sheepdawg58

well my truck is getting really close to being finished. got a few things taken care of this weekend. got 2 orders coming in this week. and that should be it other than a front driveshaft and stuff to get the truck together. so here is a few pictures of what i did.

earlier when i put the rear springs under the truck i goobered up the shackle hanger placement. it was late and i wasnt paying attention and welded the dang things on there. then realized it. i thought i could get by with them but i couldnt. i had asked on pirate what other people thought and well the basic thought was "yep you goobered that one up, fix it" so i did.

my cousin cut the shackle hangers off the frame and we stuck the shackles in the stock hole... nope that wont work.


so i butted the new shackle hangers against the old shackle hangers. center to center measurement was 61.5 inches. i had talked to Dave at Davez offroad and he had mentioned thats where he runs his shackle hangers so thats what i did. seems to work perfect.


shackle angle at full drop. im starting to wonder if the factory bushings on the chevys might be binding up causing the springs to to move as much. im gonna check on that soon.



and while i was flexing the truck i checked the drag link and pitman arm clearence up front. i been kinda worried what i was gonna do to get the clearence to be able to get the flex outta the front without binding up. and i was kinda suprized


i didnt get a pic of when i had the draglink in the pitman arm. but i flexed the truck up and measured and ill set the bumpstops so the spring will be 5 inches from the frame at full stuff and it will clear the drag link on both sides of the frame. i should still be able to get the full travel out of the 14 inch bilstiens.


i got the power steering filled and the radiator and drove the truck around the yard a little bit. it was kinda interesting without brakes lol. i cant wait to get this thing finished. soo close... soo close


im gonna drop the carrier bearing on the rear driveshaft to try and get a better driveshaft angle out back. and once the truck is together im gonna get the front driveshaft figured out. man i cant wait....

sheepdawg58

aight so the past few weeks has been really hard... been bowed up busy at work and not able to do anything with the truck. its killing me that the truck is sitting there and im not able to spend enough time working on it. got my shocks in a couple weeks ago and took the truck up to white rhino to get the shock mounts finished up.

when we opened the boxes to get out the shocks we noticed one of the shock boxes was oily... opened the box up and found this



i immediatly called up Dave at Davez offroad and talked to him. he said he would send me one out the next tuesday. we went ahead and got the front shock mounts finished up but didnt have time to do the rear shocks. yet.

couple more poser pictures. cause i get bored. lol.



also fabbed up some bump stop mounts while we was at the shop. looks pretty nice.


that was 2 weeks ago. and the truck has sat till yesterday. i had a big ole work weekend planned but didnt have time to get everything in order to get much done.. i did get the rear axle stripped down for final assembly and the hood painted and that was about it.

got it outta the truck.


got the brake lines, shafts, and 3rd member pulled. now its time to clean.


when i bought the truck it had a blown up 3rd member in it. i thought i had all the shavings torn out but obviously i didnt. wow there was still alot in there. i think im gonna hang a magnet on the inside of the housing to catch anymore that get loose.


got the housing all cleaned up and ready to weld the diff cover on it. and ofcourse i had ran outta welding gas and forgot about it. so now im stuck.


hopefully i can get this truck driving next weekend... its so close i can taste it. so so close.

sheepdawg58

alright so the past week and this weekend has been rather wild... i thought i was closer to being finished and thought id have more time to work on it than i did but neither turned out to be correct, so it made for an exciting time. its almost done though...

got the diff cover welded on.



then painted.



had to go get the hi-steer arm tapered out cause apparently it wasnt done by trailgear. another delay


and by saturday night at 12:30AM i had that much done... the rear end under the truck and started on the brakes and hubs for the front end.


IFS hub swap. IFS rotor and caliper and FJ-60 rotor. pretty trick stuff.. better brakes and a 3 inch wider stance up front.



had to grind this part of the caliper to fit the wheels on the front end.


snapped this picture after gettin the rear shock hoops finished on the truck.


so far this build has been pretty fun and is only getting more fun. i am in major crunch time because i ALMOST got it ready to run and im chomping at the bit. i have more pictures to take and more things to show what i did so far. its just been so wide open lately that i havent had time to really keep my build thread updated. but i promise it will only get better with this truck. i only got a few things stopping me from being able to drive this thing on the road and break it in and get ready for an off road ride. stay tuned

sheepdawg58

got a lil bit done since sunday. found out its farther from being done than i thought. but its coming together as fast as time will allow.

got the 36s mounted on it. trucks startin to look good.



got the rear shock hoop welded on painted up and the rear shocks mounted.



got the front shocks mounted. then realized the bump stop mount is in the way... gonna have to grind it for clearance. another thing added to the list of things to do.



