems that mount at the rear driveshaft yoke. Most require a custom made mounting bracket but some are available for the more common axles. It is a relatively simple system but the bracket itself can once again be a bit tricky.

3. Transmission mounted mechanical driveline drum brake - These have been around forever (My original 1946 4-speed tranny came equipped with one. It just wouldn't bolt onto my Allison). These are simple, capable of holding a hefty load on steep inclines and can also serve as an Emergency Brake.

My preferred option was for Number Three.

OK...so where to get one? That's where the drama and research time came in. There are only two manufacturers in the US and I called and emailed them both. Neither could tell me what make/model/year of vehicle their own products were used on. Thanks for nothing guys. I talked to Ford, Chevy and International dealers. Once again, no help at all. Without a VIN number, most dealers have no idea what was used anywhere. Only after lots of online hunting and finally resoting to using friggin Wikipedia was I able to determine that there were at least a couple of Chevy trucks that used the system I was looking for. Turns out, the Allisons with the driveline park brake were found on Chevy 4500 & 5500 medium duty Kodiaks in at least '08 & '09.

From there I started calling Chevy dealers. Here we go again. Without a specific vehicle VIN number they can't find their asses with either hand. You'd think that with all the new computer systems, you could look up any part on the planet. And, maybe you can, but most of the morons working the counters these days are simply too stupid or lazy to make it happen.

About to give up and go with a boat anchor, I finally came across one Chevy parts guy (Randy @ Lone Star Chevrolet) with enough savvy and initiative to cross reference the parts. BINGO! Since the complete unit is not available, he put together a list of every component and ran it all out. Not cheap, but at least I finally had everything I needed on paper. I drove out and handed off cash and my compliments with a smile. Not cheap, but I now have ordered what I need to start wrapping up my driveline.

This whole tirade is less about a few mechanical parts than it is mindset. What the frick has happened to the auto parts business? As a kid, I could count on some old codger who ran a crappy junkyard to know virtually every part on every car ever made and which ones would cross over to something else. All from memory and experience. And now that we have the computing power to take Pi out to a billion places or calculate the orbit of stars in another galaxy...the idiots at dealerships can't even use them to find a set of lugnuts when you have the freakin year/make & model!

No wonder China is kicking our ass!

There...I feel so much better now...and thank you all for listening.

[Stu & Filo. T]

Hey I live in California, try finding someone who know what rodding out a radiator means, 99% of radiator shops only know how to remove the old & install new

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by Tango

Rant Warning!!!
This whole tirade is less about a few mechanical parts than it is mindset. What the frick has happened to the auto parts business? As a kid, I could count on some old codger who ran a crappy junkyard to know virtually every part on every car ever made and which ones would cross over to something else. All from memory and experience. And now that we have the computing power to take Pi out to a billion places or calculate the orbit of stars in another galaxy...the idiots at dealerships can't even use them to find a set of lugnuts when you have the freakin year/make & model!

Because the industry is too reliant on technology, IMHO. My late father spent most of his life turning a wrench- be it for my grandfather's gas station (and Volvo dealership later), the local Chevy and BMW places, or on his own- pretty much would rant and rave about how the newer mechanics couldn't seem to diagnose the simplest thing without the aid of a computer.

Even I ran into that with getting front license plate clips for my daily driver, an 02 Grand Prix. The young knucklehead behind the counter of my local GM dealer sold me a mounting plate for an earlier Grand Prix. Went home, tried to put it on, and said WTF!. Went back, explained what I needed, was asked to bring the car in to the bay and in five minutes the old coot who was the manager had refunded the money for the plate and handed me four new clips.

I also think part of the problem is the employer/worker dynamic changed (probably around 30-35 years ago). Most people don't have the same loyalty to their employer they did, when they knew they could work 20-30 years for a company, advance up the food chain, and retire with a decent pension. Now its just a springboard for another job. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to get off my soapbox, stop , and go have more coffee.

