Rebirth of Monster Mudder

[fordpickupman]

I put a 6 pinion iron planetary in the rear when I rebuilt my 47rh. It feels heavier as in doesn't seem to rev as quickly when I get on it. I understand that could also be a function the transmission is tight now compared to well worn in. I believe they make 5 & 6 pinion aluminum rear planets, reducing rotational mass makes a lot of difference in performance.

I bought all my parts from Power Driven Diesel. Bigblue24 was very helpful.

[NakeDiesel]

Found out that the race we were planning on attending was cancelled due to torrential downpours over the last week there, so instead, going to clean the truck up some and take it to the nhrda event in Tulsa at TRP and put it in the show and shine event.

[NakeDiesel]

Pulled the mud truck out to finish washing it, wouldn't shut off once got to the washing area, had to run get a screw driver and unhook my shutoff cable and shut it off by hand. Thought ok, didn't get it back on right after i pulled it to take the afc housing out to check the plate location. Started washing the truck and it started raining so pulled it back into the shop and shut it down by hand again. Put the cable back on made sure it was right. Started the truck, wouldn't shut down.

Pulled cable back off and had to push hard on the lever to get it shut down. Pulled lever off and checked the keyway, it's there and not broke. Started it again, went to shut it down with the cable, still wouldn't shut it down, pulled it back off and couldn't shut it down with the lever. Had to adjust the idle down to kill it. So, need to figure out what's going on with that.

Went to finish up my dually, had it all done, went to tighten the bolts we loosened up to let the sway bar move and put the links in and tightened them. Went to tighten up the sway bar bolts, broke one off with the impact with one last pulse, so got to drill it out and get it out with an easyout. Replace it, changed the oil and backed it out of the shop. Shut the lights off and walked out the door.

Tomorrow is another day, need to figure out what's going on with the injection pump.

[NakeDiesel]

Well FML, got the mud truck shut off lever fixed. Guess I knocked out the key when I pulled the lever off to check the key... go figure. Got it back on and together, readjusted the idle, worked fine. Few trial and errors getting the push / pull cable adjusted right and it works again.

Took the dually out for a test drive today to see if it still sounded like a load of squeak toys going down the road and the new bushings fixed it. Picked up another center light for my short trailer since I busted the brand new led one the last time I used it hauling the farmall m to the house. Need to replace it and load the truck and go wash it.

Might haul it to Tulsa tonight for the Twin Peaks 4x4 night, some of the other racers are taking their trucks there.

Good news is that I got the tracking notice for my data logger, it will be here Monday minus the pressure sensors, they are still waiting on those to come in and then they will send them on to me.

[CorneliusRox]

Originally Posted by NakeDiesel

I knocked out the key when I pulled the lever off to check the key... go figure.

I was going to suggest this, but you beat me to it! I I ran for a long time with the pinch bolt overtorqued because I had lost the woodruff key. Sounded like the same thing you were going through.

[NakeDiesel]

Had a fun night getting together with some of the people I race with quite a bit at Twin Peak's 4x4 night.

Truck staying loaded up tonight so I can haul it to Tulsa tomorrow for the show and shine at the NDHRA event at TRP tomorrow.

[NakeDiesel]

Went to the NDHRA event today and entered my truck in the show and shine. Lost out to a mall crawler with a fancy paint job and gay useless wide tires and some bolt ons. Funny, this truck parked and partially blocked the voting boxes, my truck had people around it all day looking at it and asking questions, but according to the announcement he won by a landslide.


I'm going back to mud racing next weekend. The dude that won would probably cry getting mud on his paintjob....

Power steering pump didn't fix my steering issue and picked up a new steering box this morning before going to Tulsa. Going to put it on in the morning and test the truck out and then pull the stub shaft out so that I can take it and the magnetic collar to a machine shop Tuesday to have the collar machined to fit the driveshaft.

[NakeDiesel]

Spent yesterday planting the last pecan tree I bought this year. This year I've planted 11 trees, 3 french ***** willows, 1 weeping ***** willow for my wife, then 2 semi dwarf pear trees and 5 pecan trees. Eventually the backyard will be a nice orchard of apples, pears, peaches, cherries and pecans.

