Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Gah this is the build of my dreams! Great work Gary!

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Thanks Striker !

This has been my dream for a while, and it's slowly becoming reality !
Just a little too slow for my liking ! "LOL"

The rear end is next. Re-gearing to 3.73's, new bearings & seals, disc brakes and check out the posi unit.

Gary

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Saw this one on ebay yesterday ! Looks very similar. Scroll down through the pictures and tell me if you see something funny under the bed ?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-C-...3D141689985839

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Uni-strut and 2x4s. eew.

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

You got it !!! Why would someone do that on such a nice truck ????

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

OMG, i feel for the person that buys that without looking... EDIT, then again if they didn't look maybe not..

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

i hate uni-strut. mostly because it means i am doing something related to the HVAC side of our shop. haha. i hate welding zinc coated anythings... its like angle iron. there are almost never any reasonable excuses to use either on a vehicle. i can give a pass to angle iron on occasion, but never uni-strut. :lol:

no kidding. it makes you wonder what is under the paint. if you cut that kind of corner what else did you do when it was built... i am picturing a pig with lipstick...

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

So the next thing I decided to tackle was changing my gears from 3:08 to 3:73's. My rear end has a 3 series eaton posi in it and I wanted to keep it so a while back I purchase a set of 3:73's ( Thick set gears ) for a 3 series carrier that a board member had for sale. Now prior to ordering any additional parts I needed to determine if the posi needed to be rebuilt. After searching the internet I found that the posi should have a minimum of 30 up to 70 ft lbs of break away torque. If it was 30 or less it would need to be rebuilt. So I made a jig to go on my wheel studs that allow me to use my torque wrench to determine
were it was. The opposite needs to be on the ground and you slowly put pressure on the torque wrench watching the needle until the posi slips. I came up with 40 ft lbs so I'm going to leave it alone. Here are some pictures, that may help if anyone else needs to do the same.
Next I'll tear the rear end down and order what's needed. The rear end rebuild will be coming soon.

Gary

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

This is great info Gary.. I'm getting ready to tear in to both my diffs next weekend.

Thanks I'll keep watching. :metal:

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Had Chad do some renderings of my truck !
I also just picked up so NOS goodies for the truck, will post some pics latter of the goodies !

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Sloped hood and a 72 grill?? did i miss a part of your build?

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

No the angle on the hood isn't quite right. Although the 67-68 renderings he does have more of a slope. Might be something in the computer program that makes it difficult to get just right. I sent Chad a pm to see if it's possible to change it.

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Here are the NOS goodies I picked up this week !

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Actually i thought the sloped hood and grill kinda looked cool, but i do think its just a play on the color and the passenger fender. :)

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

I just found and read this entire build thread.

Wow, just........wow. What a truck! Hope mine turns out half as nice as this one.

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Thanks for the compliments 70 !

Well got most of the rear end pulled apart yesterday, with the exception of the pinion shaft. The pinion nut is being very stubborn ! I have it soaking in PB Blaster and will be making up a yoke wrench to help hold it still along with getting a cheater to put on the breaker bar for more leverage. Also started mocking up the disc brakes .

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

So a little more progress. Got that stubborn pinion nut off but not with out a fight. I made up a yoke wrench and use a 1/2 impact ( 1000 ft lbs of torque )
and it still didn't budge ! In-fact it broke my 1st yoke wrench and I had to make a stronger one, but in the end I ended up drilling and splitting the nut in two and pealed it off ! I also salvaged the pinion bears & shim to use for mock-up. I'll hone out the inner bearing race so it will slip on the pinion shaft to make it much easier to get the shims & gear contact correct. Then press on the new bearings.

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Good to see you back at it.

Chris

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Hey Chris !

I'm trying to squeeze what time I can between other projects and whatever else life throws my way !!! :LOL:

Your truck is coming along nicely, man your doing a lot of custom & fab work !!! That's time consuming !!!

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

The DMV sent me these today ! :bann:

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Hey Thanks Gary. It's really pretty much done, but I have zero time right now to do much. I am shooting for the big reveal end of July and hope to get her to the Carlisle Truck Nationals in PA this August. As usual the busiest quarter for me is the third quarter so gotta grab the $$ when it's there.

I am doing a couple things to make the interior much nicer then stock. I should be chipping away at the wood work now that I have all the materials figured out.

Lookin forward to progress on yours. Damn you have a nice truck and the plates are sweet as well.

Chris

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

Cant wait for the finish!

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

So a couple steps forward and one back !!! I got most of the parts for the rear end rebuild and got started on it. Removed the old bearings ( witch were in very good condition, someone had been into this rear end before, had the punch marks to ID witch side the caps went on ) honed out the old pinion shaft bearing so they would slide on the pinion for mock-up bearings. This way I could remove shims easily without use the press and damaging the bearings or shims. Richmond says .008-.010 backlash ( Final ended up @ .009 ) took a few tries.
Started with a .003 shim for the pinion depth and ended up with .0037 to get a descent gear pattern. Once I got everything within tolerances I pressed the new bearing on, installed the new races, slipped the new crush sleeve on and proceeded to torque the pinion nut on to get the proper in. lbs of preload. It took some "REAL BEEF" to start the crush sleeve to start to give. I used a homemade yoke wrench, a breaker bar, and a floor jack to do the job. Once it started crushing the impact wrench could do the rest. So the backwards step was I found a broken spider gear thrust washer. So it looks like I'll have to get into the possi and order more parts. The pictures tell the story !

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

More !

Re: Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )
 

looks like you could have used a good length of pipe and a 3/4 drive breaker bar/socket set!