Freds40 builds a 60

[freds40]

I got to work to make it happen. I made 2 6" long sleeves to help align the housing after cutting it but also to have something to plug weld to.

And Photobucket is dead. I'll wrap it up after their maintenance is done.

 

[cruiserfj45]

I hate intermission. I was watching as you were posting. That is a lot of work but I like it.

 

[freds40]

Alright, back to it. Got the housing held in my vice and got it marked.

Driver mark. (sleeve slid in for a test fit)

Both tubes cut off.

Another

 

[freds40]

I had a couple of pairs of Ruff Stuff caliper mounts for the SRW setup and I figured I might be able to use them. Did some test fits.

Figured that by bolting them to the inside of the flange, they would be pretty close. Turns out they were off by about 1/4" which I later took care of with a little cutting and welding.

 

[freds40]

The 2 tubes from either side. Note 1 is 6" longer than the other to retain the use of the stock shafts.

Started getting the housing set up for re-welding.

You can see the holes I drilled for my plug welds.

Got it trued up.

I used a piece of 3x3 3/8" wall angle iron to act as a jig. Angle Iron is awesome for holding 2 same sized pieces of round stock true for re-welding.

 

[freds40]

All welded up and cleaned up.

Couple more.

 

[freds40]

Before I got it back in. I wanted to shave the bottom a bit. I only took 3/4" off the bottom but with this configuration, I have 1" less ground clearance than my front axle that has the drain plug shaved. I'm really happy with that.

I also needed to weld the spiders up so I would have a little traction coming from the back end. Heres the spiders after I just started the process. I added a lot more material after this.

 

[freds40]

Got the housing tossed underneath the 60 once again.

If you look really hard, you can see how well the pinion lines up with the t-case output now.

 

[freds40]

When I picked up the axle, it came with a Ballistic Fab weld together diff cover. It's super stout with a 3/8" ring and 3/8" cover.

As I posted earlier,

And after I got the pinion and carrier back in, I buttoned it all up and threw the cover on.

 

[freds40]

Didn't get any pics of it all buttoned up. But after having run it around town a bit and on the freeway I had a failure.

Lost a wheel bearing about 10 mins. from my house on the way up the hill for a trail run.

(note the cut is from my attempt to remove the inner race from the spindle)


The inner race welded itself to the spindle.

The rollers rattling around thrashed the sealing surface on the spindle.

 

[FJ60Cam]

 

[freds40]

So the damage report: Killed the spindle on the axle housing and unfortunately no pics but the rollers killed the seal surface on the wheel hub as well.

What it'll take to make repairs:

I will be cutting the Driver axle tube again and re-sleeving it with another 14 bolt axle tube I have gathered up.

For the wheel hub, I've already been to the junkyard and scrounged another C+C wheel hub and I finished machining that one earlier tonight. That one is ready to go.

If things go well, the rig will be back up and running by the beginning or middle of next week. We have a customer coming in from the Bay area who wants to wheel some local trails next weekend so I plan to get up there for that.


So in the end, I now have a full float axle with 1.5" shafts that are a dime a dozen IF I should ever need a replacement, with a 10.5" ring gear and a pinion that has 3 bearing supports. It was a fair amount of work but the gains over the stock 60 are huge. BTW, I'm still running 3.73s and daily drive it. (the shop is 10 mins from my place)

I have a pretty full dance card for this summer and I intend to work the heck out of this axle. I have at least 2 trips (possibly 3) planned across Dusy Ershim, I'll be on the Rubicon for our shop run (MCR8 Sept-11) and up the hill as much as possible on the other local trails.

 

[aussie blue 60]

WOOOOOOO what a good read man its a fricking machine your building up good stuff. plus love the rear brake setup. we all know they need it.

 

[kling-on]

WOW that axle is killer

 

[Cruiserdrew]

WOW-Awesome skills!

What is SRW vs C+C? Not up on my 1 ton nomenclature.

Great build up.

 

[freds40]

Sorry. Thought about that but I was half asleep posting this last night.

SRW is for Single Rear Wheel. Covering most all 3/4 and 1 ton GM trucks from 73 to somewhere in the last couple of years.

The C+C are from the Cab and Chassis trucks. These were the 1 ton dually trucks that left the factory with no truck beds. As far as I know, the only 144 bolt dually axles came in the C=C trucks. The trucks that had a pickup bed had Dana 70s in them.

 

[boots4]

I've got a C+C 14 bolt from my stepvan that I debated putting under my 60. The 6-lug conversion was the killer. There is a kit but those hubs are spendy. it looks like you've got a good solution to using the stock 14bolt hubs, nice work. What did you do to hook up the driveshaft?

 

[freds40]

Jess @ High Angle does sell a replacement flange style yoke that will allow the use of a stock Toy shaft. That piece alone is something like $200-$250. I opted to just throw a 1350 yoke on the fixed end of my heavy wall Toy drive shaft.

I've seen the hub kit you're talking about and it's VERY spendy. But I do believe they are making their hubs from a solid billet of aluminum IIRC.

 

[brokenparts]

dang... bad luck but it looks like your on the right track to get'er fixed up. Keep up the nice work!

 

[Tapage]

awesome build .. impresive .. but welded . ...