[somewhereinusa]

I think you may have poked a hornets nest here. Lots of us on this forum are old coots that remember the old guy (gal in my case) that could walk back and pick up the part with out even looking it up. Boy, was she ever cranky, if for some reason you displeased her. I seemed to do that a lot, probably because I was fifteen. If you could heft it in and throw it on the counter, she knew what it was. I was in awe and a little afraid of her.
Those were back in the days when auto parts stores gave a significantly better price to garages so that everyone could make a profit. Also they kept their inventory until it sold, they didn't get rid of it because some bean counter somewhere said it cost more to keep it than to throw it away. I was in on part of that. I worked at one of the local parts stores for a while. Was given a list of Bendix brake parts, told the weren't moving fast enough and to throw them away. I threw them into my garage and used out of that stuff for years.

Dick

[SassyLass]

Sweet bus! What a score!

Edit: just realized there are about 800 posts after what I thought was the last post. Duh. Sorry about the likely irrelevant comment here... OY. (Back to the original...)

About that shower door.. What a brilliant idea!

"I have designed a shower door that when closed has drawers and shelving that will occupy all that open space inside the shower and swings out to form a privacy door when in the open position. Frankly, I'm surprised that I haven't seen such an arrangement before since coach makers work so hard at using every other square inch."

-Do you have room to make it a quarter round and clear the toilet? If so, one side could be a solid door and one a shower door on each side of the 90* angle.

If you had space, you could even build it on an 180* arc/line that pivots of to the outside hall completely when in use, with only half exposed when the door is closed...

[Tango]

Howdy Pamela --- and thanks for the kind words. That idea came from the fact that on every trip in a little Toyota Odyssey I used to have I found myself constantly loading & unloading stuff into & out of the shower. I figured why not just arrange it so most of it could stay in place?

The interior build out is still a ways off and there has been some re-thinking (mostly about the use of a composting toilet) but one way or another I will make use of that otherwise dead space.

[SassyLass]

You're welcome. I'm a big proponent of the composting toilet, but not so much the expensive store-bought versions. The first one I used long-term was the 5gallon bucket version and it worked perfectly. I wrote a long comment when I first got on this site with a lot of design details to consider if you are considering fashioning your own.
(I don't know how to link back to it, sorry)

[Tango]

Hey Pam --- did your homebuilt have any kind of exhaust fan? My biggest concern is that my space dictates that the shower and toilet occupy the same small space...i.e., what some call a "wet toilet". Getting even 12v to survive regular showers would seem to be tricky.

Meanwhile, I'll do a search for your post on the subject.

[opus]

My brother, a plumber, was just telling me about this toilet setup: Neorest® 550 Dual Flush Toilet, 1.6 GPF & 1.05 GPF

I personally think this would be your best move....dont balk at the price though.

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by Tango

Hey Pam --- did your homebuilt have any kind of exhaust fan? My biggest concern is that my space dictates that the shower and toilet occupy the same small space...i.e., what some call a "wet toilet". Getting even 12v to survive regular showers would seem to be tricky.

Meanwhile, I'll do a search for your post on the subject.

What about a ceiling exhaust fan at the highest point in the head?

[SassyLass]

I didn't really need an exhaust because it never sat long enough to get smelly. My set-up used dry sawdust, manually applied with a scoop. I had a dedicated compost bin outside, and generally dumped the bucket when it was about half full because it was easier to carry.

That said, it is important to keep these types of set-ups dry as possible. BUT since there is no plumbing, they can also be built to slide into a hidden cabinet easily.

If I fashioned a hidden cabinet, i would probably utilize a small screened vent with a bitty fan just for the moisture factor. There really isn't as much smell without all the excess water or fluid. A urinal or urine-diverter will help even more and will also stretch time between emptying the container.

[SassyLass]

The details are in "Starbuck's Composting Toilet" comment #65 back in March 2015

[nat_ster]

I think a big factor on the bucket toilet not giving off smell after your done your dump, is the use of Dry wood chips. The wood chips soak up the liquids and keep them from evaporating. No evaporated fumes = no smell.

I think the bucket toilet may be the best for you Tango due to the space issue. Unlike a hard mounted floor toilet, the bucket can be set out of the shower while the shower is in use. No having to trip over the toilet.

For reference, I have been using variation of the bucket toilet since September of 2014. I find the urine pail smells far worse than the poop pail does.

Now that I have 10,000 pounds of wood chips, we are going to try using one pail for all. I have to take out a full pail daily due to my wife being prego and going pee every 30 minutes, but no big deal.

Also when all of our human waste is suspended in wood chips, there is no sloshing, spilling, ect. Much nicer to empty not seeing the stuff directly.

Nat