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"Good OHM'n"... here we go...

155K views 582 replies 41 participants last post by  DIYguy 
#1 · (Edited)
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.
 

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#2 ·
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...
 

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#3 ·
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!) :eek:
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.
 

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#4 ·
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....;)
 

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#5 ·
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!:eek:) 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.
 

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#6 ·
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:p)
 
#7 ·
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.
 

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#8 ·
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! :eek::D lmao..
 

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#9 ·
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.
 

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#10 · (Edited)
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.
 

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#12 ·
Thanks very much PatricioIN. I just started reviewing your web page... really nice documentation! I wish I was better at that part. Sometimes I make things without even doing any prep or dwgs. argh! I have to get better at this part. The main reason for doing as much as possible myself is because I get a kick out of it. Ya, maybe I'm cheap.. but more likely because I was raised on a farm and learned to fix things and make things with whatever you have.
Looking fwd to finish reviewing the rest of your web page.

Cheers.
 
#13 · (Edited)
So... today I wanted to finish up the motor and snap some pics. I finished buffing the rust off screen bands and gently tapping out the bends and dings till they looked reasonably straight. A couple of coats of paint and two SS fasteners I bought while out last time and now she looks like a motor!

Total cost in the motor.... lets see $28 for bearings and a seal, $140 for brushes (OEM) and $16 for a new spring. Some paint and insulation spray, SS fasteners about... $220.00 total. The machining was free, at work. I didn't pay anything for the motor. I may end up paying for it.. not sure. We agreed on $150 but I suggested they may want to sponsor me and I would put some modest advertising on the truck. He said to keep going and we'll discuss when I am ready to order batteries as I can order through him.:) I don't want to turn the truck into a billboard.. but if they make it worth while.. I'll cart their name around. :cool:
 

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#18 ·
Hey thanks tj4fa. I'm just figuring it out as I go.:confused::confused: hockey training this morning and a game a 3 this aft. Plus I have to hang a door and make some kind of wood cover for inside a cabinet today...so, won't get too much done. I'm leaving for Lake Placid on Thursday early with my son's hockey team for a Can-Am Tournament for 4 days also. Should be a great time! The kids stuff comes first. . . but I'm thankful to have such a great hobby to fit in when I can. This site has been my inspiration. Thanks again.:D

Cheers.
 
#20 ·
Hey thanks man. The comment really do help to keep me going. Its a hyster motor. They call it a 9.25". Its about 17" long as I recall. I suspect it is comparable to a warp 9. . But I'm not an expert on motors, so maybe its more hope than anything. At's damn heavy I know that! Lol.

Cheers.
 
#21 ·
Just waiting for my coupler to come back from balancing. In the mean time, I will look for a manual steering box today. I'm off to a hockey tournament for 4 days so,.. no progress this weekend.:rolleyes: Did some power washing under the hood to get rid of some grease and grime. When I see the pics of car unbodies and frames of trucks from southern USA that look like new.... I'm very envious. Winter road salt takes it's toll up here in Canada, at least in this area. Have to service the Dakota ICE today for before the 7 hour trek to Lake Placid tomorrow am.

Cheers.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I got a real good warrantied used one from Everdrive.com for my '91 Ranger. It was like new.

And I took and used some Ospho (rust neutralizer) on the surface rust of my frame and then used cold galv spray paint on it. I overcoated it all with bed liner spray but that was a mistake. The bed liner spray paint doesn't like to stick to the zinc coating and has peeled off in some places.

I should have just topped it off with some Rustoleam spray paint.

For more more severe rust, there's a few products Like POR-15 that can be applied over rust to keep it from getting worse.
 
#23 ·
Looking good, DIYguy!

I'm really curious to see how that forklift motor works. I was considering one that I think was identical. Still not decided yet.
 
