I have entire driveline installed in my '55 first series. Cab is "resting" on front perches and mounted on rear mounts to frame. I'm having a tough time aligning it. Cab is shifted to the drivers side in rear about 1-1 1/2 inches and is down approx. 1/2 inch relative to pass. side. I know if I shift it over the mounts will also shift and the way the rear mounts are designed, this will take care of some of the tilt. But, how do I make it stay that way without it shifting back? Is it the tight bolt-down of the front mounts that does it? Also, the front of the cab seems shifted to the pass. side as well, although I have not taken measurements as of yet. Tranny hump in cab is way shifted over from center of engine. I'm guessing that the indent in the center of the firewall is not meant to be centered over the rocker cover as there is also the manifolds to take into consideration that have to also fit in the indent in the firewall. Also, cab is practically resting on the top of the bell housing and against the back of the block it is so close. How much space should there be between cab and bell housing and the cab and the back of the block? Any idea on how much shim thickness at the front and rear mounts you would be comfortable with in order to get the cab off the block and bell housing and to level it off? Right now it looks as if I'll need to loosen the cab to rear mount bolts, shift the entire cab BACK as much as the holes in the floor at rear mounting points will allow and use at least 1/2 to 3/4 inch of shims in the rear on one side. Front of cab looks like it will need at least the same on one side and double that on the other. This seems excessive. Perhaps the front of the cab will level off some once the rear of the cab is centered on the frame and leveled off, but I haven't had success centering and leveling the rear of the cab yet. Just shimmed it some yesterday and when I dropped the cab off the jack it was a little more level, but still shifted to one side. Probably because I used a floor jack and as it lowered it also drops forward causing the cab to move over as it was lowered. Gonna try orienting the jack front to back and do it again tonight or tomorrow and see what happens. Any help out there from people who have done frame-offs before? Remember that there was no engine in my truck when I got it so I have no frame of reference for engine clearances. I pm'ed Evan because I thought he would know, but I also want to draw on everyone's knowledge and experience on this issue. Andy
the cab mounting bolts have some play in them especally the rear cab mounts lossen the 4 bolts that go up into the cab from the bottom. you should be able to shift it an inch or so. as far as firewall goes you may need one of 2 things a deeper firewall, maybe even a custom tranny door. or realign you engine mounts... my truck was aligned with a plastic mock up engine and tranny.... GT by the way all of your frount end sheetmetal aligns to the cab so becarfull how much you shim. you may have some fender alignment problems
Thanks Mylow, Stock drive line so realigning the engine mounts and different firewall are not options. Andy
Ha Andy, turn the cab around the correct way man for goodness sak has to be backwards to be that far off. Any way let's try to get some better measurements or better yet some photos would maybe help. You should not be needing to shim it that much to get at least close to proper. Should have a fair amount of engine to cowl clearance also. Take a moment and step back-(Out of the box) and take a look at the overall thing. Basic things first lining up on the proper frame holes ?,etc.. Since still at the basic cab stage use some smaller blocks to mock it up first then see how it lines up. Any access to another truck to get some measurements to match.
Andy, tried to answer but kept getting rejected because it said I was using 1018 letters even when I just typed in my email address. I would remove the rear mounts (use temporary blocks) then put in the two front bolts with shims (they were thin--I use a piece of mudflap), square the cab front and rear, then snug the front bolts. Now slowly jack up the rear of the cab, it should stay aligned, until the rear mounts will bolt into place. If they don't line up then something is twisted. Since they set at about a 45 degree angle they stay in place because they would have to lift the weight of the cab to move. This is a silly question but you don't have you steering column fastened to the dash do you? We have a test mule now that we fastened the bed to the cab when all were aligned on a frame (does anyone remember Ford's infamous "Unicab"?) so we can lower the whole thing down on an S10 or other chassis and fab the mounts to fit. That reminds me, the AD-Engineering kit uses channel with a 90 degree angle at the top and stock S10 mount biscuits. They attatch to the side of the frame and the rear cab crossmember and do away with the shackle type factory setup.
Hey evan that is a great pic of where to mount the cab mounts to the S-10 frame. Do you have any measurements to match that picture front and rear? If so they would be greatly appreciated. You have sent me pics of the front and rear before but I would like measurements the next time you do an S-10 swap to help guide me better with my S-10 swap. Thanks in advance.