Cleaned all the mud and dirt off of the shop floor and put tools away. Filled in another hole in the yard with the dirt. The removed the power steering box and put the new one on, started bleeding the lines and ran out of Power steering fluid, so I need to pick up another gallon of it today to get it finished off.

The raised boxes in for the garden this year are doing awesome, harvested some spinach, radishes, broccoli, arugula and a few tomatoes that are getting ready to turn. Also pruned some of the leaves from the cabbage plants and fed them to the chickens.

[NakeDiesel]

Picked up another gallon of power steering fluid on the way home from work and finally got all the air out of the steering system. Took it for a short test drive and it's much much better, can actually turn the truck with one hand again.

The data logger package arrived yesterday. Got it unboxed and pulled the stub driveshaft to plan on taking it to get the collar machined to fit the tube as it was about .060" too small for the shaft. Was messing with it and found that the threaded portion of the shaft worked perfect to fit the collar, so I mounted it there and locktited the allen bolts into the collar with a little emblem glue on the inside to make sure it stayed put. Reinstalled the stub shaft back into the truck. Need to now build a bracket off of my driveshaft loop to hold the pickup .100" off of the ring.

With the type of racing and all of the washing the truck gets, the interior of the cab is a dirty wet place, so the logger needs to be kept dry. Ended up running to wally world last night on a hunt for a box to put the logger in and run the cables out of it. Ended up finding two small tackle boxes, one is a dry box for tackle. I'm hoping it will work, but it will be very tight inside it. It has a seal and locks on all 4 sides to help keep the insides dry. The other one isn't as fancy but is a hair bigger and will work if the other one won't.

I was thinking both of the pressure sensors were back ordered but one of them shipped out with the kit, so I will plug it into the fuel supply line and capture fuel pressure along with rpm, driveline speed and transbrake activation. When the other sensor arrives, it will be used to measure boost.

Made an order from Summit yesterday to get an MSD magnetic signal stabilizer to get a square wave from the mag pickup to supply the tack and the logger with a better signal than my cobbled together solution of using a GM HEI Module to provide one.

So I have a bunch of wiring to do tonight to get it all setup in the truck.

all the parts for the logger


trying the collar on the shaft


Data logger


Fits perfect on the threaded portion of the shaft.


Potential dry boxes, the one on the left is the one I want to use, but will be a tight fit.

[kubotaorange76]

Originally Posted by NakeDiesel

Had a fun night getting together with some of the people I race with quite a bit at Twin Peak's 4x4 night.

Truck staying loaded up tonight so I can haul it to Tulsa tomorrow for the show and shine at the NDHRA event at TRP tomorrow.

i did not realize there was a truck and you in that picture, nice truck.... keep it up

[NakeDiesel]

Yeah, my mug in the photo kinda takes away from the view eh...

Feels like I didn't get a lot accomplished tonight out in the shop, but was distracted by the weather and my wife, daughter and little turbo an hour away at her mothers visiting and ending up in the path of hail. Storm was weird, was heading North East straight to where I live, then all of a sudden turned South East towards where she was... Glad I made her wait it out. Also moved stuff around in the shop and parked 6 trucks in the shop with room for the other two if they got home and the weather was still going to be bad when they got home. At one point the wind was blowing hard from the east, whipping the trees pretty good, then all of a sudden, it switched out of the west. the low clouds were twisting and turning and doing barrel rolls, then the wind died almost all together and it was over. No rain at all with all of that.

Anyway, I took my cut off wheel and die grinder bits and cleaned all the storage walls out of the waterproof box to see how it was going to work. Think it will work good, picked up some grommets and need to figure out how I'm going to route the wires out of it and will need to trim a 1/2" square out of one corner of the mounting rail for the logger. Once that was done, I made the bracket for the driveline speed sensor out of a piece of scrap aluminum strap I had in my scrap bucket, drilled a couple of holes in it and then drilled the holes in my driveshaft loop support to mount it. Had to adjust it a hair with a hammer to get the sensor lined up exactly in the center and then took it out and drilled the hole to mount the sensor bracket onto it. Sensor is spaced .100" from the collar and ready for me to run wires to it from the wiring harness.

Got my summit order today with the MSD signal conditioner to replace the gm hei module for turning my mag pickup signal into a square wave and the connectors to plumb in the sensors for fuel pressure now and then boost when it gets here.

