Small update.
I got the Dual case all done up. I’m pretty stoked about that.




We also took the long way home and picked up a Solid axle in Yakima for $400. The guy was really cool and helpful.


Unfortunately it has a broken Birfield, plus I have to regear it and put a locker in, it just has a welded 4:10. But I got some v6 calipers with it.
I’m thinking I’m gonna take the easy way out from here and just order a complete trail gear swap kit.
I’m open to input though.

Cheers, all!

 

Well, time for another update.
First off, I hope everyone is doing well well and being safe. If you're still out working through all of this, thank you for you dedication and the services you provide. If you're stuck at home, thank you for your mitigation and I hope you are staying busy and not bouncing off the walls yet.

I've been cracking away at my truck, not always as fast as I would like, but its definitely moving forward. I seem to be in the middle of about 15 different things right now, but this post is going to be about the SAS.


We stripped down the axle that I got, cleaned it up and then I just hit that guy with some flat black enamel. I had been considering taking it down to the warehouse for powder coat, but I got lazy and didn't want to wedge that one in the bead blaster, or risk the big sand blaster hitting the balls.
We also mocked up the leaf springs and plates and what not. Although the bump stops still have to welded on.


I had to set my motor in there to make room for a friend to rebuild the head on his 4A-GE, so mine is sitting in my truck. We dropped all the IFS stuff and cut out the brackets. Got those cleaned up pretty well and hit with some more enamel.






I took the diff to a builder to get it regeared to 4.88. I had been on the fence about which locker for a while. I really would like to have a selectable one up front but am getting in pretty deep on this truck, so I opted for a spartan locker. I'm going to run that one till it pops and then probably go air-locker or E-locker.

Saturday we went down to the warehouse to powder coat the same buddies valve covers and a bunch of stuff for my truck. We coated my header, front truss, shock hoops, U-bolt plates, leaf spring shackles, and my outer beadlock rings. We also ordered a few cans of color match touch up because I'm going to be welding at least 3 of the parts I coated.
I blasted all the parts, masked and plugged what we needed to and then we were able to hang it up, blow it off and hit it with tack cloth before we started coating it.





I decided to shoot the header hot since it would allow for a much thicker coat, as well as letting it grab between the pipes better. I did lose a few hairs in the process though.

I'm pretty happy with the color. We did the header in a high temp flat black that should hold up to the heat just fine, and we did the suspension stuff and outer beadlock rings in a sorta dark french blue. I'm quite fond of the color and think just a couple yellow accents will really set it off.

Today we are bringing out the nice welder. I learned how to weld recently and am going to be doing more of the small stuff, but they're still ugly welds, so I'm going to get my buddy to do up the truss and motor mounts all nice and pretty. Depending on how much we get done today, we might try to do my rock sliders too, I just cut them off the blue truck last night. We're also going to get the holes through the frame drilled today so we can finish mocking up the front end.
We're most likely going to be building the axle after it gets installed under there because my RCV's and my dual T-case cross member are like over a week late.

I think that's it for now.
Well enjoy your weekends, and stay safe out there!

 

Alright, time for another update.
The truck is getting closer every week. I'm getting more and more pumped about it. I'd really hoped to be driving it by June, but such is life. This has been a lot of fun, and I've been enjoying the challenges where I can.

I got the swap done, minus the steering stabilizer. I've just been kinda lazy with that, I'll pop it in when we do an alignment.

When I was finally assembling the front axle, I had accidentally put my IFS hub bodies on and then spent the next hour and a half trying to get my axles to slip out just a hair for the snap ring until I was finally told I'd rebuilt the wrong bodies, which led to another issue.
This broken off bolt. I think I greased that thing like 3 days in a row and then tapped it out with a small flat head and a hammer.


