Builds Treebeard (2 Viewers)

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In the last week I've picked up lots of goodies for the truck:
  • A minty gas tank (cleaned and coated in 2017, thanks @Ophir!)
  • A rust-free but dented tailgate (I'm having the dent repaired)
  • A set of snake blinders (anyone need a passenger-side blinder?)
  • Four Yakima crossbars and towers to support my RTT dreams
  • Enough gear oil for both diffs (🍻 @Ophir )
  • Extended sway bar links and new D bushings from CO (already installed although the D bushings were a pain)
Currently my PS knuckle is completely disassembled and my diffs are empty. The oil from the front diff was the color of moly grease and the rear was more like honey... but both will soon be clean. Tomorrow I'll figure out how to properly clean my knuckle parts, paint a few of them, and hopefully quickly reassemble everything so I can be back on the road by the weekend.

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everyone has an opinion on cleaning but I find that good old diesel fuel works really well for cleaning grease and buildup off parts. I wear gloves to keep my hands clean and I need to build a little recirc loop to help filter the diesel and keep it cleaner.
 
Lots of updates to share...

The PS side knuckle is reassembled and ready to go... assuming I didn't mess anything up. Grease is kinda fun to work with once you resolve yourself to it. It took me a week to figure out how to disassemble it, clean all the parts, paint some parts, and reassemble properly. For painting the knuckles I made some cardboard covers to keep spray paint out of the interior of the knuckle and away from many of the threads.

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The DS side knuckle is now completely torn down. This went much more quickly now that I know what I'm doing. Hopefully I can get everything cleaned and painted today and reassemble tomorrow. I had entertained the idea of running the truck for a while without rebuilding this knuckle but as soon as I pulled the cap off I could tell it needed to happen. The bearings are mostly ok but it was 100% soup inside.

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A random tip for getting those steering arm cone washers out... hold your brass drift in place with channel locks instead of just with your hand. This speeds things up a lot and lets you keep your fingers away from harm. You can also see in this photo the extended soft brake lines I added so that I could delete the hard line to the caliper and move it out of the way. So much crud on that knuckle...

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Over the weekend I made and installed new battery cables. I might be crazy but I'm convinced that it made a HUGE difference in starting and running. The starter sounded slow, like the battery was almost dead, but it fired up anyways. It seems like the engine is running more quietly and smoothly too. Props to @NookShneer for the inspiration to do this, the shopping list, and for letting me borrow his hydraulic crimper set. Old vs new pictured.

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There’s nothing quite as motivating as pain drive invention
 
Lets see a picture of everything all assembled, clean, and painted :zilla:
 
Lets see a picture of everything all assembled, clean, and painted :zilla:

The PS got put back together in the rain because I'm not patient. Note that I deleted the dust cover hard brake line on purpose. :) The second photo shows the DS right before I sealed up the knuckle. I went a little far with painters tape but didn't want to get paint on any threads.

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Awesome. Bonus points for making most used of tax funded roadway workspace. :)
 
Made it to Portland and mounted up the tent. Getting some food and turning back towards home. No problems with the truck other than quality of life issues... old seat foam, no cruise control, no AC or tint, lots of noise at 2500 RPM. I’m getting used to it. ;)

I am wondering if a new steering damper would smooth things out at highway speeds. The truck is a bit twitchy. Maybe I need caster shims to go with the lift?

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Wider tires can also make the steering feel twitchy as they “read” the road a bit more than narrow ones.
 
@Seth S these are 10.5s so not too wide 🤔 the steering was especially bad on bumpy sections of highway so I’m thinking I need to add caster shims ASAP.

10-4. Unfortunately caster is pretty hard to measure unlike toe and camber which can be done with basic tools. Lots of talk on caster lately....do the lift kits make mention of needing to fix caster?
 
10-4. Unfortunately caster is pretty hard to measure unlike toe and camber which can be done with basic tools. Lots of talk on caster lately....do the lift kits make mention of needing to fix caster?

As far as I know they do not. I’m just echoing wisdom I’ve picked up on mud which could be wrong. What symptoms would I see if my steering damper were old and tired? My tires are freshly balanced, my TREs are new, I have a recent alignment, and I just rebuilt my knuckles with all new bearings... so I figure that the steering damper and caster angle are the next things to mess with.
 
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4 degree shims and you’ll be good
 

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