Under the hood modifications
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Fitting the inner fender wells. Have removed and cut and reinstalled three times so far to get clearances closer. Gotta be careful not to cut too much. But.
Started to fit up the inner fenders. Had to cut a fair amount off the bottoms of both of them to clear the S-10 upper A-arms. Still need some trimming because it's not lining up just right----yet. Not much to make it straight till fenders go on.
Once the fenders went on, it all lined up rather nicely. When the door gaps are aligned, all else seems to work out perfectly. This is to get things modified to get a new radiator installed to clear the steering box. And to get the wheel wells to clear the upper A-arms and fabricate a front mount to the frame. Ordered the radiator and 16 inch electric fan today, 8/9/2013. Oh, by the way, you may notice that the tread with looks a little narrow. Yes it is. By a total of 4 inches from stock. Will probably reverse the rims on the front to pick up that 2 inches on each side, and will be back to original stock width. (Learned that from a conversation I had with a guy on the H.A.M.B. website)
Still working/massaging the top condenser trim piece. May have to make it over again. Thought I was going to have to notch the air dam to clear the top of condenser headers but it looks like it will work without notching. DID notch the hood latch bracket for the hot gas line to clear, lower left of the picture. AND I remade the trim/mount piece on the top of the condenser. See future pictures.
Condenser is fully mounted, top and bottom. Vertical bracket screws into an angle bracket below the condenser to stabilize the hood latch bracket and the lower lip of the grill.
Passengers side after cutting off the front of the S-10 frame. A little trimming of the piece above it will make all fit well. Just noticed. Thermometer on the porch says 102. DANG !
Initial measurements say that I'll have to cut out the marked part of the lower lip to get things to fit. Largest problem is that dang steering box. Awaiting a used "upper air dam" piece that takes up the space between the top of radiator and hood. As it turned out, I only had to cut off that KNOBBY part just in front of the steering box, the height came out ok with the radiator and condenser on top of that lower lip.
The 6.5 inch cardboard box is to simulate the depth of the water pump, with 1/2 inch clearance. Some fabbing in my future. Once I determine "maximum" mounting height at the top, I may not have to cut out that bottom lip. Decided to cut down the box and secure the actual pump pulley to the box so that the diameter and vertical and left/right positioning will be closer to actual without pulling the water pump off of my finished engine. I had already fabricated a new center support that is straight because the original curves back then up and was very much in the way of the condenser. But as I continued fitting, this support won't work either. I'll have to make another one once the condenser is in it's final position.
I may have to rethink this whole dang thing. The water pump pulley is mocked up with a cardboard box and is within one eighth of an inch of where it will be. Maybe I was getting frustrated, but I decided to modify the brand new fan. The clearance may/could work out, but the motor sticks out were it will probably be a problem with the alternator/power steering/air conditioning belts. This SPAL 10 inch fan is the high output paddle wheel version, 1,100 CFM at zero static pressure and 830 CFM at 0.40 static pressure (kick ass air). Just as I'm typing this, I just referred to the catalog and there is a note to remove the back cover if the fan is to be mounted with the axis in a vertical configuration. Hmmmmm.. Something about condensate drain...In trying to save as much space as possible, I mounted the fan on the back side (toward front of car) of the mounting plate at the fan shroud, picking up a quarter inch there. If I can't make this work out, there is another version that has a total depth of two inches, not three and three quarters inches, but CFM is 802 rather than 1100. For two fans, I'd be shorter on air by about 600 CFM.
Finally got the second fan and modified it and mounted it this afternoon 8/7/2013. Still don't like it.
Another view from drivers side of fans and water pump pulley. See future pictures where I decided I HAD to move the engine back 2 inches. This just is NOT going to work. Grrrr
The fan shroud/radiator mount. It's only an inch deep on the back side, where you see the pop rivet next to the filler.
Boy this is close. Well, it's TOO close. The bolt hole on the front piece is supposed to line up with one in the bottom of the piece above, but won't, so trimming the bottom plate comes soon. Finally cut off the front of the S-10 frame.
Don't like this. I was getting tired and it was hot as hell out there. So I'll probably do something else.
There is a bit of fin damage, but not serious. The system still had full pressure on it at the salvage yard. The guy had to blow the charge to release the Jeep connectors. Sooo NO LEAKS ! And 45 bucks.
Fabricated radiator/fan shroud (on the bottom) done by my new old buddy, Craig at C and C Sheetmetal just down the street.
