Author Topic: it begins (Read 6949 times)

kyle_22r · « **on:** Nov 24, 2005, 10:49:29 AM »

about 2 years later than i would've liked to get started, it's time for my drivetrain buildup. we've got a shot of nice weather so i figured i'd take advantage of it while it lasts...

here's my goals for this project as of right now:
1.) rebuild the front and rear ends, and swap in crossover steering
2.) install somewhat better springs and lift her a little
3.) be able to fit 35" tires and have it be somewhat streetable. i'm going for an all purpose toy here, not just rocks/mud/dirt etc. i want it to be pretty well capable across the spectrum. i don't have a tow rig and i think turning something that was once streetable into a trailer queen is stupid.

so far, i've torn apart the front axle, and pulled the housing. everything was a gooey mess, it looked like it might have been rebuilt or serviced once upon a time though. if i ever have to work on this thing again, i want it to be kinda clean and easy to work on, especially if it happens on the trail! i did find something rather funny in a sad kind of way though. when i went to pull my shocks off, i had to drive the lower bolts out with a punch. because they were seized? NO! because the shocks were fully extended with the STOCK springs sitting unloaded with the axle bolted on! no wonder it didn't flex worth a damn...

right now, i'm painting the axle, knuckles and all to kind of clean things up, as well as protect against rust. for budget reasons, i'm deciding to leave the front end open for now. i could've dropped another $200 on a locker for the front, but that would probably make it necessary to beef up the shafts and birfields more(i've got a pair of marfield um-05s ready to go, but i don't know if even they can take it). i'll probably take one of my old blown up 3rds and install an ARB in it eventually, and run chromo shafts.

for springs, i've got a 3" front and 2" rear set made by downey. i'm not going for a whole ton of flex right now, just something to get me rolling. if i ever decide to do rears up front or anything super flexy up there, i'm going to cut off the stock hangers and build a drop hanger. for the time being, these springs should do just fine, i'm going to order up a set of 2" longer than stock shackles from skys though in the front, as mine are pretty sad looking.

for this weekend though, i'm planning on yanking the old box and hosing the bejeezus out of the frame with brake cleaner. the steering box blew its seal 2 years ago and it's been leaking ATF all over ever since, though i disconnected it a long time ago. gonna have to wait until monday to order shackles probably so it'll be probably wednesday when i get to start on the real fun stuff...mounting everything!

until next week kiddos...

kyle_22r · « **Reply #1 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 10:55:52 AM »

and here's one of my axle junk getting all perdy

KWP · « **Reply #2 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 05:09:18 PM »

Good luck on the build man. I have always liked that body style of truck.

CTENG in KS · « **Reply #3 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 05:27:47 PM »

Nice rug, I have the exact same one in my garage...that is kinda scary!

kyle_22r · « **Reply #4 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 06:11:24 PM »

that's like a piece of saddle blanket seat cover material, works great for laying in the dirt fixing stuff, not so good for your girlfriend to sleep on

CTENG in KS · « **Reply #5 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 06:20:03 PM »

In that case I have a rug in my garage made of the same saddle blanket material!

shad · « **Reply #6 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 07:35:07 PM »

Goodluck that torque arm bracket proved to be a real b*std grinding off.
You going to run wheel spacers or going with the IFS hub bodies and FJ40 rotors and IFS calipers?

Duffil · « **Reply #7 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 08:28:16 PM »

Where is the rest of your front axle housing? And why did you remove it??

kyle_22r · « **Reply #8 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 08:32:02 PM »

i took it out because the springs are getting dumped, as well as everything being covered in about an inch of diff pudding from leaks from the power steering box, knuckles, old engine, and brakes. i had to do some digging to find the bolts for the steering arms

no wheel spacers or anything here, i'm keeping things as simple as possible for now. i like my narrow track width a lot, helps with the really narrow trails we have around my area

as for the torque arm bracket, i'm gonna take a sawzall to it and cut off as much as possible before i grind on anything.

