On my little 1.5 ecotec we adapted a 2.0 LTG throttle body to the stock manifold. That wouldn’t allow the stock valve cover breather to stay in its home. I ended up cutting about 2” off the stock breather and miraculously it was the perfect ID for 1/4” NPT threads. So new threads a few fittings and it’s clears the valve cover by about .001 and it clears the throttle body by about the same distance. Fun stuff!
General Tech What did you work on Today?
- Thread starter Gravy
- Start date
DaveB
Long Jeep Fan
- Location
- Holladay, Utah
Spent yesterday installing an 8.0 L Dodge V10 in my friends truck, what a pain.
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
That looks awesome 😎
- Location
- West Haven, UT
You are going to love having gone hydraulic on your tube bender. I used mine in manual mode for the first several years but after converting it to hydraulics and building a mobile cart it was a game changer.
Agreed. Make a little cart with casters on it to put under your brake drum.
Agreed. Make a little cart with casters on it to put under your brake drum.
I'm pretty excited, in the past I've been borrowing my dad's Model 3 manual, worked just fine but it was time I got my own and I didn't like bolting it to the floor and not having the flexibility/space for dealing with longer pieces of tubing. I'm excited to be able to use this and then just shove it in the corner. I'm going to use it as is for now, moving it with an engine hoist or something, but eventually I would like to do as you guys are suggesting and add castors.
A couple notes for anyone who may google this or decide to go the same route:
- The Harbor Freight ram has been discontinued, the guys at Swag were great to work with and gave me several recommendations of alternate rams.
- The Northern Tool ram has an oil fill port with a rubber stopper in it that sticks up proud of the cylinder OD. The swag guys resolved this by dimpling the cylinder (smacked it with a ball peen hammer) until the plug set below the OD. I tapped the hole and threaded in a short set screw just below the OD with a generous amount of loctite.
- The machined thumb knob that comes with the kit from Swag does not fit the Northern Tool ram (the one in the pick above is one I 3D printed).
- The bender w/ the Swag attachment mounts to the pedestal differently (uses different holes) than the bender when installed in the manual configuration. Ask me how I know... I originally welded the entire pedestal together and painted utilizing the JD2 instructions as if I was mounting it manually and had to cut the top bracket off and redo it.
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
I have a homemade setup JD^2 with air over hydro that I built a decade before anyone had an off the shelf solution. The only thing I'd still like to ad to mine is a return spring with like an old garage spring or trampoline spring or something.
Swag's kit comes w/ this "elastic return spring". It takes some umph to get on, but it works ok. It still doesn't fully collapse the ram, I have to help it about the last 2 inches. Likely more expensive than a trampoline spring/other though.
www.swagoffroad.com
SWAG Air/Hydraulic Tube Bender Accessories
Tube Bender Optional Accessories Elastic Return Spring Imagine how much easier your job is going to be if you're not having to manually retract your tube bender every time you need to re-pin your die set. The 100 pounds of resistance offered by this return spring is backwards compatible with our...
www.swagoffroad.com
glockman
I hate Jeep trucks
- Location
- Pleasant Grove
Is that the factory gauge cluster? It looks fantastic.
Nah it's from classic instruments, the black goes with the truck and it does look similar to the original ones. I think Dakota digital is also now making something similar.
- Location
- The Village of Kay
My snow blower stopped working on New Years Day. The impeller was turning but the auger wasn't. That told me it was going to be hard to fix and expensive.
Since a similar new one is pushing $2k these days, I decided to tear it down tonight and see how hard it will be to fix.
Found the keyed brass gear lost some teeth. Now trying to decide how many parts to buy or just buy the whole assembly to make it easier to reassemble.
Since a similar new one is pushing $2k these days, I decided to tear it down tonight and see how hard it will be to fix.
Found the keyed brass gear lost some teeth. Now trying to decide how many parts to buy or just buy the whole assembly to make it easier to reassemble.
- Location
- West Haven, UT
That is a quite common failure point on 2-stage snowblowers and a pretty easy fix. Happy to see you tear into it rather than lay down a couple grand on a new one as this one will be good as new once repaired.
If I can make a suggestion, while you are rebuilding the gearbox, make sure to get a gasket if possible, many times people just use RTV but I prefer a gasket as it aids in keeping the proper spacing in the gearbox. Also, I would suggest replacing the shear pins as whatever you hit to damage the spur gear also shock loaded the shear pins and they often times fail afterward a gearbox repair. Lastly, make sure to pick up a tube of the proper gear lubricant as these generally don't take a standard GL-5 gear oil, although that is what everyone on the small engine forums will tell you to use. However, it will more than likely leak profusely afterwards. They usually require a 00 grease which is a very low viscous grease and comes in a squeeze tube. I have ordered mine online but I think Tractor Supply also carries a tube of 00 grease.
Just some things to consider while rebuilding for a long living repair.
Mike
- Location
- The Village of Kay
Awesome suggestions, thanks!
I had to drive out 2 shear pins so my plan was to replace them all to start fresh and hope the pins shear next time so the gear doesn't get eaten again.
- Location
- West Haven, UT
You're welcome. While I love seeing people repair, refurbish, restore items rather than replace, I also enjoy seeing them get the satisfaction from a thorough and proper repair so any information I can give to help, I am happy to. I also am here to learn from others just as much as I hope to help.
Mike
Dana 30 swap that beast 🤣
That looks really similar to the brass worm gear in my bandsaw. (which also ate itself when it ran dry)
I'm wondering if it was supposed to have some o' dat 00 grease, rather than the gear oil I filled it with. Then again, I added oil seals that were never present from the factory, so maybe it's OK as-is. Actually, I know it's OK because I haven't had to touch it for a few years since my repair.
I'm wondering if it was supposed to have some o' dat 00 grease, rather than the gear oil I filled it with. Then again, I added oil seals that were never present from the factory, so maybe it's OK as-is. Actually, I know it's OK because I haven't had to touch it for a few years since my repair.
- Location
- West Haven, UT
That looks really similar to the brass worm gear in my bandsaw. (which also ate itself when it ran dry)
I'm wondering if it was supposed to have some o' dat 00 grease, rather than the gear oil I filled it with. Then again, I added oil seals that were never present from the factory, so maybe it's OK as-is. Actually, I know it's OK because I haven't had to touch it for a few years since my repair.
I had restored/rebuilt an old Wilton vertical bandsaw about 15 years ago as my first vertical bandsaw that had the same issue, probably why I got such a good deal on it.
I did the same thing, I machined the gearbox to accept a seal on either side and used 80W-90 gear oil. Never leaked and did a great job in the 10 or so years I owned it.As for these snowblower gearboxes, the seals at the output shafts as well as the input shaft are pretty much a joke and a far exaggeration from the word "seal". They are basically a quad ring (square O-ring) that fits into a groove which is why standard gear oil usually doesn't remain inside for long. Now this is the standard for many built in the last decade plus but I worked on some from 30+ years ago that actually did have a traditional oil seal along with gear oil but I think manufacturers have gotten cheap over the past decade or two and figured a standard rubber ring and some thicker lubrication that won't run out does the job. And in fact, in most situations it does the job perfectly. I just think it could be better. I think if/when I ever have to rebuild my gearbox I may go the route of machining to accept a traditional oil seal.
Mike