Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Well I wrestled the front axle out tonight. It was tougher than it should have been cause the upper control arms were bound up a little and the bolts didn't want to come out. Nothing a big hammer and a impact gun couldn't take care of, but it didn't just slide out. Time: 1 hour 15 min :)

For now I'm going to keep the dana 60 stock. I know its not the greatest design, but I wanna get this thing on the road. I'll come back and do the extras later. Got to do the required for now. That's one of the reasons why I'm really on the fence about rebuilding the tranny now. Is it "required" or is it "extra". I'm leaning more towards extra at this point.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

I agree with the extra. Getting the truck built first is important, then you can shake it down for what ever it will need. I'd hate to spend 1500 bucks having the tranny rebuilt, then have it sit for a couple of years while you build the truck and have the seals all dry out and possibly have to do it again, or worse get grinding dust or metal shavings in it and have those mess it all up.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

I agree. You are better off getting all the required fab work done to get the truck completed and back on the road. Work the bugs out of it then go back in and rebuild / upgrade things when you need too.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

The only thing I'd do to the trans is make sure it has some sort of upgraded 5th gear nut now. Other than that, run it. :lol: And those D60's will take a lot of abuse in stock fasion. My brother's truck makes 540+ to the rear wheels and he pulls with his stock front axle. As long as the u-joints aren't shot, it'll be ok. Although, these dodge d60's have crappy seal leakage issues. Keep the diff fluid level 3/4" below the fill plug other wise at least the rh seal will leak constantly.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

i second this. we had a 98 that was beaten brutally and the front axle was never the problem. had to do unit bearings occasionally but outside of that it wasn't ever the part that broke

Ryan

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

well the good news is the rear axle is removed

the bad news, the project is on hold again. As i was pulling the axle out from under the frame, i caught the shock (I think) and knocked the frame off the jackstand, sandwiching my hand between the leaf spring and the axle. i was pinned there, and started yelling for help. luckily the neighbor came over and was able to left the frame off my hand. So we went the the ER. no broken bones, but two places that "popped" open with the insides sticking out. they're about 3/8" deep. 11 stitches to sow me back up. the doc said it might be 2 or 3 months to regain the full strength of those muscles. So we will see how it goes before I get back out to the shop.

The big concern now is infection. Grease and dirt from the axle got pushed down into the wound (even though I had plastic gloves on). He washed it out, but didnt sound real confident it wouldn't get infected.

in the mean time i'll come up with a design for the motor mounts and front suspensiom

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Man that is a bummer, hopefully you heal up fast.

That is a reminder to us all how fast things like that can happen.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

That sounds like it sucks. hopefully you heal quick but a little time to think out your design is always good.

Ryan

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Glad someone was close enough to hear you hollar. Hope you heal fast. The truck will wait for you.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

"Popped" has GOT to hurt worse than cut!!!!
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Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Dang, my hand hurts just reading that. Take care of yourself; infections are no fun.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

No doubt

so far with the pain meds it isn't too bad

I missed the Midwest Truck nationals in KC I was going to go to, but managed to make it to a local cruise night

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Man, that does sound like a really bad situation! Glad to hear you got some help, and I hope it heals alright without any infection.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Hate to hear that.

I recently had a run in with a gas powered tool myself. Finally starting to be able to get life back to normal.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

An update on my hand. Its doing suprisingly well, I'm able to move it, type and do most everything. I stopped taking the prescription pain pills last Tuesday and took Tylenol and Ibuprofen a few more days, but haven't taken anything since Friday. I should get the sticthes out tomorrow.

The strength is down a little....it starts to hurt if I do too much, but that could be the stitches too.

I did manage to get my 454 loaded up into my 69 and haul it and the engine stand to KC to sell the engine to a guy. Then I made it to the Ottawa car show too. This next week I'll be out of town, so I think when I get back I should be able to start on some light work. The good news is the heavy lifting is done for a little while.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Sorry to hear about the injury but glad to find out you are healing well and still have use of the hand.

I hope you don't end up with any bone bruising or nerve damage. Bone bruising takes forever to heal.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Glad your hand is healing quickly, they are one of those things you tend to take for granted until you can't use them.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Dang. That could have been real bad son. I often think about that sort of thing happening to me. I don't dwell on it but I am fully aware that if I'm out there alone and get pinned under one or get blinded or something how would I get help. I'm sure my wife couldn't hear me yell. I do tend to keep my cell phone out there in case I'm needed or if I need someone. Now I do leave it on the work bench but if I couldn't reach it it wouldn't be of any help.
I sometimes think about going out to the shop in the early morning hours on nights when I don't sleep. Not really wise though.
One of the lessons my dad used to give me was safety when under a vehicle. He's seen a few of them come down off of jacks and jack stands. He's seen a front coil spring come out from under a car and bounce the length of the shop when a mechanic didn't support the control arm properly. Lucky he wasn't killed. Hate that you got injured and glad it wasnt' any worse.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

I've thought about this one a lot. I HATE having my phone in my pocket when I'm under a car -- I'm always scared I'm gonna roll over on it and break it -- but I know I should. It would be awful to lose an arm, a leg, or worse, all because my phone was three feet away and I couldn't call for help.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Back at it!!!!

Well over the last two weeks I managed to sell 2 engines (454 from the crew cab and 350 from my '69) so I have a little money to get some parts with...just in time cause the tear down is just about complete.

While I was out of town for work I came up with a design for the front suspension. Basically its going to be very similar to what I had on my jeep using long radius arms. The mounts will be incorporated into the transmission crossmember. I'm going to make the lower link out of 2" 1/4" wall DOM tubing and the uppers will be slightly smaller. The panhard bar will be 1.5" .120" wall DOM. I'm also going to be ordering a cross over steering kit. All of it should be super strong and pretty easy. I'm also going to make some spring mounts and have a design for them as well, but its hard to describe. I need to take a few measurements before I start ordering stuff.

Tonight I continued the tear down on the dodge frame. First I cut it in half :) I'm going to use the front half as a temporary engine stand since right now the engine is sitting on 3 jack stands. Then I removed the exhaust, spare tire, fuel tank, hitch, and then started to remove the leaf springs.

That's about it for tonight, but at least I was back out there!

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

looking forward to your fab. i love that stuff

glad the hand is better

Ryan

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

I am glad to see you are doing it right, I think you are going to be much happier with this suspension than you would have if you had stuck to the Dodge frame.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

Glad to hear your hand is getting better so quickly. Your suspension plans sound great too! You parting No Buck now?

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

No selling it. I have 2 guys lined up to come look at it, one guy on Sat and one on Sun. Both sound real interested in it. One guy is coming from Denver.

Re: Project Family Chummins
 

just got done ordering a BUNCH of fab parts for the suspension and steering from Ballistic Fab and Barnes4wd. Ballistic is having a 15% off sale right now so that just happened to work to my advantage....basically saved shipping costs.

It will be a little bit before I'm ready to start on the fab work, but doesn't hurt to start getting the parts coming this way.