ZOMBIE RAMCHARGER (it LIVES!!!)!!! pt.1

[redeye202]

It's good to see you keeping old friends in the loop, GEAR HEADS FOREVER, enjoy the truck, you earned it, and when you tire of 6 mpg on gas, CUMMINS POWER is what you need, 12 valve, mechanical injection ( screw electronic crap ) and get 12mpg or better in city driving + when SHTF, you can use heating oil for fuel.

And get out and shoot.

[The War Wagon]

And get out and shoot.

Done beat ya' to it in the OTHER thread. And my friend John, who had the stroke, is who I took shooting today!

[The War Wagon]

My flange yoke eliminator arrived Saturday; now to get it installed, and measure everything for the new driveshaft!

[redeye202]

My flange yoke eliminator arrived Saturday; now to get it installed, and measure everything for the new driveshaft!

That will make a huge improvement to the drive line.

[The War Wagon]

So the driveshaft is an issue at this point, and we KNOW the rear axle needs rotating and shimmed. To TRY and buy a little time this summer, until DMG can tackle it after November, we're re-doing the factory 1310 driveline, in favor of a slip-yoke eliminating t-case flange, and 1350 Ford style double cardon driveshaft, plugged into a 7290 rear pinion yoke!

The flange above, was actually a for a Chebby 241. Probably a nice piece, too, but NOT for an old Dodge! Dave got on the blower with AZ Driveshaft, to get that straightened out. Here's what we got in return.



My buddy Eric, from STO got the t-case yoke off, and as he knows his way around the Timken oil seal PDF... all 204 pages of it... he found the right size replacement seal with little effort, and assembly was a snap.

Pittsburgh Driveshaft then worked up my driveshaft - the 12mm flange bolts came from Denny's (I ordered 8 - so as to have spares as needed, which turned out to be a VERY good move!), and the 7290 rear yoke came from Shaftmasters. Took a while to get it all together, but here is the finished product.






Popping out the old oil seal, and installing everything.





And these are the only pics I got, because I spent the other three hours under the truck, holding the driveshaft steady while Eric installed it!

Darndest thing though - the t-case flange had four smooth holes, and four tapped holes. And so we're TRYING to install the the bolts THROUGH the tapped holes. FIRST off, the collar wasn't seating QUITE flush, so out came the Dremel tool, to shave what must of been just thousandth's off the cardon, before it finally seated flush. But then, we could NEVER get the 4th hole to line up true!!!

Eric was VERY careful & thorough at this - that, those EIGHT bolts from Denny's DID come in handy. Once he hit resistance, he'd back the bolt out, inspect everything, and try and see where we were going wrong. No matter what we tried, three bolts going in true, would always pull the cardon off-center of the flange by maybe just the tiniest fraction, to keep a fourth bolt from going in true. And brudda, we played with this, from before 5pm, until 8pm!!!

FINALLY... we tried what is often done with these flanges - put the bolts through the BACK of the flange through the smoothbore holes, and bolt into the tapped cardon holes that way.


And we were done in 30 seconds.


Wotta day.


I'd also spent the first part of the day - since 9am - working on the stereo and CB installation, so it had been a long day already. It all got done though, so I'm mobile, but barely so. I've driven it twice now... for 2 1/2 miles total... and it's making a whole NEW & DIFFERENT set of noises.

There's a definite new & high RPM vibration that is the new driveshaft - it's mild, but noticeable. I've inspected the bolts & straps after each drive - everything is still tight and in place. I'm not sure if it bothers me because it's new & different, or new, and portends trouble. REGARDLESS what The Beach Boys say, I'm still convinced, there are NO "good" vibrations in a Ramcharger...

I'm becoming more convinced, this thing is basically un-streetable (to say nothing of trailworthy!), UNTIL we get that rear axle rotated and shimmed into place. I'm glad the CAD, and to a lesser extent, the grease seals, in the front axle, are an 'easy' fix (BRAND new grease seals are blown, and the CAD gummed up - time to PULL the CAD, lock the axle, re-install the CAD and PLUG the vacuum lines!), but there ain't a helluva lot you can do with a truck that needs new U-joints every 200 miles, though...

