Antarctic IDI Build

Thewespaul

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Don’t have a ton to update with, been chasing electrical issues which aren’t the most exciting stuff for thread updates but I’ve got the dash dimming properly, overdrive button is functional again and wipers work well. Just got to get the exterior lighting issues ironed out and I can put the multi meter away.

Been messing with the obs nozzle conversion on my own time, didn’t like the initial placement of the nozzles because the difference in the brick firewall kept making the nozzle on the drivers side pop up because it was pushing against a lip I failed to notice ahead of time. Rather than bash the firewall I decided to donate a spare cowl to the ambo, got it sprayed last night.
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Got the fuel pump relocated to a more serviceable location and away from exhaust heat. I looked at putting it inside the frame but it was getting too close to the front driveshaft for my liking
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Oledirtypearl86

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I really appreciate the amount of detail and thaught you put into these projects and coustomer rigs wish I lived near you I'd drop my truck off for a while
 

nostrokes

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Just a thought, though you probably don't need more to do, are you going to make a guard for the fuel pump? I'd be a little worried with it outside the frame rail of something scraping it off if he's off road..
 

Thewespaul

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Still working on a design I like, it’s still higher than the trans pan but I’d like for it to have some protection, but I want it to be easy to remove for roadside pump replacements.
 

Thewespaul

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Time for an update. Got the new cowl in with the obs sprayers and wipers back on. The sprayers cover the whole windshield well where I placed them, I’ll work on a write up when I get some time to take good pictures.
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New wiper motor works great, but is only working in the high position, need to take a look at the control box.

Mostly been working on the electrical issues, found a wire down by the transfer case that was grounding out where it had worn through from the driveshaft rubbing it when the suspension was compressed. This was popping the fuse for the overdrive button, and turn signals. So brake lights, hazards and right turn signals are fixed, but left turn signal still turns on brake lights, and brake lights turn on left front turn signal. Got to keep tracing wires for that. Got new pigtails for the front turn signals and new bulbs to replace the crusty loose connectors.

Waiting on some parts coming from banks, new oil drain grommet, intake gasket and a hose for the intake hat, that should take care of the oil leak and hopefully seal the last of boost leaks.
 

Thewespaul

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Pulled the rear filler neck apart to fix some leaks, fits nice and tight against the tank neck now
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Pull the mlps off and gave it a thorough cleaning. Bench tested it and seemed to work, got it back in and now have reverse lights and backup siren everytime you put it in reverse, instead of once in a blue moon.

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Built a guard for the fuel pump out of some nice powder coated stainless I had laying around. I’ll grab some pics when it’s light.
 

Thewespaul

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Been working away at the ambo when I could in between other projects. Hooked up my leak tester to the exhaust and everything was airtight. Took it for a quick drive and it has more umph than it ever has, but intake hat is now leaking profusely. I needed to pull the turbo off to replace the leaking grommet, so tore into it to try and get a better alignment with the intake to hopefully fix the last boost leak. Turbo flange gasket wasnt leaking, but replaced it while I had it off.
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Massaged the firewall even more to get a bit more clearance for the back of the turbo, you can see where it has been rubbing. Replaced the grommet with one directly from banks, super pricey but should work as designed. The banks grommet had notably less lip to grab the pan but fit the od of the drain much tighter.
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Got the turbo and everything back on, intake hat was closer to lining up but the turbo still hits the firewall limiting how much I can clock it. Im currently getting a low profile intake hat made that will work much better for this aplication, Ive been working on the design for awhile and this would be a perfect aplication to use something like this so first one will be getting donated to the ambo, then finally should be rid of the boost leaks. Never have had some much fitment issues with a turbo kit in a truck, theres not much room on an ambulance. Waiting on the intake hat to be done, I moved onto electrical.

When I had the headlight switch out I noticed the connectors were very loose. The stock plug had been replaced by a bunch of spare wire and various sized spade connectors.

