Project: Custom 71 4x4 hotrod

[70 beast]

yah i read about "thick cut" gears that way you can reuse your original carrier.

no matter how much i read about doing your own gears i know somehow itll turn out more than intended so thats why im waiting for either a dana 60 (from a cucv) or a NAPCO front (wish me luck haha)

[silver7]

I'm pretty sure I ordered the thick set of gears but somehow I ended up with the 4 series gear. I didn't even bother finding my summit paperwork to see because I had already lightly sanded on the pinion shaft (see pic above with it in freezer) in order to get the pinion bearing to slide over the pinion. It was mine now.

Good news is tonight while the hamburger helper was cooking I got my backlash and contact pattern correct for my Dana 44. Now all I need to do is grease the spider gears, switch from the set-up bearings, set the preload on the pinion and carrier bearings, then put it back together.

My front and rear Summit Racing drilled and slotted rotors came in the mail Saturday. I can't wait to get them installed.

Good luck 70 beast. This was my first time setting up my own differential. Although it was easier than expected I made a couple of silly mistakes so it took much longer than I thought it would take. It is hard to put a value on the experience I've gained but I certainly understand if someone would rather not mess with it. Sometimes time is more valuable.

[my67chevytruck]

Nice work Shawn!

[silver7]

Thanks Heath. Hey, what color is that blue on your 56 Apache? Looks great. I'm still on the fence as far as what color I'm going to go with. I'm thinking a light silver like your son's 67, a lighter blue possibly a classic chevelle blue or a satin black.

[silver7]

Struggled with installing the LMC ball joints on the steering knuckles with the rental install kit I bought from Autozone. I installed one but didn't feel comfortable doing the rest without damaging the recent powder coat so I took them to Ronny at R&B Machine shop. Common sense overcame my desire to do it all myself. Got them back yesterday - $45 well spent.

New parts came yesterday. LMC parts include power steering pump and misc parts, front axle bearings and seals and front and rear driveshaft universal joints to complete my drive shaft, steering, front axle and front end rebuild. I am planning to reuse me old steering gear.Also received my new Moser Engineering alloy replacement axles from Summit Racing. You can see the pitting in my stock axles where it rides on the bearing. The 12 bolt took a while to build but it should be very robust when finished. I'll go over all the mods when officially complete to show how strong it will be now.

Today I was torquing down my new grade 8 bolts on my dana 44 so I could set the final pre-load when the threads all fractured. Couldn't believe it. This was the 2nd time recently I had 1" x 3/8" bolts bought from AF automative fasteners in High Point fail. I guess they have a bad production lot. Kind of scary when you think about it. I need to play it safe and buy my bolts from ARP and be done with it.

[silver7]

Received my last couple of powder coated parts back from 'Unique Coatings' today so I was able to get my front springs installed on the frame. Looks good.

Also received my dana 44 spanner wrench today which I'll need to get my steering knuckle with new ball joints fastened to the dana 44 yoke. Let me tell you - it was a tough little SOG to find. I will use it to remove those 'plugs' aka yoke upper ball stud adjusting sleeve so I can install new ones.

[silver7]

Although I've been quiet lately I've been working hard so I have a few updates.

Minus pressing in wheel studs, 12 bolt is together and ready to go with new Moser alloy steel axles. Have 3 leaf springs installed but had to special order 2ea 9/16" grade 8 leaf spring bolts for the last rear spring. When they arrive this week I get my other rear spring installed and mount this thing.

Now I get to rebuild the front hubs. There are a lot of small parts on those so I'm not looking forward to it.

But once I finish that I can get my chassis mounted on some wheels. I was able to find a guy in Colorado selling a nearly new set of KMC Diesel XD 20" black rims at a good price. I hope to receive these by early next week.

[silver7]

Finally got my rear end and rear springs installed. My 8 year old son is in awe of the truck's transformation so far. He has begun to ask questions about it so I'm hoping he may get interested in it at some point. Shifting to the Dana 44 now.

Also bought the 20" KMC Diesel XDs I referred to above. They will be here next week!

[fencepost]

Starting to take shape now

[sdailey]

Looking good Shawn. Keep up the good work.

[silver7]

Thanks guys.

Received the KMC XD Diesel rims I bought off a guy on Craigslist this week. As you can see he did a great job packaging them and more importantly they look fantastic!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice!

[silver7]

My front end is installed and my rims and tires mounted and ready to install. It looks mean as hell.

Still need to rebuild the front hubs and replace my front axle U-joints. Also need to switch out my Dana diff cover since the tie rod is hitting it at the outer turn radius.

[Dieselwrencher]

The red adds a nice touch. Well done!

[nickp51chevy]

You got one hell-of-a project going on. Looks great.

[swamp rat]

Thumbs up from me too!

[1985-GMC]

Nice project! I meant to subscribe to this one a long time ago but I must have forgot.

[my67chevytruck]

very nice progress! looks great!

[silver7]

Thanks fellas. I'd have the tires mounted in the back but I forgot to order my lug nuts. And to make matters worse, I could not find black locking lugs (my wheels are black). So I had to my some chrome locking Gorilla lugs to go with my black chrome regular lugs. My buddy is going to powder coat them for me so I can have matching black locking lugs and keep my weels secure as well as locking good.

[silver7]

Drove up to Winston-Salem today to have them bend me a replacement U-bolt to replace the cheap Rough Country set I bought. The darn nut with the plastic piece bound up on the friggin U-bolt. Had to cut it off. Never Rough Country again. In my defense I bought it out of convenience but you know what they say, "You get what you pay for." Rough Country U-bolt set was about $28 versus a set of Superlift or Skyjacker will run you near $50.

Auto Spring in Winston-Salem was awesome. It was lunch time when I got there but they hooked me up on the spot. $10 min and $9 later I had a new U-bolt and 8 replacement grade 8 nuts and washers. Got them on tonight and started installing my shocks. That red is really rocking next to the speedway black! Lug nuts should arrive tomorrow - I hope. . .

[VA72C10]

sounds good....pictures are always good

[silver7]

Put in a lot of time in the garage but had more trouble than progress.

Started getting the rear shocks mounted but realized the powder coating closed my space between them so I need to do some minor mods to the rubber insert at each end of the shock to bring it closer to the mounting tab.

Also discovered my old hub don't take the inner or outer bearings/races I ordered from LMC. Can anyone ID either of these for me? The old one came off a Dana 44.

The other issue I ran into this weekend was Summit/Superlift sent me some wrong shocks. Now I get to call them and sort out which one is correct and which one goes back for replacement.

[SWB4x4]

Originally Posted by silver7

Put in a lot of time in the garage but had more trouble than progress.

Started getting the rear shocks mounted but realized the powder coating closed my space between them so I need to do some minor mods to the rubber insert at each end of the shock to bring it closer to the mounting tab.

Also discovered my old hub don't take the inner or outer bearings/races I ordered from LMC. Can anyone ID either of these for me? The old one came off a Dana 44.

The other issue I ran into this weekend was Summit/Superlift sent me some wrong shocks. Now I get to call them and sort out which one is correct and which one goes back for replacement.

Awesome Build! frame is lookin BadArse! subscribed

[dlhughes2005]

awesome build! keep up the great work...........and pics!

[silver7]

Drunkbus gave me a good deal on a set of 72 blazer bubs and received these Friday. Also ordered a Dana 44 complete rebuild CD to help navigate the front hub/spindle assembly portion.