fisherman120

Ya im not really sure eather, he told me that the gear ratios were farther apart in the new tranny or something like that that made it wider or something, doesnt make sence to me eather. The plane is to swap my 78 chinook camper body over on to a 4x4 frame. I dont think the swap would be all that hard on the long box, the short box will probably require lots of modification, im going to go over there and measure the distance from the cab to the center of the axle on sun, and he was saying that we may be able to work something out. But that something better be pretty sweet i think.

ya maybe you guys are right, besides im actually in the process of tracing down my dads old 84 yota pickup solid floating axle long bed that i think would probably be a cheaper buy and a better base for the swap that i wont to do. If i can find it and if who ever has it is willing to sell it to me. But it would be a little more work because the last time i saw it, it needed a new engine. But any solid axle yota has big potential. I even know who has it but dont know his name or where he lives i just have his brothers home phone number and he does not have an answering machine, and he never answers. Hopefully i will get ahold of him though.

hey nhcamper you think you could get a pic of that area above the cab that you redid i would be very interested in seeing how you pulled that off.

i dont know a lot but i do know that they had about 3 or 4 different layouts. Mine has a single couch to the pasenger side that folds out to become a bed. There was also an L shape design and a double couch design where there was a couch on each side. Mine also has a bed that stores up in the roof and a bar swings out from the side and it lays on the top of the closets and the bar. So i guess it depends on what layout you have. I dont know a lot about the other layout only mine.

Ok guys i have a big delema. A few years ago i sold a 1991 single cab short bed yota pickup to a co-worker of mine for $900. Ya i know im an idiot. But at the time i thought it needed a new engine when it turns out alls it needed was a new head. Keeping in mind i sold it for a girl. Needed the cash lol . But anyway now he wants to sell it back to me and he has put a new head on the engine and put a new tranny in it but the tranny put in it was a little bit bigger than the old one. I have no idea why and he had to cut a little chunk out of the floor and the bed is a little rusted inside now . This truck used to belong to my father who has sence passed away so the truck now has sentimental value and i think it would be the perfect base to convert my chinook into 4x4. So my question is do you think the vehicle is worth the money, because now he wants to sell it back to me for $2,800, and he said that if i dont buy it by tue. he is going to sell it to someone else, and it has about 145,000 miles on it, and it is 4x4. Any input would be helpful right now i am pulling my hair out. Also i think it needs a little aditional work to get it running really well.

Thx a lot for all the input guys i will give it a shot when i get the time. but at the time of the incedent i had a trip planned for the next day so i decieded to brave it out and see what would happen. It turns out that i must have gotten the spark plug just tight anuf because i made a 500 mile trip without one single problem, and got 23mpg to boot. But during some of the down time this winter i will fix the problem more permenantely. thx again for all the info. O and sorry about the spelling guys im terrible at it and i could not get my comp to download the spell check

ok first things first. Im going to worn everyone right now that i know absolutely nothing about part names. I know what im doing when it comes to most things that have to do with an engine but im horrible with names of all kinds. So with that out of the way i think i have a farely big problem but im not sure. Tonight i was doing a full tune-up on my 78 chinook with a 20r and one of the spark plugs i had a really hard time getting out. Well i finally got it out with much muscle , lol, and i think who ever changed them last time cross threaded it and when i took it out this time it brought most of the threads in the block with it. So my question is to fix this properly do i have to replace the head? and my other question is will the spark plug be ok because i was able to put the new one in but im afraid it pushed some big shavings in the cylinder and im not sure if the spark plug will be ok in there where its not really tight. Please help.

The shocks that i took off didnt work at all, they were totally shot, i cant wait to take it on a test drive to see the difference. Yea i think i do need tires because i was looking at them yesterday and they say standard load and i seen that someone was saying that they recomended rating D on the Chinook. Is this true?

thx for the info but i live in Idaho so that would be a little bit of a drive for me

Thx for the info, i got the KYB's they have a liftime warranty cost me $143.63 with tax and with my work disscount all together.

My local dealership can not find shocks for my 78 chinook mpg . Does anyone know where to find them. I tried doing a search and the parts link on this site but nothing .

I have been looking at the chinook conversions on here and it has got me wanting to convert mine bad. I have a guy at work that has an 86 toyota single cab 4x4 short bed with tranny axles cab, everything i would need but the engine. Anyways i was wondering if it would be easier to convert if it were the long bed or if the short bed is better. Any other advise on what to look for on convert rig would be helpful. I am ready to jump into this project i just need a mentor any input would be helpful THX MUCH GUYS.

thx for the info guys if you have any idea where i might be able to pick one up for a decent price let me know . Do you Guys think i got it for a good price ? I'll post some pics later when i get a chance. A friend of mine that works on campers for a living told me today that chinook's in good condition are going for about $5,000 right now or more. ?

I am also doing some work to my Chinook and i was kind of wondering what kind of stain you used and if it went on ok? I didn't think stain would work but it looks pretty good in your pics.

Ok i think i got the heater and other appliances figured out now and i replaced the carpet and re-did the upholestry on it looks real good now . But if anyone has any advise about the roof i could still us soom. Please any ideas would be greatly appreciated i really dont want to have to replace the roof, or know of where i would even find one.

HA HA that is funny futar you must have gotten some Ashton, Idaho water ... woo .... dont touch it ... lol ... even in a good month it could put you on the toilet all day

Hi everyone, I just purchased a 1978 chinook mpg not sure on the size but i think it is the smallest. It has about 87,000 miles on it. I would say for its age it is in really good shape. I got it for $800. I think i got a pretty good deal but I'm not sure. This is my first motorhome. It has a few problems but nothing serious. It runs good and gets good gas mileage. But i was wondering if anyone knows a good way to fix my roof. I think they let snow build up on the roof and it got pushed in. I have tried to push it back up but it just pops back down, and with the roof bubbled down the board for the bed will not store up there. Do I have to replace the roof to fix the problem? I also don't really know where the bed that comes off the roof goes for sure. I wish that it would have came with a book, because i am a little confused about just about all the appliances that came with it as well. I cant seem to get the heater to work it comes on but never blows heat . It stays cold and the propane was on and there is no pilot, is there a shut off valve somewhere other than the tank? Any questions that you could help me answer would be helpful. Thank you.