Big Blue gets parked... For her buildup

[BigBlueChevy]

I started tearing down the old girl this weekend for her buildup. After a seal failed on my drivers side rear axle and took out the spindle I decided there is no time like the present. I have to say I'm really excited to start. So far these are my plans for the buildup, in no particular order:

-Exhaust is getting completely finished. All 4" SS tubing from front to back. A mechanical cutout opening under the bed for when I decide to run my canopy instead. Dual 4" stacks are being traded for a Single 5" Aussie.

-Fuel system is getting a tune up. The draw straw/ sock setup is being shown the door. Sending unit is getting replaced while I'm in there, and tank is getting converted to bottom sump for future upgrade purposes. Stock LP is getting booted as well in favor of an Air Dog unit. I'm sick of that thing failing.

-Frame rails are getting coated. They will be pressure washed, wire wheeled and sanded for a rubberized coating. There is no rust and I'm not about to let it start now.

-Air system is going in. Tanks getting mounted in place of old spare tire carrier, with a 100% duty cycle VIAIR compressor and Bendix filter unit. Air hookups will be routed to the front and rear of the truck with standard quick connect fittings.

-Suspension is getting the biggest work. Front axle is getting replaced with a kingpin Dana 60(FINALLY!!!!!), Rear axle is being replaced with a Dana 80 and a Divorced NP205 transfer case will be used to finally give me full 4 wheel drive. 205 is being converted for twin stick operation.

-Air intake system is getting redesigned. Removing the K47 airbox and going to design a new intake that will have the battery and air box switch places. Similar to the DMAX style. I'm done waiting for Bill's aftermarket unit.

-Build front bumper. Stock bumper is getting replaced with a built one. Which will be centered around a PTO driven Winch that I stumbled upon

I'm sure other things will come up along the way(they always do) but for now these are my plans. It won't be the fastest build in the world, but when its all said and done, Big Blue will be more than capable at handling any terrain, in any weather, and with no concern of whether or not something may break doing so. I'll have so teaser pictures up tomorrow. Night ya'll.
:coal:GMCtrk:

 

[NVW]

Sounds nice:thumbsup:


Good luck on your build.

 

[Slim Shady]

Can't wait to see your baby in new clothes, and with accessories.

 

[btfarm]

Sounds like you're going about it the right way Jamie!

 

[BigBlueChevy]

Bed is off. And don't let anybody tell you that it can be done with 2 people:mad2:. Maybe a short bed, but I had the cherry picker on the tail end, and two of us on the front end. Even with that the bed was HEAVY. Do yourself a favor, invite some buddies over for beer and get at least one person on each corner. It will save yourself a lot of trouble. Unbolting it is easy though. Simply disconnect the wiring harness going to the lights, take off the three screws that hold the filler neck up to the bed, and unbolt the 8 bolts securing the bed. There are is one all the way in the front, one over the front leaf spring hanger, another near the rear leaf spring hangers, and the last is way out back where the receiver hitch bolts up. They are placed identically on both sides. The back bolts have a hole drilled in the frame so you can get a socket and extension in there pretty much trouble free. They are sealed with locktite, so use a little heat to warm them up before you start cranking away at them.

 

[Joey D]

I took my bed off by myself, it was easy.
I used 1 strap in each corner and tied it to the lift arms and then hit the button on the lift, all done by myself
What did the dana 80 come out of? I don't think I would use rubberized undercoating, go with something harder that will last longer. Eastwood has some nice stuff as well as Por 15.
Take pics and hurry up

 

[BigBlueChevy]

:dita: Can't seem to find the Pirate "flip off" smilie so this will have to do:rof:

Here is the unfortunate doner truck. Its a 78 F-250 Custom. Single rear wheels, dually style utility body with big Mud tires. Front mounted PTO winch, Dana 60 Front axle with a Dana 80 rear. I used to think that F-250's only came with a Dana 60 rear and either a Dana 44HD front or the RCD Dana 60, but this thing proves all those old statements completely wrong. I emailed BillaVista over on Pirate to see if he has ever seen or heard of anything like this. Hubs are a perfect fit for my wheels. 4.75"diameter. I want to buy the whole truck for past, but its apparently a police impound and is forbidden to leave the yard. Frame has to be cut up. Oh well, axles, winch and maybe the body are mine. Just gotta go pull them. These are unfortunately the only 2 pictures I took of the truck(did it just so the owner knew what I was talking about)


Divorced NP205 Transfer Case pictures:Justwait2:

 

[Joey D]

I would keep your 14bff in your truck now. You already have discs on it right? Parts are available everywhere in the event you did break something but it's very doubt full.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

Got a little done before calling it quits today. Actually, the unexpected rain kinda helped push that decision. Tires are off, and the drive shaft is free from the rear. Going to have to get crafty with some abrasive and cutting/drilling tools. Turns out the frame crossover/brace that supports the slip joint before it angles down into the rear drive shaft is held on by more... rivets. Bottom 4 won't be so bad, I'll just grind them off as usual, then bang a Flathead screwdriver between the frame and brace till they separate. But those top 2 are going to be a real PITA.

