Antony Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Yep you are spot on the Leyland DAF trucks are all COE and so the gear leaver opperation is via a very strange bar assembly to the side opperated leaver on the gearbox, more on this later too you are all jumping the gun here just sit back and be patient all the goury details will come out sooner or later you are all just going to have to wait. :cool2: There are other things I would like to know, but I will wait and see if you post the answer before I ask the question!! Tony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooTallMike Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Hello Mike, Yes I have an original gearbox, the bell-housing of the engine and gearbox is about an 1 1/2" difference. I have made my adaptor plate now and all bolts together perfect. I will start a thread soon about the plate and conversion. Hi Jamie, As Tony says, you just needed the correct diameter flywheel housing and it would have gone straight on. The Dart engine has an SAE3 whereas I think the HT is SAE2. I'll look forward to seeing your conversion in detail. - MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Cubed Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 (edited) Ok guy's here comes the goury bit if you are squeemish dont go any further, you have been warned. Extreme firewall cutting... :cry: Right bit of a recap then, so I have sorted out the mounting of the engine so the next step is to get the cab to go back on the chassis from wence it came. the next couple of pics you can see how close the engine is to the cab, and it's not even in the right place ! At some point I had to decide how the best way was to achieve this, and yes it meant I needed to cut the firewall out, now this is something I really did not want to do but compared to all other options, such as moving the rad forward and lengthing bonnet and engine side panels ( not an option really ) to moving the rear body back and fuel tank and then moving the cab back and doing the same with the bonnet and engine side panels ( not an option really ) so what else was I to do. I decided that there would have to be only one cut around the depression in the firewall, one cut so there was only one panel to put back if I ever decided to return it to original. As you can see the route I chose meant the cowel vent drain had to be removed and was also crooked. Once it was removed I could start cutting. Here is the finished hole, :shocked: its big but only one cut so better than lots of little bits. Here the cab is almost in the correct place you can't quite see but there are about 1 1/2 cylinders inside the cab :cool2: As the engine sits so low in the chassis I did not need to use the large curved part of the hole so that was paneled in this left a nice square hole to fill. Here is an inside view of the cab with the engine and gearbox in the right place, as you can see the ZF gearbox has a large bell housing which is above the floor line of the cab....... Next instalment how to spend days and days bending sheet metal to fit around this strange shape and make it look respectable... Edited February 19, 2015 by R Cubed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Cubed Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 Well this is the next stage how to fill in this massive hole and make it look respectable. This is prety much the finished firewall come floor panel, which has a compound curve to cover the bellhousing of the ZF gearbox and then curve down to a flat floor. I decided to retain all the 24 volt electrics on the engine, starter motor and alternator, so this then involved changing all the bulbs ect to 24 volts, what did I overlook !!! yep as it would be 24 volts there would be two batteries !!! damm where to put another battery... well as this is a SWB truck there is a space in the same place on the left hand side as there is for the original battery bracket which is on the right hand side under the fuel tank. Ah ha easy just make another battery bracket in the same style as the original. Enjoy.. The two lids original and the new one, can you spot which is which ! The two battery brackets original and new one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulture Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Totally awesome work ! I'm in awe of what you have taken on here :nut: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Cubed Posted April 8, 2015 Author Share Posted April 8, 2015 Got some engine bay pics. Note cab firewall and rad are both in their original positions. Below you might be able to see a frame on the rear of the rad this is to carry the electric fan. The length of the GMC engine bay from firewall to rad is 30 1/2 inches. You can see there is not much more room to move the engine any more forward. Right at the bottom of the pic below the crank pulley there is the engine and rad mount crossmember which is part of the chassis as a guide for reference. The thickness of the fan is 4 1/4 inches from rad core to back of fan motor. Right this is the measurement from the rear of the cummins cylinder head to roughly the front of the crank pulley. Yep thats it 34 1/2 inches. and here you can see how much is in the cab, looking down the cab firewall towards the top of the engine, it's about 1 1/2 cylinders which is about 8 inches.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Cubed Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 (edited) Hi guys, well here is a little update managed to get round to taking some pics of the inside of the cab with new stepped firewall and toe board / floor. Edited April 17, 2015 by R Cubed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mash Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Looking very good, some awesome skills on this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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