Pumpkin truck build thread

O

overboosted

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Mar 21, 2012
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I got this truck for a good solid project as of a few days ago my A518 transmission decided to kill itself. so now the build starts. Since i am a broke college student I have to build the truck with my brain, not my wallet. This is also my first diesel build so any suggestions you have im all ears and more than willing to learn. Here is what i got so far.
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I dropped the pan and discovered my transmission was nice and pink. :nail:
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A little research into it and i decided to scrap the heat exchanger to avoid this problem again. This is a summer only truck so i am not worried about cold starting and winters.
P.O.S.!
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This is my first time doing my own transmission rebuild and so far its not nearly as complicated as i thought. The A518 is a pretty simple transmission though. upon tear down i discovered this.
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surprisingly all the clutches and bands did not look to bad. but im not going to chance it since they did get exposed to the nasty coolant.

Since I decided to yank out the heat exchanger i wanted another source of a cooler. I am going to pull the truck as much as i can this summer and need to keep this transmission alive until i can afford the nv4500 swapp. So this is where building with my brain instead of my wallet comes in.
I cannot afford a good A/W intercooler for the truck, which on my previous race car I put my transmission cooler in the bottom of the ice box. i wanted to do somthing similar to this set up so i came up with this idea.

Beer window
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+ Beer cooler
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+ small B&M super cooler
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= one hell of a convenient trans/beer cooler!
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All i did was drill 4 holes through the cooler and the truck bed and bolted it all down. ran my line through the cooler and silicone it all up. Now when i want to pull or abuse it i can ice it down and hopefully keep my trans temp down. Its a win win in my eyes.
Im waiting on my rebuild kit to come in to finish up the job. until then im just cleaning and painting everything up all nice.
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There will be more to come soon, swap meet season is approching where i plan on picking up gears and Detroit lockers for front and rear.
 
It'll be a completely different truck once you get the manual in. We swapped a Getrag into my bro's 1 ton dually. Soooooo much better than the A518 slush box. Good luck on the build man.
 
thanks. i hate having to stick any money into the auto but id rather be driving it than have it sit. iv been trying to find some info on how people routed their transmission lines after they took the heat exchanger off, so far no luck. so if anyone has a link they could share i would appreciate it.
 
I'm digging the color on that truck. It looks really good with the wheels.

On my truck, I just looped from the outlet right back into the inlet with a section of hose.

1k-2k psi hydraulic hose if I think right, 2 wire. It's just what we had in a spool at work, but I haven't had any leakage problems with a couple of normal worm clamp on each end.

I don't think the pressures in the line gets much above 400psi, but I may be wrong.
 
Also, just to note, I left as much straight hardline as I could coming out of the trans, then worked the hose all the way on it. I didn't really expect those clamps to squeeze hydraulic hose, but didn't have any leaks once it was on there.

It's gone now btw, I swapped to a stick as well.
 
Atleast I'll know better than to ask you for a cold beer after you make a quick beer run. LOL
 
While im waiting on parts i decided to do some clean up and painting
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Side moldings and fender flares, also polished the beauty rings.
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well im done waiting on parts from the local shop here, they ordered me a kit for a 727..:doh: so do any of you have suggestions as far as a good rebuild kit i can order online? They said another good week for the A518 kit to arrive. Since I was bored I took my blinker housings apart, painted the inside black and polished the lenses. I think it turned out pretty good.
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I was stationed in Altus Ok for a while and moved to Vernon after my term was up. I got a job in back in Wisconsin where im originally from. I drove it all the way from Texas to Wisco. 72mph flat footed lol never missed a beat. thanks for the compliments.
 
I needed to go to the chiropractor after the Texas to Wisconsin drive lol. I got my rebuild kit in today. Like i said its my first time doing anything like this so im taking my time and making sure it goes together correct. here are some update pics. Anyone with any mechanical ability, time, and the ability to read can rebuild one of these there self imo.
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Id be afraid to tackle an auto. Its great to see someone build what they want the way they want it. Also anther one gets saved.
 
I got the truck moving on its own power again yesterday. The hardest thing about the rebuild was assembling the OD section, and valve bodies. Just takes some patients, elbow grease and a few f bombs and i got it all put back together pretty easy.

had to do some creative thinking to compress the OD section to put the last snap ring in, so we came up with this...a bit sketchy but it got the job done.
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really big pain putting these in by yourself!
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Now its driveable again I will be bringing it by the fab shop for some traction bars and some front and rear bumpers.
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overboosted said:
I got the truck moving on its own power again yesterday. The hardest thing about the rebuild was assembling the OD section, and valve bodies. Just takes some patients, elbow grease and a few f bombs and i got it all put back together pretty easy.

had to do some creative thinking to compress the OD section to put the last snap ring in, so we came up with this...a bit sketchy but it got the job done.
imagejpeg_2_3.jpg




really big pain putting these in by yourself!
Click to expand...
Now thats thinking outside the box (or hyd press)!
 
now that its running I can keep adding some power. not going to crazy since i dont have a EGT gauge right now. also got rid of the stock radiator overflow tank and put a nicer aluminum one i had laying around.
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Also did the fuel pin mod. for now i just ground my stock one down. didnt get real crazy with it. honestly i wasn't 100% sure of what i was doing lol
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since i had the top part of the pump apart i decided to move the throttle rod to the hole closer to the pump. Im pretty sure its just on autos where you have the extra plate to grind down.
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Just between those two mods, and 2.5 turns on the smoke screw, 2 turns on fuel screw seemed to really wake it up. if im way off on my pump tune, or any other suggestions let me know.
 
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Wow that's a mild grind. Here's mine.
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I'd look into modding your airbox or a BHAF n exhaust work if you haven't yet.
 
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