As soon as I pulled the tire off the driver side it started puking even more fluid. The amount of play between the hub and spindle was disgusting. I could lift that thing up and down a good 3/4". Not looking forward to seeing the guts on that side.













I'll be going to the junkyard again tomorrow to do a little more recon on the donor truck since time was limited yesterday. I'll be ripping it down over the next 3 weeks, pulling the front and rear(assuming this is still a Dana 80 rear), and finally the winch.

 

[6.2 turbo]

I have a 1/2 inch pipe elbow threaded into the bottom of my 97's fuel tank,and it will suck air bubbles at 1/4 tank. If you build a actual sump that shouldn't be problem .

 

[88gmctruck]

Sub'd. Man your going to town on this thing.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

Small update for tonite. Took my lunch break to hit up the junkyard again for some recon on the donor truck. Rear axle is not a Dana 80. Its a Dana 70 or a 60(still not bad but not good enough for me). I'm still pulling the Front Dana 60 and Ramsey Winch. I had pictures of the winch but they seem to have disappeared in the void of my phone. You can see the PTO shaft coming off the winch in the third picture with the tangled rusty line. I'll go through the winch and give it some good R&R before installing it. Our transmissions(4l80e) don't come with PTO mounts so I'll be running a muncie PTO off the transfer case to drive it.

As far as rear axles go I have my sights set on an Eaton H072 to replace my dead 14 bolt. Should solve my "breakage" problem right there :hihi:

Going to pull everything this weekend, then go pick it up the weekend after once funds are sufficient. You know whats sad? I paid $400 for my Dana 44HD. There selling me the Dana 60 for $300. Guess being one of there normal customers is starting to pay off:rolleyes5:

 

[iamdave0887]

Man you've got some wild plans for this truck. Can't wait to see the finished product. I've been hunting for a PTO winch that i can install on my blazer, as the SM465 has the PTO hookup's on both sides of the case.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

I would keep your 14bff in your truck now. You already have discs on it right? Parts are available everywhere in the event you did break something but it's very doubt full.

Oh I broke it alright. Guess I can almost call it an achievement seeing as most people have to work pretty damn hard to break theirs. Problem with my current setup is that I tried using the older 14 bolt style hubs(when the drums where held on by the wheel studs to the back, not slide over the front of them) You can't go to disk brakes on the newer 14 bolts because the wheel mounting surface of the hub sits to far back. There is no room for mounting the caliper at all. When using the older hubs, they mount on the spindle almost perfectly, but the internal setup is just slightly different and it doesn't leave enough room for the lock nut to hold the woodriffs key in between the spindle and the bearing preload nut. So I left out the lock nut, preloaded the bearings as normal then seated the woodriffs key in its spot with RTV. The RTV didn't hold enough on that side and when the key fell out it ripped up the bearings, spindle surface and banged up the inside of the hub. Otherwise the setup would have worked fine, just have to find an alternative method to holding the woodriffs key in place so the preload nut won't back itself out.

I suppose I could have the old tubes pressed out and have new ones pressed in with perfect new spindles, but I don't trust any of the shops over here with rotating my tires, much less my whole rear axle.

Aiming toward today's success. When it rains, I don't have work(patio's, sand and chop saws just don't go well with rain.). So when it rains I come home and do paperwork crap. Well, I did get some kind of blessing today I suppose. I found a 2004 AAM 11.5" rear out of an SRW 04' Dodge! And one that wasn't going to run me over $700! My bid is in so we'll see what happens. If the owner gets it all packaged up quickly I could have it by the end of the week. No adapters or conversion kits needed since they already come with Disk Brakes!

Also got the welding machine back to my house from the yard. So I got my welding game on and took care of my rear shackle flip. It won't hurt it at all to have it braced alot better than by 4 bolts. Thats not going anywhere now:hihi:





I love 7018 rods:agreed:

 

[NVW]

A weld on just the top and bottom would have been better. The welds on the sides just stress the frame. It will most likely be alright though.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

"new" Rear is in!!!



