Made a little bit of progress this week.
Sealed up the rear diff cover and filled back up with fluid, now that I didn’t plan on pulling the axles anymore.
Picked up some nickel copper brake line to replumb the rear lines but couldn’t find any gravel guard for it so I just re-bent the stock lines and cut and re-flared the one side. The lines were completely different since I had to move the mounting point for the rear “T” fitting off to the side, otherwise when aired out, the brake lines would have hit the floor since it mounted on top of the diff. My plan is to order up some gravel guard for the lines and put new ones in still sometime this winter. I wasted my money buying a decent hand tubing bender and discovered a few different sized sockets and a vice is all that I needed. (first time I’ve used my ¾ drive sockets in a while lol) The Eastwood Brake flaring tool worked great and would recommend it.
Got the new master cylinder and prop valve in. Picked up a Baer Brakes Remaster Master Cylinder with a 1 inch bore. This was a discounted one from Pro Performance since it had a few blemishes on it. Also opted for the prop valve with lines included. The fittings were all 3/16”, but he rear lines are ½”, so it wasn’t a direct plug and play, but pretty close. I was able to find a ½ to 3/16 reducer at a brake shop. I do not love the looks of the reducer, and was battling a little with it leaking initially(scared to over torque these small fittings), so come this winter I would like to change everything over to ¼ line, front and rear. This is definitely a much simpler set up, compared against the RWAL and should make a noticeable difference with all that junk removed in feel since the old system was spongy and you were scared to pump the brakes too hard or too often which is a common complaint with the RWAL system. I completely forgot to test if the brake light stays illuminated now when the truck is started up. Tomorrow I will try to remember to test this (one forum said it will go off as long as you disconnect everything but, you might not get the proper sequence on start up with the light coming on for “x” number of seconds, indicating a proper functioning system. Guess we will soon see.
Ran into some issues with the rear e-brake cables. The end portion of the cable is much too long to operate the e-brakes on the calipers. I’m not sure what the best method would be to shorten and install a new cable stop, so I opted for the easy way out and purchased a new e-brake cable kit specifically for this brake package from Pro Performance. I would have bought it initially, but on their website, it only shows 67-72 as an option for the add one, so unfortunately my goal of getting the rear brakes completely finished never happened this week.
I also came to the realization that this thing won’t be on the road this year. Still waiting on front suspension. Apparently, the wait was on shocks for the front which added almost 2 months onto the order. I phoned and checked and they were on their way to the distributor, and then I might have dicked myself cause a day later I phoned and ordered up rear shocks to save on shipping, after measuring/cycling the suspension and this might have caused another delay, but I was told they were in stock with the manufacturer, so hopefully everything ships soon and I will phone and pester if not. What was supposed to take 5-6 weeks to ship unfortunately is much longer and currently this is week 15. With the additional shipping times associated with using a freight forwarded to save on shipping up to Canada, I doubt I will have everything installed before snow flies in my neck of the woods. I’m a little disappointed, but it is what it is. Because of this, I’m going to toss the old front rotors on and move it out of the garage sometime soon, as my next goal is to insulate and drywall the garage and get a gas heater installed. I had considered finishing with tin, but I plan on moving in 5 years or so, which makes drywall the more economical choice, so I’ve gotta get it out and move some stuff out of the garage so I can start putting up drywall and then fire tape it, and dig a trench for the gas line before frost hits.
To Do List Remaining to get on road
-Upper/Lower Control Arms – 1” Forward/Narrowed – PB Fab
-Sway Bar – PB Fab
-Front Air Bags – Dominator 2600
-New Inner Tie Rods, Idler Arm, Pitman Arm – Ridetech
-Moog Outer tie rods for a Jeep Scout – Shorter to accommodate for narrowed control arms and CPP modular spindles narrow track width too
-QA1 shortened tie rod sleeves
-Shocks Front/Back – Ridetech HQ
-Drop Spindles – CPP Modular
-Front Brake Upgrades – Revelator from Pro Performance
-Rear Upper Air Bag mount – Tinworks Fab
-Front Shock Mounts – PB Fab
-Air Management - Airlift 3P
-E-Brake Cable – Pro Performance
-Shim pinion/add spacers to carrier bearing (possibly shorten driveshaft 1”)
-Smaller Coolant overflow
-Wheel Alignment
-Tail Pipe - Exhaust
Work on during the winter
-Stereo – Retrosound Head Unit and replacement speakers
-Some kind of front inner fender – not sure yet what path I will go here
-22” wheel/tire combo
-probably a bunch of other small things.
-Dexter