Project Cyclone – Paint and power

It’s been a little while since the last update as getting the PTO and hydraulic pump installed took some time. While the truck was in the shop I managed to get the hoist primed:

“Lovely” brown primer

And painted!

And a bright topcoat!

Who had orange in the color pool? Specifically Allis Chalmers orange, not traffic cone orange as you can plainly see from the cones in the background. It certainly grabs your attention and looks much better than it did a few weeks ago. Soon it will be ready to mount on the truck, which still needs a lot of figuring out.

And now that the truck is back from mounting the PTO & pump, we can start on the plumbing.

PTO & hydraulic pump

Here’s a view from under the truck. The PTO is the red unit on the upper right attached directly to the transmission. The hydraulic pump is the grey (washed out by the light) unit bolted right to the PTO. There’s a switch on the dash that controls the PTO engagement. The 2 large hoses carry the pressurized (up to 3000 psi at 30 gpm!) hydraulic fluid to some quick connects located under the bed of the truck.

Hydraulic connections

There was a convenient bracket for the step that I could mount that piece of diamond plate to that holds the quick connections securely. It’s all protected under the flat bed, but easily accessible without crawling under the truck. That short hose is just a jumper hose to keep the things sealed up and prevent accidentally “dead-heading” the pump. That is running the pump with nowhere for the fluid to circulate, which can cause damage.

Things are really moving along now! Next steps are getting the hoist mounting figured out and getting it mounted on the truck and completing the hydraulic plumbing from the truck connections to the hoist itself.

Posts in this series

  1. Project Cyclone – Uncovering the hoist
  2. Project Cyclone – Testing & repairs
  3. Project Cyclone – Paint and power
  4. Project Cyclone – Putting it together
  5. Project Cyclone – It’s alive
  6. Project Cyclone – Post-Winter update
  7. Project Cyclone – Stability
  8. Project Cyclone – Reels and racks