Here is the good part about this condenser: It's a 2 pass, 2 row with a very fine fin spacing. Foam spacer to the radiator. And it fits the radiator perfectly. The connections come out in just the right places on the other side of the radiator mount.
Return bends in the condenser, Mopar part number. Looks like 55115-864-5?5?4?o3-2336.?
Had to have the brand new aluminum radiator modified by Kevin the welder whose shop is next to Criag's at C & C Sheetmetal to clear the second fan by cutting off the inlet at half the angle of tilt, rotating 180 degrees and welding it back on.
All mounted, except for that pesky condenser top trim piece. Don't particularly like this at this time. We'll see what happens. I decided that the trim lip piece on top of the condenser would not work out, so I had Craig at C and C Sheetmetal remake.
Fabricated upper condenser mount, rubber grommet and slightly springy bracket.
New upper condenser cover bracket. The rear lip turns up an additional half inch and is screwed into fan shroud. Pop rivets are through a strap that goes under the condenser mount bracket. Perfect. The front lip that turns down is bent an additional 10 degrees so it is parallel to the front of the condenser. That Air Dam piece above the condenser bracket came with a new rubber and staples. That will be replaced last. I didn't want any fasteners showing on the front, and the pop rivets are the only things showing, even though the fan shroud is securely screwed to the top condenser trim strip and in turn to the condenser brackets.
OK, Ya'll...I broke down and decided that I HAD to move the engine back 2 inches. So there ya go. Took out the driveshaft, motor mounts, trans mount, and exhaust pipes to cut them all down 2 inches.
Motor mount back in and engine moved back 2 inches. Trimmed off excess metal that interfered with fuel pump location. Will paint when final engine install goes forward.
Transmission mount. To get 2 inches, I redrilled the pad on the crossmember 1.5 inches back, and then redrilled the crossmember mounting holes on each end by a half inch. Worked perfectly. The hole on the left is the old hole, slightly off center, to align the engine centerline directly toward the Jag driveshaft connection. The Driveshaft centerline is about 1.5 inches off center. Did not move the spacer holes that I marked here. Used the original holes. Think before you drill, I always say. ha
Exhaust pipe with cutouts and crossflow pipe. Will cut it down 2 inches and throw it back in.
Got my Dress-up kit from White Performance and it looks great. Had to do some modifications to get things to mount up. Problem is, no clearance for temp sensors on intake front and PS pump hits steering box. Grrrr. I'm trying to find some chrome adapters to connect the flow fitting at the front of the intake manifold to the suction of the water pump. I may just drill a hole in the thermostat. Still working on solution. Update: See "Tips and Tricks Gallery"
Installed the PS pump on the "good engine" with tight belt, then took off with brackets tight, moved to "fake engine" to see where the PS pump would fall. Not good. Update: Yesterday - 9/26/2013, I found some guys In Kansas who do nothing but build and sell engine brackets for just about any configuration for mounting anything anywhere on an engine. They have a bracket to mount a GM Type II power steering pump with remote reservoir, and is about half the size of the hamb can type later model pumps (the one I have) with the same performance. So I ordered it, and next week these clearance problems should be solved. YEE HAWW ! ! SOOOO, I got on Ebay, and searched, and guess what! I found a brand new Type II pump and chrome remote reservoir, and bought it for $5.50. NO LIE !! It should ship today...UPDATE: Got the reservoir and PS pump. The pump was trashed and the guy lied on his e-bay ad, saying BOTH BRAND NEW. Never was able to get the dang pulley off, which was beat to hell, and there seemed to be no PUMPING action when I spun the pulley. So I threw away the pump and ordered another one that IS brand new and in the box, plus a new PS pulley from Alan Grove Components. 39 bucks for the pump and 50 for the pulley. I'm still way ahead of the game on cost.
Although I can install new hoses with a little bend in it, still not good. But the Type II pump and mount should solve this situation. Just got my Alann Grove components bracket for short water pump and Type 2 GM PS pump. That pump is TINY, and all clears very well. See the next picture. Notice the modified '49 radiator mounting bracket, Cut the lower right corner off, flipped it over, cut the angle off, and rewelded to clear the steering box and allow clearance to get to the radiator drain.
This is that grungy PS pump that I just got off e-bay, with the UNremovable serpentine pulley, but that's ok. Problem is solved with the clearance issues. On to better things...A NEW pump and single belt aluminum pulley are on their way here.
