Walter, an okay daily and an okay offroader

[cjpett]

I made a very bold claim that the case would be together and in tonight. I was very wrong.

I drove about 45 minutes south to a very nice place in Firestone to buy this transfer case, only to find out that it's the wrong one. I kind of realized this from the pictures, but it was listed as an NV-241, not an NP241, so I figured there was maybe a different casting when the name change happened. I decided to buy it anyway, because 75 bucks is a good enough deal for any case.

It's a Borg Warner 1370. If I'm reading the case right, it's from 1990. I know nothing about this case, and the insane amount of research I've done hasn't really helped. It looks like the 1370 and 4401 are close to or are identical. It also seems like the only difference between those two and the 4470 is that the oil pump is fixed to a spacer between the two halves of the case. It also sounds like the only difference between all of those and the 1356 is that the 1356 goes in Fords and the others go in Chevys. If you are confused, welcome to the club. There doesn't seem to be much good information on my specific unit, or any of its siblings. All of that should be enough to tell me not to use this case. However. (This is when I try to desperately justify my poor choices)

The NP241 is a legendary transfer case in the Jeep and mid-size off-road community. They are incredibly strong compared to the other chain-based options available (at least in GM vehicles); they have a broad aftermarket and are all pretty much the same. But that's assuming it's going into a small rig, something somewhat lightweight with low torque figures, like an S-10 or a little Jeep. Attaching a doubler to the front probably isn't gonna kill it. If you change that little Jeep into a full-size, you get a different story. This is what I was worrying about a few posts ago. Change out the NP241 with a Borg-Warner meant for 1-tons, and then you might be on to something. I have absolutely no information to back this up, so stick with me here. Mr. Borg and Dr. Warner needed to build their case to handle commercial or commercial-adjacent loads and the torque that comes with diesels. I think it might have a better chance compared to the 241. Or at least an equivalent chance.

Lots of justification for a potentially very bad decision. Here are pictures so this post isn't just words. The black thing is an advanced rain deflection measure I invented. I am calling it a "trash bag"

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I was able to crack open the case after a long-winded battle with the tone wheel and an ongoing battle with the snap rings. Peering into the little crack, it looks like I can pretty easily flip the oil pump or at least move the pickup. I might have to get creative with the vent, and I might have to abandon the 4WD light (oh no) because it butts up right next to the doubler.

I hope it'll all work out, but if it doesn't, I can always swap to a different case.

 

[cjpett]

ah beans ignore this post i hit ctrl enter which posts things i guess

 

[cjpett]

I think this case is going to work very well. I finally bought a good set of snap ring pliers, and it made my life so easy. I got the case split and took a bunch of pictures until I reached the oil pump. There is plenty of space to move the oil pickup without the need to run a line outside of the case, and I think I can repurpose one of the old drain plugs as a vent. I'll just have to drill a new drain somewhere.

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This is my advanced plan. The red is the oil pump pickup...

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...and the back of the case.

I have a rebuild kit and small parts kit on the way. Should take care of the bearings and seals, and the snap rings that were torn apart while trying to get in. Might have to make a little holder for the pipe where the old pickup sat.

 

[cjpett]

The wait for the case parts drove me insane, so I made the mistake of deciding to redo my old wiring for all the lights and things I've added over the years. Relays, fuses, properly sized wires. I decided to start by pulling out all the old wires I put in and drawing out a good diagram. Then the parts arrived, and I stopped doing all of that.

The transfer case flip went smoother than I thought it would, but only time will tell if it'll work. I plan on making a guide for it for the next guy and giving a few updates as things go along.

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I moved the pickup down to where I had planned, and decided to move the magnet a little further away. I got concerned that the metal that gets picked up by the magnet might somehow get sucked up. I used SteelStik again; I hope that it'll hold up, but again, only time will tell.

