Re: Rat repair.
 

Knuckles are on yesterday, installed axles spindles and backing plates today. Got all my front and rear races installed, greased all the bearings and installed the inners with the rear seal.

Mounted the rear hub and bolted up the rear caliper, Hum the bottom caliper bolt felt a little snug but continued thinking it was a little paint over spray, caliper centers nicely on the rotor, happy camper.... Until i went to spin the rotor again, the rear caliper lower bolt was actually contacting the rotor, , further inspection showed the upper caliper bolt was about 1/8" away, crap so long story short i called and will have to return the brackets so they can make another set. Per the pic's, I masked off the rotors and sprayed the casting areas and your looking at the tape and paint, leaving the masking on for now.

Moving right along, grabbed the front hub and tried to install onto my new spindles, the rear bearing won't slide over the spindle on ether side, i test fit all the bearings and seals on the old spindle so didn't even give it a second thought.... Put the rotor/hub back on my work bench, grabbed one of my old spindles and she popped right into place, sigh. I grabbed my calipers and measured about .001 difference, the newer spindle was of course bigger.

So 2 steps forward and 4 steps back again..

I'll have to inspect the new spindles a bit closer, but curious what your thoughts would be to using a strip of emery cloth and trying to polish it down a little?

Re: Rat repair.
 

To get caught up hears a couple more pictures.

The first pic shows the axle with the BK1 seal kit laid out next to it, on the right is the bronze washer i pulled off my axle, in the middle is the plastic washer on the left is a V seal and inside is a seal that does fit inside the back of my spindles next to the needle bearing but there wasn't one of these seals in there when i took it apart, My spindles being the small spindles only had a bronze washer and a seal on the back side of the spindles. But the parts list called out the BK1 kit to be used as well, so when i saw the parts list breakdown i wondered if the rubber V seals rotted so bad they fell off? or did some hack get to this truck and not use some of a a kit many years ago? but after looking at it i don't see how the kit would possibly work in my application. I also received the seal for the large spindles as well, it had the wrong ID. both the kit and seal will be returned.

2nd pic shows the Bronze washer on the axle, the washer in the BK1 kit is plastic and has a larger diameter, if i was to use just that washer i'd have to grind the OD down to fit inside the axle sleeve.

Long story short, unless someone can chime in and tell me I'm missing something on the BK1 kit as far as using the V seal then I'm gonna proceed to reuse my bronze washers and i located the new seal for the back of the spindles..

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/more...801&cc=1051445

3&4, knuckles have been installed.

Re: Rat repair.
 

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f8/sp...l-kit-1565662/

Now for the replacement spindle, i needed to polish off .0005 off both diameters for the bearings to fit on them, I used a little 1000 grit followed by a little 1500 grit, being very careful to take the surface down evenly.

So i got the passenger side spindle mounted and new prevailing torque nuts, mounted the hub and rotor and preloaded the inner bearing while spinning to 50ft#, backed it off 3/8 of a turn and installed the locking washer, and installed the outer nut and torqued it to 50 ft# per the service manual.

There is a lot of discussion about whether 50# is enough for the outer nut torque, i have read discussions saying 80#, 130# 150# My Clymers said 175# and another said to reef on it until you cant reef on it anymore.. so I figure i'll run it for a little at 50# per the pdf and keep checking the hubs for warmth then open the hubs back up and re set the bearing preload after a few hundred miles or so, and if it feels like they stayed tight i'll use 50# again, if not i may increase it a little .

Again my hats off to the hack that worked on my truck before, he used a chisel to remove and install the hub nuts, and don't recall if i mentioned yet but my bearings were in fact not at properly preloaded, which is what ruined my spindles. I decided to grab my wet stone and stone the chisel burs off the flat surface of the nut and reverse it as the outer 4 slots were pretty hacked up.

Pic's to follow tonight.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Here's a couple pic's

One of the outer nuts after i wet stoned it to remove the chisel burrs.

Passenger side done!

