ST4 restoration of Frankie the Frankentrac

[Jphoenix]

Lots of wire-wheeling, cleaning and metal prep, seems like it will end soon, then I find more grimy parts in the bin.

 

[Jphoenix]

Had to go back to work after 3 weeks off, so not getting anything done. I did get the belly pan on so I can see how to fab up the exhaust - also need to resolve a couple of issues with the engine/trans being too far forward, engine mounts were bent forward a few degrees, so straightened those out and have to shave a few hundredths off the mount spacers to get the rear mount to mate up to the frame. Once I get the engine located properly (and add a couple of stiffeners to the front mounts) I can see if the exhaust plan I have will work. More later this weekend when I can get some time off. Gotta work next week too, so going to be slow for a while. This work thing keeps getting in the way!

Transaxle just barely touches the frame in the photo below - too close, moving the engine aft will help solve that.

Below - the new bus muffler exhaust outlet is positioned right smack in the middle of the belly pan support, so I'm welding up new pipes to bring that outlet over and down through the belly pan and running the exhaust pipe down and outside the belly pan aft - like the way Seth has it running on his. Also adding a couple of V-band clamps like he did, very helpful to see how the exhaust on his rigs are set up.

So, next is engine coming out and sorting the mounts and exhaust.

 

[Cidertom]

I'd hazard a guess that the transmission nosecone you have isn't the it started with. Until I broke mine, I thought they were all the same. Nope. different lengths and rear mound bolt patterns.

 

[Jphoenix]

Likely so, the

I'd hazard a guess that the transmission nosecone you have isn't the it started with. Until I broke mine, I thought they were all the same. Nope. different lengths and rear mound bolt patterns.

Yes, and the main mounts were certainly bent forward and down, kinda weak design, so straightening and strengthening those will move the trans Aft about a quarter inch, also up a bit which will decrease the muffler interference. Getting everything re-aligned, slowly but surely.

 

[Puckle]

with a nice new muffler like that, it is easy to bend the outlet spigot over to one side whilst it is out of the vehicle - this helps a lot with getting the exhaust in past the frame rail.

 

[Jphoenix]

with a nice new muffler like that, it is easy to bend the outlet spigot over to one side whilst it is out of the vehicle - this helps a lot with getting the exhaust in past the frame rail.

Thought about that Mr. P, but I also want to run the exhaust over, down and outside the belly pan, so I just cut up some elbow pipe, welded on a V band clamp and did some fitting. Also got the oil lines fabricated and installed, I'll mount the external filter in a convenient location after I get the body on and the engine in for good.

First, had to make some radiused washers for the variator support rods, this machine did not have the washers mentioned in Lyndon's write-up, now it does.

Spent some time today adjusting the engine mounts and now the engine sits where it should, I also ordered a new aft mount, the urethane mount may be too rigid for my liking. The original bus nose mount should be a better application for this machine.

Oil filter lines installed:

Fitting, cutting and welding the exhaust outlet took some time today. I plan to attach the brake reaction bars to the front bumper mounts like you did Mr. P, so in the end they won't stick down through the cutouts in the belly pan.

Getting closer to engine run, maybe by Christmas.

 

[Melensdad]

Looking awesome

 

[Jphoenix]

Welded up an exhaust pipe going out the back - need more pipe to finish it all the way out, but this is good enough to run the engine.

Then I hooked up the battery and gas tank and a temporary instrument panel - cranked it up and it runs! Took it to 3000 rpm for 20 minutes to break everything in, no oil leaks - amazing. I'm running Rotella 10W30, good oil pressure. Set the timing after it warmed up to 32 at 3k, then adjusted idle volume and speed. That counterweight crank sure makes for a smooth running motor. I assembled a temporary clutch lever and put the variator through all 4 gears and reverse, works as it should, no leaks, kinda surprised about that.

After the first run, I connected the tachometer, not working in the first run shown below.

I'll upload a video of it running to YouTube.

 

[Jphoenix]

Video of engine running. iPhone camera doesn't jive with the timing light, but it's 7 degrees at idle and 32 at 3k, so right on the mark. It's a new Pertronix distributor. Runs great, I'll set the valve clearance again tomorrow when the engine is stone cold.

 

[Jphoenix]

Not getting much done, have to work these last 2 days, but got a coat of epoxy on the new floorboard. Also replaced the garage door torsion springs, not too hard of a job. Just time-consuming.

 

[Melensdad]

What type of epoxy did you use?

I sprayed mine with a 2 part epoxy that is commonly used as a pick up truck bed liner. Your plywood looks like furniture grade wood, with a nice finish. Mine looked a lot like a pick up truck sprayed over with a Rhinoliner type epoxy.

 

[Jphoenix]

What type of epoxy did you use?

I sprayed mine with a 2 part epoxy that is commonly used as a pick up truck bed liner. Your plywood looks like furniture grade wood, with a nice finish. Mine looked a lot like a pick up truck sprayed over with a Rhinoliner type epoxy.

I used West System, because I have it and I've used it on wooden boats over the years, works good. This coat is just to seal the Birch plywood, I used Birch so the epoxy would wick in and penetrate deep, it's hard to get thick epoxy to penetrate into oak or maple plywood, pores are smaller. I'll coat the bottom of the board with some rust oleum for more protection, then the rubber on top of the floor board like original.