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Once I got my replacement pigtail in, I cut back to where the stock harness had been spliced into then hooked it up to the replacement connector. Everything is pinned and color coated like original, and shouldnt have any more intermittent power supply issues for the lights.
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When I last had the ambo, I upgraded to this monster derale pan to help with cooling. Its a sweet piece with passages for air pass through the pan to pull heat, all metal construction, and ports for temp sensor and drain. Its a big improvement from stock, buts a lot heavier than the little stock pan. The pan was leaking, and six bolts were gone with threads with them. I tapped every bolt hole to 3/8-24 which is a good fine thread. No more leaks once I got the e40d topped back off.

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Currently just waiting on the intake hat to be done, in the meantime I have been narrowing down the last of the electrical issues. Left turn signal turns on rear hazards, and brakes turn on front right turn signal. I believe I have this narrowed down to a grounding issue for the rear tailights, just need some time to explore it.
 

Thewespaul

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Ambo update. Got the electrical all sorted. Windshield wipers only working on high was an insufficient ground for the switch. Added a ground to the pedal bracket and works good as new.

Exterior lighting was a couple of things, replacing the headlight pigtail made it much easier to diagnose since I wasn’t randomly loosing power to lighting circuits anymore. Found that the rear lights (which ground themselves through the housings) were causing some problems. The diamondplate they were mounted to was not grounded well to the rest of the body and chassis because of a layer of epoxy between the diamond plate and the ambulance box. I added a grounding strap from the back of the grounding plate, to the frame then to the harness. That fixed the brakes turning on the front turn signal because the lights weren’t using the running light circuit as the ground circuit, since power will use the path of least resistance and the earth circuit was high resistance. That left the last issue of the left turn signal turning on the hazards. I worked my way from the rear of the truck and followed power all the way up the body harness and found the steering column harness to be the source of the unwanted power in the right turn signals. Unplugged the harness under the column and manually put power at each of the outputs to test each circuit the column harness controls and everything worked normal so I New the issue was in the column harness. Plugged in another tilt column harness and another and all had the same issue. Plugged in a non tilt harness like originally came with the truck and no more issues. So going to pull the freshly rebuilt tilt column and drop in a tight non tilt column I have.

Once I was done celebrating being done with electrical problems, got to work on the suspension. Pulled the triple shock mounts off to replace with some single shock mounts and install some bilstein 5100s. With less in the leaf spring pack I cut the excess off the u bolts so a deep well socket could be used so I could torque each to spec.
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Here’s a picture of the old shocks on one side with the lower triple shock mount. The shocks races were rusted to the bolt so that it couldn’t come out, had to cut the shock cup open to get it out that way.
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New sway bar end links and bushings installed, removed the long drop links to install these stock height ones to try and get some more clearance for the for the track bar and to take some pressure off the sway bar now that the truck is lowered with the rsk.
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Took off the 4” track bar drop mount and reinstalled the mount to stock location, bar is just short of the mount now.
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Continued...
 
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Thewespaul

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With the front end no longer being lifted 5" the suspension geometry has changed, and we are working now to get the drag link/track bar angle right. I did some reading last night, and ideally we want to have equal angles and lengths between the two, but the angle seems to be more critical of the two unless Matt plans on jumping the ambo. Did some measuring and calculating and the current track bar angle is at 11.8 degrees and the drag link is 9.5 degrees, which isnt too bad considering. I took a look at the drop pitman arm and its a pretty significant drop, dug around and ended up pulling off a stock 2wd drw f350 pitman arm to compare. Ends up they are the same effective drop but the aftermarket one thats on the ambo is good bit beefier, so I left it on for the time being.

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If the track bar was extended the extra length to meet the stock mount it would bring that effective angle to around 9.5 degrees, which is within 2 degrees of the drag link angle which is pretty good, I think that may be the best route for now. Heres some of the sites I used to cheat my calculations

https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/pythagorean-theorem
http://www.analyzemath.com/Geometry_calculators/right_triangle_calculator.html
 
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