Now one more setback, when i bought my calipers and other parts i never checked the throat depth of the calipers, the boxes have the correct part number needed to be used for the HD rotors, i just degreased and masked off and painted them without a second thought. After i got the passenger side together i grabbed the caliper and it don't fit over the rotor... I measured the throat and it was smaller than the one for the driver side, hard to see with the naked eye but about 1/8th difference if i recall correctly. Tomorrow i head back to the auto parts store to do an exchange on the calipers, now i'm out the cost of a can of VHT high temp caliper paint.

I got the other spindle polished down and test fitted so its ready to install again tomorrow.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Nice job of documenting.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Another day of heavy rain and thunder is here:

Need to go to NAPA and swap out the calipers and hopefully between the rain squalls I'll have the driver side assembled.

I'm holding off on the drag link and tie rod for now as i'm still waiting on my new lift kit to arrive.

A couple more pic's i missed:

The scale shows a .001 difference in the caliper mount holes, New Prevailing Loc Nuts, Both the inner and outer spindle bearing surfaces needed polished to get the bearings to slip on, again 1000 grit followed by 1500 grit.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Keep up the good work!

Re: Rat repair.
 

Stopped early tonight.. Go Seahawks!

Had a break in the weather early so i reassembled the driver side axle and hub assy.

Then decided to document the master cylinder and proportioning lines before i removed them from the truck. Then i gathered up the old calipers and the 2 new ones (one being incorrect) the master cylinder, Booster and headed down to Napa to swap the one wrong caliper for the correct one, per my previous post the caliper wasn't wide enough for the thick rotors that my truck runs, i also read a forum thread where this was happening but it was all suppose to be cleared up, well i got a straggler i guess..

New caliper has been prepped and painted, drying over night.

I noted a possible problem with my new Proportioning valve, it has one extra port on the front beveled surface, but it is in the package and labeled to be correct for my disk conversion, I don't know if i can just plug the port? or if i will need a different Proportioning valve, Any help? I'll call Inline tube tomorrow morning.

Took a good look at the front rubber brake hoses and and how the steel lines are attached then shot then with PB Blaster, I'm beginning to wonder if i'd be better off removing my headers to gain more room to get my fat hands into the frame rails and get the lines loose. I need to get the lines loose without messing them up because trying to change the steel lines out with the body on would be just a pita. Very concerned about dirt and 40 years of crud build up too.

I moved on to the rear rubber line, i tried to unscrew the passenger line from the rubber hose T and it wasn't gonna budge, to i decided To unhook the rubber hose at the top mount then unbolt the mount bracket from the diff and remove the whole assembly. I chucked the bracket into my vice and tried a flair nut wrench on the line again after a little PB Blaster, no go, so i got out my trusty bernzomatic torch and started heating it up and shooting PB Blaster, next thing i knew the pressure build up inside the lines blew the hose off the fitting! I checked the hose and it wasn't plugged, the steel lines were not plugged ether so i guess the brake fluid got hot enough to hit the flash point and ignite, just glad that was the end of it. :)

Re: Rat repair.
 

Thanks Bigdav160,

These forums have offered me so much knowledge that i felt i wanted to give back...and show a couple mistakes along the way.. :) Its all a learning experience! And i'll say again i have never done this before, its obviously taking way longer than i expected even with the time allotted for degrease prep and paint.

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Thanks for the compliment! with the setback's i run into the kind words offer encouragement to keep pressing forward! :5150:

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Last night i researched the factory service manual on the stock proportioning valves and found a pic with a stock valve that looked identical to my stock valve but with the exception that it had the extra forward port on the 45 angled surface just like the one i got from Inline Tube, that port and the one on the bottom are both front brake ports in the pic. I called Inline Tube today and talked to them about the extra port on my proportioning valve and they said that was the only one they carry for a rear disk conversion (and some other applications) and he agreed with me that the port in question is a front port along with the forward bottom port which feeds my front brakes, he said it would be fine to plug that port and that would feed all the volume and pressure from both ports to the other port on the bottom. So i ran to an auto parts store and found the proper 3/8 NF inverted taper plug.

