New World Datsuns...

So I started this last night and finished the passenger side box today, I actually made it larger also.

It doesn't have locks anymore, but I can access this box without lifting the bed, it has 2 wing nuts with keepers to keep them from loosening up.





I also made arms I can install to make the access door a tray.







It has around 14 inches from the front to the back and it is just shy of 30 inches wide inside, I was considering putting the battery for the truck back here in this box with the jack, as this box is accessible without lifting the bed, my gas filler is also in this box, if it doesn't work good I will do something else.

Well I think for the most part I now have the final version of the box on the passenger side under the bed, I decided that I could not pour gas out of my gas can into my tank with the filler inside the box, so I made the box door a little smaller and put the gas filler on the back outside of the box, I am hoping this works properly.

I don't have the second wing nut on the back side of the door this time, the door sits tight against the side, if it bugs me later which I doubt, I will add a steel brace on that line so I can weld the bolt in, the door and door backing is aluminum.

I forgot, I took these photos recently.

Turned out sweet! Been using it for work yet?

I used the dump bed once so far and the stuff slid right out, it was great, but now I don't get to talk to the guy in the yard as much.
The cylinder on the passenger side is leaking, I drove around last Friday getting quotes for a replacement and the 2 I talked too said it would have to be rebuilt at around $600.00 at the most, both were that high, one said it was another $300.00 for him to R&R it and he wasn't all that happy as he kept pointing at things he didn't like, but that guy also said it might be as low as a couple hundred if it only needed seals, the first guy said $500/$600 to rebuild it but suggested I go to the other place, it will likely be $600.00 if I remove it as if I don't and let them remove it they will call me saying it needs a bunch of other stuff.
I was just hoping to buy a new cylinder, maybe a set and just replace them myself, but I really don't know where to look, I don't really know what I have so I cannot just type in what I want, and I have never dealt with this kinda stuff before so I don't know where to go either, there were 3 other names on my list after searching "hydraulic cylinders" locally, I suppose I could go to them next week and ask what they have.
Right now it is full of shit so I cannot lift it very high, maybe high enough to add hydraulic fluid, but that is about it.

I bet Grainger would have new cylinders.

DRIVEN wrote:I bet Grainger would have new cylinders.

So how would you go about that, I can drive there as it is at Swan Island, the problem is my cylinders have no tags at all, there no information about them anywhere on the cylinders, I have measured them but do not know the real stroke, I just know the cylinder size(length/across) and I know the shaft size(across), I can figure out the length compressed but fully extended I don't think I will really ever know now.
When it had no bed on it and it was only held on with 4 bolts it extended really high, but now that it has a bed and is bolted down with all the mount bolts it only went so high before it started to slow down and stop, it didn't go high enough to use the brace to hold it up without any pressure in the cylinders, but it appeared to go high enough to dump the loads(which it does fine), so I relocated the brace seat that you can see good in the second photo.
It appear to be barely making that seat now, so maybe I am getting low on hydraulic fluid, I need to buy some of that now also, is all hydraulic fluid the same?, I actually doubt that but thought I would ask.

I'm certainly not a hydraulic expert but used Grainger for a lot of pneumatic cylinders when I was working in the door shops. You'll need to know diameter, length, and stroke. They will probably have replaceable/interchangeable ends to choose from to meet your needs. Now is the time if you want to alter how it works. Larger diameter will lift slower but heavier loads.
Just standard hydraulic oil should be fine.

Every time I drive this truck I can hardly believe how well the brakes work now, and this chassis/frame has 1986 single piston brake calipers/vented rotors, I had Hardbody V6 dual piston brake calipers/vented rotors on the 521 frame, they worked way better once I installed the power brakes, but these brakes are even better with the same 1973/74 620 booster/1979 620 brake master, it is amazing how well they work.
I still am not happy with the rear suspension, but the 521 rear leafs I had will not bolt into the front mount on this chassis/frame, so I have to either drill the bushings out of them leaf eyes and use 720 bushings, or move everything/all the leafs except the main leaf to the main leaf on the 720 leaf pack, I am thinking that the 720 main leaf is beefier than the main 521 leaf, so if I move all them 521 leafs over to the to the 720 leaf it will be stiffer/firmer than it has ever been, but I was running coil over shocks on the 521 and do not have them on the 720 chassis now.
I will think about it some more as it is too cold outside to work on this right now.

I believe my alternator gave up this afternoon, when I left this morning it was charging fine, but on the way home after stopping at the store the light came on at slower RPMs and the volt meter was showing 12 volts, when driving down the road the light mostly goes out but it still only shows 12 volts at the meter, I checked my fuses which I don't believe they play any part in this, I wiggled all the wires and nothing was loose, it is cold and wet outside, I will start it up tomorrow or the next day and see if anything has changed, I have another alternator to replace this one, but it has a different plug.

Well I got it to raise twice today to show the 2 tractor places what I have, it raised very slow, it is cold outside so I am assuming that was why it was so slow to rise.

