Project; Divorce Therapy ( 72 SWB 4x4 )

[ssuth9]

Originally Posted by CUSTOM/10

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.

Originally Posted by CUSTOM/10

The opposite needs to be on the ground and you slowly put pressure on the torque wrench watching the needle until the posi slips.

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

Thanks I'll keep watching.

[CUSTOM/10]

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 !

[swamp rat]

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

[CUSTOM/10]

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.

[CUSTOM/10]

Here are the NOS goodies I picked up this week !

[swamp rat]

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.

[70']

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.

[CUSTOM/10]

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 .

[CUSTOM/10]

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.

[cmabolt]

Good to see you back at it.

Chris

[CUSTOM/10]

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 !!!

[CUSTOM/10]

The DMV sent me these today !

[cmabolt]

Originally Posted by CUSTOM/10

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 !!!

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

[swamp rat]

Cant wait for the finish!

[CUSTOM/10]

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 !

[CUSTOM/10]

More !

[swamp rat]

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

[CUSTOM/10]

Yeah that would give you the leverage but under the truck you don't have the room to swing it.

[CUSTOM/10]

I had a few mins today so I messed around with some blue lock-out dials to see what a torch could do to the chalky white faded dials. I cleaned them up, ( with very fine sand paper ) sanded any areas that needed it, then using a hot torch I
very quickly passed the flame back & forth over the dial allowing the flame to touch the plastic only for a fraction of a second at a time, slowly melting the white chalky plastic back to blue ! There not perfect, but much better than before ! What do you think ?

[michael bustamante]

your title caught my attention. im at the end of a divorce too and maybe i should use this time to get back on my truck too instead of sitting around an empty house. build looks good brutha

[CUSTOM/10]

Hey Michael !

It helped distract me from what was going on, kept my mind busy, and kept me from sitting on the couch drinking my sorrows away. ( Well somewhat ... "LOL" )

So go get back at your truck and do something while you got the time !

Cheers, My Friend !!!!

[69short]

That's a nice build you have going. I'll keep a look out for more updates

[CUSTOM/10]

Thanks Justin !

[cmabolt]

Turned out great Gary! Nice technique.

Chris

[CUSTOM/10]

Thanks Chris !

But word of warning to anyone trying this method, ( I had a junk dial to practice on ) the flame cannot stop on the plastic or it will burn it ! A tiny tip works well for the recessed areas, but you need to kinda stab the flame into the corners very quickly !

Gary