Duffil · « **Reply #9 on:** Nov 24, 2005, 08:43:42 PM »

I meant the part this would go on.
On a non-removable-third style axle, you'd call it a cover.

Hyena · « **Reply #10 on:** Nov 25, 2005, 12:51:49 PM »

it is still there. that part of the housing is facing down.

yotaboy79 · « **Reply #11 on:** Nov 25, 2005, 07:11:12 PM »

good luck on the build cant wait to see how it turns out
oh yeah and have fun and take pics $Beer Chug\'n$

Duffil · « **Reply #12 on:** Nov 26, 2005, 01:00:13 PM »

I had to zoom in on it. It's shiny and looked like newspaper...

kyle_22r · « **Reply #13 on:** Dec 04, 2005, 04:57:45 PM »

well, no pics today, but i got the front springs mounted up, looks like the shackle angle with the stock shackles will be OK for now, as these have more arch than stock(so the shackle is a little inverted with no load). would've liked to replace the shackles and front bolts since they're a little pitted looking but whatchagonnado

also got most of the torque rod bracket ground off, man that sucker is a real pregnant dog! basically took it apart in chunks with a cutting disc and then eventually got enough out of the way that i could cut the most of it off with my sawzall. still a little bit left on the insde of the frame but i think i can handle it with a grinding disc. i think my next investment is gonna be a cutting torch, i don't ever wanna do that with normal tools again.

i'm gonna order a FROR steering plate for this thing, the ones i've got are WAY overkill(1/2") and i don't know how my little welder will handle them. i just wanna be able to take a few shortcuts, if $50 saves me half a day of fabricating with my crummy tools i'm all for it.

third member is mounted up on the axle, the rebuild is on hold until i can get it mounted up on the springs. less weight = easier to maneuver $Beer Chug\'n$

shad · « **Reply #14 on:** Dec 04, 2005, 05:28:56 PM »

Shoot I just used a plate of 3/16" steel.
The FROR plate is nice but kinda pricey I think.
I used the basic Marlin steering box tubes and I had the scrap of 3/16" plate laying around and that was free just drilled holes in it and welded it on the backside.
I guess it would cut down some time though since it has the holes are in the FROR plate already.
I'll tell ya though drilling through the frame isn't a easy chore make sure you have some nice metal drill bits.
Start off with small pilot holes first then use the large drill bit.
Also make sure you have a nice powerful 1/2" drill. I used a new 1/2" 5.5 AMP Craftsman drill for mine.
I know the drill bits cost me alot though the 3/4" drill bit I bought was like $42 or so.

toybuilt · « **Reply #15 on:** Dec 04, 2005, 05:54:31 PM »

so what kind of tires are you putting on this beast??

KYOTA · « **Reply #16 on:** Dec 04, 2005, 06:22:05 PM »

right on Kyle should be an interesting build, will be watching

kyle_22r · « **Reply #17 on:** Dec 04, 2005, 06:26:41 PM »

drilling holes is a pain in that frame? i'd like to think that if my 1/2" HF drill can handle those nasty pinion flanges, hopefully it'll handle that 1/8" or however thick frame

depending on how tall the truck is sitting when i'm done with things, that'll probably decide what tires i'm gonna run. still considering the 34" LTBs(i've got the 31s, they work great), or some cheap 35" tires like the kumho ventures.

