1971 K10 Stepside - Getting a Roller Roadworthy

[pjmoreland]

Reassembly

[pjmoreland]

Setup

[pjmoreland]

I also reinstalled the sender with a new Jeep plastic float and a new seal.

[bobbylong]

Nice truck, I love it! I'll follow your thread as I work on my '71 step-side.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

Someone did some crazy shimming on this axle at some point. The pinion and carrier shims were mangled. It appears that they enlarged the bearing IDs so that they'd be a slip fit.

Maybe the same someone that welded all the things on the rest of the truck

Great progress.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Maybe the same someone that welded all the things on the rest of the truck

Great progress.

I think you might be onto something there

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by bobbylong

Nice truck, I love it! I'll follow your thread as I work on my '71 step-side.

Nice! There aren't too many of these out there.

[pjmoreland]

This evening I worked on getting the pinion depth and preload set. I settled on .035" on the pinion which is only .002" less than the funky trashed shims that were in there. The drive side would have been better with a thinner shim, but the coast side would be way on the edge of the tooth that way. It feels smooth when rotated.

I installed a solid sleeve on the pinion and got the preload in spec. Took a couple of hours to get it right, but now I will be able to take it apart and put it back together in the future without worrying about messing up a crush sleeve.

I cleaned up and painted the pinion yoke, so installation will have to wait until the paint dries. This is a nice original yoke I had left over from another project. The one that was on this truck had messed up splines and was loose on the pinion. The pinion splines look perfectly fine, and this other yoke fits nice and snugly.

I wouldn't be surprised if the issues with this rear end were what doomed this truck in 2001.

[pjmoreland]

Finished setting up the rear end this evening. Got the backlash set at .008" and the carrier bearings are preloaded.

One of the axle shafts was the wrong length so a brake drum wouldn't fit (it would hit the backing plate). I replaced it with a new axle shaft that's the correct length. Installed new studs on both sides and painted the axle flanges.

Cleaned up the diff cover. It had a few small dents and the bottom edge was bent up from being hit with jacks over the years. Straightened it out a bit and then painted it black.

[pjmoreland]

More photos

[pjmoreland]

Diff cover photos

[1970cstblazer]

As always, beautiful workmanship.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by 1970cstblazer

As always, beautiful workmanship.

Thank you

[pjmoreland]

Put some gear oil on the internals to help keep rust at bay. I will fill it after I weld on new perches. Installed the cover.

[57taskforce]

Excellent work!!

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by 57taskforce

Excellent work!!

I appreciate it. I wish I had more time to work on this truck.

[57taskforce]

Man that’s always how it is, time and money. Rarely do you ever have sufficient of both. You’re doing a great job so far. This thing has turned around in a huge way in not that much time! A lot of these trucks would be lucky to have more owners like you!

[D.B]

Great job, slowly but surely you will have back on the road before you know it. Then all of the hard work will be a distant memory. Keep it up!!

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by D.B

Great job, slowly but surely you will have back on the road before you know it. Then all of the hard work will be a distant memory. Keep it up!!

Thank you, Darrell. I'll keep plugging away at it! I'm actually really enjoying the project.

[pjmoreland]

More axle work today. Removed the bent rear perches in preparation for replacing them. Used a large drill bit through the center hole to mark the location of each perch on the axle.

[pjmoreland]

Replaced the front axle u-joints. They were really stuck in there. Took lots of pressing back and forth on both sides to get them to break free. Cleaned them up with a wire wheel and painted them

[pjmoreland]

Reassembly

[pjmoreland]

Also pulled the front carrier and pinion bearings. Assembled a puller from various tools.

[pjmoreland]

Did some rust removal on the portion of the front diff carrier that was not submerged in oil. It's badly pitted, but thankfully none of the machined surfaces or gears are rusted.