4WD Diesel KB6

That KB 6 cab will make your truck one of the coolest looking rides on the road, whatever direction you decide to take!

Hello all. I haven't dropped this project. Still working on it. Harvest season is upon us and i've been busy. Still trying to work out how I'm gunna do my steering gearbox. I tried a steering box of a late 70's ford 4wd and it sat inside the frame. It would work but the drag link was only gunna be around 6" long and I had no room to mount the PS pump. So i'm gunna try a mid 80's Chevy PS box that bolts further up on the outside of the frame. Hopefully it yields better results.

It'll b just as COOl as this Chicago-Born IHC cousin,this Diamond-T https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0iI79F6jnYe

I hope so! I had been wanting to do a 4wd old truck project for a long time. And when I saw the truck in the video for the first time its what gave me the kick to get on the move with it.

Well, when there is one step forward there are two steps back.

I have pulled the ford motor yet again to get my steering setup. I decided to go crossover steering. So I pulled two 78-79 Power steering gearboxes at the junk yard after breaking the first one. Ended up using a 79 Ford 4x4 Power steering box. I had to send my passenger knuckle off to get machined to accept a steering arm which also had to be ordered. Then a lift block under the steering arm to clear the leaf springs. So then I used a combination of the KB6 Tie rod and Ford Tie rod end to make my drag link.

I got it all put together and was so excited that I finally got my steering system done that has had me stumped and un motivated for that past many months. Go and put my motor in and now the new drag link is just a little over an inch from the oil pump on the motor. So I got a spare motor out back that has a rear pickup tube and oil pan. Pull it and put it on and the pickup tube doesnt go rearward enough to clear the diff and the still doesn't fix the issue of the drag link to oil pan clearance. I imagine if I hit a bump that drag link and oil pan aren't going to have enough room.

So I go drastic. I pull the motor out, cut my newly fabricated tranny crossmember out. Pull the old BLD 269 out of the shed and go and drop it in. Wouldn't you know it I already have gobs more room than I do with the ford v8. But now I have to rebuild the factory transmission cross member and massage a little on the oil pan to clear the drag link. But doing this solves so many problems other than I now will have a rebuilt 352 still without a home.

Still plan on doing the ford power steering box and making a mount on the motor to mount the power steering pump. Another problem with this though is the pulleys are much wider than on my Ford pump I picked up with the steering box.

Has anyone run a power steering pump on these old IH motors? Also. the transmission on this truck I believe is 1:1 in 5th and with the Dana 60 rear having 4:10 gears and 38" tall tires the motor will be turning around 2350 at 65mph. I read that max recommend RPM is 3000 so I hope I'm in the safe zone.

What you guys think?

Chris, I can't answer your questions but I've enjoyed your posts.

I got my k1 on the road for the first time last week and it seems like there is always something stopping the next step. Hang in there.

Your KB will be a great drive. And don't give up on your FE motor. My K1 is 302 powered and it wasn't 'bolt in'.

Do you have pictures of your K1? I'd like to see it.

The FE isn't far out the door. I pulled the oil pan off the BLD269 to see how much clearance I have to modify it to clear my crossover steering drag link. Sadly, there isn't enough room to clear for adequate suspension travel. I tried rasing the motor but I would have to go up at least 5-6" for peace of mind clearance to the draglink and that just won't do.

I've done a little digging and come across a few pictures of the way steering was setup on vintage power wagons with push pull style as well as an idler arm. That would solve the original problem I had when I first tried push pull steering with not enough length of my draglink between the pitman arm and steering arm. I could have longer arms going back to the idler arm. If that works that would clear up clearance issues caused by the crossover steering.

The 282 and 308 with powersteering use a different waterpump pulley. It has the wide belt groove with a narrow groove behind it. The pump bracket mounts on the head with 3 bolts above #1 sparkplug. On some heads these bosses are drilled and tapped, on others they are just blank and would have to be drilled.
Sound like a canidate for your Ford type powersteeering conversion. The -6 is light enough.
That way you can keep the stock steering box.
as far as I know Keystone never made a turbo kit for a BLD, but I bet it would take to it well.
To clear up a bit, the large belt drove the water pump and the small belt drove the PS from the waterpump.

I had thought about using the original steering box but unfortunately it is damaged beyond repair. If I could find another one I might look into it. But right now I currently have a 78 Ford 4x4 power steering box already mounted. Up by the front crossmember. Here it is mounted with my FE motor in frame.



This is the issue I ran into. The distance from the Pitman arm to the steering arm isn't long enough to have any sort of drive-ability.



I was thinking of doing something along these lines to overcome the short distance by using an idler arm. I would probably position the idler arm rearward of the axle instead of forward as in this picture

Do you have pictures of your K1? I'd like to see it.

Chris, look at the thread below this one to see a couple pics of the truck.

rick