I also prepped and primed my power booster and painted the master cylinder today, just used cast iron grey on the master cylinder, i will paint the booster black, or maybe i should just use up the can of cast iron paint? :lol:

I am debating on running some new rear steel brake lines to the calipers to the single flex hose instead of reusing the old stuff, not sure just yet. My stock rear steel lines have a coil spring like shield slipped over them the full length, in a couple places it was mucked on pretty tight with 40 years of crap, I cut the outer flair nuts off which needs to be done for the disk conversion and got the spring like covers worked off and are now in a bath of CLR

I spent some time under my truck today working on removing the front flex hoses from the frame, with the headers its one tight son of a gun! I finally got the passenger side off but i was fighting existing brake lines as well as the rear gas tank line i ran up to the fuel pump, i was finally able to get it off after struggling for about 1 hour, between the tight space, my hand cramping up and limited vision it was just a bear, my right thumb is still cramping just typing this.. but the other side should go quicker.

Had to wrap up and head off to work..

Re: Rat repair.
 

Finished painting the Booster and Master Cylinder today, decided the cast iron grey paint looked just fine.. clean stuff first, then on to the dirty work.

Figured i'd better get the Dana 44 filled with gear oil now that its back together. :)

Got the flex hoses mounted to the frame both front and back, the driver side was way easier and much more room.

Then i dumped the fluid out of the Eaton and pulled the cover off, everything looked fine, just the usual sludge in the bottom, covered the gears with paper towels and scrapped the gasket then using an old large pair of hemostats i used paper towels to clean out the bottom, final clean up with a bit of brake fluid, then covered the gears again with paper towels then an old T shirt wrapped and taped around the axle housing followed by a sheet of plastic also taped up, don't want any crap to get in there while the cover is off. I cleaned the inside of the cover but still need to clean all the rust off the outside and get it painted up as well.

Oh, I got my dial indicator out and measured .010 backlash between the ring and pinion, i don't know what the tolerance is just yet, anybody know? I may end up taking the truck to a ring and pinion place in the long rin but its ok for now.

I spent the better part of almost 2 hours looking for a couple parts in the last 2 days.. sure enough the parts were in plain sight, i hate it when that happens! :)

I called on my lift kit, they said that BDS had to Make the rear full arch springs but have the rest of the kit ready so don't know how long that will take. Hopefully not too long. Also no word yet on the conversion disk repair or replacement.

I'll try and get a few more pictures soon.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Got a call today from the 4X4 place, My lift kit was shipped today! I expect it about mid week next week. Also got an email from the disk conversion company and they also shipped my brackets today so i should have them probably Monday.

I bench bled the master cylinder then mounted my Master and booster then hooked up the new Proportioning valve, i included a pic of the old master cylinder, showing that is did have a gasket on it, anyone else ever seen one? i discovered that a thermostat gasket is a pretty close fit, but i didn't use one when i put it together, i had one and was just curious it it would work.

Stripped all the rust off my rear cover and then cleaned it with brake cleaner followed by acetone then hit it with some Phosphorous acid and it will be ready for paint tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm gonna paint the cover and head up town before work, I need an easy day, just hope its a nice day tomorrow!

Re: Rat repair.
 

Lookin awesome! Stay at it.
Chris

Re: Rat repair.
 

I have a question, can you pull the inner fender wells out underneath the fenders? or do you have to take the fender off to get at them? it will be a while till i get to that but i need to do a little rust repair where that bracket is welded on by the frame rail. I figure i an try that first before i try a door or rocker. :)

Re: Rat repair.
 

You can remove the inner fender with removing the fender without any problem.. Great Job so far..

Re: Rat repair.
 

Short update.

I have posted a question about the Eaton rear cover here if you can help, Thanks!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...33#post6279533


I noted that my rear diff cover plug was a leaker too so i decided to try and make one, i found a piece of pipe and ground the threaded portion down to a rough knife edge and punched out the OD, then i found that that old ball joint adjusting sleeve was as close as i could get to matching the ID so i also ground the threads and spread it open with a chisel, the end result is a crude gasket that i hope will seal ok. After i made it tho i removed the old gasket to find that it appears to be a conical shape and not flat, I may reinstall the old seal and put my new homemade seal on top of it, not sure yet.


EDIT: Forgot to add that altho the parts place said i didn't need a gasket between the master and booster my Chiltons or Haynes manual (one or the other) clearly shows a picture with a gasket, but i don't think i need to bother with pulling it apart and adding one, the master and booster are sealed units after all.


