It's my turn, 47 S10 build

[HAULIN' IT]

Just stumbled on your build...you've done some REAL creative things there! Keep us posted on the progress, Lorne

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by HAULIN' IT

Just stumbled on your build...you've done some REAL creative things there! Keep us posted on the progress, Lorne

Thanks.

[Cautrell05]

Currently serving was the weak link in the drivetrain is the 700r4 that was originally behind the 4.3 that came with this chassis. The intention was that if I drive it like a responsible adult it will hold up long enough to decide what I want to run permanently for a transmission.
Spoilers- I'm 46 and not a responsible adult.

Behind the 4.3 it shifted good and would actually get second gear tire chirps if I got after it. Surprisingly there was no signs of clutch material in the pan when I checked it out. It got a thorough cleaning with the power washer, new filter and pan gasket a couple coats of semi gloss black. Reasons for the black, everybody does silver. Silver looks good but also shows any imperfections. Black hides a lot while at the same time making the orange on the transmission pop even more. Plus it gives it a mean look underneath.

The S10 dipstick tube fit almost perfectly with just a little tweaking to clear the firewall.

Behind that is a GM driveshaft that I have no idea what it came from but it just happened to be the perfect length for this application. Gotta get lucky once in as while I guess.

Little tip for those running a nine inch and a GM driveshaft. The yoke I'm running on this one is 1 1/8"x 3 5/8". It's very close to the GM metric joint, 534g I believe. They make a combination joint to match up between the two. Easier solution is to clearance the ears on the yoke for the joint. Then from there forward it's just a standard s10 joint.
A set of digital calipers, a note pad, and a Dremel with a cut off wheel. Measure the distance inside the ears on the yoke. Write that down. Take a small amount off one side, measure the difference then take that same amount off the other side. Keep doing it evenly until the joint fits snug like it's supposed to.

[Cautrell05]

Out back is a 77 Lincoln nine inch that I picked up a while back. Currently it's 65" flange to flange. With 8 inch wheels they stick out past the fenders by just a little bit. The wheels that are on there now are 7 inches wide with 3 1/2" back spacing if I remember right. With these wheels and the 65 inch width have 275/50/15s on the back with just enough clearance to work. Not sure what I'm going to do long term but if I do decide to narrow it I can. It also had the 5 on 5 pattern to match the fronts.
It came with 3.00 gears and a 28 spline trac-loc. On the bench right now I have a 3.50 gear set and a rebuild kit for the posi. I also have a new pair of axles from summit waiting to go in. I'm not sure what the history of this rear end was but both shafts are bent pretty bad. I'm in the process of making an alignment bar and the pucks for it and when that's done I'll pull the rear end out and go through it. I'm pretty confident that the housing is going to need tweaked as bad as the shafts are.
The sway bar mounts are just standard rear S10 mounts welded to the housing. The lower spring pads were cut out of a piece of 2 1/2x 5" tubing. I'll gusset and cap them when it comes out. I don't remember how far forward I offset the pads but it seemed like a lot. After it was together I added a 1.25" lowering block to fine tune the height. I actually took one block, cut it in half and added it to the other two to make up for the long spring pads.
The torque arm was made from a kit I got from one of the 4wd places. It came with everything except the round tubing. I used 1.25x.125 wall tubing for that. I deviated from the design slightly by putting the heim on the bottom in back. The idea there was it would not pivot under normal suspension movement. I hate heim joints on Street vehicles because they always get dry and noisy. Also with it on the bottom in back I can use that to fine tune pinion angle. The bottom mount is on both sides. The top one will be when I pull it out and go through it. The front end has the shackle mounted to the middle cross member that will eventually also hold the driveshaft loop.

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by Cautrell05

Little tip for those running a nine inch and a GM driveshaft. The yoke I'm running on this one is 1 1/8"x 3 5/8". It's very close to the GM metric joint, 534g I believe. They make a combination joint to match up between the two. Easier solution is to clearance the ears on the yoke for the joint. Then from there forward it's just a standard s10 joint.
A set of digital calipers, a note pad, and a Dremel with a cut off wheel. Measure the distance inside the ears on the yoke. Write that down. Take a small amount off one side, measure the difference then take that same amount off the other side. Keep doing it evenly until the joint fits snug like it's supposed to.

this is proper engineered hacking and i love it! i never thought about doing that and always just bought that stupid conversion joint.

[Cautrell05]

Originally Posted by 6DoF

this is proper engineered hacking and i love it! i never thought about doing that and always just bought that stupid conversion joint.

Engineered hacking. I like that lol