89 B2 diesel build thread

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well dropped off the drivelines to have one shortened to 25 inches (the rear) and the front drive line is a stock explorer front driveline. Its the right length to work for the front! so just going to get it rebuilt. I find it better to let the pro's rebuild the CV double cardon drivelines. So That will be sweet. The company that I got my crawl box didn't send me the mount for it. So I should see that next week. I ordered Jonny joints for the radius arms. The current plan its to build long arms for the TTB and build my transmission mount into it. Which is what I did to my ranger. So no big deal. I am getting to the point where I could of just straight axled this thing. Olwell, I always wanted to build a TTB rig so well just see. I don't think I could make this thing sit at the current hight with a straight axle under it. I don't want to run anything bigger than a 35 right now. So just working with what I have right now is my goal. I just know the coil spacers and the explorer coils don't flex very well. So with the radius arms lengthed and some better coils It should be better.

I picked up this D44 for cheap. So I could do the D44 knuckle swap. Not sure I'm going to do it. I just didn't want to let a good deal pass up.

Ordered early bronco fender flares. I don't know about them. I thought they were a closer fit than they are. Right now, I don't like how they fit at all. The backs aren't even close and it looks like I need fronts for the rears. Idk I wish BII.org was around still because I'm pretty sure there was a build thread on there that a guy used them. He had it laid out pretty good but Its gone, and I'm either going to have to make them work or Ill sell them at the local bronco club meet I guess.

Running into issues with my manual brakes I ordered also. Turns out it isn't as bolt on as the guy said. I have drill a different pivot for the manual brakes. Which is fine but I wish I had known before I put the whole dash back together and everything is together. haha Idk I'm really just hoping Sweeting performance just gets me my hydro boost because I know ill be happier with that. I still have more work to do before I'm at that point so I got some time.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

i am referring to the plastic grille. cut that metal out of the way and mount the radiator farther forward. i have a bigger engine and monster radiator with a gen 1 that has less room. that engine will make heat if you load it down.

I gotcha, I didn't think of doing that. maybe for next time. haha I feel this radiator should be big enough, Its bigger than the stock Mercedes radiator. Well see If i have to change it down the road. I think it will work, time will tell I guess. I have to mount the oil cooler next. The oil cooler is a big part of keeping temps down on this engine also.

 

[bobbywalter]

i dont think you will have any problems. i run electric cooling and prefer it. it is much more efficient.


but with an engine that dont need any electrical to run, adding an electric fuel pump and cooling in a last resort situation out in bfe can bite ya in the arse. there were many times out in the wild i lost two alternators and a starter...my efi v8 and electric cooling greatly complicated my return to safety. i was thinking of keeping a points distributor and propane hat for such contingincies before i swapped the diesel...

i used to keep a mechanical pump installed on my engine circulating my main tank and always had a fan tied under the bed just in case i lost the alternator for quite a few years..the fan got munched and the pump popped a diaphragm so i just plated it off....

its a big reason i want to mechanically inject a duramax and replace the 6.x with it....i can easily make it to where i dont even need a belt to run it.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

i dont think you will have any problems. i run electric cooling and prefer it. it is much more efficient.


but with an engine that dont need any electrical to run, adding an electric fuel pump and cooling in a last resort situation out in bfe can bite ya in the arse. there were many times out in the wild i lost two alternators and a starter...my efi v8 and electric cooling greatly complicated my return to safety. i was thinking of keeping a points distributor and propane hat for such contingincies before i swapped the diesel...

i used to keep a mechanical pump installed on my engine circulating my main tank and always had a fan tied under the bed just in case i lost the alternator for quite a few years..the fan got munched and the pump popped a diaphragm so i just plated it off....

its a big reason i want to mechanically inject a duramax and replace the 6.x with it....i can easily make it to where i dont even need a belt to run it.

Thats a good point, I didn't think of that. Other than this GM Ls alt is pretty cheap, I can keep a spare with me.

It also crossed my mind on how hard it would be to run a Jeep grand Cherokee hydraulic fan. but its just to bad that there really not very good. I have just a cherokee power steering pump and a grand cherokee pump is an upgrade since it puts out more flow to run a hydraulic fan. I don't know how good they work. I just found it when I was looking for upgrades to the cherokee power steering pump. maybe ill do some research on that. Might be something to look into, but then that goes if I loose a belt or the power steering pump then youll loose everything. Idk its kinda pick your poison a deal with it. Have electric fan, carry a spare. i'm sure the 8 inch and the 14 inch are enough. Just overthinking it I guess.

I would rather run a mechanical fan, but without doing a hole bunch of more fab work and whatnot what I current have I think should work. I'm going to mount a 8 inch pusher fan also to help cool the oil cooler also, I just haven't quite figured out how to tap into oil temp yet to know when to turn it on. since the oil filter base has a valve in it that only sends oil to the cooler when it hits a temp. I'm told they do cycle, so running a temp sensor off the oil feed lines to the cooler wont always read what true oil temp is.... haha

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well got a little more done. I measured my rear drive line right, fits great. 25 inches haha I used all my 1.5 square tubing on my tie downs on my camper, so I used what I had left of my DOM tubing. got part of the transmission mount made. I'm going to tie the hole thing together, Transmission, Crawl box and then a mount on the 205. I'm running the same poly mounts on everything. so well see how it works. ORD says just to use there mount on the crawl box. and to get rid of transmission mount. I still might, but I'm 100% putting something on the 205. Well see anyways. Built the long arm mounts into the the transmission mount. So ill either ditch the transmission mount and go ORD crawl box mount and then something to help hold the 205 up. Reviews are mixed, ORD says just to use there mount, but there a more than a few people that say they have had problems with cracked transmission housing from just having one mount. So I'm going to run something on the 205 no matter what. I figured if I got to changed something, and I might as well build a mount for now off the transmission. It will just add more protection to stuff down there so what harm does it cause. I had to order some more DOM tubing. Ordered longer shift cables for the 205/crawl box. I didn't do enough research olwell.

