Shop dog has the right idea - he knows this is gonna take some time .
Nice score on the parts , that mini tailgate is a nice parts-trader if nothing else .
Sarge
Drilled out the sob fender support bolts on the frame. Only managed to get two out, the rest had to be drilled. Used a punch to remove what was left of the nutserts.
Got all the wiring running to the rear free and out of the way, just the fuel/brake lines to go and I can start cleaning up the frame a bit.
Also found a guy in Toronto that has front signals and other bits for me so thats cool.
Some clean up and new x members roughed out and bolted in till theyre welded. Have a plan, material and templates for the rear section of frame.... Gonna be a pain in the ass. The channel is 1/4".
Nice! Fabrication is definately one of the fun parts. I too had to punch out some nutserts but forgot to weld in new ones... Needless to say it's a pita now. I would suggest taking the time to put new ones in now...... or at least not forget to!
Yeah have a plan for that I think. Shouldnt be hard to weld in some new nuts, the hole in the boxed section is right behind that spot.
Went and raped my buddies sixty today, poor cruiser. We got the leafs cut off and yanked both axles with them attached. Then we grabbed the steering box, drive shafts, chrome steelies, both shifter boots in mint condition and the tranny hump panel to go with them, and a bunch of misc seals and trim stuff.
Had to go into dudes back fourty to get to what was left of the sixty, the snow was deepish and for once I was glad I bought the power vag. Low gear and rear locker did it without any drama.
Now just have to figure out what gears came in the bj60 and then swap out the thirds from the fourty if needed. Im hoping theyre not the 3.70's.
The plan so far is the bj60 axles/leafs/steering box grafted to the fourty frame. 60 leafs look good and my 40's are shot so..... Gonna look into the outboard kit from either ruff stuff or proffits, if its too much I might try and make my own.
Well its officially not a plow truck anymore, sold the plow today lol. While my buddy was here picking it up we unloaded the bj60 axles out of my truck and rearranged the garage to fit them.
After a quick dump run I made some plates to box in the rear part of the frame and some gussets that will fit where the rear xmember and frame meet. Have to clean em up a bit but otherwise theyre done. Also ordered some hangers and outboard dealies from ruff stuff to fit the 60 leafs/axles to the 40 frame. Forgot to order leaf bushings tho, tomorrow...
If I collect any more parts Im gonna have to work outside...
Finished the welding for the most part on the rear frame. Just have a little bit of clean up and grinding to do then I can move on to getting the rear axle out, maybe the motor too..
Had to run some errands (pick up 60 leaf bushings) and go boost a buddy this morning and when I got home Army Steve and Pete were messin around in my garage lol. Steve got the rear frame all finished up and the rear most frame boxing plates welded in while Pete and I drilled out the leaf mount bushings on the 60 springs. We then got the 40 rear axle out and slid the 60 axle under the van. The tub went on a few beers later and we managed to get 2 body mounts bolted up before cracking the last beer.
Just waitin on the ruffstuff hangers now and the rear axle can be tacked in place. Have to decide if I want to kick it back 2.5" (keep the leaf mounts in the original location) or move them forward to keep the original wheel base due to the non offset leaf springs.
Ok, couple questions before I go any further. The plan is to run some tall skinnies when all is said and done, Im thinkin 35x10.5 swampers or something similar (I know there arent many options for a tall skinny).
Question one. Would shifting the rear axle back 2.5" help me out in the end? I dont mind cutting the tub to match at all and itll look decent (nowhere near a comp cut which I hate). This way I wouldnt have to massage the front of the wheel wells to fit the bigger tires, just the rear.
Question two. We checked the 40 and 60 axles quickly to see what gears they had. For every one turn of the axle the pinion rotated 2.1 times roughly (ended up at between the 1 and 2 o'clock position after the second rotation). The interbox tells me thats a 2.11 gear ratio on BOTH axles.... Did I mess something up or totally screw up the way this is done? As far as I know the 40 is supposed to have 411's and the 60 370's (69 40 and 86 BJ60 w a 3B).
Got the body mounts sorted for the tub. Ended up welding the energy suspension backing plates to the rear sill of the tub and countersinking the welded on nut. Had to cut part of the support under the pass. floor to get the tub to clear the xmember by the transfer case but otherwise everything miraculously lines up which is cool. Shes all bolted in now waiting for the firewall.
I'm thinking the spider gears halve the ratio because as one tire spins forward the other spins backwards. if you hold one tire in place and let the other turn freely as you turn the pinion it should rotate the correct number of times. Maybe I'm way off? I remember experimenting with the same thing.
