Build Moonshine - A Build Thread

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Awesome work Johnny. I can't wait to see this rig back in Albany when you get home. I finally made it over to Dave's place in the Catskills, but he wasn't home. Looks like that'll be a great set of trails to test out the SOA setup.
 
EOE_overland said:
Tires feel good! I'll get them checked soon, but no vibration. Even at 80mph. Yeah, had to get a poser pick at work. Actually backed into my golfcart before I put my tire up on the barrier. Whoops :o.
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:lol::lol:

ElliottB said:
Wow! That thing is huge. I love it.
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Thanks man!

askeyey said:
Awesome work Johnny. I can't wait to see this rig back in Albany when you get home. I finally made it over to Dave's place in the Catskills, but he wasn't home. Looks like that'll be a great set of trails to test out the SOA setup.
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Thanks Austin, good to hear from you! Some of those trails up at Dave's can get a little off camber, but my 10" wide wheels should offset some of the height. Are you going to be able to make it up to Dave's for Labor day? I will be there.
 
Question before I weld up the rear axle tonight. I'm going to run a DC rear shaft, so should I have the pinion perfectly aligned with the shaft sitting at static height or should I run it 1* either up or down? What have you guys done?

I'm praying to god that I didn't mess up my d-shaft by getting it done 42" long. We will see tonight, so a speedy answer will be appreciated.
 
Today's update....

Last night, got the driveshaft installed and lined up the pinion. We set it so there was 1.5mm more space between the u-joint on the bottom than there was on top, so if that makes any sense, it's about 1* down from parallel with the driveshaft. I Think it'll work well. Tacked the perches on, then brought the axle over to kenny's to weld it up. Did that, brought it back over, slapped some paint on it and threw it under the truck. Today we'll torque the u-bolts, re-install the driveshaft, install the e-brake cable and make sure that's adjusted, finally bleed the brakes and take her for a spin.:smokin:
Rear axle welded.webp
Rear axle painted - perch.webp
Rear axle ready.webp
 
Since I know no one's reading this thread anyway, I didn't take any pictures for today's update.

Last night I ran over and started torquing the rear axle in. Then came the driveshaft, the rear brake hard line and the e-brake cable. David came up and helped me bleed the brakes, at which point we realized that you need to have the drums on to bleed them :doh: After re-assembling the rear wheel cylinders, we finished bleeding the brakes and put the wheels back on.

At this time, I realized that my throttle linkage was binding on something, so after franticly looking around the back of the carb, I realized that one of the bolts I used for the fluid heat riser was a bit too long and was interfering with the carb linkage. Took the carb off, cut off the top of the bolt and had it back together in no time flat.

I fired her up for the first time in a month and she ran great. I let it warm up for a while to burn off the excess paint / oil / whatever off of the headers, and after the smoke subsided, I took her for a spin. No noticable vibrations, but without shocks, everything is a vibration. On top of that, I have no idea if the tires are balanced, so that may be something as well. Either way, I DROVE IT!!!:steer::steer::beer::beer::steer: :steer: :steer::beer::beer::beer::steer::steer:

Couple of things I need to address. First, the brake master cylinder is bad. I loose pressure as I'm pressing on the brakes coming to a stop, and I'm not leaking anywhere. Ordered a new one 10 minutes ago. The friction zone for the clutch is way too small and it engages right next to the floor. We didn't mess with the clutch and it was fine before, so I need to see what's up with that. The steering is wicked loosed and misaligned. I need to try tightening the adjustment screw on the steering box to see if it'll tighten up. I checked and there is no play in the steering column at the lower u-joint and there is no play from the pitman arm to the high steer arms, so the box is the culprit. Finally, the e-brake doesn't work. It seems that the brake cannot pull the cable far enough to engage the drums, but the cables on the inside of the drums may be bad, causing this. Need to investigate that as well.

As soon as I read Mike's billie 7100 shock review, I will probably order those for the front and some 5125's for the rear. Shocks and modifying the transmission crossmember are next up in line.
 
My Coal Miner's to-do list:

  • Grease driveshaft
  • Install new brake master cylinder
  • Adjust clutch, steering and e-brake
  • Fab up bracket for e-brake cable
  • Tranny crossmember clearance for front driveshaft
  • Shocks
  • Trailer SOA
  • Trailer paint
  • Steering Stabilizer
  • Sliders
  • Skidplate

Something isn't gonna get done.....
 
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hey I am following as well. just a bit hard to get sevice in the middle of the woods :p

sounds great. need pics please.

Clint
 
EOE_overland said:
Don't forget your headlamp Coal Miner's Daughter! :hillbilly: See you should post pics; someone is reading :). Good work Johnny!
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brokenparts said:
I'm still following along. :)
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Dirtgypsy said:
hey I am following as well. just a bit hard to get sevice in the middle of the woods :p

sounds great. need pics please.

Clint
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Sweet. I felt like I was post padding without someone posting up inbetween, but I guess that's how it works for longer projects, eh? Thanks for reading guys:cheers:

Oh yeah, and I'll take plenty of pics today. It doesn't look much different but I'll get some shots outside of the garage in the daylight for the first time in a month.