My read disk conversion plates arrived and i picked them up today, the guy welded the hole shut and redrilled it, i hope its gonna be ok, one thing i didn't like was he ground the front and back surface of both plates so now they measure .010 thinner. I guess the calipers will have enough give in the rubber bushings.

I decided I'll reinstall the old dist shields after the disk conversion plates are back on and mocked up so i wire brushed the back side to remove rust, hit them with some phosphoric acid then painted the back side, i also wire brushed and painted the old protective spiral brake line cover.

I decided I'm going to give my hand at rebending some new rear brake lines rather than try to reshape and reuse the old ones, I've bent line before but not the large arc that would be stock around the diff cover. Need to go pick the lines up soon.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Quick update pic's later..

I got my plates back on for a mock up and they are fine. I don't like the slap up paint job that's on the brackets so i'm sanding them down and repainting.

While the caliper was on i decided to have a look at the flex brake hose that i ordered along with the kit, The hose kit came with Banjo bolts 7/16-20tpi, its not the same thread as the calipers so i went to the auto parts store thinking it must be metric, its not a 10MM or a 12MM its in between and a fine thread so if it is Metric it has to be close to 1.25 pitch 11MM but not sure, the parts guy didn't have a listing for an 11MM banjo bolt ether. In an attempt to ID the thread we dug around and found a brake line that has a 7/16-24tpi and it looks like it should be the correct but it would only thread by hand about 1 turn, I asked if he would mind if i bought it just to take it home and put my pitch gauge on it then return it later. I have homework to do tonight..

Any suggestions on common Banjo bolt sizes?

Then i discovered the flex hoses in the kit have a smaller diameter female inverted thread than the stock steel brake lines, so i had to buy adapters for that too.

:p If i had to do it allover again i think i'd rather piece my own kit together..

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Everything I've read states that the 44 had 7/16 and the 10b had 10 mm. I'm not sure about the pitch. I couldn't see anything on that.

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The dana 44 has 7/16 for sure. I got lines from Rough Country that were the wrong diameter for the banjo to fit through. I drilled them out and they worked fine. But they are %100 supposed to be 7/16.

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The thing about this rear disk "Kit" is they don't give information about what parts they use, but from what i understand is all the conversion brackets are suppose to use a front caliper which is the same as the Dana44, so if i cant figure out this Banjo bolt deal then i'll have to call them. I have a pitch gauge set at home but its hard to access the hole on the caliper but i'll take the blade's out of the set and use needle nose pliers if i have to and figure it out. The parts guy thought the threads just needed a tap run thru them but i'm pretty leary of any slivers of metal being left inside the port. The diameter sure looks like 7/16 tho.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Ok, I got it taken care of, after work i checked the pitch of the caliper, it sure looked to be 20 tpi, so i scrounged thru my nut and bolt pile and found a grade 8 7/16-20 bolt and nut, tried the bolt and it would go in one of the calipers a couple turns by hand and stop, so grabbed a wrench and worked it in a bit more and pulled it out, no damage to the threads so continued the process until in the length of the caliper threads, did the same on the other caliper and they both turned out OK, glad that's over with!

These are the short hoses i got with my kit, i did my best to hold them by hand without a Banjo bolt to see how they might work and take the pic's with the other. pretty tight bends trying to figure out where to weld the kit's brake hose bracket to the housing, the bracket is only about 1.5" long so the hose is only about 1/2" from the U bolts. Its looking like it will only fit right between the U bolts and fit even better if i moved it upward onto the spring mount, i could pull it to the inside of the inner U bolt but i think that will bind the hose and caliper too much. I may have to find a piece of strap and extend the bracket a bit.

Pic's of the conversion bracket and caliper mock up.. I'll be pealing that Frog Tape off one of these days! Brake pads are in full contact with the rotor as far as the moved hole is concerned.

Well, i've come to the conclusion that i will be removing and flipping the cover over to move that fill hole up a bit, I just cant see it hurting anything and i feel it will allow the hub bearings to be better lubricated.