 

[Jphoenix]

Overhauled the carb, engine running good. Installed the oil temp probe and gauge. Installed the drive chains and adjusted their position and tension, also painted the chain break links per CiderTom's suggestion - good idea - and also installed the chain break links with the clip facing inboard as access with the body on will be minimal. Getting closer to done with chassis and engine stuff, soon be moving the body in.

 

[Jphoenix]

Caught a cold over the weekend, so once again, not getting anything done - did manage to take delivery of 8 new Trelleborg Kargo 4.00-4 solid tires. Got them from Cascadia Tire in BC, drop-shipped from Akron, $89 each plus $300 shipping, so not too bad. Had no luck finding any Continental SC10’s, but did find the price for those are now well north of $200 each.

 

[Jphoenix]

I've been experimenting with different acids to clean the grousers, guide and other rusty parts and discovered that Citric acid in water works really well. The grousers and guides were immersed for 2 days in the solution and came out rust-free. Of course they flash rust as soon as I rinse them off with water, but a short amount of wire brushing makes them look shiny new. Now I can weld up the worn areas, and repeat 158 times for the rest of the grousers and many hundreds of times for the guides.

I spent the day assembling the new solid Trelleborgs onto the newly painted wheels, then installed them on the machine.

 

[Puckle]

Looking great Jim, I am trying find source for those tyres in UK - are they the correct 2.10 width as most of the other solid tyres here are 2.50 and need to have the rims spaced out.
That citric acid seems to work well, I could not get a good weld on the grousers due to too much rust and shit in between the plates - I made new ones in the end but still have the old ones so may try that trick see if I can repair them for spares.

 

[Jphoenix]

Puckle, they are 2.5" wide - no luck finding 2.10 tires any longer, the guy at Cascadia looked high and low and everything he had access to was discontinued, including the Conti SC19's - or were unavailable. The critical dimension for me was overall width and OD of the tire as they come very close to the truck support beam. These fit perfectly, so I just bought some new 2.5" rims from Carefree Tire and Wheel in California for $18 each. They have various hub width dimensions and axle sizes, they shipped them within 3 days and they fit perfect. You can see how close they come to the front truck beams:

 

[Jphoenix]

Spent the day finishing the exhaust and centering the variator. I mounted the steering box, centered it and used a handheld optical tachometer, suggested by Cidertom, to check the sheave speeds matched.

here's a video:

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

What bearings and seals are in the rims?

 

[Jphoenix]

What bearings and seals are in the rims?

Standard sealed roller bearings, inside open for greasing, 1/2” ID shaft size.

 

[Jphoenix]

Sanding off four coats of paint, long tedious work. Once I get the lower body sanded, prepped and epoxy primer on, I’ll put the body back on the frame and remove the top and sides to finish sanding.

 

[Sno-Surfer]

Was this originally green? Awesome work on it!

 

[Jphoenix]

Was this originally green? Awesome work on it!

Originally it was red, then grey primer with green topcoat, then white primer with faded red/orange topcoat. Lower hull was also painted black at one point, the latest layer below the deck was rattle can black.

 

[Jphoenix]

I've had to deal with a lot of stupid fasteners in my life - the Tri-Wing head fasteners on the Boeing 707 were the worst - until now. Now it's these stupid cross-headed screws that have small locknuts on th other side, throughly rusted on and impossible to get a screwdriver that fits the head. So, I have to drill the head off each one, and there are a lot of them!

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

I tried to get Robinson head #8 self taper screws, but unavailable in Canada due to anti-dumping laws. Had to settle for Philips head self tappers.
Lots of old politics in fasteners across the borders. Graveyard politics.

 

[Jphoenix]

Getting good at drilling out those stupid screws. Decided to remove the upper body from the lower sides so I can clean up all the old sealant and paint between the panels. I'll get them all cleaned and treated and epoxy primered, then do the upper body. This way I can reassemble the lower sides onto the frame with a minimum of hassle.

 

[Cidertom]

Sir, I admire your boldness in the disassembly. On my trac the holes never line up again. Then again, mine is still on the warped chassis.

 

[Puckle]

Yeah, I had to re-assemble the body several times to get the door and roof to fit properly - it moves around a lot on those fasteners.

 

[Jphoenix]

I agree with you guys and read that in this forum a couple of times, so looking forward to another challenge The structure is very floppy, for lack of a better word, it doesn't have a lot of structural rigidity until completely assembled. I do plan to modify the rearmost panel adding a diagonal brace like I see on the original machines, mine did not have that diagonal brace. I also plan to fabricate a one-piece rear door frame, the split in the middle seems kind of silly. Finally (maybe) the extensive use of blind rivets where one can easily shoot and buck a solid rivet seems like lazy manufacturing to me, so I'm going to shot solids into any blind rivet holes 5/32 or smaller, like the cab surround panels between the windows.

Mclarty did a pretty good job of sealing the panels, but the lower side sealant was deteriorating and it was easy to pop it apart and sand it off. The upper panels that form the cab still has good sealant and it's holding well. I'll be using rivnuts where appropriate.

Back to sanding and acid etching. Got some minor welding to do on some crack pieces, but not much. Weather is warming up over the next few days, maybe get some epoxy on the steel before long.

 

[Jphoenix]

This isn't the fun part of the job, but it must be done, sanding and wire=wheeling the paint and rust off. Finally after phosphate conversion coating, I got some grey epoxy primer on. Couple more days of cleaning, sanding prepping and primer and the fun part will be over.

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