KYOTA · « **Reply #18 on:** Dec 04, 2005, 06:34:16 PM »

I have a set of those 35" Kumhos on my old 69 GMC and always thought theyd make a good rock tire.

kyle_22r · « **Reply #19 on:** Dec 04, 2005, 07:29:12 PM »

i'm more or less building this truck to play around in the woods and go on some trail runs with. if i hadn't lost my sanity back in august when i got a defective header, it'd still be my dd. hate to say it, but if it didn't have so many things wrong with it i probably would've left it mostly stock. but the axles needed rebuilt, the steering box puked its seal after i bought it, brakes leak, and the engine was so worn out(now replaced with a 20/22) that i figured i'd upgrade while i'm in there.

phew, hopefully won't make that mistake again

Uncle Jesse · « **Reply #20 on:** Dec 05, 2005, 04:58:49 PM »

The fun part with drilliing the frame is that the steel is double wall right there, and depending on where you mount the box one hole might go right through an old sleeve, or through your plugged hole, that now has weld in it.

yotaboy79 · « **Reply #21 on:** Dec 05, 2005, 06:07:24 PM »

when i was doing mine the drill twisted and broke the bit in 3 places and broke a finger

shad · « **Reply #22 on:** Dec 05, 2005, 07:06:23 PM »

Mine was hard to drill only because I welded the renforcement plates on the frame already.

CTENG in KS · « **Reply #23 on:** Dec 05, 2005, 07:23:09 PM »

Quote from: shad on Dec 05, 2005, 07:06:23 PM

Mine was hard to drill only because I welded the renforcement plates on the frame already.

So did I, used some nice cobalt bits and it went through real smooth...you weren't trying to use a hole saw to mount the sleeves through the plates too were you?

kyle_22r · « **Reply #24 on:** Dec 07, 2005, 10:31:40 PM »

i did some more work today. by the time i was gonna take some pictures it was dark

got the axle housing slung down there, and u-bolt flips installed. one thing, the center nut on the downey springs for the pin wouldn't fit through the hole on my sky's flip plates so i had to drill it out to 3/4".

got one knuckle installed -- i used the shims that came in my rebuild kit at factory spec(1 thick 1 thin) and it came out at waaay too tight. ended up going with 2 thick on top, 1 thick, 2 thin on bottom and it came out at 15lbs of preload. should be OK i think, as that's about the upper limit of the recommendations i saw on pirate. figure they'll break in a little too.

i'm sort of trying to figure out how to do my bump stops, considering making a mounting plate and fastening it to the frame with u-bolts. gonna have to keep an eye on things since the drag link is gonna probably be a little tight to the frame/oil pan.

actually thinking of leaving the factory upper shock mounts on, don't wanna cut holes in my fenders to fit the nice tig welded sky's mounts

looked up skyjacker's spec on their nitrocharger for a 3" front lift, looks like about 10" of travel anyway. not going for anything real extreme here.

ok, next update will have pictures, since it'll most likely involve the mounting of the steering box! i promise!

shad · « **Reply #25 on:** Dec 08, 2005, 03:25:20 PM »

Kyle,
I kinda had to cut the holes for the ford f250 shock towers on mine I only have a 1" body-lift on it though.

Anyways not sure if you have to cut any holes with the marlin shock mounts.

Quote from: CTENG on Dec 05, 2005, 07:23:09 PM

So did I, used some nice cobalt bits and it went through real smooth...you weren't trying to use a hole saw to mount the sleeves through the plates too were you?

Nope used metal drill bits.

Uncle Jesse · « **Reply #26 on:** Dec 08, 2005, 04:50:25 PM »

I've seen some people mount the f150 towers without cutting a hole in the frame. I would say the one benefit would be to get rid of the bayonet style shock and replace it with an eyelet end shock. With an eyelet top mount, you could effectively mount the shock closer to the body for more length.

bigman · « **Reply #27 on:** Dec 08, 2005, 08:22:55 PM »

good luck with the build up

Ramrod · « **Reply #28 on:** Dec 08, 2005, 08:31:59 PM »

I had the ford shock towers on my firstgen and didn't cut anything. I hammered it back a bit but that was it, after I undercoated the fenderwell it looked factory.

IronClad · « **Reply #29 on:** Dec 08, 2005, 10:19:11 PM »

be sure to truss the ford shock towers if you value your frame.. i and many people i know have torn our frames to hell and back because we didnt truss them.

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