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Well reversing the cover may be wrong but i figure i can always keep the gear oil level below the plug level, there is a vent on the body too so i don't see pressure build up being a problem. I'm not worried about sticking my finger in the hole to gauge the level. After the pic was taken i mounted the bracket for the brake line and bolted the brake line to it.

I did a little paint work today may have time for a second coat before i go to work but one thing is for certain, the weather around here has definitly changed, its the fall rainy season. :(

Well the lift kit should be in tomorrow, hopefully!

Re: Rat repair.
 

I woke up today and the sun was out!~ first time in about a month now it seems, so great time to get some work done right? Nope! I have an appointment up town so i took off with enough time to do a little hardware shopping, then after my appt i had to head across town to my local 4X4 shop and pick up part of what i have been waiting for for almost 2 weeks, My lift kit has arrived! :) More detail pic's later.

I was also looking at my rear caliper/hose and conversion bracket, looking at a new idea to mount the hose bracket to the bracket instead of the axle tube, this way it will keep the hose from binding but will also require enough room to make a sharp 90 degree be3nd in the brake line, i think it will work out ok, i'll just have to remember to disconnect my battery before i start any welding.

I have had this for about 3 weeks now, still waiting on my seat cover..

Re: Rat repair.
 

Looking great, I am glad you found my thread and pointed me to yours! We're fighting a lot of the same battles. Love that master cylinder setup, nice work for sure.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Thanks for the comp's and thanks for stopping by!

Re: Rat repair.
 

-I had this post all ready to post with pic's and it just vanished off the screen, forum maintenance?? Grrrr.

I got the conversion brackets remounted then put one caliper on temporarily so i could start working on bending up the rear brake lines with my cheesy tubing bender with a 4" handle, I really need a better one, its a pita with my arthritic hands but i got them done less the caliper end I'll cut and flair them when they get installed for the last time. They may not look like much on the bench but i bent them to have an arch that follows the rear diff cover when looking from the rear, so it looks clean from the rear..

I abandoned the brake hose routing shown in post 64 in favor of the one shown in post 62 but i decided to add a couple inches of strap to the weld on brackets to make the hose relax a little. But before i could do that i realized i had yet to install the new plug on my 30' extension cord so had to do that first. My first time welding in almost 2 years, not too bad for a rookie.

Glad i decided to save and reuse the old slinky's from the old brake lines, i think they look pretty good.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Today was a super sunny day, kinda rare around these parts...

Started the day installing both rear hubs, prepped and slid an axle into place and stopped dead in my tracks, i never noticed it before partly because i read other posts about reusing the old wheel studs and I also called the conversion place and he said I'd be fine too, but i figured i'd better go get one of my wheels, sure enough the old studs were too short, there is a taper in the wheel, but between the taper and the 2-3 threads sticking out i was only good for about 1/2" of threads, not good... crap! wish i had checked that earlier, so off come the freshly torqued hubs, pressed a stud back out of one of the hubs and head up town

Napa had to order the studs, Plus they came in boxes of 10 so i had to pay for 4 extra lugs, i didn't argue i needed studs, they said i could get them tomorrow as it was past the last window to get them in today, i asked if it was possible to have there parts runner make one more trip and they agreed! Thank you Napa, I had my new studs about 2 hours later. 1 box of Dorman 610-189, and 1 box of Balkamp 641-1067, the same studs but boxed differently.

Once home i pressed out the old studs and new pressed back in in about 1 hour and then got the hubs reinstalled, it was now past sunset so out comes the trouble light so i could install the axles, rotors and my new brake lines.

Another setback but not my fault, when i ordered the lift kit they needed to know if i had 56" or 52" rear springs, they asked me to measure from one eyelet around the bottom of the bottom spring to the back eyelet, i got 53" and they said that was a 52" spring so i said all i cared about was not having blocks, i wanted full springs in the rear, not a problem they said. I checked the part numbers of the rear springs yesterday against the webpage and they were the 56" springs, the same springs that held up my order the last 2 weeks..... So they are ordering the 52" springs..

Re: Rat repair.
 

