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Artisan's M916

NDT

Well-known member
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NDT your opinion is super valuable to me.
Have you nailed down what DC Up Convertor your going to use and how much is it? I looked at a couple, new looks like $400, ebay?
Are you going to keep the OE ALT and TR in place? Yes!

WAIT, if we send our OE ALT's to get the stator bumped up to 160Amps for $80.00 plus
ride providing our ALTS do not have any other issues this might work.

If you do the math the 85AMP OE Alt is not big enough.
A 3/4" supply pipe would not be big enough for a 3-2 house either if you turn on every faucet and toilet and shower and appliance. But that is not going to happen. 85 amps will carry the upconverter and normal truck load.
 

Artisan

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CDA Idaho
I just spoke to a guy named Rick at www.americanpowerinc.com tech support.
He knew exactly what's up. I told him about the cheap A$200.00 ALT / used BE
trick and I asked about just adding a DCUPCON and it was all shoot down and quickly at that.
He was not trying to "sell me " either! As a matter of fact I asked him if they wanted
to quote a replacement system and he said "no".

Those DCUPCONs are very expensive, a 50AMP DCUPCON is $2200.00 msrp.

The cheap ALTS and used BE's on EBay that are 12 years old he said "You'll be sorry".

There is another angle worth looking at and that is the 24V to 12V A/C conversion.

As I typed past, the parts I think will be about $425.00, now you need to do
a big ALT upgrade, I have not done that math yet but if a 160Amp unit
will work then upgrading our ALTs keeping the TR in place may be the
cheap way. I have a call into an A/C shop that deals w/ Red Dot a lot, I
expect an answer today as to weather or not only fans and clutch coil
need to be replaced to switch the RD-2-4617-0 system over to 12V.
There gonna look at the blueprints I am told.

(Those BE's on Ebay are 12 years old and were used on school buses
and I believe they were removed because of a recall on the buses
involving them. If you staying around town they might be ok, if your
gonna do some driving, not advised.)
 

Artisan

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CDA Idaho
I reworked some more grounds, and dam good thing I did.
If you have one of these trucks you might want to check a couple of these issues.

The cab to frame ground at the cab was on TOP of a wiring harness clamp and
Between the clamp and the firewall was a really thick layer of CARC so the ground it
did have(?) was limited to where the corse thread sheet metal bolt touched the sheet metal
itself. Hardly any. I pulled it and sanded the firewall to bare metal, grease, star washer
then clamp on top so the ground eyelet is against the frame.

I moved the cab to frame ground and the starter to frame ground to the outside
of the frame for wayyyy easier access, clean, grease, star etc.

The rebuilders threaded the wire mesh starter to frame ground on instead of just
Drilling it out a bit. I did that and it fell apart so a quick solder job and it was
better than new.

The starter to engine ground was pulled and the block cleaned and the solenoid
to starter ground wire was pulled, it was LOOSE, and all cleaned and buttoned up.

That hand held glass bead blaster is a really awesome tool for stuff like this.

The trick to get at the firewall is to use a pneumatic 1/2" wide hand held belt sander.

Before;
cab-to-frame-ground-before.jpg

After;

cab-to-frame-ground.jpg

Before;
starter-wires-before.jpg

After;
starter-wires-after.jpg

Frame to can and starter moved to outside frame

Starter-N-Cab-to-frame-ground.jpg
 

Artisan

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CDA Idaho
Does anyone have the Condenser un-mounted and handy and can
you do a little recon please?

I was just told that there possibly could be 24V relays, maybe 2 of them,
in the condenser fan brain boxes. Can you take a large format picture
please that shows part numbers please? Mine is on the roof all
mounted up and it is 160 degrees up there.

I was just told that the harness's and pressure switches should not be an
issue if we converted to 12V . Just the;

Compressor Clutch Coil
Condenser Fans
Evap Blower Motor
and now possibly Condenser Relays.


Red Dot must be getting inundated w/ questions about these units.
Even my A/C guy who is RD retailer is getting the cold shoulder and
we have not got a definitive answer on this conversion, IE what exactly
needs to be changed.

The deal is, there will be parts needed down the road and I would think they
would be gun-hoe at helping...I dunno.
 

Artisan

Well-known member
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Location
CDA Idaho
Can I guess?

Disconnect the compressor inlet hose from the Turbo Plenum and, cap the plenum
and add an Air Cleaner to the Air Compressor inlet?
 

Castle Bravo

Hundredaire Socialite
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Cummins P/N 3002074

Although when I went to buy it, the Cummins guy told me I'd be better off just getting some elbow barbs and silicone hose. It can't be a straight piece of hose, the compressor will suck it shut.
 

Attachments

R Racing

Active member
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Location
St. Leonard, MD
No actually it's opposite lol . Most trucks have the air inlet for the air compressor tied in to the air filter tube . When they are set up this way it takes a good 6 minutes plus to build up air. The fix is to remove the plug from the intake manifold after cooler and connect the hose from there to the pump. This uses turbo compressed air to preload the air compressor. The trucks build up air much faster this way!!
 

Artisan

Well-known member
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Location
CDA Idaho
OMG! So just remove that, looks like a 1" NPT flush plug that has a 1/2" drive recessed square
head and connect that the to compressor inlet? SWEET! That will be a fun upgrade!

THANK U !

HA!

air-manifold-plug.jpg
 

Artisan

Well-known member
2,761
227
63
Location
CDA Idaho
Nope, It is 1". I already have it off ;-) and I already placed a McMaster order for
heavy rubber cap for the 1" OD plenum outlet that needs to be capped
and a 1" NPT x 1" barbed fitting. I have 1" NPT brass fittings in stock, looks like about
a 4" nipple and a 90 and a close nipple and a 45 swings it right in there
perfecto. Stay tuned.

SO the pre-load pressure does not eff w/ the compressor at all I assume.
 

Artisan

Well-known member
2,761
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63
Location
CDA Idaho
What other trick stuff should I be doing!

I know what I want to do but it is proving hard. I want to mimic Soni's
sun-visor but no love on buy'n the parts... I'll get-er done some day I guess, some day when
the hood is not 170 degrees scalding hot.


You guys should hold off on buying Alternators too. I might have a resolve
on them, I await some data.
 

R Racing

Active member
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Location
St. Leonard, MD
Absolutely not. It just makes it work more efficient. Wait til you get out on the road and see how fast you build air !! Lol . Your cat7155 will love you to !!!!
 

Artisan

Well-known member
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227
63
Location
CDA Idaho
Absolutely not. It just makes it work more efficient. Wait til you get out on the road and see how fast you build air !! Lol . Your cat7155 will love you to !!!!


You mean I can honk the air horns frequently while riding the brakes trying to gingerly back up
my driveway w/o hitting the house or the fence and still have air? HA!

You have no idea how much I want to "get out on the road" ! Not in this SO Calif heat though.
One step at a time and I will have a Kool, nice"r" lil truck hap'nin.
 

R Racing

Active member
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38
Location
St. Leonard, MD
I believe there is a need there for a better charging system. Cost at the moment may be high. But hopefully with the need there will be a resonable price in time. I'd be up for a cat7155 shifter if funds were better. I think the economy has effected us all.
 
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