[caseyjones]

I spent a few days back in South Dakota last week, working on the truck and hanging out with family.

Remember that poor fit of the upper a-arm mount? Uh yeah, that should have been a warning. It is totally the wrong mount. That's what I get for trying to piece a kit together to save some money. After I put together the front end components, my brother said something didn't look right, and he was right. And I was very angry.

He called Speedway to see if we can order just the upper mounts, and they referred him to their supplier. Sounds like they'll help us out and we'll hopefully just have to zip off these and mount the new ones. But it put a stop to progress on getting the engine mounted on this trip.

However, we got the rear suspension mocked up and the body transferred to the new frame. The 4x4 shackles and hangers worked out great, the Ranger leaf springs seem like they'll work too. I'll probably go with shorter shackles and/or some short blocks under the axle to dial in ride height once we have it all weighted down. The new crossmember will be cleaned up, I will close off the open ends of the square tubing and wrap an L-shaped plate from the top of the crossmember down along the sides of the frame to spread the loads back there. The booger welds are mine - i'm so out of practice.

My dad has a Bobcat skid-steer and that made transferring the cab and box from the old frame so much easier. We just ran a wooden fence post through the side window openings and used a couple of heavy duty tow straps to lift the cab. No damage to the cab or anyone's lower back. No pics of that process...I'm bad at stopping and documenting this stuff.

The junkyard rear end needs all new brakes but the guts look good and it does indeed have the limited slip differential.

Planning for the next trip in December is starting. It's been really fun working on this with my dad and brother, as much as I really wish it was in my own back yard. The steering / exhaust puzzle is the next big hurdle, I want to avoid using a third joint. I have a bunch of old threads and photos saved of others' solutions, hopefully I can make one of them work!