Gertrude the 40 series

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I figured since Mike has spent the money to keep the site up... I'd put some effort in too
So here is a bit of history I've picked up


I've had it for a yr or so and in that time I solved a few problems, the old tank was full of rust and pealing tank sealer... to the piont it was unusable so I made a stainless drop tank and a guard for it
The LPG tank was out of test so I pulled that and converted it to a pair of forklift bottles and tidied up the rear end on her

In her last trip out it developed a very vocal bottom end knock.... me being me I decided to bin the motor and went and bought a Marks adapter kit and an LS1 took a while to get all the parts together for the swop (NZPost nearly sent the adapter back, because customs never told them I paid the duty.... near on 3 months to get the adapter!)
So finally time to pull the motor and toss it....... got the motor and gearbox out, pull the gearbox off so we can get to the clutch and flywheel bolts.... as we pull back on the gearbox the clutch and fly wheel fall out!
I'm looking at my helper asking him how the F he un-did the flywheel.... he's looking at me with a blank expression lol

lol have a closer look at the remains of the fly wheel bolts..... not a single bolt head left! my knock was the flywheel wobbling!

So I have a low hrs 2F motor up for grabs lol

I've since changed plans a bit, original plan was to keep this running as a trailer queen..... but I want a road legal club truck and the history of this old girl..... so she's going back on the road with a few extra mods lol
The LS is going in lol I've spent the money its going in!
Going to rear mount the radiator with a we (rather large twist lol )
I'm dropping the cab down 50mm (35mm is the body lift that is going the rest is cutting ) and it will be welded to the chassis
Roof is going to back to a factory roof..... Andrews one is too damaged to tidy up
Going to remove the internal cage and build an exo that will tie through the cab
And I'm going to a coil over 3 link up front with some upgrades to brakes and steering
The rear axle is going to be widened to match the front

Since I'm going to have the axles out I'm going to shave them lol so.....

Any one have a busted cruiser diff head I can buy

[Beer_Cruiser]

I've got an old one I found in the great garage clean up....
Looks like end the drive shaft bolts to (pinion?) has been shared off.
Can't remember when I did it must have been a while ago
You can have it...
I'm in Tauranga
Edit. Think ring gear is also damaged

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I've got an old one I found in the great garage clean up....
Looks like end the drive shaft bolts to (pinion?) has been shared off.
Can't remember when I did it must have been a while ago
You can have it...
I'm in Tauranga
Edit. Think ring gear is also damaged

Thank you for that.... you catching up with Gareth any stage soon ? if not I'm happy to pay for freight if you don't mind droping it off ?

A wee update, I've done a deal on a set of six shooter housings and steering arms..... to be posted when we get a life again lol
Been measuring and going over everything else on the truck, because there are a few mods on this truck that LVVTA are harder on now than back when it was built, I'm submitting a Build Approval and bounce it off Martin Jones.... To this point of modifing and adjusting mods I'm designing as much of this in Solidworks as is practicle (using it sort of like a training exercise lol as I ocasionally use it for work)
Here is the passanger side engine mount....


Next bit of the puzzle is the rims I've got to recenter the back pair, front axle was widened but not the back so Andrew just changed the offset on the rear rims.... I'm planing on finishing the rear axle widening so want all my rims to match.... anyway the rims that are on it are 24 bolt beadlocks so I can't run them for Cert

So I'm on the hunt for a set of 16x8" (or wider) steelys on a six bolt patern.... I don't care about the offset, I'll recenter them when I convert them to beadlock.....

Cheers

[skidmark]

found some of your other posts on the LR forum(not sure how I ended up there,) but enjoy reading your posts.Thanks

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found some of your other posts on the LR forum(not sure how I ended up there,) but enjoy reading your posts.Thanks

Thank you for the comment

I'm now able to get back down the shed, I spent half a day tracing wires back through the firewall and working out how everything worked and came to the decission to just cut it all out and start again..... I've got Yellow wires as power feeds and earth....I've got Blue, Red and Black as power and earth..... there was no way to know what any wire feed or earthed, no lables or consistancy and my OCD won lol
So with that cleaned up I mocked up the bellhousings to the motor...... the Marks Adapters Kit, is pretty good, I just needed to file out the slightest amount on the backing plate to fit nicely over the dowl's, and file a bit of the bellhouse casting so I could get the supplyied bolt into one of the holes
I've haven't mounted the clutch and gearbox yet as I couldn't find the instructions (just looking for a PDF copy I was sent)
Anyway with the FJ40 bellhousing on (it mounts to the chassis) I was able to drop the motor in to check fitment

Yep alternator is sitting on the chassis and I haven't been able to line up the chassis mounts properly..... didn't like the alternator down that low anyway lol ..... The aircon pump was going anyway to make room for the suspension

Clearance ontop is good... I'll be able to drop the body down

Made a call to move the front axle forward 100mm to take the Wheel Base out to 100" (I"m keeping the fiddle brakes so I should still be able to turn tight and the longer WB helps with climbing.... doing this allows more up travel, 6" up travel given I'm going to run coilovers up front the closer I am to even travel up and down the easier it is to sort springs and spring rate ...... but it is going to add a little bit of work to clearance the firewall lol