[The War Wagon]

NOW we're getting down to the communication AND transportation issues of The War Wagon!

I run a Bearcat Trunktracker III in my Jeep, since it's my DD, and I go INTO the city with it; let's me follow 800mhz trunked po-po there. The ENTIRE rest of Allegheny Co. is STILL analog, though - so I've gone with a Uniden B355C for the Ramcharger. Since it'll be offroad in rural areas - ESPECIALLY should the zombie apocalypse break out - it'll capture all the signals I need in PA. That, and the weatherband, too, since I'm running a Galaxy 949 for a CB.

CRAPPY cellphone pic alert!

Neat story on the Uniden; I got it off fleaby for $75, but with no power cord or mount. No biggie - I saved some bucks, & I had those things laying around anyways. In fact, I had a couple of hangers for some crappy outdoor speakers laying around - just bent 'em into the right shape, and then screwed it to the dash where the electric trailer brake used to be.



Cool thing about that is, it's easily removeable for storage. I just pull the whole ashtray out, and stick it in the center console!

Got a nice little magnetic antenna for it, and ended up running the wire for that through the firewall.



This was when my truck was STILL dead w/o a driveshaft under a blackberry vine encrusted Oak tree. Good thing that paint is IMPERVIOUS - it needed a wash like you wouldn't BELIEVE when I got it rolling again.

At any rate, the little antenna stores easily enough under the hood, when not in use. Thank goodness for classic DEE-triot Iron!



Passes under the hinge, and away from anything essential, since there's sooooooooooooo much space under the hood!

I suddenly realized that evening, that my rear bench folds forward! Actually, I already knew that - but I suddenly remembered, I wanted to mount the Fatboy on the backside of the console... and wasn't sure there'd be enough clearance, when you flip the bench forward! I'm old enough now when camping, that I've EARNED my airmattress in the cabin, so I NEED the bench to fold down, and for everything to fit. Thankfully, it DOES!

With that GTG, I drilled holes for the mounting bracket, ran the ground wire, and then ran my coax! Got it all tucked neatly away and out of sight - I even had a few feet to spare, even after running it all the way to multicarrier where I'm mounting the 102" whip!




Galaxy 949 - goin' BIG time for the RC!




102" whip installed, along with tennis ball. Has a gutter mount clip, so I don't short out all of Allegheny Co., before GETTING to the off-road!

Underhood goodies! To hook up both the mobile and the stereo in Bristol fashione!



Installed, it looks like this.





Antenna, installed on the multi-carrier.



Gotta Firestik QD mount on top of the barrel - the 102" whip would be the FIRST thing to disappear, if I left it on all the time. Nice thing about this mounting - the 35" M/T completely hides the mount, when the antenna is down. AND the gutter mount whip tiedown.



Thanks to Rolling Radios, my install got completed today - my 4' jumper arrived, although the mailman decided to deliver it to the house instead - adding another 5 hrs of anxious waiting to the project.

The bracket was already mounted, the power run, the antenna and mobile set up - running the jumper was the last piece of the puzzle. The antenna mount needed minor adjusting, but thankfully, the steel wheel (spare tire) proved no obstacle to receiving OR transmitting... although my ancient electronic ignition DOES cause some interference.

Tuned to 38 USB... waiting for a reply...

636, mounted to the side of the radio and bracket.

SWR is AWESOME!!! The needle BARELY moves when broadcasting - with NO mobile, with pre-amp, on AM or SSB!



MY power rating, when broadcastin'in!

Listening to "Double Trouble" out of VA. Made a contact in southern IN on 6 while I was testing everything.



Crappy cellphone pics make it look a lot more cluttered than it is, but the rolling radio shack is coming together nicely.



The Galaxy is by far, the nicest piece of kit I've ever owned OR operated - figuring out all the buttons and what they do was rather interesting. Discovering that the "mic gain" on a quality radio can actually affect the SWR was rather eye-opening. And I'm still trying to figure out what the "talkback" feature does!