Finally got around to doing the clutch, this was a little more difficult than in the past. I had one flywheel bolt that was seized on there like no other. I greased it every day for about 2 weeks, broke 2 impact sockets, stripped a bolt remover impact, welded 3 different nuts to it that all snapped off, heated it up, put vices on it, the whole works. I finally got pissed off enough I just grabbed an angle grinder and cut a deep cross into it, hit it with more grease and was able to pound it out with a punch.
Now there is a fancy new flywheel!




Transmission and dual cases are all reassembled and in the truck. That wasn't exactly the funnest thing to do alone, but that wasn't going to stop me.





I also had to swap my engine harness so it would actually plug into the cab harness. After I did that, I started hooking more of the engine up. I think I just need to do my slave cylinder, brake lines and the fuel line before I can start putting the last stuff like the radiator and air intake in.
I redid the interior a few weeks ago. I have to finish sewing up the Crown Royal bags for the rear shifter, I am going to put some rubber pads in there above the shifter to help with noise reduction. I also still need to put the rest of the plastic trim back in the truck still.


My rear leaf springs are super sad, same with the shocks, so I got new leafs, haven't picked up the shocks though. Since I am removing the leafs anyways on the truck, I figured I'd just swap my whole assembled rear axle from the 91 on this guy and save myself rebuilding another axle.

So that is the next major project.


Hope everyone is doing well, staying safe and enjoying their rigs!
Cheers!

 

Hey guys, hoping for some input on this one.

I’m moving my rear end in from the old truck, but need to lift it up to match the front.

I have these random Chevy springs (pretty sure they’re for an early 2000’s s10, but not positive) they’re about 51” eye to eye, not under load I got them for free, they’re new and never been installed, and I also picked up a set of Chevy 63’s super cheap this morning.



I’m thinking about putting the 63’a under with a double bracket in the back, but probably the SORD ones with the bar to prevent them from inverting,
but I’m also thinking if I really wanted to, I could just make the odd ball springs work and maybe sell the 63’s?
I’ve always liked driving this truck to the trails I hit with it, so maintaining safety on road is important, but it’s also a lifted locked up truck, so I’m not exactly racing people in it, or even commuting. I’m willing to sacrifice some things.

The other thing that has me bouncing around as far as ideas is that the shackle angle on my front axle is about perfect, just in the wrong direction. I was measuring out the oddball springs to see how they would sit up front, but they would need massive boomerang shackles and or cutting the body mount. Any input there?


thanks guys.

 

Oh man. Any of you guys ever start a project, get 85% done, and then decide to get married buy a house and have kids?
This project mostly sat for the last 4-1/2 years. In the last couple months I started back up on it and got almost all of my modification work done. I didn't really take pictures the last couple months ( I totally forgot about this thread.)
I'll try to give a quick list of what I did in the last couple months, but will probably forget some stuff.
I put chevy 63's in the rear, got new rear shock mounts and shocks all done up, gas tank is back in, shoved the steering box forward, reinforced the frame where we mounted it, got the brakes, clutch and fuel all hooked up, bled and secured away.
I don't really have much left to do on this thing, there is only 1 or 2 more road blocks before I hook up the radiator and take it home.
I need to lengthen my steering shaft in the engine bay by like 2" maybe, so I've got 2 shafts and I'm going to cut 'em both up and weld it with a sleeve. I'm lazy and I want to do it in the engine bay, but after that's done its just mounting the steering stabilizer and hooking up exhaust, intake and cooling.
I guess I have some other things, like lights on the flatbed, alignment and new tires, but I can't be bothered with that crap until my truck comes home. It's been living in our shop for 5 years and I think we might move out of it this summer. Rent is going up.

I'll try to post some pictures later this week.

 

Eh don’t feel bad, I have an STI I don’t drive cause doing what I want to it will be 30k+ I have my 91 pickup that I don’t really drive anymore, I just quit my job so now I REALLY don’t have a timeline on my STI, life happens it’s amazing how interest in stuff gets shifted. But the cool thing is now it’s more exciting 4 1/2 years later!!!!