Now I know I can fit the suspension I'll keep modeling the 3 link

[SMOKEY]

Hi Reece ---- what another project , great to hear from you I actually thought ORE was dead. Getting back to Gertrude, great to see it is still being used but I question changing that sweet sounding SIX ( yeah I am bias sounded like Old SMOKEY ) , I don't know that Andrew ( RIP ) would approve , but he would be edging you on. Has it still got mid mounted winch ? . Looking forward to seeing Gertrude back to doing what it was built for. Stay safe my advice is ----
STAY IN THE SHED
FITZY.

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Lol another blast from the past... good to hear from you
Yea I wasn't keen to make this into a project and I'm trying to design as much as possible on CAD so hopefully it speeds up the building of it.... this truck was my play toy....
Yes the manual gearbox has stayed.... just because of the winch which I like found out its a special model spec'd for Fire engine work, not very fast but increadably grunty

Went down today as I'd lucked out rung up the local (Napier) "Mount Shop" to get some bushes to make the engine mounts, they had the bushes I wanted in stock so paid for them and was going to pick them up from the door step........ get there and the shop is shut and no lights on, or parcels on the step
So I ring them up.... whats the deal...... got told they were there waiting and the guy went and checked... I'm sitting out front and no one came to the door.... so I figured I'd ask what his address was.... Palmy lol bloody phone had diverted
The bushes are on the courier, hopefully see them in a couple of days lol

[Petemcc]

One of the highlights of my working from home day seeing an update on here. Keep it up. Might have to try and get some work done on the hilux over the weekend so I can put up an update!

Cheers,
Pete

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Cheers Mate thats a pretty cool comment to hear, thank you

Right this update is sort of to do with Gertrude but it is about building a set of wheel or corner scales.... something I've wanted for a long time but I just can't justify $2000+ on for the occasional use lol

Before I go into the design I've come up with for my scales, the reason why I want them for Gertrude..... In the descussion I've had with the Martian Jones about certifiying the extra mods, he brought up the fact that there has been changes to how big the wheels may be and told me that 35" was it.... due to Rollcenter height and CoG so it is about handling.... when I quiz'd him about this he told me this isn't a set limit but my chances of getting more than this are very slim.... to this end I've asked for all the details on these conditions (still waiting on him to email them)
But on my end I want to deliver to LVVTA accurate proven data in relation to the suspension and part of this is to be able to accuratly calculate CoG to do this I need to measure the change in weight distribution from flat to the vehicle tipped on an angle.... the wheel scales

Now to my design, I'm going to make a set of short hydraulic cylinders that are sized so that a KPa pressure gauge is a direct correlation to Kg's, here is a my first design running a single piston with the seal screwed down under the clamping ring, piston is just a solid section of round alloy


I've ordered parts to build a version of this, but due to this covid crap lol the seals n stuff arn't going to be here for a few days, so I've started modifying the design to give me a larger platform so when I tilt the truck (doing this I've thought through a few design changes on the original lol)

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Change of plans lol..... I got a 3D printer recently, and while searching for parts for a project for this I stumbled across a better option for the corner scales.... Shear Beam load scales and generic programable weight displays that have the resister circuit to work from a single load scale. And as luck would have it cheaper than the material cost of the hydraulic version I'm making.... catch is Chinese made lol, thinking I might just give it a go

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A wee update
I've gotten the engine mount bushes lol overnight courier that arrived over a week later
Glad I hadn't gotten the engine mounts done yet, been working on the design stuff in solidworks and spreadsheets lol I've never designed a project in this much detail dealing with all the conflicts
Needed a better view of the chassis where the suspension is attatched so got the front stripped down and all the wiring pulled through to the cab.... I'm going to pull as much of the loom out complete with the relays and controls Andrew had done...... lol did my OCD in trying to work it all back.... so my plan is to pull it apart as I build a new loom (but this will be along way down the line lol)
At the moment I'm finishing the suspension design trying for some more roll understeer to make it a bit more predictable in the steering
Needed more mesurements from around the suspension mount area on the chassis so finished pulling the guards and pulled all the wiring through into the cab.....

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I'm running out of jack stands and I'm sick of working around a slopping multi level floor and since I'm cutting the chassis in half to get the triangulation I want for the lower links I'm going to build a Chassis Table

The whole thing is modular I can bolt on extentions, wider middle joiners or wings to support stuff... I can even do trailers on it
The feet are M16 swivel pads in groups of 3 so I better contour to the floor and this give me redundency weight rating, each group will push onto a 38mm thread section so I can adjust and level out, the thread section is located into a 50mm deep reciever that locks the thread section in with 2 grub screws
If I need to move it I'll make some mounting pads for casters that will slot into the same grub screw mount

Any suggestions pipe up.... I've got about 3 weeks before I start building it

Cheers