My Luxurious late model truck (not so much)

[Tx Firefighter]

Devin, can you vouch for the actual Harbor Freight bearing splitter ? Buying a bearing splitter is kind of out of the budget for this job unless I were to get a HF unit. I was looking at them earlier on their website and was figuring with a 20% off coupon I could make it work. If I needed to spend more than that, for say an OTC brand one, I'll just hit one of my buddies shops and bum the use of theirs.

[Hankster]

I'm really digging this truck! I love the wheel/tire combo too!

[Tx Firefighter]

I guess I better start watching what I say around here. Valerie just registered for an account on the board. She will be chewing me out for buying so many trucks parts I'd imagine.

[MTCK]

Sweet build! I love those 255/85r16's. Are the BFG's Load range E? I got some cooper ST's and didn't notice they were only D's until after I bought them for my V3500... I'll be following along.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Sweet build! I love those 255/85r16's. Are the BFG's Load range E? I got some cooper ST's and didn't notice they were only D's until after I bought them for my V3500... I'll be following along.

They are. 10ply E rated

[83GMCK2500]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Devin, can you vouch for the actual Harbor Freight bearing splitter ? Buying a bearing splitter is kind of out of the budget for this job unless I were to get a HF unit. I was looking at them earlier on their website and was figuring with a 20% off coupon I could make it work. If I needed to spend more than that, for say an OTC brand one, I'll just hit one of my buddies shops and bum the use of theirs.

I cannot vouch for the HF one specifically. The one that I used also said CHINA on it, but I do not know what store it came from. The wrecking yard had just acquired tools over the years and the one I used happened to be the one that still had all of its' parts.

[Tx Firefighter]

That's funny the timing of your post. I just walked out of Harbor Freight and checked my email when I got into my car....

[83GMCK2500]

Oh, that's good timing. I missed your question last night, had hoped I was getting back to you soon enough. Good luck with the HF one. I had to get REALLY creative with the cribbing under the splitter to suspend the carrier in the press as it was to large to fit between the rails. So creative that I stood as far to the side of it as I could as I applied pressure. Bearings came right off with a little pressure and nobody got hurt. I can't imagine your pinion bearing being too difficult to get off.

[Tx Firefighter]

Sorry about the pictures in my post above. When I uploaded the picture via my phone from the car it was upside down. Then when I got home and uploaded it to my photobucket account to post it better, the forum board gave me a message that it's been too long and I can't edit my post anymore.

Anyway, moving on.

The Harbor Freight bearing splitter worked okay. Remember to always use a 20% off coupon when you shop there. You can get them out of any car magazine.

I had to use my grinder and flap wheel to remove the paint on the tool. The paint was so thick that it made the difference between working or not.



Here is the new bearing pressed into place.



I busted the old bearing apart and used the inner race to press against when installing the new one. You just flip it backwards and it's the right size and protects your new bearing from the press. There is a razor thin shim between the bearing and the pinion head. Make sure you put it back in place before you press the new bearing home. It's critical that it be there since it sets the pinion depth in the housing.



Now, let's take a minute to talk about the economics of these projects.

Please, if anyone ever learns anything from my threads, let it be to shop around and do due diligence to save your hard earned money.

This is an example, the outer axle seals. My local OReilly Auto Parts gets 16.99 each for them.



I paid 45 cents each for mine for the exact same seal from Rockauto. It was 4.39 for a pair of them delivered to my door. That's a pair of made in USA quality seals exact same everything as the 17 dollar local store seals.



If I had bought them at the convenient local store it would have been about 36 dollars for two of them by the time I paid tax. Yes, I had to wait five days to get them in the mail from Rockauto, but I saved 31 dollars for my patience. Look at it this way, that 31 dollars saved on the seals payed for the Harbor Freight tool above, my gas to go get it, and my 44 oz Diet Coke that I got at the convenience store on the way. And I'm left with a new tool for my shop and...having to pee from drinking all that Coke. But the point is, money saved in one place can be spent in another and patience pays off handsomely.

On the other hand, I also shopped hard for my axle bearings. I wanted National or Timken brand only, which are made in USA. I shopped the local OReillys, Amazon.com, and Rockauto. In this case, OReillys was cheapest for the same part. You can't ever blanket statement like Rockauto is always cheapest or whatever. It's a case by case basis and requires diligence to ferret out the most economical route to spend your truck money.



And for those of you who aren't too experienced in the subject of bearings...

This is bad....



And this is good...

[rusty76]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

Are you an AC guy ? I wondered if maybe having a 5 ton unit is because of the extreme summer temps we get here. Our house isn't really that big. It's just north of 2000 sq/ft.

