Project: Recycle

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by n2billet

(Y.S.) I would like to see some pictures......have you installed the motor/trans yet?

Shooting for drivetrain install tomorrow.

*edit* Motor, trans, & chassis are all @ the same location. I hate working in the dark.

[SCOTI]

I was able to find what I wanted for the rear brakes. I went by this 'new' place (new to me) & it's old school! I told them it was the beginning of a new relationship .

So tomorrow Ill get the rear brakes buttoned up & drop the drivetrain in if timing permits.

[watahyahknow]

allways nice to find a shop with personel that actually know wat they talk about

[SCOTI]

Drivetrain is in place. I'll need to build a 2.5" trans mount spacer to get my targeted 5° trans output shaft angle; everything else went pretty smooth (other than the drivers side bottom motor mount bolt on the DM engine towers..... PITA).

I need about .500" added to the ECE style T/A x-member when the truck is @ full dump/bottomed @ the c-notches & a 1pc shaft would clear the x.member 'hoop'. This means some investigation is needed. Initially, I figured I would have to run a 2pc drive-line. What I didn't like about that plan is the added cost & complexity. With the dimensions being so close, I would really prefer to run a 3.5" 1pc shaft. So, tomorrow I'll crawl under the truck & take some reference measurements to see where (if) there will possibly be interference.

The final numbers were: trans output yoke was 5°; the carb flange was 2.0°, & the pinion was @ +1° @ ride height (pinion not finalized). That puts me @ 3.5" front compression travel & 3" rear compression travel before bottoming out so it should work pretty well on the road.

I also started the rear HD brake swap but didn't get far. I purchased all new spring & hardware kits thinking I would just quickly assemble things.... wrong. I laid down a coat of color on the drums & then started the install only to realize I needed to clean all the necessary brackets for the install (my brain was thinking the hardware kits had everything included). The only 'brackets' included are for the self adjusting set-up. It took much longer than I wanted to get the brackets all cleaned up (I cleaned them well enough for a coat of color just cause I tick that way ).

So, that's where the day/night ended (all the brackets are now ready). The next opportunity I get out to the shop, I should be able to actually get the swap done.

Crappy cell phone pic still counts as a pic . . . .....

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Crappy cell phone pic still counts as a pic . . . .....

Yes, it does....barely....

It's looking good. Nice progress...keep at it!

[N2TRUX]

NICE progress Scot. Glad to see your back on it again.

[67cheby]

looking good cant wait to see more

[SCOTI]

I need about .500" added to the ECE style T/A x-member when the truck is @ full dump/bottomed @ the c-notches & a 1pc shaft would clear the x.member 'hoop'. This means some investigation is needed. Initially, I figured I would have to run a 2pc drive-line. What I didn't like about that plan is the added cost & complexity. With the dimensions being so close, I would really prefer to run a 3.5" 1pc shaft. So, tomorrow I'll crawl under the truck & take some reference measurements to see where (if) there will possibly be interference.

Ok, I was able to get some dimensions off of the old chassis & cab. Then I mocked up an OE T/A x-member & an ECE unit for some height comparisons.

From the top of the OE style T/A x-member to the bottom of the cab floor directly above it is approx 1.375". The height differences @ the C/L of the d.shaft hoop on the x-members are: OE unit @ 6.75"H/inside dimension, 8.00"H outside dimension; ECE unit @ 8.125"H/inside, 8.375"H outside.

So using that 8.00"H dimension of the OE unit & adding the 1.375" space above it yields 9.375"H total or roughly 1" taller than the ECE set-up. This should mean I can stretch the height of the ECE d.shaft hoop up to 1.00" taller..... well above the needed .500".

I'm thinking a happy medium @ .750" taller. This keeps me .250" over what I need & .250" below the cab floor. The rear cab brace will possibly need to be c-notched for clearance but that should be it. These measurments were w/the original cab mounts too. The fresh cab mount rubber could possibly add more clearance.

Looks like I'm going to try & stick w/the 1pc shaft.

[watahyahknow]

will the coupling keep working under the angle to the rearaxle under full dump ?
i have seen people use some sort of double coupling made for offroad use or agricultiural purposes to handle the bigger angle

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

will the coupling keep working under the angle to the rearaxle under full dump ?
i have seen people use some sort of double coupling made for offroad use or agricultiural purposes to handle the bigger angle

Are you asking about the u-joints? I didn't check to see what the pinion angle was @ full dump but it won't matter much..... It won't get driven w/the axle touching the frame/c-notch.

[watahyahknow]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Are you asking about the u-joints? I didn't check to see what the pinion angle was @ full dump but it won't matter much..... It won't get driven w/the axle touching the frame/c-notch.

yeah the u joints i keep forgetting the correct words lately

[Jonboy]

I know Lincolns use a double cardan joint at the rear as a safety measure if you lose pressure at an air bag, and use a 1 piece drive shaft. That might be an option if you need it.

I also found the coil wire from the distributor out of the '74. I'm sure I will see you before you get to that point, but remind me to grab it out of the top of my toolbox.

[smbrouss70]

SCOTI,

I did a 6.5" rear Z on my truck with no C-notch and I had to raise my hoop on an ECE crossmember also. I added 1" to the height of it. When I put the cab back on the frame with new poly cab bushings the added height of the hoop is holding my cab about 1/8" off of the top of the mounts. You should be good with 3/4" but I just figured I'd share.