Well, i shoulda known not to try and reinvent a wheel, as i posted earlier i mounted my diff cover upside down on purpose to be able to add a little extra lube, yea it fit against the housing just fine without the fill plug but when i installed the cover with the plug in i didn't realize it seated against the ring gear, so, had to back up and flip it.. lesson learned.

But after that i got the wheels mounted and the back end on the ground, tomorrow i'll start on the front spring install right after i put some gear lube in the rear diff.

Re: Rat repair.
 

I don't mind saying that this rainy weather we have been having here is kicking my ass into the dirt, oh what I'd give if i had just a car port right now. :)

Had to build some lift stand blocks today to get the front of the truck high enough to start the lift install, by the time i had the truck lifted i was soaked so came in and put in dry stuff, rummaged around and found my old Gortex fishing jacket then went out and made a make shift rain cover, by the time that was accomplished my pants were soaked again so one more dry cloths change.

Started on the driver side, supported the axle with my floor jack, unbolted the spring mount bolt nuts , it quickly became apparent that the bolts had rusted tight inside the steel sleeve, no amount of impacting, jacking or hammering with my mini sledge would budge the bolts, i gave up and got my Sawzall and put a metal blade in it and sliced thru both sides of the bushings and mount bolts front and back to get the first spring off, at that point i realized that the stock shackle bushings in the frame are pretty warn too so i'm not going to assemble without new bushings or possibly replace with heavy dust shackle kit from ORD:

http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/hdshackles.htm

I'll call them on Monday and see about ordering both front and rear shackle kits, sure wish i had thought about this earlier! If anybody has another solution for just bushings or shackle kits or advice I'm all ears.

I decided i may as well at least mount the spring to the front mount point and to the axle I got the front bolt in with a little dead blow hammer persuasion to the spring to get it in place, but having a little trouble with the thru bolt on the spring pack going into the hole in the axle housing, but at that point the weather started getting pretty nasty with gusting winds so i decided to wrap it up and call it a day, then cleaned up and took my wife to a nice restaurant for dinner. Tomorrow after i try to devise a better rain cover i'll get back to that spring pack bolt issue then hopefully get the same done on the passenger side.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Had to string another tarp before starting today, the driver side spring came out much easier, was able to drive out the front bolt and then unbolt the top of the shackle and pull the spring out, the bottom shackle bolt is froze solid. Got the new spring in place and popped the front bolt in and snugged up the U bolts, i'm going to have to cut the length off the inner U bolts a little to keep my socket all the way on the nut.

Good place to stop till i get the new bushing and or shackles for the rear of the springs. In comparison the BDS front spring is 6 leaves with slipper pads in between each leaf tip, made in Canada, the old Rancho has 5 leaves that are thicker with no slippers, made in Brazil.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Called and talked to ORD today to get info on the greasable shackles with the frame bushings, if course i find out that to get the greasable bolts for both front and back of the new springs i'll have to pull the springs and remove the stock bushings from both ends and reinstall ORD's bushings. I could have given up and just ordered a set of Prothane bushings for the frame elsewhere and run the stuff i have, but as frozen as some of the Rancho hardware was and how much it rains around here i decided it was worth the money and wait to get the ORD stuff, besides maybe this storm front will blow over in a couple days?

There was a possible tornado just 10 minutes down the road from the house this morning, tore portions of the roof off a couple businesses and lifted a car up long enough to have building material get logged under the wheels..

http://q13fox.com/2013/09/30/funnel-...#axzz2gP2lEP1o

In the mean time i found out yesterday that i still have a leak problem, my carpet and underlayment is pretty wet so for the time being i tied a tarp over the cab and cowl area but i know pretty soon i'll probably have to pull the seat and get the carpet out so it will dry out.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Once the water soaks the padding underneath its a bear for it to dry. You will most definitely want to pull the seat and pad to let it dry. That will also help show where some of the moisture is coming from. Have you checked your drip rail moldings and made sure you arent missing any of the fasteners?

Re: Rat repair.
 

Drip rail molding fasteners?

I found one of them being the antenna hole /grommet is not sealed well enough,, I'll have to pull the cowl again and get the seam sealer. but there also seems to be a leak coming in from above the antenna hole when looking up under the dash so it could be the window seal or possibly a leak coming from the drip rail? I planned on resealing the drip rail next spring or summer when it gets warm out.

