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What’s up everybody. So a few months back I bought this truck off a buddy and have been piling up parts getting ready to start building it up.
The plan is to make a streetable truck that can still be driven or trailered to trails and do a solid job wheeling, as hollister hills is about an hour from where I live. I’ve never built anything close to a crawler before so I’m pretty much learning as I go.
The truck is a 1991 Pickup with 240k on it, single cab with 22re and a 5 speed. The goal is to have it on 63s in the rear with an all pro 4” sas kit up front, 37s, 5.29s with lockers and eventually dual cases and a cage further down the line. I’ve already gotten started on the 63” swap so will post some pictures, and will keep posting pictures as I make more progress, looking forward to any input you guys got!
This is the truck pretty much as it was when I bought it aside from it having a crunchy front bumper I pulled off pretty quick, also pulled the shell off as I’m planning to bob the bed when the rear suspension is dialed in.
And here is the axle that’s going in the front end before and after getting it all cleaned up. It was in my house when the house burned in the wildfires last year, so fingers crossed it’s not warped or brittle…. But if it is then it’ll just make good wall art and I’ll find another.
Some pics of the Chevy springs I pulled from a junk yard and got cleaned up, and some pics of the truck after installing them.
Definitely needs a lot of tweaking before I’m ready to fully weld the hangers in. Rear shackle angle needs to be adjusted better, also had some issues where when the axle was bolted up to one of the springs, I had to pull real hard on the other spring outwards to get the center pin to fit into the axle. I initially just centered the hangers on the frame rail but now I’m thinking I need to adjust them outwards to line up better with the spring perches on the axle.
Also not super happy with how high the rear end sits. Im considering pulling the overload leaf out of the packs, but gonna wait until the front end is done to see how much it has to drop down.
What’s up everybody, so I made some progress on the 63” swap. Everything is buttoned up for the most part, but as I got everything hooked up and tested it out on a ramp, I realized that I have very limited downtravel in the rear. When I backed up on a ramp I could only get one side up about 6-12” before the tire on the other side came off the ground. I have a couple thoughts on what it might be but wanted to see if anyone had some input as well.
So here is my rear shackle angle right now. My first thought is that it might be a little steep, even though it was a bit better with the weight of the bed on it, but still a little steep and I’m thinking that might be the biggest part of limiting travel?
Front hanger.
Rear shock setup. Billie 5100s that came with the sky’s 63” swap kit. Thinking of moving them outward on the mount bar to avoid body roll, but will that affect up travel much?
Ride height with the bed on (chopped up a bit). So my thoughts are either cutting and moving the rear hangers forward a couple inches, or pulling either one of the leafs or the overload from the leaf pack to hopefully drop ride height down a bit and get some more flex. I don’t think it’s the shocks maxing out as I disconnected the top mounts and ran into the same issue on the ramp. Any input you guys got would be much appreciated!
What’s up everybody. Ended up pulling one of the leafs out of the pack (one just above the overload) and that helped a lot. Dropped the rear end down 2” and gave it much more flex.
At some point along the swap the driveshaft slipped apart and I put it back together misaligned so when I first test drove it after the swap it had a very bad shake / shudder at low speeds. Pulled the rear driveshaft and drove around in front wheel drive and everything felt great. Gonna try and get the driveshaft sorted out when I get home from work but aside from that rear end is pretty much done until I get the diff for it… Next step is pulling it around and tearing out the front end. Tires coming tomorrow and wheels back ordered till the end of the month, feels good to see some progress though!
Hey I just found this thread. I commented on your other post about the rear springs. You have a good build going on. Pretty much what I did on my 88 and my son's 91. Both wheeled great for leaf spring trucks.
We ended up going with double cardan rear drive shafts and rotated the rear diff pinion angle up. No more vibes. So we used the stock front CV drive shaft and had it lengthened. We used the original rear shaft and had it shortened and put it in the front. We are running dual cases and I have a high pinion front. The stock spline section is only 4" so it's almost ready to pull apart at max droop. So a long spline front is a good idea. Almost mandatory. I used a chain come-along rigged up under the truck to cycle the suspension to full stuff. Worked great for measuring for shocks and drive shaft length.
Bobbing the bed is a good idea because they drag BAD on steep climbs. My son finally went flat bed. I cut a foot out of my current build's bed. I think I'm going to trim the lower rear of the bed like you have for even more room on the steep climbs.
My 88 is being sacrificed for my current 86 Xtra Cab build. My son needed money and sold his truck unfortunately.
I'll be following along. Good luck with your build.
Awesome thanks for the tips Scott! I’ll definitely look into doing what you guys did with your driveshafts, was originally planning on keeping the rear and just doing a square tube shaft up front but your technique sounds a lot cleaner.
When you bobbed your bed 12” did you end up needing to trim off some of the back of your frame? I’m planning on taking out 11” and it looks like I might need to cut the frame down.
Originally Posted by aztoyman
Hey I just found this thread. I commented on your other post about the rear springs. You have a good build going on. Pretty much what I did on my 88 and my son's 91. Both wheeled great for leaf spring trucks.
We ended up going with double cardan rear drive shafts and rotated the rear diff pinion angle up. No more vibes. So we used the stock front CV drive shaft and had it lengthened. We used the original rear shaft and had it shortened and put it in the front. We are running dual cases and I have a high pinion front. The stock spline section is only 4" so it's almost ready to pull apart at max droop. So a long spline front is a good idea. Almost mandatory. I used a chain come-along rigged up under the truck to cycle the suspension to full stuff. Worked great for measuring for shocks and drive shaft length.
Bobbing the bed is a good idea because they drag BAD on steep climbs. My son finally went flat bed. I cut a foot out of my current build's bed. I think I'm going to trim the lower rear of the bed like you have for even more room on the steep climbs.
My 88 is being sacrificed for my current 86 Xtra Cab build. My son needed money and sold his truck unfortunately.
I'll be following along. Good luck with your build.
On the drive shafts, I didn't go CV in the rear at first. I did after having vibration even though my drive line angles were within tolerance. You have to rotate the rear diff up to set pinion angle for the CV shaft. It eliminated the vibration AND it gets the drive shaft up out of harms way. On the front, I didn't need the CV in MY case anyway. I had dual cases and a high pinion so the angles weren't extreme. I was on a low budget back then. I used a local truck parts place that did drive shaft work for PTO 's and such. The guy made the drive shafts at a very reasonable price. They are not high dollar ones from the better well known shops but, they have held up all these years. I'm going to have to spend the money for good drive shafts on this build however. I'll be having Jesse at High Angle Driveline make them.
Yes I had to cut the rear frame horns off or the shortened bed hits and wont sit down on the frame. Many people weld in a crossmember there just behind the shackle mounts. I haven't done anything other than cut it shorter. I'm waiting for my rear 4 link parts so I'm on hold for now.
Apr 16, 2022 | 08:50 PM
