Thread: Ian's Volvo TGB13 6x6

No progress on the truck to speak of, but I did manage to make some progress on the powertrain components.

Plan for the truck is to replace the trusty (and oil burning) 3lt petrol with a 300tdi oil burner. Behind this will sit a ZF4HP22 with an LT230 T/Fer case (thanks Sitec).

The current gearbox/tfer case is surprisingly short, which makes finding a suitable doner a little tricky. The hope is that the 4 cylinder TDi, being shorter than a 6 cylinder, will allow more space for the gearbox, but it is still tight... and then I found out about this little trick...

A V8 ZF has a shorter spacer that a TDi ZF, so if you graft the back of one onto the front of the other, the whole unit ends up around 50mm shorter.

Picked up a 94 V8 autobox at the weekend, which had been reported as "slipping". Took it apart and I can confirm that it was definately toast. Put it back together purely for training purposes, before opening up the real box.

Then took apart the auto from my 98 donor Disco - not toast, but nice and shiny, and then reassembled.

And voila!

Left overs anyone?

I presume by 'spacer' you mean the tail housing?
Not one I've heard before, but does explain a couple of things I've wondered for a while.

Originally Posted by roobar_and_custard

Shame really - would be fun to get a few more out here...

Were any available for sale?

None of these were for sale. I met a guy who lived a bit further north from where I was. He had quite a few of these and land rovers as well. including series and lightweights. he had 2 6x6 volvos like yours out the front.
They are fun to drive. I use to drive the 4x4 version of yours into town(illegally). I felt like a bit of a legend

Steering box in place now. Bracket made up and tack welded to cross member.
I made the bracket the same size as a Discover chassis rail, to allow re-use of the bolts and tubed it internally.

The steering shaft from the bevel box to steering box went through a body cross member, thanks to "murphy"...
Will need to reinforce this cut (of course) and fully weld the bracket onto the cross member, but as access is limited and my welding isn't up to the job just yet, that will wait until I take the body off later.

Will need a custom shaft to be made up here, but should be pretty straight forward.

Pitman arm is in the right place too, but too long I think. Will need to get machined with the right taper.

Good news is - it steers the right way.

Happy New year to all! First update for 2015 on the Volvo.

Not much happened on the Volvo over the new year as spent most of the time away.

But, now back into the fray...

I had all the diffs (3 of them) rebult with new CW&P sets in a higher ratio to help improve RPM/Kph - the diff ratio changes from 3.44 to 2.91, the overall axle ratio from 7.09 to 5.99 considering the portal box reduction. CW&P were custom made in the UK by a Volvo enthusiast to the same ratio as the 4x4 but including the added spline the 6x6 requires for the rear axle pto drive.
This new ratio should help when the diesel conversion is done.

Rear axles installed, and I even had help (briefly). Will eventually repaint all the axles, as they now look a little shabby.

Front axle yet to be done, and will require new CV boots to be fitted at the same time.

Have been playing with the dash panel. Now that the steering column comes out through the midde of the speedo some modification was necessary.
Usual mock up made - in cardboard this time.

Took a couple of attempts to get a gauge layout I was happy with. mostly due to retaining the heater control position due to cable lengths, as well as trying to find sapce for all the switches.

Will be running a combination of 12v and 24v systems, just to keep things unecessarily complicated, with most of the new stuff (gauges) changing to 12v.

And just as a reminder - the original.

And now in steel...

Stick welding 2mm has been challenging, but pretty happy with the result. Went with steel as this adds some structure to the column. Now the column hangs off the dash instead of being attached to the chassis, adding in this extra stucture sould help prevent unwanted steeing wheel vibration - but only time will tell...

Fuses can be accessed through the glovebox (false floor to be added), centre section unbolts as this will make wiring up the new stuff much easier.

Eventually will add a top panel in ply, covered in vinyl, which clips down - I'll still need to access the brake reservoirs as well as the new expansion tank for the yet to exist water/air intercooler.

Now for the task of cutting all those switch/gauge holes...