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I used one of the old drains as a vent. I found a swingline coupler from the work truck that fit pretty well. It's technically the wrong thread, but it cinched up fine, and the thread sealant should stop it from leaking. It's also a vent, so it shouldn't leak at all. I used a pipe plug for the old vent, and it should be able to double as a drain.

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Yesterday my friends and I got the transfer case in and dry-mounted. My new input shaft still hasn't shown up, so it'll have to come down again and be reinstalled with RTV. I wanted it in so I can measure and order a front driveshaft, fab up exhaust, and build a crossmember. The rear crossmember isn't really necessary; the case doesn't droop or anything, but I'll feel better with something there. It'll also give me mounting points for a skidplate. The transmission crossmember needs to be fabbed or replaced to make space for the front driveshaft. I think I will probably order a different one. They make ones with space for dual exhausts, and I think it'll be perfect for what I need and will probably be better than whatever I can make.

I'm starting to push hard on this. I have a camping trip on the 28th, and I would love to have this truck up there. We usually do some offroading, and the past couple of years I've had to ride along with someone, which is great, but doesn't hold a candle to driving. Fortunately, work is slow, and I have most of my parts here. If I am organized and smart, then I can get this done in time, or close enough to done to have fun.

While I've got the case in, I'm going to get the exhaust fabbed and ready, the rear crossmember fabbed and ready, extend the speedometer wires, and get another 4WD light pigtail in there. When all that is set, I can move back to the electronics and clean up the new shifter sticks. When I get the input shaft, I can drop the case and put it back in, mount the shafts, and hopefully be set.

 

[Land Locked Surfer]

So I learned some things about the clock/speedo. It is Stemco-Sangamo Tachograph. I'm not sure how Stemco is involved, but from what I found Sangamo produced these, or units like these, between the 40s and 80s. They put these in everything from buses, to tow trucks, to semis. It is almost entirely mechanical, with only three wires on the back. One is the ground, one is the backlight, and I'm guessing the other one is constant or ignition.

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This is a tachograph, so it's meant to clock the speed of a vehicle over a given amount of time. The way it does this is really simple yet really cool.

Inside the cubby on the left is where you can set and wind the clock. The clock will only run for 24 hours before you have to wind it again. The center circle with the rectangle is where you would put the sheet that records the speed.

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The three needles under the speedometer is how the speed gets recorded. The center one records the speed of the truck. I'm not sure how the top and bottom needles work, but I know the bottom is where 0 mph is, and the top is 70. As the sheet spins the speed gets recorded. I have absolutely no info on what the sheet looks like or anything like that but I am going to try and find something to see it work.

So like I said, this thing is almost entirely mechanical. The way the speedo works is really cool. I don't know if this is how all mechanical speedos work, but this one uses centripetal force and a bunch of springs. As the truck speeds up, the weights on the left spread out, stretching a spring that moves up the needle and also sets the speedo. At least that's how I think it works.

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This whole unit is really cool and works completely fine from what I can tell. The clock seems to keep time really well. I don't know what I'm going to do with this but I'm glad I have it.

That's all for now! I'm looking forward to learning more about this unit and how it works. I'm getting closer and closer to when I can start working on Walter again, so as soon as that happens I'll be sure to update you guys.

We called these: Tattle-Tale-Tachs as the ones we had could record the shift points, the road speed and the time the truck was moving ---it was used by ICC and the CHP to cite drivers who ran over their cheatsheet times.

I was in training as a mechanic for a CDA, which was a Class A license in those days.

I had to have the commercial license to repair and deliver good tractors for bad ones where they broke down.

Once I picked up a replacement driver (Yocky) for the driver of the busted truck who quit on the spot and just abandoned the whole tractor and twin 28s full of 80,000 lbs of peanut butter and mayonnaise.

I was hitting my drive-time limit and the replacement driver wasn't allowed to drive while I slept, so he took the clock apart and saying: "I can wind this backwards to give you another three or four hours if you want".

Yocky was doing it anyway --- and I never told him to.