I got a hold of sweeting performance. Guy said end of Feb for my hydro boost. So I hope he's right. I still have a lot to do, so No big deal. He called me right back so that was good.

I'm almost to the point where I need to decide to SAS this thing or not....Still not sure..... The price of what I'm going to have to spend to get the D35 where it needs to be, I can straight axle this thing. So Idk what I want to do.... Either way, Ill get it moving under its own power and pull it out and get that bay back so I can have the full bay to narrow the D44 axle.....

I'm going weld the long arm mounts to the frame, and plate it like I did to my ranger. Its been 12 years like that and Its worked fine, so I don't see why ill have problems there.

Idk I'm starting to drag on this project. Slowly I just keep pounding away. Drive line was pretty cool to get bolted it! If I had brakes I back it out of the shop and take it down the drive way.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well I installed my triple shifters and cables. It feels like one step forward 2 back. I don't like it. There supper bulky and right in the way of the shifter. I don't know, Looking at making linkage shifters. Since that shouldn't be to hard. I don't know what I did when I did the twin stick mod to the 205. Its very hard to shift. I thought they might just need to be worked in some, but I think Something must be wrong. I can get it to shift but man its hard. Maybe it will be better leverage with solid linkage. I can shift it with a pry bar no problem, yes its firm but even with the adjustable shift detents its harder than it should be. Idk, I'm just getting burnt out. I was going to get another D44. Guy had a 78 F250 one, but dam he wants a lot for it. I can buy a D60 for the price but then Id have to figure out the rear axle. Cut out a new floor plate because I thought Id have to mount the triple shifter to it. but now I'm going back on that. Its its one thing its another.... haha

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well I ended up just buying JB fabs shifter kit. I built a shifter for the crawl box. I still have to get some all thread to lengthen everything. But I like this a lot more than the cable shifter.

also preformed a valve adjustment on the Mercedes. Barely got the valve cover off. Was pretty nervous. But I got it off. Hopefully that takes care of my leak.
I’ll probably need to bent the transmission shifter a little. No big deal!

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well after messing with the 205 shifters I had to change them up. Had to shorten and bend them some more.
Completely redid my cross member, installed the 1310 front yoke, installed my Speedo cable that’s from a Astro van. Worked great.

im still waiting on sweeting performance. I’m getting close to being able to drive this thing!

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well took it down the drive way. Still waiting on my hydro boost. But it was nice back out of the shop under its own power and just with no brakes was a little slow! But with the doubler and np205. Pretty cool having front wheel drive! Have to bleed the clutch again… and I’m hoping that fixes that.

 

[maddyn]

Holy hose bundle Batman! That's quite the bundle of hose and what looks like battery cables behind the radiator. Looking good though! I just got the TDI motor yanked out of the donor for my project this weekend, can't wait till it's running.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Haha yeah, the main wiring harness is there also. I had to wire in a glow plug solenoid so I ran stuff over to it, I could have ran the alt wiring there also but I had enough to go straight to the battery. Idk I’m gonna clean things up later because probably 3/4 of the wiring can be removed…this engine will run with nothing haha my project has been a 5 year project. It’s time to get it on the road. I wished I had done a TDI it’s got a lot more power than my OM617.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well I decided. lol I ordered a loaded 9in carrier with 513 gears and a Detroit locker. So I’ll run the 9 in rear and I ordered gears and a lock rite for the d35.
I’ve mostly been working on little things.

still waiting on my hydro boost. And I’m not very happy about it. I ordered a super duty one that I’m not sure if it’s going to work or not but I had to try. So we’ll see when it’s here next week. Sweeting performance just sucks and I don’t recommend them….

 

[ryan]

i dont think you will have any problems. i run electric cooling and prefer it. it is much more efficient.


but with an engine that dont need any electrical to run, adding an electric fuel pump and cooling in a last resort situation out in bfe can bite ya in the arse. there were many times out in the wild i lost two alternators and a starter...my efi v8 and electric cooling greatly complicated my return to safety. i was thinking of keeping a points distributor and propane hat for such contingincies before i swapped the diesel...

i used to keep a mechanical pump installed on my engine circulating my main tank and always had a fan tied under the bed just in case i lost the alternator for quite a few years..the fan got munched and the pump popped a diaphragm so i just plated it off....

its a big reason i want to mechanically inject a duramax and replace the 6.x with it....i can easily make it to where i dont even need a belt to run it.

Been in that situation too where my fan controller took a dump and had to get creative with wiring to get it back to the trailer

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

While waiting for my other hydro boost to show up. I decided to get my old rear bumper mounted. I had this bumper on my old B2. Was going to mount a tire swing to it. So I did today. Got the tire swing on the right and on the left I’m going to water/fuel can have holder. I added my old front

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

Well I still have to add Jerry can mounts and a few other things. I reinforced the frame and added another mount to the top of the frame rail. Still a few more things to do. Thinking about getting it powder coated. We’ll see anyways.