Search and Rescue H3 Alpha build

[RamRod]

Maybe it's a tapatalk issue, I'll check on my laptop later

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

ug, f****ng coming attractions are twice as expensive as planned

but first... Hummers have great halogen lights.... and when you have your driving lights and your head lights on, it's as bright as your high beams. Which is awesome for seeing and blinding opposing motorists. It also really sucks when you're driving in fog (white wall). So, in an effort to promote world peace, I've changed the driving lights to yellow fogs halogens (I suppose, in all honesty I should mention that I have some LED headlights coming that make the halogens look like a candle - but no matter - world peace is the story I'm sticking with)


and before I start ranting, I'll go with the other upgrades... GM designed these things to go off road, or at least, that's what they claim.... problem is there's still somebody somewhere that thinks dirt is what you wash off after you go to the mall - and case in point, the only thing holding the rack in place is that aluminum housing on the driver's side.... passenger side, has a neat little clamp that have a lot of give in it - thus allowing the rack to break if you jam up a wheel on a rock


there is a fix
beside being pretty, it clamps the passenger side and keeps you from breaking (as quickly) a 432.00 rack


also, the mall-vein, they put rubber in this cross member that holds the differential in place... problem is it can rock and either destroy the differential or cross up and break a CV joint.... side benefit is you get this great "clunk" from under the car....

press out the bushing


put a urethane bushing in its place (GM forces you to buy that entire cross member when the rubber dies... nice, huh?)
new one in its place


so.... the rant
I've had a noise from the front end - both a quiet howling, and a vibration for a bit now.... I thought it was the driveline CV joint... nope


an aside - GM did do this right - both CV driveshafts are the same length


rancho.... a note for you guys, perhaps you should make the shock long enough? grrr


ut oh


the first clue I got was when I drained the oil and it was silver


pulled it all the way apart - I had to order gears so I won't get this back together until thursday (presuming the gears arrive tuesday or wednesday) to save myself a bit of money on the labor - I was going to put the locker in myself, but I don't feel competent enough to set up new gears.... so it's apart


I changed the oil 1/13, then my friend had to drain the differential oil for some reason - and I think he pried off the front cover (looking at the seal).... that caused a leak, and a year later I'm replacing gears because I noticed the oil level was down. HOWEVER, this guy has saved my bacon more often than I can count so I won't mention or show him the cover.... but he is the guy who's going to set up the gears for me :thumbs:

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

In the mean time while I wait for parts, I'll:
take off the rack, rewire the new lights and have the rack bed-lined - I also have some changes I want to make to it; so I'll do that as well.
wire my rock lights
wire the lockers to the switch
and put the overload spring in the rear leaf pack

 

[Bigunit]

That cross member looks damaged - the outside mount hole has broken off - are you sure you want to reuse it in that condition? Might be the reason that the front diff gave out - too much play and movement of the diff with at mount gone and the worn out diff support bushing?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapataint

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

That cross member looks damaged - the outside mount hole has broken off - are you sure you want to reuse it in that condition? Might be the reason that the front diff gave out - too much play and movement of the diff with at mount gone and the worn out diff support bushing?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapataint

funny, I hadn't noticed - the honest answer is I don't know..... I think the running the differential out of oil would be the major cause of the failure. With the amount of snow-running I do, it's not surprising that it's bowed up but the bushing was shot, so any pressure on the housing (IMO) would have been minimal.... I have been noticing that I ride on the skid plates a lot more than I had originally though - so the next major step will be 1/4 aluminum plate skid plates with some ribs for strength (I just got my press brake operational, so this will be easy)

in other news
and a bit farther...

overload/add-a-leafs

so the instructions say mount it this way


I'm sure you can see the problem
instructions are merely tips

of course to put them in the right place, I have to open up the spring clamps




so the 2" spring netted me about 1 1/8".... ish.

