[DIYguy]

OK so, I guess I will start this thread to document this process. Hopefully I will get some help along the way, and maybe help someone else.

I bought this truck a few weeks ago. I was originally after an S10 extended cab or Ford Ranger ext cab. This is a 1997 Mazda (Ford with different sheet metal I guess) It's a B4000 which I think refers to the 4.0 litre engine.. looks as though the suspension is pretty good also. It has a blown hydraulic clutch and a bad vacuum leak somewhere, although it started right up with a boost. I rented a UHaul tow dolly and pulled it home with my Quad Cab Dakota 4x4...right down the highway, 100 kph. My main concern was a good, rust free body and not too many kms. This truck has only 140K km on it. Body has no rust to speak of although there are a few small dings. I plan to sell the cap and the engine, perhaps the bed liner also. The interior is extremely dirty and I will likely need new carpet. I paid $1,000 + about $50 for the trailer rental.

Last Sunday, I pulled the ICE out. I decided to pull the transmission with it, so I could work on the adaptor more easily.

[DIYguy]

Yesterday, I made this adaptor from 6061 Al plate. Damn that's a lot of jig sawin'! I didn't want to bug the guys at work, so I did it the hard way... It worked out pretty good. I also cut the pilot end off of the tranny input shaft. Plate was a freebee...

[DIYguy]

While I was looking around for a good donor vehicle, I decided to go shopping for a good usable lift truck motor. I found this little gem at a local lift truck sales and service shop that my company deals with on occasion. It started off looking pretty bad.. but it got better, eventually.. lol Big thanks to Jim Husted of Hi Torque Electric for the heads up on what's good and what isn't. If you need help with motor selection.. this is your guy.

I decided to cut off this big honkin' secondary motor mount (it must have weighed 6 or 7 lbs!)
Then I turned the barrel on a lathe to clean it up for a nice new paint job. Oh, I decided to drill and tap some motor mount holes between the field windings, for later.

[DIYguy]

Ok, so I kept going on the motor rebuild. I basically stripped it down to base components. Gave the field coils a bath and dried them out in the oven (Jim is right about the wife... wasn't good lol) and re-coated them.

The commutator wasn't really grooved too bad, but decided to give it a face lift too.

The drive and aux shafts were both splined so I had them turned and keyed for split taper lock bushings. It's no problem turning these with carbide cutters.

Here is the barrel with the re-coated field coils back in and new stainless steel fasteners to keep the rust away....

[DIYguy]

Make sure you check the brush plate for cracks and loose brush holders. It's a very common problem apparently (I wouldn't know, it's my first one!) I did find one odd-ball brush spring though and replaced it. I was going to replace the whole set, but at $16 each, I opted for just the one. Jim figured it would be fine if the rest had decent and similar force. If u look at the close up of the one spring, u will see it is larger and is installed inverted on the holder.

I turned the DE plate just to clean it up and bought new bearings and a seal. ( really don't think I need the seal, but changed it anyways) Cost = $28. I had to buy another puller too, but I usually don't consider tools part of the job. It was $15 at a surplus store.

If you look close, you will see that I re-drilled the case for a 10 degree brush timing advance. This should suit a 144 volt application. Since I am still pondering 156 volt pack, I decided to also slot the BE mounting holes. This will give me another 3 degrees of advancement if I decide to go with the higher voltage. I just tried to upload an ACAD dwg.. lmao Here u can see a hard copy on the table. I can make a pdf if anyone is interested. It was just a quick and dirty way to get the distances I need for the right angle based on the bolt pattern circle diameter.

[DIYguy]

I ran the motor last night from a single 12V battery. I let it run for an hour or so, to seat in the new brushes (geez those are expensive little devils). I just have to finish cleaning up the rusty, bent and broken bands (vent screen thingys) and I will take a couple pics of the finished motor.

Tomorrow I will pick up my taper mount drive gear that I will use for the coupler. I wanted to use the clutch center (all but the discs) but looks like I will just salvage the centre hub. There will be a little machining and welding required. (good thing I'm a journeyman welder! .. even if I hardly ever do it anymore)

[DIYguy]

My split bushing and sprocket came in yesterday afternoon. I had an QD bushing but decided to move up to the heavier Martin SD three bolt split bushing and bought the matching sprocket just to save some machining. The pair were only $56. This is a pic of the sprocket and bushing together as well as the hub and other matching piece from the clutch.

[DIYguy]

Turned the spocket down to about 4". I should have bought a smaller diameter... but was planning to use the springs and center out of the clutch. This should work out ok though.

Oh,.. this is Bailey... the only one around the house who doesn't think I'm crazy! lmao..

[DIYguy]

I decided to make up a little alignment shaft to keep these parts in the right place when I weld them together. . . which will hopefully be tonight. I think I will get this unit spin balanced as well to ensure there is no vibration at higher rpm as well as early bearing failure.

[DIYguy]

Here is the coupler all welded up. The stubby shaft kept everything lined up nicely and in place as you can see from the in-line pic. I'll see if I can get it balanced today.. I added the before pic so you could see what I trimmed down.