[NakeDiesel]

Oh, the t shirt design is just about finished.... will have them for sale at the mud races and will try to get them online to sale hopefully if I can find the time. I think it's going to look awesome, it's a 2 color design on an orange t shirt.

[RDPsmoker]

Ever think of using an ammo can for your logger? Then just drill holes and use some rubber grommets.

[NakeDiesel]

yes, I've thought about it, but there is a 3-Axis Accelerometer built into the main unit so it has to be installed flat with a certain orientation for it to work right. So i'd have to mount the ammo can on it's side. I think the plano box will work fine for what I need. Water isn't pouring into the cab, but it can get a little wet when I'm power washing the truck because there aren't any seals on the doors and there are big openings in the firewall.

[DieselWrencher]

Very nice on the pump issue just being a missing key. Your truck in that lot sure stands out. Don't feel bad about not winning at the show and shine. It seems window licking rides are what are cool these days. Your orchard looks nice and I like your above ground garden boxes. Do you do that so you can add more fertile soil in the boxes compared to what is in your dirt?

[NakeDiesel]

Yeah, the crowd was a lot different than the ones back when I used to go to Thunder In Muncie many years ago, too many flat billers and others of the like.

Spent the evening sweating my ass off in the humid shop air putting the logger in the cab and getting it as level as I can for the accelerometer to read right. I have most of the wires ran, some connected, also got the MSD signal conditioner mounted and wired up. Tach and fuel pressure are wired up. Need ring terminals for the grounds I need to run, broke the little momentary switch they shipped with the kit trying to get wires on the little tangs, so I need to pick up another one then I can get it wired in. Using one of the outputs from the logger to turn on an led when it's recording so I can make sure it's going before a run. Need to hook up the power wire and transbrake wire as well and put the terminal end on the driveline sensor and wrap the line in loom and tie it up.

I built the garden boxes because we have tried for years to grow a big garden and some things just would not grow in our soil because it's tight clay with rock real shallow. The boxes are 2' deep. I put weed blocker on the ground, then about a 1' of 3 year old rotting hay and dirt mixed together, and then a manure dirt mixture on top of that and then finished it off with about 2" of miracle grow garden soil. Everything is growing great except for the garlic, it's didn't do well.

Finished up my wife's flower bed tonight, had to put a fence around it because the dogs thought the mulch made a great place to lay in and killed off some of the flowers i planted in it for her. Added a few more to it and closed it off.

[NakeDiesel]

Data logger is finally installed, all the wires tucked away and secured. Made a little light test run to make sure all of the sensors were working before it got dark. Will make a full test run tomorrow before i pull the back tires off and swap on the cut tires.

Need to take my 38.5x15 cut boggers and my 38.5x15 dots in to the tire shop and have them broken off the beads so I can put the beadlocks that were on the cuts onto my back dots. I sold the smaller cuts and will drop them off on the way up to Hiawatha, KS Saturday. The smaller cut boggers were a little too wide for the front of the truck, like the narrow tires better up front, better for trying to steer.

[Broaner]

I read through the whole thread a while back but forgot to sub in. Boy did i miss a lot. Awesome!

[DieselWrencher]

Nice work installing the logger and good luck this weekend!

[NakeDiesel]

Well, not going to end up going racing tomorrow. Went to test the truck about mid day today and went up to the long stretch of pasture and made a run. Took the truck back to the house and took the data card in the house and looked at the log file. No tach signal was recorded. Went back out to the truck and started it up, tach wasn't working either. Figured it was the MSD Signal conditioner as that was the only thing I'd changed.

Pulled it out and took the cuts and dots into town with me and got them broken off the beads and then picked up another GM HEI Module to put in place of the MSD unit. Got the beadlocks switched over to my dots and back on the truck and then wired up the hei unit. Started the truck and still no tach. Started tracing wires and couldn't find a broken wire and pulled the mag pickup off the front of the truck and it's been eaten by the dampner. It was a little worn down before the season started from mud rubbing against it. Checked it for signal and it was giving a bad reading and was worn down even more.

This was about 6:30 pm, called around to the chain stores, nobody had one, so will call Grand Prix in the morning to make sure they still have one there and go pick it up so I can get a good pasture run and can compare it to a bog run next weekend.

I did check the driveshaft rpm and looks like I hit 70 mph in 3rd gear out in the pasture.