Here are some pics of some of the recent mods to my Cruiser. This first one is a shot from the front with the replacement hood which I proceeded to damage the first trip out. The aprons are 1/8" plate I cut to somewhat replicate the originals but with the opening stretched forward.

No inner fenders, battery relocated to previous home of blower motor, and most notably the air cleaner assembly adapted for the TBI fuel injection. The stock set up wouldn't fit because of the master cylinder clearance so after a few hours at the pick n pull in the rain I snagged this setup. It's from a early 80's 4.5 or 4.9 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.

From a different angle

Here's the injection set up and an adapter on top.

Closeup of the cable and linkage on the TBI. I started with the kit from Howell-EFI and with the help of a friend came up with the adapter.

The tank was a stock item at a local Peterbuilt dealership parts counter. Parts guy couldn't find a price so we negotiated! At $55 I thought it was a steal. It is hanging from a cross bar on the roll cage.

Here's a little more detail on the battery mount. I fabbed this up to relocate the battery which was very close to the big alternator in the stock tray. The complete electrical system is run thru the resettable circuit breaker, add on accesories (on board air, cb, and future items) are fused with the extra fuse panel on the firewall.

Thanks Kenny!

i have a fues panel EXACTLY LIKE THAT for all my accesories too. its way nice...plus its extra eays and extra clean looking!:flipoff2: :rasta:

Ive only heard this on this board but are you supposed to run your winch off your side posts like that. I thought there was different ratings on them

arndog

Hey there arndog, and very nice clean work spaceghost. I was told that all dual attachment style batteries have thin copper straps that feed the side post terminals and if you run anything on them with a high amp load(winch mainly)that there is a risk of burning the strap up. I was told to always run my winch off the main terminals on top (post style) of the Optima since they can support the load.

That's the first I had heard that about the side posts. Not that it matters but they don't give up the first 50 uses of the winch! I have a bunch of cool electrical connectors and stuff on the way from Wrangler Power (http://www.wranglernw.com/) to clean the install up. A second optima will be mounted in the same position on the drivers side after I whip up another tray.

thanks sean for the backup there I thought I read that. regardless if space ghost has had no problem to date then why change. I was just commenting on the connnections so no offense. the underhood looks awesome and ver clean.

arndog

TBI adapter looks trick. Whats the story with it? I'm still interested!!! And that aircleaner looks great, and adaptable to a snorkle I bet...

-Brett

Looks good Mike. I like how clean the engine compartment looks.

Is that a Cadillac master cylinder? What model and how does it work?

Cool mods, Mike. I really like your attention to detail!!

The TBI adapter is kinda bogged down behind more important things at the race shop. Unfortunately any progress is a gift, so I have been very patient, as well as others (Morgan) have too. I am going there tonight to spend some quality time on this, and since it's not that big of a deal to make the mods needed, I hope to leave with a couple of samples.

I need another run of the sm420 adapter plates too so we'll see how much gets done in the 4 or 5 hours we have.

As far as the master cylinder it is from a S10 that had 4 wheel manual disks. It was cheap as far as masters go. More info is on my web site in the mods area. The part # is there also. It works well if you like the maual brake feel, which I did. It also makes getting disks on an early cruiser much easier than the adapter combo, or cutting the firewall and patching in a later one.

One thing I plan to do is drill a hole lower in the pedal arm to increase the pedal ratio. The stock arm is for drums and it really needs more ration. I'll update my site after I finish that. They stop great, but will not lock up 38's on the road. If you stomp on the pedal it comes to a quick stop, much like a later vehicle with ABS. This mod is NOT for everyone, I would not have done it if my wife was a regular driver on the street, the pedal effort is too high for her.

Originally posted by Medusa
Cool mods, Mike. I really like your attention to detail!!

Thanks Jack, but when I grow up I wanna be like you! However most of my friends think I am way overkill and anal! I am a big fan of simple and functional, and the use of quality parts and supplies.

The next mod is full hydraulic steering, I have collected all the parts and the hold up is mounting the ram. I am soooo close to doing a SO and would have to change the mounts to accomodate rotaing the housing up at the pinion. I have a second housing on a bench getting prepped for the surgery.

I am following the waggy spring thread close to make a decision on which ones to use.

Nice work spaceghost:) . I wish my wiring looked as nice.:(

I've melted a side post on my optima when using the winch:mad:
I put that battery in the daily driver and use the main top post for my winch hookup now.

Looks nice and clean there spaceghost. Do you have any pics on the battery tray you made, I was thinking about mounting my battery that same way, I already pulled out the blower motor, and was trying to figure out how to support the weight of the battery.

Nate,
I didn't take any pics of the tray while I was making it. I never do a very good job of photo-documenting things, well except my kids.

