Tow rig insanity

[MrMindless]

Had a couple air system issues around Cleveland yesterday. Lost a line off the tank and fixed it. Immediately lost a line off the compressor and fixed it. Lost the line off the tank again, was out of partsand on the side of the road, plumbed around the tank and was OK. Had air pressure again. but it wouldn\'t range shift or split.

Screwed around for a while, verified pressure at the trans, searched eaton tech docs, couldn\'t find anything. Looked at re-plumbing it to force high range but didn\'t really know where to start - and hose fittings were the wrong size to start playing.  Started, in desparation,  poking for some sort of reset button or lever or something that I knew wasn\'t there, and found a missing aire regulator cap and spring. Proprietary part, had nothing closer than a too-small flashlight cap.... But if I pushed it the tans got air. Tried zip ties and sockets but they spit out quickly.  Ended up with no spacer, just a zip tie. Got me just enough air to work. No splitting or range shifting since either took multiple seconds, but it would gete 10 miles to Lowes. I\'d called the only fleet service place Google found in the area and he\'d guessed the only likely parts place on a Sunday at 1830 would be Freightliner of Youngstown and that was the wrong way for me.

Flashlight cap in hand, I headed for the plumbing department, and found that 1\" npt was pretty close. The first cap I grabbed had too large an od to work. Tge second fit. Thread is the wrong pitch, but i got it on a couple turns with the spring from my flashlight as the regulator, and a zip tie for insurance. I\'m just lucky the plunger stayed when the cap and spring left.

As soon as I got the air system working in the Lowes lot I had a control line at the top of the trans start leaking too so I had to pull my access cover and re seat that too.

Made it to Summit in Akron, got my Dakota Digital SGI-5, and after drooling all over their store I drove in circles in their parking lot playing with this thing to get it set right. I had no clue what values I was coming from or going to so it was all trial and error. I ran out of adjustmenta couple times, switched between different outputs several times, and finally nailed it. I\'m in the venter of adjustment range so if I change gears or tires I have room to move. I got it to within 4% based just off indicated speed, then today on my next tank of fuel I corrected it based on odometers and my trip miles are now exactly accurate.

Im worried about how hot it gets, but I have nothing objective to go on. Need to get a temp gauge on it. I\'m sure it\'s fine, but the shift tower was hot enough to made me nervous after 300 miles at a stretch.


It\'s still a bit loud. Not much worse than stock, I don\'t think, but quieter would be nice. I think some heavy foam over the doghouse and a serious shift boot will do nicely - I\'m running the Smichael CJ5 special right now (beach towel stuffed in the hole). I\'d also like better fitting carpet. Hell, I don\'t even really like carpet in front and would be happy to loose it, but need something to cover foam and padding etc. Are there options out there I\'m unaware of? Nothing flat will work wonderfully....

[MrMindless]

Sorry for the iphonese typos :)

it did get me to MN and I believe my milage is much improved. 2000rpm at 73 now. Had been 2500 to do 70 before. Much better. Long legs now too, it\'ll do 80 comfortably. That was a screaming stretch before. Shifting is improving but interstates don\'t make for much practice.

[smichaelR22]

my NV5600 got to 230F this weekend towing down, that was the warmest i have ever seen.

[MrMindless]

Temp gauge installed. 15-20 mile test drive it got to 160. Upgraded air gauge too. (I got a two gauge pod w oil pressure and water temp gauges; now I have matching and lit pressure and temp gauges)

I should actually get to posting some pictures soon.

Here\'s one of my new gauges, and my sweeeeet shifter boot.

[MrMindless]

MrMindless wrote:
just because there\'s 13 of them doesn\'t mean I need to use them.

2-4-5o-7-8 is a match to the ratios I have now.  empty that\'s probably close-ish to how I\'ll shift it. I\'ll probably split all the top gears just because it sounds cool :)

I\'m vastly more concerned with being annoyed about non-synchronized shifting than with the number of ratios. It\'ll take some practice I\'m sure.

After some time with it, for the record I usually go 4 [range] 5-6-7-8-8o, so about the exact same amount of shifting I was doing before.

It\'s fun to split ranges around town to keep it at 1500-1750 at any given speed limit.

Shifting is coming much more naturally now, and I\'m finally used to the weird pattern.  I had some weird air issues, and revisited the air regulator fix - they\'re now resolved but as part of testing I actually split every top range gear 5 through 8 a couple times.  That\'s pretty fun now that I almost am comfortable doing it :)

[smichaelR22]

my trans stays under 170 when not towing, and about 210 when towing.  it takes about 2 hours to hit either of this temps

[rejeep]

can you hook a cooler up on that pig

[smichaelR22]

they have a PTO version for my 6 speed manual i have looked at, but really those numbers arent bad, the oil breaks down at what like 350F?

[MrMindless]

Eaton says under 250. I can get a pump & cooler setup for mine. My airflow is severely restricted compared to a stock application. In also running dino oil, not synthetic, which would help out my temps.

I\'ll see where it sits after a few hours on the road. I think it took mr
about 300mi before I was thinking \"hot\" and even 200 would seem pretty hot without being able to put a number on it. Now I\'ll know, and know whether or not to worry.

[MrMindless]

Cruising around town it sits at 170?.

[MrMindless]

I wanted to share with a little wider audience.  Here are the pictures, and a bit more of a comprehensive step by step: http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=11808272

[etk300ex]

nice work mike, I love how you take on large tasks a week before you go on long trips :hammer:

[MrMindless]

I haven\'t taken any pictures yet but I got the shifter all sealed up with a real live shift boot, and it\'s fantastic. No smells at all (unlike the scent of gear oil that crept into the parked truck with only a towel there) and when I\'m not split over, I think it\'s quieter than stock, and it\'s totally tolerable when split out. I got a couple boots and a replacement air filter/ regulator from Casey\'s last friday. Air regulator is installed as well.

Tonight I took care of a track bar bracket issue that\'s been leaving me to bottom out frequently since I put a bushing on the top end, so I\'m done cringing at bumps. Well, I will be once I\'m used to not bottoming out, that is. I also took care of some stripped out holes in my injector pump that hold the shudown solenoid. Should stop a bit of an oil leak and gets rid of a long standing ziptie bandaid.

Did the work in my garage through the rain storm. Proud moment, first time I\'ve done that through a sweet hardcore thunderstorm. I\'m usually outside under tarps, not being able to commit to finishing in a day and not wanting to leave my garage door open for a week :) I\'m about 6\' shy of being able to close the door behind what has been christened the Dumptruck.  

[smichaelR22]

good times.  

[Camo1Ton]

Big Rig now :)