Its not very often that the "planets align" for me. Meaning that a string of events come together that just seems too convenient, and well meshed with the other events to be just "lucky". The past 4 days have been one of those "planets aligned" days. 3 Days ago I discovered a Dodge AAM rear axle going for sale on ebay. It had less than a day left on it and no bids so far. I contact the seller, and it turns out that it is the AAM 11.5" rear put behind a 3500 SRW dodge. Not only was it the full 11.5" rear, but it was off a single rear wheeled truck! An issue that I had been fighting with on ebay since my rear broke!. I put in my bid, win with no competition and the next day I get a phone call that the seller, who is in North Carolina, and just happens to be coming up to Jersey today to pick up a Jeep he just purchased. We talk and 5:30pm, he pulls up in front of my house with the new axle. In a matter of 20 minutes we had that thing off his trailer and onto jack-stands in my garage like so:









My luck is NEVER this good. Minus well enjoy it while I can :hihi:

This thing is a behemoth! 4" axle tubes, the obvious 11.5" ring gear and it has to easily weight around 400lbs. And with only 100,000 miles on it, there is almost nothing to be done too it. But I'm not about to have another seal fail me, so seals will get done and new fluid will go in the pumpkin.

The con's: Dodge uses a slightly wider spring perch width that sits about 1.25" wider than the standard GM design, so the old Spring perches are getting ground off and new ones from Dan at RuffStuffSpecialties will be welded on. This will also give me a good chance to establish a perfect pinion angle while I'm repositioning the mounts. No need for shims anymore! Also, 3.73 gears and a limited slip rear.:rof: They will work for now, but eventually I'll be pulling the carrier, going to either 4.10's or 4.56 gears and running an ARB air locker to further improve the range of capabilities. I do like 1800rpms at 65mph with the 4.10's though And the transfer case has 1.96 to 1 reduction in low range...

Not much time to play around with the rear tonight, but tomorrow will bring loads of fun. Gotta get working on rotors, pads seals, and getting the housing stripped down for a new coat of paint. If all works well I could have the rear under the truck by next weekend.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

My computer has been acting up internet wise lately so between that and work putting together updates is getting a little hard.

Not a monster of an update, but getting that crossmember out took me a good 6 hours to avoid cutting it to ribbons. But it was defiantly worth it. Got the old spring perches ground off the AAM axle last week and ordered up a simple swap kit from Dan at Ruff Stuff Specialties.






Could make a nice flagstaff infront of my house with some paint and a few welds so it doesn't flop around

 

[BigBlueChevy]

Alot of sweat, blood and hard work paid off to keep it in one piece. But defiantly worth it. Stupid 2wd trucks.









Getting the transfer case all measured for angles, mounts and ultimately, its placement so that the intermediate shaft between the trans and T-case is perfectly level and straight. Don't need to introduce vibrations into the system if I don't need too. The NP205 is going to sit exactly where the crossmember I cut out above was. There is plenty of space above to allow filling, service and any work to the transfer case without much trouble, and it will keep the rear drive shaft almost the same length as before without the need for another crossmember.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

Got my simple swap kit in on Thursday. Some damn good looking hardware right there, The new spring perches fit like a glove, and with all that beefy hardware to hold it together, this thing isn't going anywhere. 5/8" U bolts with a 3/8" thick top plate and the proper "tall" nuts to keep it all together.





Got my brothers to give me a hand on Friday getting the new AAM rear under the body for some test fitting, alignments and welding. Got 2/3 of all that done at least:rolleyes5:





And the number for the BOM stamped onto the axle. Possible email this to AAM and see if there is anything special about this axle that I want to know about. Found it while cleaning up the spring perch area so when its ready to be welded there is no fuss.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

Getting the perches all lined up as far as side to side location, then focused on setting my pinion angle. Still up in the air about that right now. Haven't welded it yet so I can still move things up and down with the rubber mallet to make adjustments. I was going to get to that today, but its raining







I stuck 4 wheel studs into the hub just so I could get the tires to mount up properly. No weight bearing or anything, just for alignment purposes. The AAM rear seems to share the same width as my Front axle, Where as before the 14 bolt was just a tad narrower. No big deal, but it helps keep everything lined up nicely.

Gotta get an order in for new wheel studs, rotors calipers and pads and she will be on all 4 wheels again :hihi: