Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

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Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby hackster » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:11 pm

Hey all, Been on here reading and reading for a long time, finally have something that might be worth posting up.

I am a car guy through and through I love to build stuff and cannot stand to drive anything boring. My daily driver is a 1981 volvo 242 with an ls1 and a t56. :lol:

So my tow rig for the last three years has been a 1993 w250 that has racked up 249,000 miles on it. It has been hands downt the most dependable, hadest working truck I have ever owned by a long shot....even better than the 07 cummins I bought off the lot brand new in late 06.

Truck is all turned up with timing bump, denny t fuel pin wh1c with 14 cm housing, leveling kit and 35's with 2" dom tube bumpers. Its a standard cab long bed and I love it.

Here is the dirty old girl in all her glory, doing what she usually does, towing the car trailer around with some project on the trailer.

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Well, have sold off a few cool cars in the past few months in order to build the rig that I have wanted for the last few years. A crew cab short bed cummins 5 speed with some one tons under it.

So the search began for the right truck......well more like trucks right? After lots of searching I found a 1993 extra cab long bed w250 with a cummins and a 5 speed 4 wheel drive. The truck had was in an accident but I really was not interested in much of the body. Not to mention I got it for a good price. So I loaded up the trailer and headed up into the sticks to pick it up.

Two first gens...happy times.

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Not much to look at but good running gear with pod's denny t fuel pin kdp fixed and a rebuit getrag.

So this will be the donor drivetrain...

I brought it home on Friday afternon and could not get the tools out fast enough.
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby hackster » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:31 pm

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Had a little help from a friend but we made pretty quik work, the cab was entirely stripped of everything, harness was all unplugged and removed in one piece, it was in great shape with just a little bit of hackery to clean up but nothing too bad.

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Cut out a bunch of the firewall so that I would hopefully be able to weld in the right opening for the heater box and the firewall harness plug.
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby hackster » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:46 pm

Stripped it down to the frame, pressure washed everything and threw some paint on while it waits for more work.

Pushed it over into the corner of the shop waiting for the next phase.

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So part two was located up in the seattle area and arrived here at the junkyard today courtesy of my dad... he lives up there.

1979 crew cab long bed dually 2wd, in ok shape, not the greatest but a lot better than most.

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Had the afternoon to work on it today.... and got a fair bit of work done.

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And when my computer gets less angry, Ill post up some more progress.

Sean
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby CumminsPower59 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 4:10 am

Welcome! Thats one clean tow rig you got. Keep the pictures coming :thumright:
Ike

91 W350 SRW, 3.07's, NV4500, 370's, THD LPPP, Super HX40, 2nd gen IC swap, BHAF, Isspro's, 2" lift, 285's on 3rd gen 17"'s.
04 VW Jetta Wagon TDI 5speed
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby dazedandconfused » Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:12 am

I would love to have that crew cab.
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby ellis93 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:20 am

Love the shop,I'd sleep in there cause its so clean lol
93 D250 ,5 speed,4.11s,k&n autometer tach pyro trans boost guages,GDS 60mm h1c 14cm,honed 5x10,hplp/reg,1/8 timing,M+H M2 fuel pin, tims cooler tubz
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby cmann250 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:29 am

I agree with Ellis. I have extreme shop and paved driveway envy. I also dig the blue on the donor 8)
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby hackster » Tue Sep 25, 2012 1:19 pm

Thanks for the compliments, worked a lot to make the garage be a nice place to spend time. I spend a lot of time out there....too bad these things are just a bit too large to fit in the shop.

Once the Dually was home and I drove it around the block once, I pulled it in and started on the teardown. I think it had been at my house for maybe an hour before I got started.

Stripped the frontend down in preparation for the body to come off.

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Then moved onto the interior. It was in really nice shape with the black dash all in one piece.

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This is pretty much how I left it last night. Column is loose just needs final disconnect, Four bolts and the cab is ready to come off.

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I have a couple questions and I was hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on them.

For the heaterbox, are you guys cutting out the entire section and welding in the new panel from the cummins truck? Eyeballing it last night it almost looks like there are just a couple sections that need to be cut and patched to make the newer heater box work in the older cab.

Clutch assembly and harness bulkhead. I cut out the entire firewall from the old truck so I have all the holes already, guessing most people are cutting about a 12" by 12" square out and replacing it with the newer firewall with the right holes for the electrical and clutch.

Removing the cab......So, here is my only real problem so far. I have no lift at home, no back hoe, forklift or anything else. How have you guys removed these big cabs from the truck? I am sure someone has some ingenious way that I just have not figured out yet.

