The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice! If you need another air switch later on, you can just get a shift knob for a 18 speed.

[Average Joe]

Great googly mooglies!! Thats a great gearjammer truckifacation.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Nice work as usual buddy! You’re right, that shift tower does sit back pretty far. I never noticed that before until you pointed it out. Having an Eaton Fuller shift knob will definitely be a conversation piece. Most idiots will believe it is an Eaton Fuller trans and not know the difference…especially at the Overland Expo

Thanks!! Hardly anyone has noticed it so far. A car guy here and there, but not many.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Very nice! If you need another air switch later on, you can just get a shift knob for a 18 speed.

I actually considered it before I bought this one, but I really don't need instant access to the front locker switch, so I used the brake valve in the floor for the front ARB and went with a 9/10 speed knob.

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Great googly mooglies!! Thats a great gearjammer truckifacation.

Ha!! Thanks!!

[Dean'smeanmachine]

Sweet

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dean'smeanmachine

Sweet

Thanks!!

[mosesburb]

So at some point I realized the rear axle housing was bent. My only guess is when we were on that horrid road out of Chaco Canyon and we accrued some frequent flyer miles some thing gave way. Don't know. Doesn't really matter other than I don't have a cool story to tell about it. Oh well.

Pulled the axle out and got some work out of the boy on the teardown:



Took it down and had it straightened, tubes welded to the center section, and a truss added to the top:



During reassembly:



All fresh and ready to go. The lube I drained out looked darker than it should have for the amount of time it was in service so I went with synthetic lube this time.



One thing I did change was I went with the later parking brake cable setup. It is the style that runs both cables down the driver side frame rail. It ended up being fairly easy and very well worth the effort. It will hold the truck in reverse, under power now, whereas before if it was on a hill I had to shut it off and leave it in gear to be sure it wasn't going to move.

Rear mount:



I had to make a new front mount for the stock Suburban cable to fit into:





While the axle was out I got a Daystar lower bag mount kit for the air bags. I had to make some plates to support the bag mounts. I don't have a cool circle cutter, so I hacked one out of a piece of tubing:



Plate mounted:



Bag mounts installed (it looks like the mounts are offset, but they are directly under the bag--just looks goofy in the pic):



This setup keeps the bags from becoming limiting straps when the truck is twisted up. They work great. I am surprised I did not have problems with over-extension of the bags before, but this removes that from even being possible now.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work on the bags and rear axle housing fix.

[Average Joe]

Quality work!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice work on the bags and rear axle housing fix.

Thanks man!!

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Quality work!

Thanks!!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Housing looks stout now

[piratexpress1369a]

looks good and strong now

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Housing looks stout now

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

looks good and strong now

I sure hope it is. That thing seems to get heavier every time I do something to it.

[mosesburb]

Soon after I installed the front ARB I learned that my air fitting into the front diff was going to be a big problem because of clearance (or lack thereof) to my ridiculous engine crossmember. A couple options were available. I could rework, or even better, remake the crossmember. While probably the best idea, it requires the most work and I really don't want to, so that is last in line. Another option was to bring the fitting out parallel to the diff housing instead of perpendicular to it. This has potential, but how to do it. I had it all figured out and was talking with my buddy Russ and of course he had a way to improve upon it in such a way that required his skill, time and machines. My idea was easier, but as usual, his was better....

He made a fitting out of stainless that mimics the ARB line fitting that threads into the bulkhead fitting, but instead of pointing straight up, it will point off to one side. Then he made a -03 JIC male fitting to fit into the other part. I stopped by his shop one evening to test fit the first piece into the housing and mark what angle I wanted the -03 fitting to come off at so as to miss hitting everything around it. Once that location was known, he bored a hole to accept the -03 fitting:



I silver brazed them together and ended up with this little jewel:



I was able to install it for maximum clearance around the vent line:



It looks like it hits and or touches everything, but it actually misses EVERYTHING!! It fits perfect and solved the problem beautifully!! Maybe I should discuss my crossmember situation with Russ and stoke the fire of creativity when he comes up with his great idea of how to improve the part....... Where's my phone??

[piratexpress1369a]

hey that is wild idea for sure

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice fix for sure!

[Average Joe]

Slick solution!

[mosesburb]

Back in June my buddy Lance and his janke hooptie and my family in our Suburban decided on an nice day trip up to Crown King via dirt. It is a nice, relatively easy trail and offers some very nice scenery. It all went well for a while until the mechanical mayhem began. My truck started running a bit warm which is something it never does. After that, Lances truck was running so lean that it was making no power and running warm itself then the battery launched itself out of the tray and ended up laying upside down on the motor melting the negative cable apart.

