PHil., the bastard, Conquest Predator build

[ARGOJIM]

A little background, being laid up from a surgery to a severely torn ligament many things were perused which brought this on. We had never been to Mississippi (which is not just hot but very humid as well ), I had a niece and a nephew that had never been seen by me and a niece that hadn't been seen in 8 years so road trip. Gil and I drove down to Philadelphia Mississippi and picked up the Conquest swinging by Rickga's in Ga. on the way back for the quick visit and meeting (very nice to see 5 of the Cheney 6).

So back in the summer of 2014 another member posted a Conquest for sale priced at what I thought was right so I committed to it, we went down and picked her up meeting another 6x6World member. The machine was partially apart and missing many parts and the engine that had been replaced by previous owner with a small Honda, which was also missing, axles where cut, brake discs cut, seat frame rotted, extra steel here and there for racks, visible belly pan rot and plenty of ugliness to the eye. Not as bad as I thought but not near as good as I hoped.



Once Phil ( had to start naming them as there are so many to keep track of) was back the cleaning and then disassembly begins with axles removed, extra metal removed, stuck sprockets removed, bearings removed, frame removed etc... . Power washing begins and then an inventory of what is useable and an assessment of where to go.




TBC, if there's interest.

[George]

Keep posting!

[JoeMeg]

Thanks for the pic with the gear puller Keep them coming.

[ARGOJIM]

No problem Joe. Some of this may be slightly inaccurate due to the time length and poor memory, but a good overall of the build.

Pulled the frame and power washed it exposing much of the damage was to the belly pan with some weird spots along the right frame rail ( as seen in the picture with the puller ), surprisingly there was no tube damage to either end though all the vertical supports to the pan were junk.

Cut the welds to the pan and then removed the verticals.

Next the new pan went in along with the verticals and welded it as good as the arm and eyes would let me. In a rush to get to Busco in October the top side of the frame was not painted and in it went. In the second picture you can see the sistered frame rail and the skid plate bolts that replaced the rivnuts.



As seen in the pictures the new bearings were installed along with a few steel flanges and a couple aluminum flanges laying around with all 8 getting 2 new seals each, the front and rear axles (that were the only 4 in the machine when we got it) were moved to the center as the seal grooves were very deep. Starting out as a budget build the four corners also got used axles and the sprockets were all used from other machines. Used jack shafts were also used after having to cut the original ones out.

[ARGOJIM]

Not having enough used 19T 2x50 sprockets laying around (3) and my budget low at this point I opted to put single 60's in it having to only purchase 2. Now comes yet another build issue ( forgotten about from the re-(new (NLA))-frame in Gil's '97 that wound up getting a new body also due to the very slight axle spacing difference from 2x50 to 60 ) the stock 60 chains are too long making it necessary to shorten the chain one link and add a 1/2 link, this makes the chain very tight and hopefully the initial stretch of the Saphire chain cures it. Notice the deteriorated backrest frame in the picture.

Now in September, again in a rush for Busco, we tried to stuff the Tecumseh out of Gil's original '78 demo. which is also apart in the modified powerpack that had to be re-modified to fit the Tec..

Aluminum fuel tank and 1/2 of the toolbox that came with it reinstalled along with the fabbed seat support frame replacement.

Did not make Busco and we bought Gil another Conquest for the Busco trip, which I rebuilt and sold on him yet again about 3 months later.
Not much happened with Phil for Oct., Nov., or much of Dec. as there was some business work, so it sat with the Tecumseh in it looking "Just Wrong".

[ARGOJIM]

Well 2015 came along with a could snap that was more like a crack and lasted end of Jan. through Feb., a couple rides and some work came in, pulled the engine in free time and then we got another Conquest for Gil in exchange for repairing a sunken machine. Busco neared and the Conquest got all the attention due to bad bearings, dirty carb, stuck valves and a broken piston and rings in one cylinder, got the machine fixed and off to Busco.
Once back the brake system was rebuilt and the brake discs replaced with used as they had been cut when we got it. In July the engine arrived after endless searching for a Kawasaki or cheap used B&S or Kohler.

Very simply cut all the added stuff off the powerpack and the rear upright plate and welded on some 1-5/8 unistrut, which seemed to work out well all though I am wishing at least another inch was added for clearances.

Then set it in the machine and checked clearances, which looked ok, in and out a bunch of times and had to shim the clutch and the finally in with bolts.
Next unbolt the factory ignition and control box.

[ARGOJIM]

Fired up the engine and on to something else, the exhaust (which sucked) that came exiting the wrong direction toward the front. I searched around ebay for a muffler but nothing with a center exit, so after a week or 3 I decided to remove and cap the exit which did not work as the pipe went 3/4 way through the muffler welded to 2 baffles, considered just tapping the muffler side but then a backpressure issue. So after re welding the end cap just ordered some pipes.
Moved on to the fresh air intake asking Gil to make me something while waiting on the pies, I didn't like it so back to my vision. Using a flower pot traced a hole and cut it and adding an inch or so followed that around for the lower flange. Being needed to be accessed for the bolts holding the main/inner sheet around the blower housing I opted for a 4 piece design with the outer piece being crudely convexed for more air flow, both the inner and outer sheets are wrapped around the Conquest duct with the side sheets butting to all.