Putting it back together and faking our the seal on the face was a big problem ... but he said he could do it.

When we both got back to dispatch, as he walked out the gate, he handed the manager a paper bag and continued walking away.

"What's in the bag" the dispatcher yelled and Yocky kept right on a-walking to his car.

You know the ending --- right?

 

[cjpett]

Great story lol. Glad someone knows something about those. I still have mine, it makes a good bit of wall art. I want to stick some electronics or something in there and make it into a clock.

Got the front cross member in yesterday. I ordered one from a place called Dirty Dingo. It's meant for 2WD trucks and to fit exhausts on LS motors. It seems to be good quality and it shipped quick.

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Because it was meant for the 2WD trucks I had to make an adapter plate. I used some old 1/8in plate I found.

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I chucked everything in and together pretty quickly after that. I had to beat in the cross member a little but it got in pretty well.

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The front driveshaft clears the cross member with plenty of space. The exhaust setup will be interesting, but I think I can make it work. I'll probably run it along the frame. I have a couple of concerns for the cross member. It seems like all the weight from the transmission is only transferred through the bolts. It should be fine, the bolts are all grade 8, but if one of them back out then bad things will happen. The cross member is also definitely not meant for the weight of 2 transfercases. I think it'll be fine, and I can build up the rear cross member a bit for more piece of mind.

I mocked up the driveshafts I bought, and the front is great, and the rear fits great too, but the yoke on my rear differential is a 1310 rather the 1350 I thought it was. I want this truck done, so I went ahead and bought a new yoke. I know there's lots of important differential things involved with this but I do not care. If it all goes to **** then it'll be a good excuse to but a 14 bolt in, if not, then sweet.

This afternoon will be a split between wiring and cross members, and tomorrow will be whatever is left. I have 12 days until camping, and I intend to have this done by then.

 

[1991cheyenne]

This build is awesome! Keep up the good work. I think it's funny how our builds are parallel in a way. I did a cam swap in my truck around the time you did, I am looking at doing suspension next, but I a m going a totally different direction than you. Either way keep up the glood work. Looking forward to seeing pictures of your rig back out on the trails.

If you ever find yourself in oregon hit me up so we can hit some trails together

 

[cjpett]

This build is awesome! Keep up the good work. I think it's funny how our builds are parallel in a way. I did a cam swap in my truck around the time you did, I am looking at doing suspension next, but I a m going a totally different direction than you. Either way keep up the glood work. Looking forward to seeing pictures of your rig back out on the trails.

If you ever find yourself in oregon hit me up so we can hit some trails together

You got it! I'd love to see the kind of action you've got out there. That long travel will be awesome for the truck. That big price tag is what kept me away from it, but it's a better answer.

I finished my quality with a K crossmember; it's not pretty, the welds aren't good, and I have very little faith in its ability to hold the transfer case, but that, combined with my little faith in the other crossmember, means I have all the faith in both of them holding everything up.

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I reused the torsion bar mount rubber to isolate the bar so it doesn't make a bunch of noise. I tried to reuse the bolt holes on the frame because (and I cannot stress this enough) I am absolutely sick of drilling holes in my frame.

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I also got the cable shifters mounted. I've only got one actually hooked up; I put one of the ball joint connector thingies somewhere and have to dig it up so I can connect the other one. The sticks need to be fully mounted on the interior, and then they'll be all set.

The rear yoke was way easier than I thought it'd be. I borrowed the neighbor's impact, marked the nut and the shaft, and blasted it off, and then redid what I just undid.

I put on the driveshafts so I have an idea of how to route the exhaust. The doubler setup really eats up space, so I'm going to cross the driver's side under the transmission pan and run them inside the frame rail. I'm not too sure whether I'll send it out the back or out the side, but I'm leaning more towards the rear for comfort. If I go out the side, then I'm going to at least have a resonator, maybe even a cat or a bigger muffler. Loud exhaust on a trail gets old real quick.