 

[amrg]

funny, I hadn't noticed - the honest answer is I don't know..... I think the running the differential out of oil would be the major cause of the failure. With the amount of snow-running I do, it's not surprising that it's bowed up but the bushing was shot, so any pressure on the housing (IMO) would have been minimal.... I have been noticing that I ride on the skid plates a lot more than I had originally though - so the next major step will be 1/4 aluminum plate skid plates with some ribs for strength (I just got my press brake operational, so this will be easy)

in other news
and a bit farther...

overload/add-a-leafs

so the instructions say mount it this way


I'm sure you can see the problem
instructions are merely tips

of course to put them in the right place, I have to open up the spring clamps




so the 2" spring netted me about 1 1/8".... ish.

Is this a longer spring than the stock second spring? I cant tell from the pics.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

no, it's not longer than the 2nd spring

 

[RamRod]

ug, f****ng coming attractions are twice as expensive as planned

rancho.... a note for you guys, perhaps you should make the shock long enough? grrr

I discovered that this week as well, hence the switch over to some Bilstein 5160's... Way better!!

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm too cheap to buy new shocks (I just bought these - just before I started hanging around here...d'oh), I'm going to take a page from the cheap-a&& lift manufacturers and build some blocks that go on top of the shock out of DOM tubing.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

putting it back together - I didn't want to screw it up, so I had a friend put the 3rd member together.


carnage




gratuitous picture of my friend's shop (while I was waiting for the differential)



million dollar firebird .... okay, maybe not a million, but it's an amazing car


back to assembly







So I didn't have enough gear oil - so I got stopped last night; should have it finished this morning along with wiring both lockers to avoid the computer

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

drove it.... it drives soooo much better with the rack brace and with the add-a-leaf. I need to extend the shocks (Sunday) and crank the front bars up a bit more then align it. But what a difference. It's now officially too tall to go into my parking garage, but I even have a plan to modify my rack to make that happen too (no more side rails, lights in pockets).... anyway... too be continued (presuming I don't get called out again for the Oso slide (yep, that's in the County were I'm SAR).

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

wiring


​

 

[RamRod]

I assume your didn't have the coin pocket where the switches are now mounted? Mine does and I think I might have to order your style of centre console so I can run my switches in the same location I think that's the best spot


Sent from handheld smoke signal device

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I assume your didn't have the coin pocket where the switches are now mounted? Mine does and I think I might have to order your style of centre console so I can run my switches in the same location I think that's the best spot


Sent from handheld smoke signal device

I simply cut the bottom out of that coin pocket and inserted switches with a panel I got online.

 

[RamRod]

Oh!? Where did you happen to pick up them there switches then!? Haha


Sent from handheld smoke signal device

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

this is the switch plate - I bought it from a Land Cruiser site (I guess they mimic the FJ switches - don't know, don't care, they work for my purposes - though, honestly, I think it was someone on here that originally pointed to the site).



here they are in the coin spot - I drove around with two switches in the plate just sitting in the coin box to see if it would work...


let there be light


you can just see the edge of the coin box here


and here's what it looks like with the bottom cut out


and the bloodhound puppy is excited

 

[4speedfunk]

I see your buddy has a couple 69 Kingswood Impala wagons. Is he interested in a 69 Impala?...

Triple black, buckets, console, tilt, PS, PB, radio delete, heater delete, F41 suspension, 12-bolt w/Eaton posi & Richmond 4.11s, 502-crate motor, MSD Ignition, BG-750vs carb, AeroMotive fuel system, Tremec TKO-600 trans, Lakewood Bell, SFI flywheel, Centerforce clutch. NOT RESTORED!...all original except motor/trans and carpet.

Total Sleeper. 4400 lbs. Best time of 12.96 @ 105mph with mufflers and DOT tires.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I see your buddy has a couple 69 Kingswood Impala wagons. Is he interested in a 69 Impala?...