The first place wasn't a lot of help(John Deere), the guy looked at it and shrugged his shoulders, suggested I rebuild what I have as he had nothing like it, he also suggested the Kabota dealer down the road, so I went there and them guys were more helpful, but they suggested the same thing, rebuild what I have, but they also told me where to go to get/match the seals(seal source), he had a few cylinders but they were either too large or had too long a stroke, the guy also went thru how to take it apart real fast, not sure I got all of what he said but he was more helpful than anyone else I have personally talked to in person.

Every time I show this to someone and ask them who they thought made it they just look at me blankly, were there that many places back then that made this kind of stuff, maybe there were so few made that these guys have never seen anything like it before, most look at it like I do, how is it put together rather than who made it, the guy at Hydraulic Inc actually told me he thought it was bent, I then got my tape measure out and measured the to lower rails and when they were the same he agreed it was likely made that way.

I am up in the air about this right now, I kinda want to wait till it is warmer and see if the Lucas Hydraulic Oil Booster/Stop Leak works, but right now is my slow time of the year so now is the time to fix stuff.
I also need to make a lever to work it inside of the cab, I get out and use the lever I made to raise and lower it, but if it failed and dropped fast, I am unsure I could get out of the way fast enough, it would be better if I were inside the cab.
It also would be better if I put a relay in the cab to turn the power off when not in use like the TommyGate is set up, the relay is already mounted in the engine bay, I just need to buy a switch and wire it.

Well I know why the one cylinder leaks now, the top rusted inside the cylinder, I really don't know what to do about it as it is the length of the top of the cylinder.

I stuck a rag in it and got it fairly clean inside(photo above), but when I stick my finger in there it is pretty rough, the only thing I have done so far was to put a very light duty brass wire wheel on my Dremel with a remote extension handle so I could stick it more than half way down the barrel of the cylinder, it removed the rust color and now I can see how rough it is.
It didn't leak until I let of the handle that raised the bed, in other words it didn't leak while raising the bed, but the moment I let off it would start puking, it came out and apart real easy, now I am waiting for opinions and options, I was kinda hoping to hone it and put new seals in it unless someone can give me a better option, I called my machinist and ask him what he thought, he said honing it would make it bigger and suggested just lightly sanding the effected area which I replied that would oval it and he agreed, so now I don't really know what to do.
I am thinking lightly hone it to take the sharp edges off, put new seal in it, and put it back together and hope it works, it worked with a very rough surface, so a smoother surface seems like it might work better, but I don't know shit about this stuff.
The only thing I can think of to do if above don't work is to either find a longer tube the same size with the threads in the end where it goes together, then cut the end off the old tube as it is put together like a drive line, clean it up and weld it to the new cylinder barrel, then weld the hose connection on the side like the old one, or find another hydraulic cylinder the same length but larger, and put it in the middle, not sure if I weld good enough for that though, I can probably do it but would rather not.

Solid plan.

We shall see, I will go to Seal Source Inc tomorrow, it's only 20 minutes away according to the computer which I didn't ask it to tell me which aggravates me, my plans are not set in stone right now, but I have a couple jobs next week if it warms up and I would like to use this truck.
I have an issue, I built this flatbed the way I built my original flatbed, it is not removable except from the frame, so the bed is sticking up in the air right now, getting it down will be a bitch without the cylinder, and getting it back up will even be harder, so I need this thing fixed sooner than later.

To be honest I would have to make a Gantry Crane to lower and raise it.

OK, the first thing I tried to was get the nut off the end of the shaft that holds the seal on, well I broke an inch and a quarter socket trying with the impact and it didn't move, then I tried this huge crescent wrench I have with a sledge hammer, I could not move it, I gave up, then I called Seal Source Inc and asked if it had to be off for them to match the seal and guess what(easy guess), it has to be off and they cannot remove it for me, I looked at my seal real close and it actually looks good to me so I set this part aside.

Next I went to the auto parts store and started looking for a hone that would do the honing, they were all too short but I found one that expanded to 2 3/4 inches and bought it, then I went to the hardware store and found a chuck that would fit into my small Dewalt impact that I use as a screwdriver and ratchet wrench with adapters, I have bits to use it as a drill also, the chuck and the hone just make it to the end of the cylinder barely connected to my impact, I squirted some oil in the barrel of the cylinder and on the lightest setting for the hone I started honing away, I did this for a while, cleaned it out and looked inside, then repeated it a few times, new oil every time, after a while(I wasn't spinning the hone very fast) I cleaned it out real good and looked and felt inside, both ends looked awesome but the middle appeared to be the worst, I got a long screwdriver out and lightly felt how rough the middle felt, it wasn't terrible so I stopped honing.

next I squirted some hydraulic oil inside the tube and used my finger to spread it out around the whole end, then I put some more on the piston end and I slid it in and tightened it up, then I put my finger over the fitting hole and tried to move the piston shaft, I could not get it to move far unless I took my finger off the hole, I called it good.

I installed it on the lift assembly, connected the hose, went to the lever and started trying to lift it looking for leaks the whole time, it took a while before anything happened(air in the cylinder) but it finally started to rise and the safety lever fell, I could see no leaking, I dropped it all the way down and then lifted it up again and it went up faster than I had ever seen before, it also went farther than it had ever went before, and so far no leaking.

