46RH (A518) Conversion project

Sasquatch · April 19, 2018, 05:32 PM

I still think there is an issue with the VB. A couple of the valves do not move as freely as they should. I am still going to get it from him and if all is well see if he will take some money from me to pay for it. It is peace of mind for me to have another VB in there.

Rickf1985 · April 19, 2018, 09:35 PM

I was going to suggest that but I did not want to sound pretentious. You should let him know what you found though. And tell him what you just said here about the VB.

Sasquatch · April 19, 2018, 11:11 PM

Yup, I have a call into him already.

Sasquatch · April 20, 2018, 04:39 PM

Just spoke with Kermit and told him what I found. He cussed a lot. :)rotflmao I offered to pay for the valve body and his reaction was "nope, we should have caught that even if you did it". So, we are all good. I admitted my mistake, and he said they should have caught that mistake when they built it especially since they were looking for a failure cause as well. He will be shipping the VB to me next week so I can get it back together and we should be all good.

Rickf1985 · April 20, 2018, 08:58 PM

You owe that man a steak and beer at next years trip!

Sasquatch · April 21, 2018, 12:34 AM

I'm going to send a gift pack to him and all his mechanics. I will get a collection of Idaho candies/treats.

Elandan2 · April 21, 2018, 07:45 AM

I've heard of candied yams, but candied russets??

Rickf1985 · April 21, 2018, 08:49 AM

And an autographed framed set of fried overdrive clutches. :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao

Sasquatch · April 21, 2018, 12:40 PM

Chocolate covered potatoes....

We have a local candy company that makes some seriously tasty treats. I thought that an assortment of those would be appropriate. I also know that Kermit has a habit of going to Ihop on Friday nights after work, so I was thinking about a gift card.

Then one last thing. He absolutely loved my girls (cats). So for giggles, I thought about framing one of my good shots of the two of them and having them both "sign" a thank you note to him. He would get a good laugh out of that.

Froggy1936 · April 21, 2018, 02:58 PM

All excellent ideas, And deservedly so, But I would wait till after the road test , Due to the length of time it takes for the problem to surface . Good Luck Frank

M & J · April 21, 2018, 06:23 PM

My mother loved our "girls" (cats), they would send her a birthday card. I would spread a little pink school paint on a paper, then their paw, and press them on her card to "sign". The paint washed off easily. She loved it.

Sasquatch · April 21, 2018, 11:24 PM

Quote from: M & J on April 21, 2018, 06:23 PM
My mother loved our "girls" (cats), they would send her a birthday card. I would spread a little pink school paint on a paper, then their paw, and press them on her card to "sign". The paint washed off easily. She loved it.

I have used stamping pads and let them stamp their prints in cards before. Never thought about kid's school paint. Great idea. Its funny, I never had any kids by choice. These two girls are my kids.

chicknnhead · April 26, 2018, 01:18 PM

I just binge read 10 pages....man that went by quick...you know how on Netflix you can binge watch a complete season of a show but the next season isnt out yet?

well i felt like the season finale was the cats greeting card stamp as it fades to black/credits....i'm waiting for the next season to be released!!!!!!

awesome read....i have been wanting to try this for years, but have small block 360 so not sure some of the things would be the same
I have had my rig for 13 years and will never get rid of it, but i keep telling my wife the next are RV we get is a dodge executive and BAM here i am reading yours

thanks for the hours of typing/thought you have put into this thread

Sasquatch · April 26, 2018, 11:16 PM

With the 360, you can just bolt up the transmission with out the bellhousing mods if you get the right one. Thank you for the compliments. My coach is a labor of love for the past 22 years. I have so much into her that I do not think I could ever get rid of her.

The overdrive has been reinstalled, everything checks out. I even smoke tested all the lubrication passages to make sure all were good. I am now just waiting for the rebuilt valve body to show up.