Nonetheless, the setup is good, my SWR is GREAT, and while I wasn't reaching out much this afternoon (judging by the couple of responses I could only get on 6 at 4:30 EST), I think I have a GTG rig at this point! I'll try and post some video, and BETTER pics, shortly.

[NuthinButJHP]

please don't shim the ass on that pretty mopar. Grind off the perches and weld on new ones. Looking at your steering wheel going down the road does it shake up and down or side to side? Is it better or worse off the throttle or on acceleration?

[The War Wagon]

please don't shim the ass on that pretty mopar. Grind off the perches and weld on new ones. Looking at your steering wheel going down the road does it shake up and down or side to side? Is it better or worse off the throttle or on acceleration?

Well, it's either shim the axle, or drop the transfer case... and that screws up the front driveline angle. Gotta drop the driveshaft (again ), to measure the pinion yoke angle still. Even with the new dirveshaft, I'm still at 18 degrees on the driveshaft. We shall overcome...

The steering has gone from, "death wobble from HELL," to, "imprecise," since moving to Borgeson steering & a dual stabilizer. Newer Dodge owners tell me crossover steering is the way to go. I'm also running an open front diff, so I know it's not a locker playing mindgames with me. The steering issues are side-to-side play in the steering wheel - lotta effort to work the steering, particularly at low speeds, which, is all I've ever driven it at anyways. It's on the long-term list of "issues to fix"...

[The War Wagon]

Peanut butter shimmin' time!!! Got 'er done Friday afternoon/evening!


With MUCH thanks to Pozman (buddy of mine here in Steeltown Offroaders), the Ramcharger is FINALLY daily driveable (should it ever come to that), as we got the leaf pack shimmed in good order.

Thanks to school traffic, I got to his place about 3:30 Friday afternoon. We decided to work on it there, since he has all the cool tools.




Safety first, of course. After chocking, and before the jackstands, we had to 'anchor' it.



Strapped it to his hitch and my pintle. Don't let the Chebby throw you - he's ALMOST a Pentastar guy, since he owns three Jeeps. Here's HIS mid-life crisis on wheel.




Time to UN-bolt everything!





Peekaboo...




After extensive eyeballing, and some actual measuring of the driveshaft and pinion angles, I THOUGHT about erring on the side of caution, and going with 6 degrees shims... but a nagging instinct, led me to get 8 degree instead... We'll see how this plays out...

Of course the hole's not big enough, so it's off to the drill press. NEXT thought is, weld a little bar stock into the BOTTOM side, so it'll drop into the spring back, and the pin in the axle tube will drop in the top half, thereby solidly anchoring it into the pack. And yes, they are STEEL shims.



Did I mention Ted has COOL tools?



A little drilling, welding, and grinding later, we have a GOOD shim!

Of course, night arrives at 7pm now - earlier, when it's cloudy... JUST in time for re-assembly.





If you remember these sorts of scenes from your Saturday morning cartoon youth...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B12eVCBb...r_embedded

...then the pic ABOVE this ^^^ is the Poz, cursing the birth of the Dodge Brothers...

By 8:30 though, we had 'er buttoned up. Sure enough, the 8 degree shims proved to be the right call!



Other than running over a chock on the way up the driveway, which scared the CRAP out of me, the drive home was FLAWLESS!!! No more grinding of U-joints into a fine powder - and the new double-cardon driveshaft can finally perform as it ought!!! :headbang:

Doesn't solve ALL the problems yet, but it solved the BIGGEST one to even making it DRIVEABLE in RWD!!! Thanks Poz!!!

[The War Wagon]

Woot-woot!

My RC comes back from it's LATEST stop @ the shop this week - front axle grease seals are replaced, shock setup is slightly re-worked (and straightened out), and my CAD has been replaced with a new mechanical locking/engagement gizmo, which I'm REALLY looking forward to!

But mainly - after inheriting it 8 years ago THIS month - it will... FINALLY... be off-road READY!!!

I'm ACTUALLY looking forward to freezing my @$$ off on SOME sorta trail run either this month or next - just to splash a little mud on it - before the end of the year. And I will be looking forward to this coming spring, like no other in almost a DECADE!!!

MORE pics to come...