ovrrdrive

It's time I got this up on Yotatech so I can quit linking to it on the other forum. This will be copy/paste but I'll edit it so it won't read bad, might just take a while...


Here's the last known pic of the truck:



The first part I got from the UPS guy was the rear 3rd I bought from Zuk with the 5.29's already set up in it. I went in and took it apart and added a Lockright to it myself. Taking it apart wasn't too bad, but I'll tell you in a few months if I did it right without screwing up the preload if it doesn't blow up on me.










I drove it all last week with the 5.29's and the locker just to get used to it. I'll be glad to get the bigger tires on it just to gear it down a little. It's been a damned torquey week to say the least.


When we got started Saturday morning, I did the rear first. I decided to use the Superlift springs and add the 4" block too for starters but I'm pretty sure it will be too tall. When I get the front done I'll probably end up taking out the 4" block and going with a 2" over shackle. But until I get the front done I won't know where the back will sit.

I showed up at Dad's house bright and early with a truck full of parts.




The back wasn't too bad. Just a lot of stuck nuts. Once I figured out the routine it went pretty well.

ovrrdrive

When we started the front, we got the swaybar off and 3 of the 4 cam eccentric bolts off the lower control arms and hit a major snag. All of the cam bolts were stuck in but we were able to break them loose with a breaker bar and then tap them out. The fourth was not budging.

We hit it with a hammer...

Then we hit it with a bigger hammer...

Then we put the breaker bar on the florr jack and cranked it up until it almost broke and hit with the big hammer at the same time...

Then I went to the shed and got the maul out and we hit it with that for a while. The maul is basically a 5-10 pound sledge but it wouldn't budge. I was watching the LCA mount bending backwards and finally gave up and got out the cutting wheel. At first I couldn't cut all the way through with a 4" disc so I did what I could and we finally gave up after about 4 hours of working on the same bolt. We popped the other 3 back in and puled it out into the driveway and quit for the night.

Sunday morning I got up and went to Harbor Freight and got some 4.5" cutting wheels and went back over to Dad's and got back in to it. Here's some pics of how it looked when I got there to show you the amount of room I had to work in...



When I hit it with the bigger disc it gave within 10 minutes. I had to grind it back a little and finally got the arm to drop. There weren't many pics of all of this as naturally I was kind of preoccupied. Now that I had everything loose it was time to start bolting stuff up. I would worry about the ruined bolt and bushing later.

First the crossmember was cut out and thrown to the side. No turning back now...



A pic of eveything finally hanging...



Next we put the new (to me) front diff with the 5.29's in it in. Sorry no pics, this bastard weighed 88 pounds.

Then I stared in on the CV's. After breaking the bolts loose one at a time with a torch and a big breaker bar on the diff, I went to take the hubs apart and install the new CV halfshafts. Here's a pic of the drivers side about to go in...




I stopped after installing the driver's side CV for the night and got back in to it tonight after work. The second one went so well I took more pics.

Here's the unbolted CV getting ready to be replaced...



Taking the hubs apart was pretty straight forward but the cone washers took some figuring. Here's the routine me and subliminaltrips worked out that got them out with the least amount of headache...

First remove the nuts and washers and spray some PB Blaster all over them...



Then some heat concentrated on the cone washer and the base...



Then screw a nut on halfway...



Then put the socket and an extension on and rap about 30 times with a hammer just hard enough to break the washer loose...



Here's one of the snap ring and washer sorry for the blur...



And everything off and the CV out.



And a nice rebuilt CV on the new diff...



And the drivers side too... Notice the destroyed lower ball joint I have to also buy now from removing the LCA...



And a pic of the bushing that gave me so much headache that I have a replacement on order for. $50 for the bushing and $10 for the bolt for oem.

ovrrdrive

Made a little progress after work tonight...

Here's the latest.

In taking off the LCA I had to cut one of the cam bolts and part of the bushing because it was completely rusted in and frozen up. A new cam bolt was about $10 and the bushing was $50... I had no choice so:



And $15 to get the bushing pressed in and here's the LCA ready to go in:



Here's a pic of what everything looked like when I got there:



And with my $39 new lower ball joint on:







Upper ball joint out ready for the spacer:



And everything basically done on the drivers side including the BJ spacer:

ovrrdrive

A few progress pics and a 99% done pic...
















I still have to sort the alignment out and adjust the tbars down a little so it will flex some. Right now the cv angles are sick. Next week I'll drop the bars about an inch and probably change out the 4" block for a 2" block and then either do a rough alignment so I can drive it to the shop for a real one or I'll have it towed there.

Those pics do NOT do the truck justice... It is HUGE!.

ovrrdrive

I got the truck completely finished today and aligned at least well enough to take it home and clean it up a little.

Here's some show and shine pics...













Well, it went something like this...


Lift, rims and tires - $2350
Rear 3rd - $450
Rear Lockright - $250
Front diff - $150
BJ Spacers - $110
2 remanned CV axles - $130
1 Lower ball Joint - $50
1 Front LCA Bushing - $50
Bushing pressed in - $15
1 Cam bolt - $10
Alignment (getting done today) - $100
Fluids, grinding wheels, cutting wheels, sealers, cleaners, etc. - probably $100 more

That puts me roughly into it for about $3750 and about 30 hours labor as I did most of it by myself and had to figure it out along the way...