Thanks in advance for the help.


The plan for the truck is very minimal lift with some modified front fenders to clear some 37" BFG Allterrains on Hutchinson beadlocks. 4:10's in the diffs with some type of locker (ARB's I am guessing but it comes down to price) tube bumpers front and rear and roof rack. Still toying with whether or not I want a sheetmetal 6' bed or just build it all out of tube and have it be functional and never have to worry about damaging it.


The truck will be used for a tow rig and adventure vehicle all in one.

That is where I am at so far. Hope to make some more progress on it this week maybe just maybe get the cab off and get all the welding work done.

Sean
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby dazedandconfused » Tue Sep 25, 2012 1:53 pm

If you have 4 strong guys you can lift it off by hand.
Big Andy
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby CumminsPower59 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:15 pm

What I have done in the past is find four really tall jackstands, two 8ft 4x4"s, lift the front of the cab high enough to roll the frame out from underneath, put two of the jackstands on either side of the cab in, and place the 4x4 across. Then do the same for the rear. The cab will then be supported high enough to roll the frame out from underneath. Works when you are working by yourself.
Ike

91 W350 SRW, 3.07's, NV4500, 370's, THD LPPP, Super HX40, 2nd gen IC swap, BHAF, Isspro's, 2" lift, 285's on 3rd gen 17"'s.
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby dazedandconfused » Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:34 pm

CumminsPower59 wrote:What I have done in the past is find four really tall jackstands, two 8ft 4x4"s, lift the front of the cab high enough to roll the frame out from underneath, put two of the jackstands on either side of the cab in, and place the 4x4 across. Then do the same for the rear. The cab will then be supported high enough to roll the frame out from underneath. Works when you are working by yourself.


Ive done similar to this.
Big Andy
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby ellis93 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 3:11 pm

Aframe one time and a tall oak tree one time :lol: I suggest the a frame as the tree might be hairy to work under :P
93 D250 ,5 speed,4.11s,k&n autometer tach pyro trans boost guages,GDS 60mm h1c 14cm,honed 5x10,hplp/reg,1/8 timing,M+H M2 fuel pin, tims cooler tubz
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby PToombs » Tue Sep 25, 2012 5:24 pm

Good work, way faster than anything I seem to do. :lol:

I bet the neighbors love you there. :mrgreen:
pete

Just enough power to break everything behind the crankshaft.
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby hackster » Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:14 pm

Neighbors dont really mind me much usually I am pretty clean and keep stuff put away in the shop. These ones just seem to be a bit bigger than my garage.

Thanks guys,

I am attempting to pull the cab without pulling the bedoff for now, and I have a winch on my buggy so that might work.

I also have a Warn Pullzall that I think I will hook up to a big a frame that I have at work and see if that will do the job.


As far as the heater box goes, it was one of those things that I was dreading doing, so I got everything out and laid both heater boxes side by side to see just how different they were. Turns out that they really are not that much different than one another.

I had already cut out the firewall from the other truck so I was acutally able to overlay the new firewall right over the old firewall and see exacty what needed to happen.

I Marked the new opening and got to work with a step drill, cut off wheel, die grinder, hammer and dolly.

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I left a 1/4" inside the two small areas that needed trimming passenger side top corner, then I trimmed out the new opening. Once that was done, I took the hammer and dolly to it to get a nice radius to mimmick the factory flange. The heater box still covers the entire area so with a new seal, it will look just like a factory opening. Cut out a small hole for the heater lines to pass through, then enlarged it to make it just big enough for the lines to fit through.

It really was not too painful.

So I also was dreading the drivers side, but I think I came up with a nice solution.

I was trying to figure out a way to stiffen up the firewall near the pedal assembly and the same time I needed to cut up the firewall to move the harness cutout. Lots of factory firewalls are doubled up with sheetmetal in the pedal box area and spot welded together.

I trimmed out a panel from the 93 firewall that I wanted to use. Once it was trimmed to fit right, I took to the hammer and dolly and beat a lip all the way around the outside of it and trimmed it all up with a flapper wheel on the grinder.

I think it turned out ok, Just wondering how it will look on the firewall, I really like the idea of it though stiffening up the firewall, covering up some holes and not having to do a bunch of bodywork on the firewall. What you guys think?

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Sean
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Re: Hacksters Crew Cab Cummins 5 speed swap

Postby m880cummins » Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:55 pm

DANG! You move really quick! I only work one day a week on my crew but this is pretty wild!

Charlie
1977 M880 Cummins 5 speed SOLD :(
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