as i was working on it tonight i noticed a puddle forming under the passenger side knuckle. i inspected it and its gear oil seeping outa the felt seal on the knuckle ball WTF!!!!! i havent even drove this thing yet... and i know i put the inner axle seal in there. i used the trail gear knuckle rebuild kit. if anyone has any info on wtf i did wrong maybe and how to correct this id gladly take all the info i can get. im getting close to getting this thing running and that dang axle is leaking way too bad to drive it like that.

sheepdawg58

well i got today off work so decided to try to get the truck out of the shop and see if the shocks was right and stuff.

easiest way to deal with these shocks. they aint fun to put on by yourself unless you do this.


i clearenced the bump stop mounts to see if i had enough room to flex the truck without them touching and went out to the trailer to see how it flexed.






some how got the measurement on the rear shocks a little off... they are limiting my down travel just a little bit. but i was planning on dropping the rear of the truck 1 or 2 inches so they may be just right. but on the front, thats a different story.. the bumpstops are definatly in the way. they need to be moved under the frame and sit down 1 1/2 inches lower to work right. but the front shocks are pretty much perfect. now i gotta bleed the breaks again and then take it on a test drive and break in the rear gears...

rattlewagon

Build looks great!! Keep up the great work.

sheepdawg58

alrighty then. finally got some time to update where i am on this truck. ive been turning some good hours at work and just general life has been busy. ive gotten some work done on the truck but aint had time to be on the internet to update anything. so here it goes

got the bumpstops moved so they wont hit the shocks and fixed the hubs so they would unlock and i drove the truck on the road to test it out and break in the gears. the truck runs great, really great. other than the locker in the rear it handles and drives like a dream. im really happy about that.

i took it out on a trail ride even though i was 2wd to just get it out there and goof off and see if anything broke. well nothing broke but its also only 2wd and the military good years really suck badly... i got to test the flex out again with my new bumpstop locations to see how close they was to right.

looks like ill lower the bumpstop down 1 more inch to get clearance for the drag link at full stuff... other than that the suspension seemed to work great.


and after the trail ride i noticed i had a bad oil leak comin from the rear end so i tore it down, i knew the silicone i put on there was old but still used it. oh well lessons learned.


i added a magnet into the housing to catch all that metal shavings from when the rear end went out a long time ago. heh looks like its doing its job.... looks like a lil fuzzy animal.


also took this stupid spacer out of the rear leafs. i dont know why i added it. the truck sat level with this in there but it wheelhops when i get on it and the rear tires actually get traction. hopefully this will stop the wheelhop. i dont know why half ton springs cant handle the power of this lil v6...


some more poser flex shots since i got the truck running... I REALLY NEED MY FRONT DRIVESHAFT!!!! its boring without 4wd lol.



since the tires on this truck absolutley suck at getting traction off road i think im gonna groove them i drew the design on the tire and wanted to see what everyone thinks. im pretty sure thats where im gonna cut them though.

yoterr

The pattern looks good, looks good kinda like a swamper pattern ..sucks that those tires r no good Offroad..there super cheap, and that was the route i was going too...

jakew88

awesome build man, thanks for posting, I learned a lot from this thread as Im new to 4x yota's and about to buy my first and plan to SAS it shortly after i get it in my shop.

thanks again, maybe make a SQUARE driveshaft to at least get some 4x4 action in before you can get one made up.

sheepdawg58

nah haha... im too lazy to put together a square tube driveshaft... i done got one bought and its gettin built... hopefully it will be here soon cause man i wanna wheel this thing badly

sheepdawg58

UUUPPPDDDAAAATTTEEE.... so i havent been updating this thread in awhile.. ive been tinkering with the truck as well as daily driving it back and forth to work every day. its been nothing but great with no problems except some random tire wear on the right rear tire because i didnt adjust my driving style for the rear locker. anyways, i have been just tinkering with it because i have been waiting on my front driveshaft to show up. welp friday it finally showed up on my front door step. so i got up early this morning and with the help of josh i got the front driveshaft bolted up and the winch wired up.

had to swap the v6 output yoke out cause the bolts on the flange was on the wrong pattern.


the front axle pinion yoke has been slowly leaking since i put it together and its simply because the surface the seal rides on is ate up. i had to drill the flange out to match the bolt pattern on the driveshaft. im gonna replace this when i get a chance.


and of course here is a few action photos since i got the 4wd workin and had to test it out






i gotta put some bump stops out back to save the rear springs... seems with a front driveshaft i can actually bind the truck up alot better and get more flex outta it


here is a teaser shot of whats about to come on the truck. hopefully i can get chris to cut out my beadlocks soon so i can have some decent trail tires on the truck.

alex_mcnair

any updates?

Alex Robert Aceto

none of the steering box pictures are working for me. Thinking about doing the same