Basically I tooks some 1" angle iron and made the long sides, cut a piece of 1" strap for the ends. Laid 2 1/2" sqaure tubes across the base to raise the battery off the mounting surface, so the bolt heads are clear of the battery. Found a couple of long bolts from a motorcycle (engine mounts I think). Cut 2 more shorter pieces if the 1" angle iron, drilled a hole thru for the bolt, welded it in place. Made the top strap, threaded the nuts' on the bolts to determine mounting position of the angle to the frame. Welded them on and painted with remnants of the body color paint.

I mounted it to the firewall using the lower 2 heater box mounts and drilled 2 additional holes in the firewall for some 10mm bolts. I got up on top and stood on the battery after mounting and before connecting it. The mount isn't coming off the firewall, and the strap is securing the battery to the firewall. My only real concern is the front section of the cowl getting crunched into it.

Thanks for the info, hopefully mine will come out looking as good

damn crusier looks like :rainbow: espically the blue..

looks clean.. and we will see how well it breaths thursday..


will make sure and get lots of photos

Originally posted by DCruiser138
i have a fues panel EXACTLY LIKE THAT for all my accesories too. its way nice...plus its extra eays and extra clean looking!:flipoff2: :rasta:

I run two redtop Optimas in Parrallel and I've been running a winch off the side posts for years, never had a melt down.
I used to run a Ramsey 8000# and now I run a Warn 9000#,
Still no melt down.......must be lucky, eh?

D'ooohhhh !!!! :eek:

Wrong quote :rolleyes: Must be a battery thing.....

For some reason I can't edit my own postings anymore, I get a window that says "E-mail address no longer valid"

Originally posted by SpaceGhost
I didn't take any pics of the tray while I was making it. I never do a very good job of photo-documenting things, well except my kids.


uuummm.......does this mean you have pics of you and missus making the kids?!?

Nice work Mike...I just relocated my two batteries to under the drivers seat in a recessed tray and ran 2/0 gauge fine strand wire to the winvch and 1/0 gauge fine to the starter. Added in two 1000amp disconnect switches into the ground wire as well. Created a TON of room under the hood!

clean job, you've given me some new options to ponder. thanks for all your help and advise on the 420 swap and the mc upgrade. all are working great and i crawl and stop much better. thanks

tony

Your welcome Tony, did you go with the gm setup?

Woody, I must refrain from answering questions that might lead to homelessness, hunger, poverty, or gaping holes caused by trained handgun fire!

I have looked at moving the batteries to the interior and haven't come up with the location. My homebuilt seat fram is too low to put them under it.

Reddog, I was also connected like you for a long time. The HEI (DUI) conversion interfered with the dual tray setup. This is just the first step in getting back to duals. I have been using the side posts for several years with no ill effects. I appreciate the heads up from the others, and did order some cool stuff to clean up the connections.

They're right about the side post issue. Technicall, you're not supposed to run high load (starter, winch) acessories off of them, because the side posts are connected to the top posts by thin strips of metal inside of the case.

On the other hand, I ran my winch off the side posts for over a year before I heard about this on my Red Top. No problems.

Shouldn't be a big deal for you to change, though... looks like you have enough slack in the cables to just change the ends and clamp them down. It's fine to run the ignition and whaot not off of the side posts. Just hook the winch and starter to the top posts.

Originally posted by Reddog
D'ooohhhh !!!! :eek:

Wrong quote :rolleyes: Must be a battery thing.....

For some reason I can't edit my own postings anymore, I get a window that says "E-mail address no longer valid"

Reddog,

Shouldn't that be OLDDOG? :D (right behind ya, I was born in '58)

If the email address has a "hotmail, juno, etc" in it you get that warning, and you can't edit post. Lance changed that around a little while back.

For you AUSTIN Folks, I still have my Thomas & Betts BIGDOG crimpers for battery cable. If you are around this area, bring your cable and crimps along and we will get you set up with the nicely crimped battery ends. Sigh, no longer have the electric vehicle... but still have my crimpers! :D

Tom :usa:

Spaceghost, you are my hero! Those are some sweet mods. That TBI is cherry, I'm fascinated by how good it looks. How great were the improvements, ie...hp, response, torque, mpg. Is that a/c compressor I see there??? Must be nice!
Cruiser-B

Wow, Thanks.

The TBI made a world of difference. I don't claim that my carb was tuned perfectly but the "seat of the pants" meter rates this as a big ole 10. I did add a a DUI hei ignition at the same time so I'm pretty sure some of came from the better (and more total)advance curve. I don't have any idea on mileage since this is a trail rig, but there is no doubt it is a big improvement there too. The throttle response is very crisp for a tractor motor, and the easy no warm up start/drive is great.

The AC compressor is a York plumbed for on-board air.

Right on Spaceghost. Love what you did. I'm doing the HEI conversion real soon. Just trying to get a little more out of my tractor motor. Sweet job on your rig, maybe someday I can see it in person and steal some ideas.
Cruiser-B