On the gears, I will use a new crush sleeve along with the bearings. I asked a couple of Jedi mechanics I know from way back and they both said that since I'm replacing Timken brand bearings with new Timken bearings that it's pretty much a full guarantee that the pattern will be where it should be. I'll put it back together with the same shims under the pinion bearings as the stock bearings and check it when I get it put back together, but with a set of 200k mile gears, I'm not exactly doing it textbook perfect no matter what. As long as its reasonable I'll run with it.

I do AC work and that seems really big for a 2000 sq/ft for me. Understand I'm in a different zone as well. Just to give you an idea my house is roughly 2200 sq/ft and we have a 3 ton unit. I can't say if it has to do with the heat down there or not. It does seem to reason. If it is too small of a unit it will run all the time. Then with a unit sized too big it will come on and shut off a lot. Which is hard on a unit. There are other factors as well. Is the attic, basement and walls insulated? How many windows and so on. If the unit before it worked fine, then there should be no problem. Looking at the chart http://www.acdirect.com/ac-package-u...ing-calculator I found on line it shows roughly 2400sq/ft for a five ton unit in zone 5, which you are in. There are several other factors, please understand each situation is different.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by rusty76

I do AC work and that seems really big for a 2000 sq/ft for me. Understand I'm in a different zone as well. Just to give you an idea my house is roughly 2200 sq/ft and we have a 3 ton unit. I can't say if it has to do with the heat down there or not. It does seem to reason. If it is too small of a unit it will run all the time. Then with a unit sized too big it will come on and shut off a lot. Which is hard on a unit. There are other factors as well. Is the attic, basement and walls insulated? How many windows and so on. If the unit before it worked fine, then there should be no problem. Looking at the chart http://www.acdirect.com/ac-package-u...ing-calculator I found on line it shows roughly 2400sq/ft for a five ton unit in zone 5, which you are in. There are several other factors, please understand each situation is different.

The theory is well above my expertise. I asked Valerie and she said we are 2300 sq/ft. She's lived here for 15 years so she knows the house best. The old unit was also a 5 ton. I can say for sure, there's not too much concern for it short cycling. It runs for a while when it does come on. The house is insulated walls and attic with brick construction. It does often exceed 100 degrees here for a week or more at a time and the old 5 ton unit would put in a full day's work keeping it cool.

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

The theory is well above my expertise. I asked Valerie and she said we are 2300 sq/ft. She's lived here for 15 years so she knows the house best. The old unit was also a 5 ton. I can say for sure, there's not too much concern for it short cycling. It runs for a while when it does come on. The house is insulated walls and attic with brick construction. It does often exceed 100 degrees here for a week or more at a time and the old 5 ton unit would put in a full day's work keeping it cool.

I use to work in the AC industry, in Texas we used a rule of thumb of 400-500 sqft per ton. So, for a 5 ton unit that would be 2000-2500 sqft. The best way to know for sure what size unit to install is to do a heat load calculation. The 5 ton for a 2300 sqft house is very reasonable. I have a 4 ton in a 2000 sqft house and it performs great without short cycling.

[Stoney]

Another cool tool...

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I let the boss choose the color from Minwax's website last night and stopped at the store on the way to work this morning and picked up the stain.
After this stain has an 8 hour drying time I'll try to get the first coat of clear on it.



It's looking like its gonna be a great day at work.

TX.... I'm not a fan of the wood finish in trucks but that looks great given what you had to work with. I prob would (wood? ) of painted it using some rattle-can SEM color coat w/a quick coat of satin clear after. SEM made some that was a fairly close match for the GM dark-red/burgundy color of these trucks IIRC.

Name/location of the interior fabric joint? I need some headliner material to match my carpet.....

[rusty76]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

The theory is well above my expertise. I asked Valerie and she said we are 2300 sq/ft. She's lived here for 15 years so she knows the house best. The old unit was also a 5 ton. I can say for sure, there's not too much concern for it short cycling. It runs for a while when it does come on. The house is insulated walls and attic with brick construction. It does often exceed 100 degrees here for a week or more at a time and the old 5 ton unit would put in a full day's work keeping it cool.

My experience tells me that if the wife is happy then you'll be happy with what you have, lol.

[Tx Firefighter]

I gave it hell today. Started at 730 am and finished at 6 PM.

First thing was to take my pressure washer and thoroughly wash the empty rearend housing. That was followed by more cleaning and finally drying with compressed air.

First task, pinion bearing races.





I have a big brass punch that I use to carefully drive them home.



New crush sleeve and pinion ready to be installed.



I forgot to take any pictures during the pinion preload phase. Suffice to say that my impact wrench would not crush the crush sleeve. I finally wound up using my 36 inch SnapOn breaker bar. And that barely got it done. I'm a very big ol boy and I was having to push with both legs off the frame rails and use my whole body to inch that thing down until the crush sleeve finally collapsed. It was bad enough that I went and put safety glasses on because I thought the breaker bar was going to break.



