68 D500

[RWherley]

Ok guys its time for more of my madness, (if you remember the bus) but this time its some thing of mine, this one will be a bit more drug out but here we go. Im repowering my 1968 D500 with a industrial 24 valve 5.9 and Allison 3000 transmission from a rolled over freightliner ambulance to build a new service truck for work.

 

[RWherley]

Ill post updates as i make progress

 

[Wayne M.]

Oh wow. Tuning in for sure! That’s a nice model truck and it’s gonna be killer! Do you have the trans control module? Vehicle control module? The VIN of the donor truck? Does that trans have any external cooling?

 

[RWherley]

I have the TCM, ECM, and gen 3 push button shift pad, and wire harness plugs, but I'll have to make a new harness. I'm modifying the engine to be full mechanical using a custom built 1st Gen VE pump and we're going to reprogram the TCM to use a stand alone throttle position sensor kind of like the 04 ctd rams use

 

[Wayne M.]

HANG ON! I’m getting my popcorn! I hope you can make this a long picture heavy post. I might have to take a ride out there at some point!

 

[HPSimpson]

Ok have nice soft chair getting the cooler near bye this going to be fun, bring it on!

 

[Wayne M.]

Ok have nice soft chair getting the cooler near bye this going to be funny, bring it on!

Why is this going to be funny? This is off the chart cool. I got my full nerd on. I just want to see it in person at some point. I’d love to do something like this someday.

 

[RWherley]

I've actually had this truck for about 2 years, during that time I've been making plans and gathering parts and looking at fixes for several of the 500's issue, first of which are it's tires, the truck is currently on 8.25-20's mounted on split rim wheels with the big 6 lug pattern, as far as I can find there's no current 20" tire worth buying for that application and I'm not wild about split rims. The only wheel option I could find in 6 lug are the 19.5 wheels from FedEx trucks which would have been ok but the tallest 19.5 tire is still several inches shorter then the 20s on it now, which would have geared it down even lower so no luck with that idea

 

[RWherley]

The next issue is the breaks, while I guess they were ok in 68 I don't want to run the old hydraulic drum break with under floor vacuum booster set up. And finally the steering, while it does actually have power steering it's not a power gear box, it's hydraulic cylinder that acts on the tie rod with the cylinder's control valve on the drag link. So after thinking about and looking at various options all the answers came at one time. In the form of 25,000 GVW 1995 GMC topkick

 

[RWherley]

The topkick has 10 lug big truck 22.5 wheels, hydraulic disc breaks on all wheels and a large hydraulic break booster running off the power steering pump, and a proper power steering gear box as well. So the current plan is to remove the 3116 boat anchor from the GMC, install the Cummins and drop the Dodge sheet metal down on top of it all. Giving me the cool old Dodge look but modern breaks, wheels, steering, and suspension that will work better and be much easier to get parts for

 

[HPSimpson]

The topkick sounds like way better plan, has just about everything you need in one place, going to be waiting to see pictures and the progress here.

 

[Cummins12V98]

That is simply AWESOME!!!

A "REAL ALLISON" to boot!

 

[RWherley]

The next issue i ran into is the tool body, the boxes are to small for what i want to do and it had a lot of rust in the box floors, after looking around and checking options i decided that this was what i liked the most

 

[RWherley]

after working out a deal with junk yard, we removed the van cab in the junk yard and brought the frame and tool body home as one, and using our forklift and backhoe together lifted the whole unit onto the bed of the top kick.

 

[RWherley]

using our gantry crane and backhoe we lifted the tool body off the van frame then used the forklift to pull the van frame out from under the body then set the body back down onto the topkick,

 

[RWherley]

We are currently welding new stringers on to the cross members of the tool body to match the frame width of the topkick, once done we'll lift it up again get the flatbed out of the way and drop it down onto the frame and bolt it down. I know it seems like some extra steps in there with putting it on the flat bed then removing the flat bed out from under it but drive way space is limited and this lets us move it with the truck so its out of the way when we're not working on it.

 

[RWherley]

But the real fun is about to begin

 

[HPSimpson]

Yes maybe a few steps but with limited space this how you will reach your goal, to mount on the topkick this real nice tool box bed.

 

[DonFitzwater]

You get that engine spiffed up yet?

 

[RWherley]

I should get the block back from the machine shop this week