Slow Build Up of the Woody (15 Viewers)

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robustbambi said:
Only BFG KM2s come in 345/75r16 and they're backordered 9 months of the year so if i scuff one up while curb flexing at the mall, I'm screwed :princess:
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I can only hope and pray that if that does happen, you don't spill your latte as well. I don't know if I could ever get over that.
 
quite the sexy parts list you have there, Patrick. Wish there was someway i could get up that way to help/drink beer. Take lots of pics!
 
Thanks Charles! good seeing you guys over the weekend, we got a ton of pictures of your truck on 33 and 60 that ill PM the link to :cheers:
 
As some of y'all know from a couple days ago, we reversed the shackle reversal so now the shackle is back up front :)
Thanks John for letting us use his tools and Ted for welding up the shackle mounts for me. Once i remove a few leaves from the front pack, the springs should flatten out and the shackle angle should be more than acceptable!



I may go ahead and order more of those ruffstuff shackle mounts for the rear if we need to move them around to get a better angle. Almost looked 90* with the spring pack in its current state.



35s really filling out the wheel wells. If i could make the SOA low like this with 37s and some slight trimming id be very happy.



And over the past few days Aidan and I have been going to the barn and cleaning all the spring perches and brake tabs off the soon to be cut and turned front axle and that SOA 80 rear axle.

I work very hard..

Things i still need to do:

-sell tires and order 37s
-Rotate front springs so military wrap is in the back
-play around with the all 4 leaf spring packs so i can get nice flat leaves with the full weight of the truckon them.
-measure angles for the C&T with weight on the axle for pinion angle, then do measure how far i need to rotate to end up with a castor of 5.5* positive.
-find a pipe cutter... AND CUT and TURN!
- buy another DC driveshaft, measure both and get them retubed to desired lengths
- install new master cylinder, brake hoses
- finish everything else and make my way to the mall parking lot.
 
Looks good Patrick, angle on the front shackles aren't bad at all. On the rear, don't buy new ones as we can simply move the existing mounts forward an inch or two for $0.
 
im gonna take a look at the rear mounts when i get the truck today from Johns. I'm pretty sure they broke off while i was moving rusty out of the barn so id like something stronger just to quiet those thoughts in the back of my head haha. plus I'm probably gonna order wider ones for the front so i don't have to use those washers and figured nows the time. but I'm not sure just yet, probably run this and see if theres any problem with it other than looking kinda funny.
 
Wouldn't use Rusty as a "measuring stick" for what's strong or not from what you've told me. I was looking at the rear shackle mounts on Saturday and currently they're held on with only 3 rivets. I'd save the coin, cut the rivets off and weld in the new location, it'll be plenty strong for going over the speed bumps at Cumberland mall.
 
Sold my tires today! Thanks Scott :)

Will be ordering my new ones on Friday!!!
 
YAY! I need to get finished with Woody.




 
Such a nice big brother... Aidan's 80 is going to look saaweeet on those 37s :flipoff2:
 
That post made me laugh pretty hard. Very funny. thanks
 
Went and saw Sidney and Adam yesterday and came home with this cool blue machine :)




It was still light out so we raced over to my grandmas house to get it all hooked up so that we could get to fooling around with it. After an hour or so, it was set up (thanks to Sidney's little installation tutorial) and we felt pretty confident that we could tack the 2-piece spring perch together... Was no problem.

Then today, we decided that we wanted to have both perches in place and burned in completely so that the only major thing thats left to do on that axle is the cut and turn. So after a little bit of stupidity (we measured the pinion angle withOUT the full weight of the truck on the front end), we had the full weight on the front axle and the diff pointed directly at the TC flange. Perches now ready to be tacked onto the axle.

So we did that and brought everything up to the house.












Then came the fun part, doing the actual welding. We wanted to make sure it was going to penetrate well, so we prepared by welding lines all the way around the scrap 1/4" axle tube that Nick cut off that 9.5" 60 series rear axle.


I think we did a fine job, not being welders and all...




Just to show off the first section I did. (I'm better than Aidan now :flipoff2:)


After letting the exterior cool down, we welded the insides as far as we could reach with the gun, but the phone died so no pictures of that.

We also finished making our 220v extension cord (25' of 6-3 wire), so we will finish welding the 3/8" 2-piece perch another day, then my search for a huge ass pipe cutter begins.

Im very happy with the welder we chose, works really well! The auto set feature really helps get your confidence up so that you can then learn to set the machine manually pretty quickly.
 
great welds and excellent welder. keep the pictures coming
 
Thanks guys! will do. Don't get to work on it today, but hopefully tomorrow we will finished with the other perch, grinding that little bit of surface rust out of the inside of the diff housing, and hammering the inside of diff housing to make it flat again. I should look into diff armor as well so that it stays round afterwards.
 
This is also a very good time to put gussets on the front housing where the knuckle ball is welded and pressed into the axle housing itself.

These housings bend easily. Ask me how I know :rolleyes:
 
Well we finished the rear a week or so ago, but it looks like I forgot to post any of these pics up in this thread so here goes.

We broke down the rear axle, messed with the rear leaf spring packs, then stuck the SOA'd housing underneath.



The springs are still a little more arched than i would like, even with the full weight of the vehicle on them, so i may do a little more trial and error tomorrow to get them flatter so the truck sits lower.


Shiny new axle vs. SUA old axle






The next day, we went over to work on the truck, we immediately started putting the wheels on to get an idea of how it would sit completed, when this local barred owl swooped down and scared the s*** out of us (like usual) with his/her soulless eyeballs...

spooky


Once it left us to creep out some other unsuspecting creatures, we got to work and saw that woody was sitting a little too tall.

(pictures on down still with 35s)


...But damn, doesn't that axle look good UNDER the springs... i can't get over that!




Just a wee bit of stink bug...





Still got a few things left to do on the rear.

-move the upper shock mounts inward slightly
-new brake lines on the axle routed above the springs


Any feedback welcome.
 
beno said:
This is also a very good time to put gussets on the front housing where the knuckle ball is welded and pressed into the axle housing itself.

These housings bend easily. Ask me how I know :rolleyes:
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Yeah i forgot about those, still have them sitting on my dining room floor with all my other soon to be installed parts (mom loves that lol). After the cut and turn, they will make their way onto the axle.
Thanks for the reminder :)
 
beno said:
So what's happening to the old axle housing? The FF version?
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ill probably sell it to someone who wants some 80 series goodness under their 40/60
 
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