While we were stopped for something I noticed my truck had an odd sound coming from the engine compartment. It was a kind of ringing sound. Well, after some amount of time I determined it to be my Horton electromagnetic fan drive. Something was wrong with it and it was engaging and disengaging rapidly. I finally pulled the electrical connector to turn it off completely. This created a couple problems. One was the A/C had to stay off. No biggie for me and the boy, but I like to run it to keep my wife comfortable on the hot, dusty trails. The other problem is the electric fans will not keep the motor cool on a hot day like it was while pulling hills. This trail is almost completely uphill from south to north--the way we were running it. We were able to keep going and occasionally stopping to plug the fan clutch back in to cool the motor down while sitting still. For some odd reason it would still function sitting still. We'd cool the motor down, then climb the hill some more. We finally made it to Crown King and had a late lunch at the bar in town there. We went out the easy way and the electric fans were enough to keep it cool without stopping (even with the A/C on). We made it home later than anticipated, but intact, with nothing blown up.

So, what happened?? After much investigation, I found that where the wires enter the coil housing they had some damaged insulation from getting into the fan a few years back. I had repaired the wires, but I didn't realize at the time the wires had been damaged at that place. The wire/s were broken and *just* making contact (occasionally--thus the ringing sound).



I started researching repair options and I quickly found there are exactly NONE. Nobody fixes these things. I had read that Horton will service them so I called them and got a very nice, helpful lady on the phone who explained that they do nothing to fix them. Horton will fix or sell rebuild kits for their pneumatic fan drives all day long, but not these. They will sell a new one, but this one has been discontinued for many years (long before I bought my NOS unit). There was really nothing she could do to help. I found a place that had an old Horton fan drive that I could check out and buy the piece I need, but the wires were damaged just like mine, so that was no good. I found a manufacturer's sticker and part number on my clutch and called a motion industries establishment with the information. He went so far as to contact the manufacturer but found that it is completely proprietary and only sold to Horton. Uuuugh!! I finally found a brand new clutch assembly on the ebays and got it for a very reasonable price. It was not the same as what I had, but I was rolling the dice that I could make the coil work with my clutch. It turned out that I could. I pulled the coil off the old one and installed the coil from the new one:



So while all of this was going on (several weeks), we had other trails to run so I picked up a stock fan clutch from Dodge to hold me over until I found all the aforementioned parts. I had picked up an aftermarket Hayden fan clutch, but I really hate aftermarket viscous fan drives. The clutch on the left is the OEM Dodge unit and the one one the right is the aftermarket Hayden unit. The differences are quite apparent:



It worked good, but reminded me how much I love the Horton. The Horton is on or it is off, no in-between. The stock unit is always on. Maybe just partially, but never completely free-spinning like the Horton. It makes more noise than the Horton and doesn't cool any better. I was ecstatic when I got my repaired Horton back on the motor.

[ERASER5]

At the risk of a corny joke, I must say that I am a big fan.

[Dieselwrencher]

That's good you were able to find another electro-magnetic one to rob the coil out of. That's crazy Horton can't do anything for it. More and more that is happening though. You might keep an eye out for another spare for years down the road.

[ryanroo]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

At the risk of a corny joke, I must say that I am a big fan.

High five. very well played


i think Mr. MBurb has been looking for spares since i was in high school. his horton is the rarest of rares. like Dodo bird rare.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

At the risk of a corny joke, I must say that I am a big fan.

Boooo!! LOL!!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That's good you were able to find another electro-magnetic one to rob the coil out of. That's crazy Horton can't do anything for it. More and more that is happening though. You might keep an eye out for another spare for years down the road.

I kept all of the bits and pieces left over from the new one, but unfortunately its rotation was opposite from mine, so the driven plate would not work on mine. I didn't need it anyway because the driven plate in mine looked like brand new still. If I found an assembly with the correct rotation, then it would just be a matter of swapping my hub into it to make a new replacement for what I have. Hopefully I have everything worked out so I don't have to revisit this thing for a loooooong time.

Originally Posted by ryanroo

i think Mr. MBurb has been looking for spares since i was in high school. his horton is the rarest of rares. like Dodo bird rare.

Yeah, that's about it. I started looking long before this motor had any hopes of going in this truck and am still searching today. To date, this is the ONLY one I have ever found for my application.

[Average Joe]

I had never heard of a electromagnetic fan drive till today. That seems like a cool piece. Glad to hear you didn't give up and found the parts you needed.

[kjones72]

Awesome build. I've been trying to catch up on all of it. I'm currently building a 67 k20. I'm having a problem finding the a.c. bracket that you used. Would you happen to have a part number or application to help my search? Thanks in advance

[1985-GMC]

Here's two different sets of Cummins part #s for A/C high mounts.

http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/t...ad.php?t=32335

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/12...cket-info.html

[lower50's]

Very cool!!! There are always bugs to work out. I would like to put a 4BT in our 87 jimmy some day.