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I'm down to 8 days until camping. I'm making great progress on the truck, but it'll all be useless if I don't get my input shaft. I've been calling FST, and he said he'd get it out last week, but that hasn't happened. I hate being the guy calling them constantly, but without it, I'm stuck. I can get the truck perfect, and it still won't go.

Tomorrow's focus is the exhaust, which I think will take a couple of days, and then it'll just be a bunch of little things.

 

[cjpett]

I missed the camping deadline. It's always the little things that getcha (and one or two big ones). The exhaust went fairly well; I got from the headers up to the back of the transfer case. I tacked on a couple of flanges so I can have a separate rear exhaust, because there's no way I could get the whole thing in the truck in one piece, and I change my mind about mufflers fairly often. I burned the s##t out of my ankle thanks to a stray spark, and that pretty much made me quit on the exhaust stuff. I shifted over to getting the air compressor wired, along with all the other electrics. I got my input shaft in on Thursday, right before we left. We could have maybe gotten it in, but it wasn't worth the hassle.

We went up for the weekend and had a great time. We found a really secluded spot with plenty of space. The weather was a mixed bag, but Boy Scout with the Dodge put up a tarp to keep us out of the rain, and I, with all my incredible irrigation skills, made a bypass to keep the runoff from coming under.

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I picked up a few jobs in the week after camping, so I wasn't really able to get much work done until last Friday. Boy Scout came over and helped me wrap up the wiring and pull off the passenger-side steering arm that I had forgotten about. With the help of a few more guys, we dropped the transfer case and installed the input shaft. While it was down, I extended the speedometer sensor wire and cleaned up the insides of the doubler. The install went pretty smoothly for 2 guys bench-pressing a transfer case and 2 other guys frantically throwing in bolts and trying to reinstall a cross-member.

Saturday, we bled the rear brakes and found out the hard way that both front bleeders were seized (the passenger one snapped off in the caliper, and we were too tired to deal with the driver's side). We decided to fill the doubler and the case with fluid and see what leaks. It looks like the case holds, but the doubler has a substantial leak on my RTV work, which I plan on fixing with even more RTV. I have to let it drain first, and then give it some love with brake clean. We got the cable shifters mounted, which is awesome, but I need to make a bracket to really stabilize it. I lost one of the tie rods to mount the cable to the doubler, so I have to dig that up soon.

With half-bled brakes, half an exhaust, and half of my shifter setup, we decided to move the truck. Walter moved 2 whole feet forward, and then two more feet backwards in 2WD. Then Walter did it again in 4HI, and again in 4Lo. Huge success, I think. We couldn't manage to get the doubler to shift, but I think I just need a little more roll to get it to engage.

Yesterday I decided to buy new calipers and put them on, instead of fighting bleeders. $95, and 30 minutes later they were on. Well worth the price. We bled the fronts with no issue, and that pretty much brings us up to date.

I set up an off-road trip on Monday. I will be taking Walter, and this time there is hardly a time crunch. This is my to-do list:
-Find/buy and install cable shift tie-rod
-Fix doubler leak
-Install O2 sensor bung
-Finish rear exhaust

Assuming work doesn't get the best of me, this should be cake. I would like enough time on the weekend to clean up my mess a little and test the truck in the neighborhood, so I can fix anything blatant. Everything else I'll just have to find out on the trail. We plan on doing Old Flowers Road, which is an all-time classic. Over the years, it's slowly moved from a pretty easy dirt road to a somewhat easy dirt road with some fun obstacles. The drive up is only about 40 minutes to an hour, and I can go at whatever speed I want. It's close enough if I need serious help, and challenging enough to stretch the legs on the new suspension.

I apologize for the lack of pictures; the week before camping was a mad dash and the past weekend I just forgot. I'll take more soon.