Hey Andy, you didn't tighten the back bolts down, did you? I would think that using something like a drift pin to get the holes within reason before reaching for a bolt would be a good way to start? This is very interesting, because I'm going to cut mine loose too. I'm hoping that a new cab mount kit from CP and a little shifting of the cab is all it'll take to get it "back to good".
Hey Zig, Just don't make like Kevin and cut the mounts in half with a torch by accident when removing old bad floor pans . Luckily, I sent him an extra set of rear mounts I had. I have the cab mount kit from CP and it rebuilt the stock rear mounts with no problem (after large amounts of Kroil, wire brushing and a torch to free the 50 plus years of rust on the castle nuts). I have been up since 6:00 am working on the truck to align the cab today. Hoping to get it aligned before the rest of the days needs tear me away from it. Andy
Oh come on Andy . You can't come back and post "done perfect" What happened ? And how to it become Done Perfect ?
Note to self "next time look under the floor that you are cutting out to make sure you aren't cutting anything important like cab mounts". Man I felt so stupid. Thanks again Andy for bailing me out.
You are ON IT! Way to go Steve! The only time I utter the words, "Done, perfect!" are after I (you guessed it) pulled something OFF THE GRILL!!!! Ya know Andy, you've alluded to this "big grill" you've got- don't tell me it's THAT big! You in Texas????
Just you wait Mr. Stardust. Details on my next grilling escapade will follow in due time. I may not be in Texas, but my Bar-B-Que skills are legendary. Cab mounts took a while to get right...jack here, shim there, shift here, shift there, etc. Actually not perfect just yet. Ran out of time. Need to install one more eight inch shim at rear mount on one side. Will do it tonight afterhours if I have the energy after seeing a hundred patients or tomorrow in the morning. NOw I have to see about making the steering column mount up to the dash. It seems to be a little too far away after my assesment this morning. Hmmmm...maybe not really perfect yet. Always after we look we see something else that needs doing. But the cab is aligned very well and secured on the mounts nicely. clearances are much better. didn't take as much shimming as I originally thought. Needed to shift the entire cab back on the frame about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and it all started getting better after that. Love my crowbar. Andy
Steering Column Andy ; The steering column isn't supposed to be jammed up tight against the dash ~ it had washers to shim it . I shimmed mine to _zero_ side load as I didn't want that hard to find upper mast jacket bearing/horn contact to wear out etc. . There's sufficient space for me to thread the vacuum hose between the dash and the column , up to my Trico vacuum fan.... ?? 100 ? patents ? wow what are you = super dedicated or an HMO Doctor ? . Put another tube on the Barbie for me
Thanks Nate, DEDICATED (and really good, too). I HATE HMO's. Thought I did something wrong. Parts truck floor was so bad that the column WAS actually tight up against the dash. The distance between the column and dash now is just as you described in your last post. Thanks again. Speaking of upper mast jacket bearing and horn contact wire, the horn wire was snipped by the Old Navy prep crew. Any way of fixing that? I haven't taken the upper bearing out so I haven't seen it. I also have another column from the parts truck that has the horn wire intact albeit the insulation needs a little tape at a crack or two. Prolly will replace the shaft seal in THAT one and use it instead of the column that is in the truck now unless replacing the horn contact wire is fairly simple. would really like to keep the column that is in the truck presently. Andy
Mast Jacket Upper Bearing/Bushing Couple ways to do this : Loosen the pinch bolt at the steering box and _gently_ remove the mast jacket , use a wooden stick (broomstick etc.) from the bottom end to ever-so-gently- knock the bearing Ay. out and solder a new wire to it , thread it back in through the loop 1/2 way down and re-assemble . Or , use the other mast jacket and simply slide some heat shrink tubing up and around the wire through the acess hole , leaving the bearing untouched & unbroken ~ that's what I did as I'm lazy and I just wanted the horn to work ....... If you remove the mast jacket , wire brush all that old paint off it and re-spray with RustOleum or other durable paint , POR-15 if you're rich I hope this helped , it is _very_ common for the steering column to be supporting the cab's weight...