Sasquatch · April 30, 2018, 07:36 PM

Just drove about 20 miles, stop and go, highway and even a 6% grade. It feels fantastic. Shifts perfect (other than I need to adjust the throttle valve just a tad), goes in and out of OD perfect. I still have the pressure gauge hooked up on the OD circuit so I can watch the pressures. 90-100 psi with OD switch ON, Zero with it OFF. It holds 3rd on deceleration like it should (and never has). Temps never got above 170 degrees, and spent most of it's time at between 140-160.

Ok, so now the fine print. I am not going to put this one to bed for a while yet. I will be watching it like a hawk for a while. I have no idea how long I need to go before I fully trust it. This is what I found. I decided to go back through my valve body like an engineer would. I have a large precision granite slab in the machine shop to check flatness. All three sections of the VB were warped, and quite badly. It took me about 2 hours total with lapping paper carefully lapping all the sections back to flat and true. This could have caused two issues. First, it would allow pressure from one of the small channels to leak into another channel that was not supposed to have it at that time. It also could have caused valves to stick once the VB was torqued back into place that would not have been seen on the bench.

But all in all it works absolutely perfect at the moment.

Froggy1936 · April 30, 2018, 08:03 PM

Yipee

OK to send thank you gifts, Sounds like you got it whipped, But how long before you will trust it probably never, Every hiccup, burp will bring you to full attention . Frank

Rickf1985 · May 01, 2018, 08:26 AM

Well, It sounds like in the name of research you need to do that same trip all over again at the same speed and route to include the trip to the trans shop to say hello, and back home. That should pretty much do it. So lets get packing!

Sasquatch · May 01, 2018, 08:38 AM

I want a redo on my vacation for sure, but that will have to wait until next spring. I am going to take a couple of shorter, closer weekend runs in the coming months around here. This will give me the chance to fully test the transmission much closer to home.

I need to address the emergency/park brake issue asap. I also need to clean up the mounting for the second transmission cooler I installed and install the aux fan on it. I want to have no cooling issues no matter the temps outside. Then a bunch of clean up. Oh, I also want to come up with a better switch for my OD. Thinking about a push pull switch mounted to the front of my shifter like a two speed rear end switch in older semi-trucks. I dont know yet how I want to do that one.

Rickf1985 · May 01, 2018, 04:51 PM

That gives me an idear! A Cummins conversion and a 13 speed Fuller transmission. Plenty of room for it. I know a guy who had that combo in a Dodge pickup. Matter of fact I have his injectors and exhaust brake. Come on, get them wheels spinning in your brain.

Sasquatch · May 01, 2018, 11:16 PM

Darn it Rick.... Stop it. I am already a slave to the voices in my head (and they are all engineer gear heads that slam race gas and snort tire rubber...)

legomybago · May 02, 2018, 10:15 AM

Quote from: Rickf1985 on May 01, 2018, 04:51 PM
That gives me an idear! A Cummins conversion and a 13 speed Fuller transmission. Plenty of room for it. I know a guy who had that combo in a Dodge pickup. Matter of fact I have his injectors and exhaust brake. Come on, get them wheels spinning in your brain.

You could do a double overdrive conversion to that 13-speed and that motorhome will be a triple digit rig....

khantroll · May 02, 2018, 12:10 PM

The 6 speed allison is a good match to the cummins as well, and gives you double overdrive. Just sayin

Sasquatch · May 02, 2018, 12:34 PM

La la la la la la la la..... I hear nothing.....

Rickf1985 · May 02, 2018, 04:57 PM

The autos out there now are just amazing, 5, 6, 8, 10 speed. I was in the motorcycle shop getting parts and I was looking at the new Gold Wing, 7 speed automatic!!!!

Rickf1985 · May 02, 2018, 05:03 PM

A friend of mine bought a Rousch Mustang, brandy new with the 600 plus horsepower supercharged engine and the ten speed auto. I was busting his chops about the auto until he let me drive it. Around town it is like driving the family car and out on the looong highway when you lay into it............................................... Lets just say it is real close to sexual experience!! Just solid pulling power and the engine is in the right power band the entire time. Ten speeds! I used to drive tractor trailers with ten speed road rangers. They are the size of a mustang! Now they put ten speeds in an automatic in a car. Got to love modern tech.