PumpKINstien

[5erge]

Some more progress;

Removed the old steeringbox (not the easiest thing to do by yourself) then bolted on the coupling to the bevelbox/steering rack

Ignore the crap on the floor

I wasn't happy with the front mount on the coupling so tried to remove it from the bevelbox and re-fit, during this process I managed to screw up the splines, so a quick call to Red9 and they are sending me out another one.

Next job; lower the rear and fit my Bears re-furbed gearbox

 

[gninnam]

Nice box :shock:

Cr@p about damaging the splines though

 

[5erge]

The wife thought the name Pumpkin was a bit on the gay side, didn't bother me, but she said "the bus currently has parts on it from other buses n' bugs so call it Frankenstien. I decided to go with Pumpkinstien in homage to it's original name :mrgreen:

Des (btw first time I've ever named my vehicle)

 

[muntz70]

Des...

What wheel/tire combo do you plan on running with the new suspension setup?

 

[5erge]

Des...

What wheel/tire combo do you plan on running with the new suspension setup?

15" 175/55 and 195/65 - Should get them on this weekend.

Des

 

[Guest]

love this one 8)

did you have the original gears reworked? taller 4th etc? and if you dont mine how much was it for the gearbox refurb?

 

[Araon]

as your at that stage somone on here is after images of the gearbox mount nosecone end any chane you could post a couple of pics for them?

 

[5erge]

as your at that stage somone on here is after images of the gearbox mount nosecone end any chane you could post a couple of pics for them?

I'll sort some out.

did you have the original gears reworked? taller 4th etc? and if you dont mine how much was it for the gearbox refurb?

Had a full strip down, replaced any under tollerance parts and replaced the ring and pinion with a new 4.57 which will give me 60 mph at 3000rpm.with 70mph at just over 3500 rpm. The price was approx 920 all in, however this is very much dependant on the condition of your original gearbox, fortunately mine was in pretty good shape.

Okay it's plenty of cash to outlay but as soon as it hits the motorway it'll start to pay for itself with reduced running costs due to the lower RPM.

Des

 

[5erge]

as your at that stage somone on here is after images of the gearbox mount nosecone end any chane you could post a couple of pics for them?

Took a pictures of the gearbox mount, added it to my post above.

 

[K@rlos]

A few boxes of parts have slowly turned my garage into a warehouse, this arrived this morning;

Think I'll remove the Engle sticker, but other than that I'm liking the look of a brand new engine. I retained the original heat exchangers and the rear tinware.

Oh and I also have a Gene Berg shifter to go in.

My red9 wishbone suspension and front disc brakes also turned up but they are still wrapped up in their boxes, I'll wait for a couple of weeks when I actually fit the suspension. The last thing on my list for today is that I managed to pickup a set of 15" split screen steelies for £65, will pick them up next week.

All in all a pleasing weekend for me. Next on the list is the mass garage clearout and I need to build a new workbench for all my tools, this will speed things up considerably if I know where my socket set is, rather than spend an hour digging through boxes only to find it's not even in the garage. I'll do a small write up on the bench build as well.

Cheers

Des

Weber IDF's and a CB performance linkage 8) All good stuff, the same set-up as i've on mine 8) Are they orignal italian Webers?

 

[5erge]

Nice weather last weekend so progress :mrgreen:

She steers, bevel box mounted, rod connected and everything all nipped up. Steered her down the drive then spun round to back up the drive to drop the rear. Mate took a few pictures on his camera phone of the front bumper as it scrapped the road at the foot of the drive :roll:

Okay, so steering at a crawl is decent, nice and light the 175 tyres help out a bit but quite manageble, quite a difference between the old setup.

Dropped the back 4" on red9 plates but my rear tyres 195/65/15 proved difficult to get back on, think I'm going to invest in some creative plates at some point. Engine and box still to go in so it should drop a further inch or so.

Des

 

[graybum]

Good work Des... like many others I'm sure, I'm keeping tracks on your progress before I pick up that phone and speak to Simon at Red9 8)

 

[slammedresto]

Good work Des, keep it up. Great updates.

Was nice to meet u last week, bus looks great

 

[Guest]

I think im going to get one of these beams as well just hope it drives as good as it looks.

great work 8)

 

[ant]

I was driving the red9 bus on Sunday!

Its drives fantastic, you can take corners a hell of a lot quicker than you normally would.

The roads up near simon are full of potholes after the recent cold weather. Normally in a lowered bus we would we would avoid them like the plague, in the red9 bus i was aiming for them!!! no bangs, no knocks you couldn't even feel the potholes through the steering fantastic!

It also made realise how much play i have in my old steering box.

 

[muntz70]

Des...

Do you get full lock on the steering rack? Can you snap a pic of your front wheel when steering is at full lock... thanks!

Tim

 

[matt-me]

Agree witth everyone, excellent work Des and a good detailed thread. Keep it up and good luck.

Al

 

[5erge]

Couple more updates;

New bushes and coupling installed on the shift rod. NOTE: Forget using the EMPI cage just use the Urthrane bushes from the EMPI cage and pop the into the original cage.

Gearbox installed

Also installed my Berg locking shifter, quite straight forward to install and the shifting is wonderfully precise. I know it needs to come out again as I need to trim my floormat but thought I'd make a template of where the shifter base sits before any cutting commences. Still unsure about cutting the brown mat though....

 

[muntz70]

I'm surprised you have to cut the mat. Looks to be the same basic shape/size at the bottom...

 

[muntz70]

I would suggest just cutting slits in the mat and having the mat just rest on the base of the shifter. That way if you ever put the old shifter back in you don't see the floor where mat "used" to be. Keeps you from destroying a perfect rare mat...