I believe the reason it would not go up farther in the past is that once it got to a point that cylinder leaked so bad that that cylinder quit lifting and the other one kept rising till in bound and the whole thing stopped, well now it goes all the way(full throw) to the top, it went so far I started looking around to see if it was hitting anything new.

I am pretty sure the other cylinder has rust in it also if this one had rust, but it doesn't leak at all, I got real lucky this time and it worked out, but I am a little worried about taking the other one apart because I might not be so lucky with that one, should I take it apart???

It works great now, better than it ever has since owning it, I got real lucky.





I also started having an issue with my alternator, so I switched it out and still had the same issue with that 2nd alternator, so I grabbed another one that had a sticker on it, it said "IC internal", maybe it was "IS", but what was weird is I started the engine without the "T" plug in it and I revved it once and it was charging 14 volts, it started at just over 12V but went up to 14V after I revved it, I plugged the "T" plug in and nothing changed, has anyone ever heard of a Nissan alternator that is fully regulated inside itself without needing an exciter wire?

Don't know about Nissan but that's how older GMs are.

I did the other side, it wasn't near as bad, I honed that area and put it back together and it works fine.
I smoked my relay, I don't have a lot of luck with relays.
Here is the alternator sticker I mentioned in my last post that doesn't need the exciter wire.

So today I changed out the rear suspension, sort of anyway.
What I did was remove all the 720 leafs except the main leaf, then I installed all my 521 leafs except the main leaf onto that 720 leaf while in the truck, doing it this way saved me time and frustration, as the hole in the front 521 bushing is too small to fit the 720 front mount bolt threw, so now instead of having stock 720 leafs(2 and 2 overload leafs on bottom) with the helper leafs they use on cab/chassis trucks, I have 6 regular leafs and one thick overload on the bottom.
This raised the back of my truck almost 3 inches which I am not all that thrilled about, but I am hoping to get my decent/alright ride back, it appears I also need to change out lower the rear bushings in the shackles, maybe I will do that tomorrow.
I also had rear coil over shocks in the rear and bags for really heavy loads, right now I am not installing either of them, I am waiting to see how this works out, I think I need rear shocks, but I am waiting to see if I need to buy the coil over type, I will not know until I get some weight in the back of the truck.
After I lifted the truck in the air I seen a big spot on the ground under the engine, so after I was done with the leafs I started the truck and waited to see where the fluid was coming from, it turned out that the rear part of the valve cover gasket didn't get where it was supposed to be when I put it back on after I adjusted the valves yesterday(lot quieter now), I went to my gasket tub and found a new one and installed it and all is good now.
I had to add a half quart of oil, it was a big spot and the transmission is covered in oil right now.

I talked to the guy I got all these parts from yesterday and he said the box he cut off the dump bed assembly was a Knapheide box, but he had cut it off and scrapped it because of rust, so I went to the local Knapheide store in Troutdale OR and parked it out front, I lifted the bed before going in and then entered the building and asked for the guy I was told to ask for, the guy happened to be the one I talked to on the phone, he walked out and looked at it first then went inside, in a matter of minutes I had a crowd around my truck, half a dozen people came out to take a look at it, I guess they had never seen one on a small truck.

One guy that looked at it was helpful, he went into his office and came back out a little while later with a place he was sure I could find the cylinders I needed, all I needed was stroke(collapsed and extended), bore, and mount eye type/size, the outfits name is, http://www.surpluscenter.com/Hydraulics ... Cylinders/

I thanked him and left as everyone had went back to work.

Well yesterday I screwed up my instrument cluster trying to get the fuel gauge to work properly, yesterday evening I thought I had it fixed, well I guess not, when I started the truck up I had a fire in the instrument cluster, somehow the brights indicator light housing that twists into the hole fell out and made a connection between the cluster housing and gauge voltage regulator, it messed up everything in that area.
I started over with another instrument cluster and the mileage meter would not move on that one, so I made a good one out of at least 3 different clusters, all the lights work except the oil and ign lights and I have gauges for them, the lights do work in the cluster as I didn't install the cluster till every light worked, I just need to reconnect the ign light wire, and I am not sure why the oil light don't work, I don't recall if it worked recently.
Anyway it appears to be working properly now except for the fuel gauge, I am not sure why it don't work properly, a year ago maybe the fuel gauge would not go to full anymore, and it was doing the same thing when I converted over to this chassis/frame/tank, I pulled the sender out yesterday and it has full movement but will not show full unless I ground out the wire, keep in mind that it now has a different tank and gauge, I by-passed the wire going to the tank without improvement, the only thing left is the wiring harness that powers the gauges as I still have the 521 harness.
My diesel 521 kingcab gauge doesn't work properly either, but the 520 ute gauge does work properly, both these have 720 wiring harnesses in them.
I guess I really should convert over to the 1980 720 wiring harness I have for this truck, but I thought I had all the bugs out of this one, guess maybe not, the electric fuel pump has been working just fine till yesterday, I had to add and extra ground to get it working.