Triple black, buckets, console, tilt, PS, PB, radio delete, heater delete, F41 suspension, 12-bolt w/Eaton posi & Richmond 4.11s, 502-crate motor, MSD Ignition, BG-750vs carb, AeroMotive fuel system, Tremec TKO-600 trans, Lakewood Bell, SFI flywheel, Centerforce clutch. NOT RESTORED!...all original except motor/trans and carpet.

Total Sleeper. 4400 lbs. Best time of 12.96 @ 105mph with mufflers and DOT tires.

Nice car, but those cars belong to his customers. He has a customer that loves stock, unloved cars - all of those, are stock or parts. As for whether that guy is looking, dunno. Of course, I know people who know people so some particulars (like how much, and where you are) would be good to know.

 

[ABNTROOP]

this is the switch plate - I bought it from a Land Cruiser site (I guess they mimic the FJ switches - don't know, don't care, they work for my purposes - though, honestly, I think it was someone on here that originally pointed to the site).

Could I please get a clear pic of those wiring instructions for the switches when you get a chance? Mine showed up without any.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

ABN - I'll look for it tomorrow.... I think I threw it away, but, if not, I'll post it up here

A problem with the cutting of the BCM controlled locker is you get a warning light "SVC 4x4"
the fix


GM programmed most of their sensors to look for a voltage drop to either detect a disconnected device, or a non-working device. You can't dead short the wire because you'll simply get another dash warning, you can't simply hook the cut wires together and, as I mentioned above, you can't leave it open (warning).

The trick is to fool it into thinking there is some resistance, but the resistance must be robust enough to not simply burn out... enter a cute device called a resistor. I happened to have some 5% resistors (10v) for when I put alternators on former generator cars (contrary to popular belief and at the risk of another idiot arguing with me that full voltage is okay) you need to reduce the voltage going to the plug on an alternator because that's how the internal regulator determines how much voltage to charge. To do that, you simply put one of those resistors in-line with the wire.

I wondered if it'd work for this purpose. Yes, it does.... no lights. Tomorrow I'll solder it in place and cover it with tar to seal it but it's done

Also, if you want to be clever, you could simply hook a flashlight bulb to the two wires - then when you're in 4 lo, and press the lock button a light will come on underneath (until you get to 30mph, then it'll shut off).... would be a great April fools thing to do to someone:horns:

The resistor is a 10 kohm 1/4 watt carbon-film resistor
specifically,
1st band - red
2nd band - blue
3rd band - orange
4th band - gold

 

[ABNTROOP]

Don't sweat it bud, I've about got it figured. Just got hung up on the upper and lower LED's in the switch functioning independently.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I wired mine so both light... I think I'm going to disconnect the lower LED lights - they're kind of annoying at night

 

[ABNTROOP]

Yeah I'm aiming to have lowers light automatically with interior lighting and uppers kick on when lghts are flipped on.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm rebuilding the rack on my Hummer. When I built it, I knew I'd be changing stuff - for example, I had to haul a litter up to retrieve a subject; and the rail across the middle was really a bad idea. The lights were too high and got hit. And worst of all, my Sat radio antenna was blocked on 3 sides - thus reception went from poor, to intolerable.

Here's the rack


First step was rebuild the light bar light


I didn't like it because it could move, and it didn't match the profile of the truck (and it was too high above the roof).
so I changed the ends



better

so as a bonus, how about a how-to on basic stainless finishing?

here's what it looks like tig'd together


not pretty, but strong


the top


first step, 60 grit disk


all I want to do is get the metal flat



close enough


then switch to a flap wheel - the point here is to create grain


note the weld is flat and gone?


same story on the other side



the last picture is after I hit it with a bertex wheel (you can see it behind the side grinder in the flap wheel picture)... that creates grain. At this point, I could hit it with a polish wheel (if I were into chrome) and it'd be shiny.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

You can see in this picture what I did to change the profile. You also can see the finish and how I keep the light from vibrating when I'm blowing down the highway



questions?