While i like the stock antenna I'm beginning to think about sealing that hole shut and find an internal antenna, any suggestions??

Re: Rat repair.
 

The drip rail has hex head screws that hold it on. At least they do in mine, but its a 76. I guess I wouldnt be 100% sure if the 67-72s do, but I had one missing on mine and when it rained hard it would leak pretty good through it.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Went out and pulled the seat carpet and underlayment, took a close look under the dash and pinpointed 2 leak sources, I posted in the paint and body section if anybody can help. Thanks!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...69#post6294869

Re: Rat repair.
 

Picked up the correct rear springs yesterday, still waiting for my shackle and bushing package that is now out for delivery.... and after fighting the nasty weather for the last 3 weeks the forecast is now sunny for this weekend, and i'm working! :(

Oh well, i'll still have time to get some of it done.

In the mean time i made an upgrade to my other truck, its not a chevy but thats ok.. It looks so much better!

Re: Rat repair.
 

A little update, i got my package from Off Road Designs Greasable bolt kits and new front and read shackles, the one picture on the rear shows how the bushings are not full length to allow the grease from the bolt to come thru. Ya got to spin these bolts a little on install to make the grease flow.

Friday i got the front springs and shackles installed, had to grind some clearance into the passenger header flange to make way for the new wider shackles. Also the Rancho spring center bolt head was much smaller than the hole in the axle so the holes in the axles had to be cleaned up of a bunch of rust and garbage before the BDS springs would fit.

Then i figured out that on full axle drop the brake lines i bought come up a little short, but i had already installed then at the frame and tossed the box's debating on going ahead and bleeding the brakes and replacing them later, there only about 1.5 inches shy of being total slack. This 4" kit from BDS is turning out to be a bit taller than the 4" rancho kit, plus the Off Road designs shackle kit adds about 1/2 " as well.

Today i installed the 4" raised steering arm and link, tie rod, and the BDS steering stabilizer. Not overly thrilled about the stabilizer bracket design at this point, I liked the Rancho stuff better. Plus i then remembered i will have to adjust toe in so I'll have to loosen the bracket on the tie rod again later.

Tomorrow final torque the U bolts and install the front shocks, then start on the rear spring and shock install, after that all i got to do is bleed the brakes. and go for a test drive.

Oh, My seat cover showed up on my door step on Friday as well. :metal:

Re: Rat repair.
 

Was able to get the front end finished less setting the toe in and adjusting the steering rod Don't mind saying that frozen spring bolts are a pita!

The brake lines are almost too short, at full extension i get about 1 1/2 inch flex side to side on the hoses but they could have used an additional inch maybe 2.

It turns out this BDS 4" lift is almost 2" taller than the Rancho 4" with the addition of the ORD shackles which add an additional 1/2 "I didn't think to take a measurement of the old system for fender well space but i can compare pictures later.

I regret not having the time to wire brush and black the front of the frame while doing this but i really need to get this thing drivable and back under its cover soon.

Re: Rat repair.
 

So with the front done i moved back to the rear now that i have the proper rear springs, had i got the correct rear springs the first time from the place i bought them from i would have started on the rear springs when i finished the disk conversion, oh well a little extra work huffing stuff around :)

Supported the truck just ahead of the rear springs, the truck was a little unstable so i lifted the back a little and measured the higth of the rear hitch and found a log round the right size to help support the truck, nice and stable and safe for me.

As usual the bolts are frozen in the sleeves and won't turn, grabbed my sawzall and tried to cut the rear bolts just like i did on the front, it wouldn't even faze the bolts! checked the blade, it seems sharp enough but i get a new blade anyway, still won't cut! Moved to the U bolts and discovered the nuts were froze solid but they were not tight, great! grabbed the sawzall and sliced right thru them.. Checked my cuttoff wheel and 4" grinder and it won't reach thru the bolts ether..

Gonna give in and go buy a torch set tomorrow morning, and a new modem as i have been having connectivity issues the past week.. For the cutting by torch i am glad the truck is outside, but the rain is on the way again... ;)