NEW Steering column with GM wiring and steering wheel mount. Just ordered steering wheel, master brake cylinder and booster, pedal bracket, and gas pedal assembly. See previous picture for a discourse on the fitting and return of this column to Summit. Guess what, Summit Racing paid the freight BOTH WAYS on the return, and even though the 28" column was 10 bucks more, they credited the 10 bucks and didn't charge me. So the error in order and getting the correct one only cost me a few days of production. Not only that, but when I opened the mail this morning, there was a check for ten bucks in it from Summit Racing. Don't know why.. but there it was....
Got my steering column yesterday. Initial fitment says that an intermediate shaft with universal joints will go between the shafts. They are ordered. Still using old rusty headers for fitting. But then I found that I ordered a column that is TOO FRIGGIN' long. Returned the 32" column to Summit Racing, and exchanged for a 28" column, but they didn't have the "key on the dash" option, which is what I wanted, so had to settle for the "key on the column". Wasn't worth an additional 150 bucks to get the one with "key on dash", and 28" long. Their pricing is all over the map on the columns that they sell.
Ok. I just got this 1 inch HEIM bearing, and guess what. There is NO way I was able to get it to fit within the headers and just below to lower universal. This thing is HUGE ! 11/8/2013. PLAN B: Just ordered a 3/4 inch HEIM bearing, will have the upper end of the steering shaft that connects to the steering box with a rag joint and collapsible section machined down from 1 inch to 3/4 inch and flats machined down too (the shafts are all DD configuration, with two flat sides on the shaft). Hope it works. The 3/4 inch bearing is about 1/2 the size of this one. GRRR.. it's always something.
This is the craziest bracket I've ever made. Top view. Can't tell much except the three holes are to bolt it to three existing holes in the original S-10 frame. Shiny part is the Heim joint.
Different view. The bottom jam nut clears the upper A-frame pivot by 1/4 inch and the steering shaft is off the headers by about 3/8 inch. All is very close. As it turns out, this design was way too weak for the leverage that is put on the Heim bearing and would flex when the steering wheel is turned. See future pictures of modifications to strengthen it. By the way, upon final assembly, I ground the bottom jam nut down to about half size and applied a liberal supply of Permatex Threadlocker to both nuts and put the torque to them. I picked up nearly a quarter inch by grinding down the nut and trimming the bottom of the Heim bearing.
Heim joint and bracket installed. Surely hope that when the front wheel rises and the A-frame rotates upward, that the A-frame pivot does not come closer. Don't think it will, as the Heim is exactly above the pivot and 1/4 inch clear. 11/12/2013. I discovered that the factory threads that hold things to the S-10 frame are very weak, or the steel is softer than I would have expected. When tightening the bolts, two of the three bolts stripped the threads with not much torque on the bolts. Will open them up and weld in some full size nuts inside the frame when the time comes. Also, there is just toooo much cantilever on the Heim joint, so I will be taking it out and strengthening it with a gusset and a support from the end of where the big bolt is and the short side on the right side.
All welded up, yea, ugly, but what the heck. Sandblasted and painted. And now VERY STIFF.
Decided to use the REAL headers to fit the steering shaft, even though I'm running the risk of scratching the headers just in case there are small differences in geometry. Not much room for an upper HEIM support just below the bottom universal. The bearing should install just below/to the left of the left (lower) universal joint to hold that shaft from flopping around. UPDATE: ! When I took the lower shaft to my old buddies at Leo Machine to turn down the shaft from 1 inch to 3/4 inch, we discovered that the shaft actually was a slip joint that is 1 inch on the outside and a 3/4 inch DD shaft inside it. The guy who cut the shaft with a torch disguised the end of the shaft and a person could not see the fact that the inner shaft was actually the correct (3/4 inch) size after all. YIPPEE !! So all we did was grind the end, drill a hole in the inner shaft, insert a screw, and pull the shaft out! Perfect outcome.
Everything installed. Cut the main column shaft off about a half inch for final fitment.
VIDEO ! (Click on the picture) - READY TO ROLL ! Notice that the Heim joint does not flex or move around at all. Very close clearances all the way through the headers.
Proportioning valve piping to master cylinder. Four inch hole is for fresh air on driver's side and it will be blocked off as fresh air will be introduced through the passenger side into the A/C system.
Brake booster and master cylinder fitted on the firewall along with proportioning valve mounted on inner fender. Crumby picture.
Jeep condenser from late model Wrangler, I think. had to heat and bend some dimples in the primered part over the radiator.
After moving the engine back 2 inches, all is starting to be more "normal".
This is soooo damned pretty.