But, it's right now. Lubed bearings, turning, I got 20 in/lb with my little beam torque wrench. That's right in the middle of the factory manual specs.

The carrier bearing preload on this rearend is set in a neat way. There is a shim on the left side and a threaded adjuster on the right. Prior to disassembly, I used a punch to mark the housing and the adjuster screw so I could keep track of the factory setting.



But, I was stressed out when I took it apart because you're supposed to have to pry the ring gear and carrier out of the housing. I just unbolted it and it tried to fall out. So, I was stressing that I was going to have to take a trip and reset everything since it was so loose. Fortunately, with the new bearings, the carrier required an appropriate amount of mallet smacking to go back in there. That told me the factory setting was good and the old bearings were simply so worn that they had lost all their preload.





Side spider gears and their shims.





The other two spider gears and their shims installed.



Backlash checked out nice after everything was all assembled. Like my buddy told me, take out Timken bearings and replace them with the same and stuff will fall right back into specs. He's been doing this longer than me so I should have had more confidence in his wisdom than I did.

Next was to install the axle bearings. I used the old bearings as a driver along with a hammer to seat the new bearings.







The last jackass that worked on the rear brakes put both long shoes on one side and shorts on the other so all that had to come off and be straightened out. The adjusters were seized also, so I freed them up and lubed them well with antiseize.



Ugly...



Less ugly...



Remove wheel studs from old junk axles...



UPS came by



Install studs into new axles.I used my press and an old wrist pin. Worked great.



New C clips



New center pin. The old one was galled pretty bad.



I forgot to order a gasket so I just used the tube of silicone that was included in the rebuild kit.



I thought this was a cool picture.









My Border Collie has been standing guard against any grasshoppers all day.

[flashed]

Outstanding ,that truck looks great ,the wheel and tire combo are perfect too . You have been quite busy today.

[sdailey]

Great tutorial as always. Truck has a nice stance/look to it with those 255's.

What's next on the list?

[Tx Firefighter]

I left out mounting three tires, cleaning center caps, adjusting brakes, filling with 80/90w, cleaning differential breather, cleaning goop off brake parts and about two dozen other little things. It was indeed a busy day. 20 years ago that would have been half a day work, now its a full long days work.

Thank you for the compliment on the tire/wheel combo. It took a leap of faith to step up to the tires I did because they're definitely more expensive than the 265s I was planning on getting. Looking at it now though, I'm happy with the choice.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by sdailey

Great tutorial as always. Truck has a nice stance/look to it with those 255's.

What's next on the list?

I have several things I want to do to the truck...

Finish interior (door panels and stereo)
Find a better bed with less dents and do a spray in liner
Find a better rear bumper
Grille swap to the Silverado grille with the prettier headlight setup.

[83GMCK2500]

Wow... That occurs to me as a productive day, no matter what age! 255s on each corner, rebuilt rear axle, including brakes, and no grasshoppers...damned fine day. The truck is looking newer and more luxurious with every update.

As for the next parts, I just put 2 & 2 together...earlier in this thread you installed B-pillar speakers...and you just mentioned needing to work on the stereo some more. But but but, you're the one who likes to listen to the truck and the road and not the radio? (Trying to remember how you phrased it in Hillbilly Deluxe thread.)

[Hankster]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I thought this was a cool picture.









My Border Collie has been standing guard against any grasshoppers all day.

That sure is a good looking truck!

[Tx Firefighter]

Devin, I'm making this one have some creature comforts. I'll fix the AC and set up a nice stereo in it. I put Rockford Fosgate speakers in the B pillars and will put some good speakers in the dash. Maybe a sub box and and amp if I can come up with the components somehow. And a good head unit. I want to get one that does HD radio and all of that.

[aggie91]

Dang nice work for a full day. The end result is a truck that looks good with the new wheels/tires and now has a good rebuilt leak free driveline.

Are you going to redo the front brakes/wheel bearings & seals too?

[hartbraker]

Kevin,

I'd hate to sit here and tell you I'm going to steal your wheel tire combo... but good golly miss molly does that just look too right on there. I have the EXACT truck.... kinda. It's a White 1999 GMC HD 2500 standard cab long bed big block with only 74,000 original miles.

I already picked up a set of pitted Ohio PYO's off an 07' but wanted to verify with you that the tires fit the stock ride height for our trucks with NO rubbing issues. Cannot stand when tires rub.

I absolutely love your approach to this truck and envy the condition of you guys starting points for trucks down south. I've followed this thread, the stepside, and the flat bed since day one. I absolutely love what you did with the flat bed, but I have to admit... I've always been a square body guy first, but this round body is really starting to come around. I absolutely love it, great work and I'll be following through to the end.