#26 ·
I did a time-temp test to better understand and quantify the temp rise of the motor. I noticed while running the motor that the output shaft was heating up a bit. I think, after going through that exercise, that the results are normal...however I'm no authority on this topic. Details can be seen here....
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/motor-test-24191.html
 
#27 ·
After returning from my son's hockey tournament (4 days in Lake Placid :D) I picked up my coupler from balancing. It cost me $50 cash and most of his time was spend making up the shafting, collar and key etc. for the balance machine and coupler mount. He just ground off material to balance. It was spun up to 4000 RPM and he figures it is within 0.0005" of true centre. There are a few pics of it below shown mounted on the motor. The last one shows one of the screws in the "jacking hole" demonstrating sufficient room to break the coupler apart for removal. There is room in the bearing cavity to start this screw and thread it in.
 

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#28 ·
Yesterday I picked up this manual steering box. I found 3 of them locally. one for $100, one for $75 and one for $50. I bought the one for $75 because it saved me 45 minutes of driving. It is out of a 1996 Ranger. Should work ok, and has the pitman arm on it too. May have to change that, haven't looked yet. Will put it on this W/E if all goes well.

I also came up with a little different idea for my motor to trans spacers. I was working on one method but changed gears (pun intended). I'll take a couple pics tomorrow if I get to it. Still have some drilling/tapping to do.

Cheers.
 

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#29 ·
The really strange thing is that when I was looking online for a powersteering box for my F250 (ranger up to F350 trucks use the same steering gear), I found that the manual steering box was not only rare and hard to find, but bloody expensive too, much more than a powersteering box. Glad you were able to find one so easily. I'm curious to know how many turns there are lock to lock.

We have 3 older ford trucks and all of them are 4 turns lock to lock. All with powersteering.
 
#30 ·
I didn't realize the F series used the same box as the Ranger. I heard they were extremely rare on F series, likely due to it's size/weight. They all said that there was no box listed for the Mazda, but only the Ranger. I think the price is set based on availability. You can usually barter with them if you find more than one. I will check the turns ratio and post it if it is of some help.... I can do that without installing it I'm sure.

I offered them my power box and pump...but they weren't interested...:rolleyes:
 
#32 ·
tj4fa suggested Everdrive.com. Looks pretty good at $122 (for 97 Ranger) with a 3 year warranty. Of course for us Canadians, we have to throw in exchange, shipping and possibly some duty charges.

The other thing I was thinking, ... the turns ratio is one element of the mechanical advantage, the other (just comparing boxes) is the length of the pitman arm. One would also have to make sure of range of motion on output shaft (or pitman arm) if going with a non-oem set up so as to not affect turning radius.

Cheers.
 
#33 ·
The one elevatorguy got looks pretty familiar to my Ranger manual box. It did come with the pitman arm and bolted right up.

I didn't have to make any front end alignments or anything as compared to the original PS box I took out.

I'll have to see how many turns lock-to-lock it is and get back with you.

 
#34 · (Edited)
So... I spent some time yesterday working on my tranny to adaptor spacer arrangement. I had 5 Aluminum rectuangular blocks machined at my work. I decided that this was easier and lighter than full, solid spacers. These came out very good and were within 0.0003" of each other and parallel. I drilled and tapped holes in them and layed them out on the adaptor. See pics. I used all Stainless Steel fasteners. Just so you know, the holes you see in the top of the blocks are from the pilot holes only. These were used to "transfer" the position of the blocks to the plate. The actual fasteners are 5/16-18 with flat and lock washers.

edit.... the blocks are exactly 2". Also, for rotational rigidity... I put two of the blocks right up tight to the through-bolts. This will ensure that the drive torque is contained.
 

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#35 ·
Today, I was anxious to join the motor and trans together and make it go 'round and 'round. :) So.... I did just that. It fit like a glove slipped together perfectly, bolter er up and turned on the juice. She purrs like a kitten. :D I still have to split it apart to take it up into the garage as this is in my "wood shop" :rolleyes: in my basement. Too darn heavy to haul up in one piece.

I will shear a strip of stainless steel sheet material and make a cover band to go over and around the spacers. It will look solid but be much lighter and sealed up to keep the road debris outta there!
 

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