Oh, a little advice also... when I cut the top of the hoop off, either the "half-round" spread open or the crossmember itself closed up a little. Getting it to all line up again was a pain. If I had to do it again, I would tack some angle iron across the front and backside of the "half-round" and clamp the crossmember down to something nice and flat before I made the cuts.

[SCOTI]

I made it out to the shop again tonight. My buddy Matt stopped by & we got the rear HD drum brakes finished up. The drums still need a little more paint on the back side, but I need to wait a few more days to minimize the possibility of the previous paint lifting.

I received a 'card' from Summit Racing this week w/info on my back-ordered shock bushings. The card was printed on 12-17 (1 week after I received my other stuff) & indicated the bushings would ship 1-1-11. I re-checked the order status yesterday & it said they would be delivered by 1-11-10. I didn't get anything today so I checked again & now the order status indicates the bushings won't ship until 1-30-11 (order was placed the 1st week of Dec). Two months for 2 shock bushings?? I got on-line & found another source that has them in stock & states 2-3 day delivery on in-stock items so I ordered more from them & will cancel the remaining Summit order.

Before finishing up for the night, I took some quick measurements to get an idea on possible d.shaft length & came up w/something around 55.5" (using single u-joints & the trans tailshaft 1.25" from being fully seated).

Sounds like using the 'double cardan joint' set-up would be cheap insurance against problems in the event of an air related issue. When using one of these, is it preferable to have it on one specific end vs. the other? What about strength?

[watahyahknow]

not sure where i got it from i think porterbuild was fiddling with those u joints maibe he can tell you

[Jonboy]

All of my air suspension experience (or lack thereof) is from owning a Lincoln Mark VII. They use the double cardan on the rear joint. I don't think you would have any loss of strength there, at least until 100K miles or a ton of power. The DC has a spacer between the 2 joints, and a carrier there as well. I would imagine Driveshaft King could build you one locally to your specs and not rape you on the price. their # is (214) 941-7122. They do deliver here in Desoto, so they might to Rowlett, too.

[SCOTI]

I got the shock bushings in today. They work out perfect after a little slice & dice . . .....

[SCOTI]

Viola....

[aggie91]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Viola....

Scoti - Looking good and making good progress. In your first picture on post 574, look at the bolt in the top right side of the cross member behind the notch/rearend. It looks like in is not completely tight. Looks like in the picture, the top lock washer is not completly flattened from tightening. Don't want you to miss any details since your doing such an outstanding job paying attension to the details...

So, are you going to make it to the March Goodguys at TMS?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Scoti - Looking good and making good progress. In your first picture on post 574, look at the bolt in the top right side of the cross member behind the notch/rearend. It looks like in is not completely tight. Looks like in the picture, the top lock washer is not completly flattened from tightening. Don't want you to miss any details since your doing such an outstanding job paying attension to the details...

So, are you going to make it to the March Goodguys at TMS?

The Panhard bar x-member & the end of the frame x-member are not tightened up yet since I still have to navigate some fuel line through there. Thanks for looking out for me though!

GG's March? I'm trying....

[watahyahknow]

was there a spacer included in them , usually a piece of pipe in the right length pressed in the hole to prevent the bolt from aquishing the rubber too mush

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by watahyahknow

was there a spacer included in them , usually a piece of pipe in the right length pressed in the hole to prevent the bolt from aquishing the rubber too mush

No sleeve on these.

Originally, they're manufactured w/the bushings press fit to the stud (which was press/interference fit to the shock). The original rubber bushing ID was .500"; the stud OD was .625". The fit was so freakin' tight it basically compressed the bushing (increasing the density/area).

Unfortunately, there was no way to tighten them down in that configuration w/my Porterbuilt rear shock brackets. The shock studs need to be installed & torqued to spec, then the shock can be installed onto the stud.

These bushings are Prothane brand (polyurethane). The sleeve wouldn't be any different vs. the solid .625" stud/shank they're riding on & I tightened the hardware to the limit of the shank (the shank prevents over tightening of the bushings).

[SCOTI]

Got a couple of hours in today....

I picked up some new u-joints to pop into one of the extra d.shafts I had in storage. This allowed me to put an actual d.shaft in place to verify dimensions between the d.shaft & x-member hoop.

As figured, I couldn't install the d.shaft @ ride height because of the interference. So I cut the top of the ECE T/A x-members hoop off & installed the d.shaft. I air'd the truck out & put a yardstick spacer on the d.shaft & set the cut off piece on top to take my measurements. Tape measure said 1" so I cut some 1" x 3.5" x .250" pieces to raise the hoop. Everything is taped in place & ready for the next 'shopportunity' .

I documented some data @ ride height to get the driveline angles correct:
Trans output shaft @ 4.7° down
Rear pinion @ .6° up
D.shaft @ 2.6° up from trans to pinion

Now I need to figure out what gets moved (& how much) to get everything in sync.

[lolife99]

SCOTI,... is the rear pinion only .6 degrees up,... or 6 degrees up?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by lolife99

SCOTI,... is the rear pinion only .6 degrees up,... or 6 degrees up?

.6°.... That's w/a 3° shim as well.