By the way, it feels surprisingly stable without shocks.
 
Alrighty, got 3/5 things done yesterday, and the two that didn't get done I'm waiting on parts for. It turns out that the steering was all kinds of loose because the pitman arm TRE had a smaller taper than my 60 arm for some reason. Anyway, I ordered an 80 TRE and 1.2:12 tre reamer ( 80 TRE taper ) so that'll get fixed on Sunday / Monday. The MC should be in by Sunday / Monday as well, so those will both go in and she'll be ready to go. The clutch was out of adjustment, the e-brake actuator cable needed an extension bracket fabbed up and the actuator cable in the DS drum had fallen off, so now that's all fixed, she's sitting waiting for parts :frown: Also, I'm a horrible person for not taking any pictures, but we were sweating our nuts off. Oh well, there will be plenty of poser pics when it's rolling early next week.

Anyone have some shocks they don't mind selling? I'm looking for cheap temporary shocks that'll get me going for CMCC, then I'll buy good ones somewhere down the road. Billie 5150's for the front and 5125's for the rear? I'm not picky! If they're too short for the trail, I could always take them off before going out. If I don't buy any, will there be any adverse affects? It didn't bounce around much when I drove it the other day.
 
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John,
I would have traded you TRE for TRE to make steering work on both our trucks. Do you know what pitch reamer I need to make your old 60 end fit into my 62 pittman arm? Also, I still have the old front shocks off that front end, the rears are toast but youare welcome to the fronts for the ride price.
Paul
 
Don't have any shocks for you, but I bought a set of Skyjackers from TopGunCustomz.com for about $150 with $10 shipping or something(?). I actually paid for a set of Procomps for $110, but the factory (ProComp) screwed up their inventory #'s and they (Top Gun) sent me the more expensive SkyJackers at the lower price. They were great to deal with and in TN (close for you). You might be able to get a quick, cheap set of throwaway ProComps for about the same price as a set of used Billi's? My $.02.
 
pjfairchild said:
John,
I would have traded you TRE for TRE to make steering work on both our trucks. Do you know what pitch reamer I need to make your old 60 end fit into my 62 pittman arm? Also, I still have the old front shocks off that front end, the rears are toast but youare welcome to the fronts for the ride price.
Paul
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Swapping pitman arms would have been the only option. The way the TRE's attach to the relay rod is different. I would have never guessed in a million years that the stock 60 TRE has a larger taper than then 62 TRE, so your pitman arm must not be stock. I wouldn't be able to swap out the pitman arm until monday and then it'd take a couple of days to ship, but I've already got the appropriate parts on the way, so I'll be good. I can ship you the TRE I am not going to use if you'd like, but like I said I don't think it'll screw onto the relay rod the same way. I don't know what the stock 60 TRE taper is, does anyone else know?

As for shocks, I'll let you know. I have a line on some that may work, I just need to hear back from Poly Pro. Is your 62 all set up aside from the steering?
 
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EOE_overland said:
Don't have any shocks for you, but I bought a set of Skyjackers from TopGunCustomz.com for about $150 with $10 shipping or something(?). I actually paid for a set of Procomps for $110, but the factory (ProComp) screwed up their inventory #'s and they (Top Gun) sent me the more expensive SkyJackers at the lower price. They were great to deal with and in TN (close for you). You might be able to get a quick, cheap set of throwaway ProComps for about the same price as a set of used Billi's? My $.02.
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True dat. Thanks for the tip!
 
pjfairchild said:
make it turn and then about 2 hours of budweiser while the brakes bleed themselves and it's on the road
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I'm in the same boat. I took it for a drive with the TRE bolted up all loose and it felt unsafe to the extreme. Took it apart yesterday and couldn't figure a redneck fix till I got the new TRE, so there it sits. Everything else is pretty much set up though.

Can you ship those shocks to me with the bolts top and bottom? That'll be one less thing I have to worry about till CMCC. Let me know how much the shipping is and I'll send it ASAP. If you could get them to me by like wednesday next week, I would be forever grateful.
 
pjfairchild said:
make it turn and then about 2 hours of budweiser while the brakes bleed themselves and it's on the road
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Do you want me to send you the TRE I'm not using?
 
Okey dokey, I figured out the problem. The TRE's on the highsteer on my truck are 80 series TRE's which have a smaller taper than the stock 60 TRE at the pitman arm. This is why the TRE won't work on Paul's truck, because his pitman arm has a 80 taper in it, which is smaller than the 60 taper.

Now my problem is finding the proper TRE to fit my setup. I have heard that some pickups have the same shank as the 80 with a larger taper, but I have yet to find any conclusive evidence of this. I have also read that Luke at 4x4 labs machined up some spacers to adapt the 80 taper to the 60 hole, but I haven't been able to contact them yet today. I will try later.

If anyone has any suggestions, please post them now. CMCC is two weeks from today and I'm beginning to freak out a little.


WAIT!! What if I bought an 80 pitman arm??? It would bolt on to my steering box and have the correct taper, right?
 
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