 

[cjpett]

Hey guys, guess what!
"What!"
The truck still isn't done!
"Dude, what the **** are you even working on the thing"

Yes, but not really. Walter has started to become my girlfriend. You don't know her, she lives in Oklahoma. Here, I have a photo:

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Yeah, Walter is not real. At least not according to my friends, offroad trails, or the state of colorado (don't tell them)

We had planned on taking the truck up last week, but it still needed some love. There were exhaust leaks all over, and it ran like s##t. Hoping to go next weekend, for real. I have my list lowering everyday, and then he'll be ready to rock. The biggest issue I'm having is with the transfercase doibler situation. I lost the rod end (or heim joint, thanks for the correction Ace guy, but I looked it up and it's the same thing) for the shifter, so I got a new one. I need to dial it in so I can click between the Hi and Lo gears. I also need to take a peek at my speed sensor, because it's not letting the transmission shift right. I can't tell if it's the cases or the sensor, so I figured I should check both. The doubler is also leaking, so I've coated it with even more RTV.

The rest is just stuff. Things I should fix that I haven't yet, or little annoyances that need to be dealt with. Still no pictures, I haven't had the forsight to do that. I promise I will get some out by the next post. Most of this post is for the Napoleon Dynamite bit.

 

[cjpett]

Finally, after a solid month of work, the truck is ready to go.

Wait, it's not June? Let me take a look at the calendar here. HOLY s##t IT'S ALMOST OCTOBER? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME? I'VE BEEN FARTING AROUND WITH THIS FOR 4 MONTHS?

The engine trouble from last post came from 2 things. The first was an oil burn and misfire that has been around since the cam. I never fixed it because I didn't want to. The second, more goofy issue, was that I never put the O2 plug on the header back. I put it back and it ran like a dream with a misfire and some oil burn.

I didn't want to deal with the misfire because I was terrified that I had flattened the cam when I tried starting it with the dizzy 180 out. I finally took care of it. I went through all the plugs and found the culprit (#4). I did a compression test on all of them, just because. They all sat between 110 and 130 psi (cold, no throttle. I know that's wrong but I'm not gonna do it again) which I think is fine, and made me feel better about the engine.

Next on the docket was to check the valve seals. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was ticket, and that was confirmed after pulling off the exhaust side spring off and finding a big ole crack.

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I replaced both the intake and exhaust seals, and I'll do the rest as needed. The truck runs better than ever, but it definitely needs a tune. Probably something to tackle this winter.

I took care of the doubler next. The two layers of gray RTV didn't work at all so I smothered the thing with ultra black RTV and waited the full 24 hours. I didn't care if it stopped it, I just wanted it to slow down, and that's what it did. It stopped for about a day, but the leak is back now. The whole thing really should be dropped and redone, but that sure as s##t isn't gonna happen now. Everything else leaks anyway.

I went through and adjusted the shifter linkages, and I can now click through Lo-N-Hi on the doubler and 4Hi-2Hi-N or 2Hi-N-4Lo on the main case. I need to make a linkage so it can shift all the way through, but it's good enough in the meantime.

The whole shifting thing was just my brain worrying. I hadn't made it to shifting speed so of course the thing wasn't shifting. I finally got it up there and it clicked through no problem.

I found a mount for my spare on LMC. I had to get a coupler and another bolt to make it fit my tire. It seems like they didn't design it for my 35" mud tires. I don't have much faith in it holding. It uses 3 self tappers (very big ones, but still), and the tire wobbles when it's mounted. The wobble goes away after the tailgate goes up.

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We also mounted the air hose to the toolbox. It's clean and out of the way.

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I bought the wrong front shocks. They have all the travel and no compression. I've also got to trim the front crossmember for clearance.

Walter still needs some more love. The sticks need a little clean-up and some labels. I need to print out some switch covers and get them wired. I want to get the steering wheel lined up for the first time ever and I could probably use an alignment. I also want to mount the winch and the bull bar, but that might mean a new bumper or a lot of fab.

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I think I need to bring back the CB so I can have a big antenna in the back again.