[ARGOJIM]

Next back to the exhaust, having recently done an internal muffler build in a Max II (with external muffler body(that I assume worked out as I have not heard otherwise)), I opted to use a similar design of using the pre bent pipes and running them where they needed to be.

And having a customer that ordered a complete exhaust and heat shields for there Conquest only to find out they didn't NEED all the heat shields, I readily used the post 2003 heat shield ducting slightly modifying it along with a couple of repurposed computer tower side covers that got altered. I also used the stock muffler heat shield after making a really nice heat shield around the entire 3 side near the engine of the muffler only to realize it could not get any air for cooling. Also notice the relocated throttle and choke cable positions.
Had I any more ambition, a new muffler would be built as though the exhaust is very quiet the muffler is very noisy due to all the baffling.
And finally the rivets are going in, next play with the wiring and gauges which all has to be custom due to the Kawasaki charging system and the Predator control panel.

[john swenson]

jim, i'm really enjoying you work in progress !! thanks j.b.

[ARGOJIM]

As above rivets in.
The 2nd above picture shows the headlight harness installed as that was all that was useable, the rest of factory harness was cut up for the Honda. Made a new harness connecting the Predator to the Argo even used the Predator key switch as it was free and new, used one of the Argo's fuse holders (as that's all I received) fusing the key switch, the head lights are hot as supposed to be and I switched the brake cooling fan leaving that hot (another issue of 1 fuse panel) and have one spare fuse location. The key operates the fuel solenoid, the hour meter, and the soon to be installed volt meter, need to make new seats as we didn't get those either, also need to re-remake the battery box as I lost the original which needed repair.
But it's nearing completion.

[ARGOJIM]

Installed the new volt meter yesterday, the Predator doesn't seem to have a large charging system and the new gauge seems slightly off, but I will hook up an ammeter because so far no luck figuring what amperage system it has.
We took turns driving it around the yard, first me pretty dang hard about 15 minutes with the lights on until it ran out of gas yet again on me ( that aluminum tank is proving a pain for now, the engine is definitely not a fuel sipping vanguard) and then had dad drive it around a while. The main reason for the test was to check the heat factor off both the engine and the exhaust/body, the hottest point of the body read 128 degrees so with one small heat shield mod that seems it will be good, however without fully hooking up the brake fan ( switch in which was off and no hose yet) the brakes started smelling and getting hot so we stopped it. This thing is damn peppy and should make for a joy to drive, and we haven't even touched and screws but lowered the idle screw.
Today got the brake duct adapted to the low mounted Predator and a new clamp should have that cured.
We bent a new backrest out of conduit that may or may not reside there, also screwed down the body band made from the cut out sections of body band from ROPS installations.
That's it this week.

[Andyman]

What no pics??

[ARGOJIM]

What no pics??

Stupid flip phones. Too lazy this week.


If Gil knew how to use his Iphone you may have seen some nice video of a bunch of 8x8 full speed 90 and 180 degree power slides, no luck though.

[ARGOJIM]

Only a couple hours work today which was mainly the battery box, which was lost.

Installed it and now you can see how tight everything has become after mounting the Predator as it is much wider at the bottom side of the engine due to the fan shroud.

It all fits but is tight, you can see that the brake duct was not only cut at the hose connection but also at the discs, it was cut at the discs when trying to figure the cut needed at the hose end so it could be slid in and out of the powerpack. The brake hose needed to be split to move further up the duct and there is also a pvc 45 degree elbow stuffed in the duct to guide and keep the hose where it needs to be.

[ARGOJIM]

Ok so the charging system seems to be 7 amps not much and the draw is apparent with the cheap voltmeter that is slightly lower than actual voltage. Checked the Honda charging systems and the showed a single charge coil at 3 amps and a triple coil unit at 17 amps, hoping to get lucky placed a Kohler 20 regulator in place but no luck, still 7-9 amps. emailed Harbor Freight and confirmed it to be 7 amp. Next the important pre trail test of will it charge, let the machine idle in the yard for about 120 minutes with the headlights and blower fan on which showed a constant 10.5 on the gauge until they were shut off and gauge showed normal 12. Shut it off fearing the worst but started right up, started 15 more times with now noticeable change, so, next trail test.

This weekend we made some front seats in between working on another machine, my helper did the seats and needs a backpad cushion adjustment as it is thin, I did the backrest after a poor attempt at a copy of the original. My miscalculations and the overall geometry of the backrest proved a problem that had to be modified and created a little more work for later.