- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
I wondered the same thing. I'm too lazy to drill a zillion holes.
22... it wasn't that bad.
GMC / Chevy Project Dual Sport ; 1998 GMC Sierra
- Thread starter Greg
- Start date
-
- Tags
- build thread
22... it wasn't that bad.
- Location
- Fruita, CO
Looks great.... I would run a few beads on the brackets in addition to the bolts.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Solid work. Can't wait to see the 60 hanging in there.
Me neither! I can't wait to see it sitting on 37's, driving around!
I'm not worried about it at all, the brackets bolt on using 3 surfaces on the front spring hanger and 2 surfaces on the shackle mount. The front uses 7 bolts per hanger and the back uses 8 bolts per shackle mount. It's overkill, beefy and very well engineered, I don't really see a reason to weld anything.
Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
sweeeeet. Getting there man!!
Maverick
old-school
- Location
- Anywhere, thanks to my geeky droid
Nice! By the way, what kind of cordless impact is that? Do you like it?
LT.
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Los Alamos, New Mexico
I really like the Off Road Design brackets but, I am a little surprised that they did not include a cross member bracket with their leaf spring brackets. Say like a cross member to make both of the leaf spring pockets one piece. Looking back at my older builds I think it was a habit from the factory to have a cross member right next to all the leaf spring pockets. On the front most of the front springs, front of the rear springs and the rear of the rear springs.
I am really geeking out on this build and I wish I had the ambition and drive to tackle one this extreme. Fantastic work and I look forward to more updates!
LT.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
so very very cool.
After seeing that pile of cut off parts it made me stop thinking about doing a solid axle swap to my truck. Thanks Greg
Yeah, you should see the actual pile... there is a LOT of stuff that came off!Thanks Brett! The impact is a Dewalt 1/2" drive 18 Volt and I love it! I have a big air compressor and a nice Ingersoll-Rand air impact, but it just gathers dust most of the time. The Dewalt isn't quite as powerful as the IR, but it does the job. I have used it every step of the way with this build. Honestly, the Dewalt impact is one of the best tools I've bought.
I believe they don't include a crossmember with the Solid Axle Conversion brackets because the IFS crossmember can stay. They recommended that I trim and plate the factory crossmember, but I decided to get rid of it. I would imagine that if you had to cut out the IFS crossmember and bolt or weld in a new one, it would add quite a bit of complexity to a bolt-on kit.
Good to hear you're getting into it! Honestly, it hasn't been all that difficult... a torch really helps. Other than that, it's just a matter of putting in the time and doing the work.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
So I've been putting the next step off for some time... rebuilding the Dana 60, namely replacing the Kingpins! Last time I had to remove old Kingpins it took way too much effort. I decided to step it up... lots of heat (welding tube to Kingpin) and lots of leverage (tube!!). It didn't take much time at all, perhaps 5 minutes per side. A quick stomp on my 'breaker bar', the kingpin Popped and they un-threaded! After getting the first one out, I took my breaker bar to the chop saw and cut out the first kingpin and a couple inches of tube, then moved to the 2nd one.
Hope you like this, I sure did...
I had the new Kingpins sitting in the freezer, got a long 7/8" lug nut and set them into place with the impact and lots of red Loctite. I think they'll stay in place.
Hope you like this, I sure did...
I had the new Kingpins sitting in the freezer, got a long 7/8" lug nut and set them into place with the impact and lots of red Loctite. I think they'll stay in place.
muleskinner
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Enoch, UT
Great idea, your build looks great!
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
genius
One thing I have found over time with the chevy sas trucks running the 78-79 hp 60s.... is the frame will start to fold under at the rear shackle mounts. The 1/2 ton frames are thinner compared to the 3/4 and 1 tons. If any way possible I would run a brace between the frame rails at this location.
This problem is actually one of the reasons I have swapped over to running the 85-91 kingpin front axles.
Also running a strong crossmember between the front hangers will allow the factory crossmember to be trimmed, or removed. I have ran into spring hitting the front crossmember at low ride height. Also steering interference on some trucks with the axle pushed forward.
This problem is actually one of the reasons I have swapped over to running the 85-91 kingpin front axles.
Also running a strong crossmember between the front hangers will allow the factory crossmember to be trimmed, or removed. I have ran into spring hitting the front crossmember at low ride height. Also steering interference on some trucks with the axle pushed forward.
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LT.
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Los Alamos, New Mexico
I was thinking a simple 2X2 square tubing to connect the two spring pockets together. Or maybe a small I beam between the two. To go from the drivers side pocket to the passengers side pocket making it all one piece. I would think it would be almost too simple and it would keep the cross member at the front of the rails ensuring everything is flush, plumb, level, and square. This would mean that the IFS cross member could come out or it could stay in as you mentioned. I can't quite explain it as well as I would like. I just thought it would be a simple addition that Off Road Design could incorporate into their designs to keep things clean as well as strengthening the rails.
LT.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Thanks Scott!
It was stupid-simple, pretty glad it worked as it saved me a lot of sweat!
I don't know about genius, but it qualifies for the 'work smarter, not harder' way of thinking.
Interesting, I hadn't heard about the frame collapsing before. The frame didn't seem that thin when I was drilling it!!
I know exactly what you're saying, I can't speak for ORD though. I wanted to remove the IFS crosssmember and replace it with something smaller, so I did.
LT.
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Los Alamos, New Mexico
Gotcha.
LT.
LT.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Well, it's been hard to find some time to work on the truck recently... this last week put I in 20 hours of overtime at work and this next week I will be in Denver for work, then NPLD in Utah the following weekend. I was hoping to have the truck up and running so I could bring it up to 5 Mile Pass for NPLD, but that's not going to happen. I still don't have my 37" Goodyears that should be here by now. No worries, it will be done when it's done.
Today was a good day, with the new Kingpins in the front Dana 60, I wheeled it into place under the leaf springs. Bolting it all up required some work, since the u-bolts are getting flipped you have to notch the gusset on the axle housing. After getting the housing bolted up, I finished replacing seals and bearings in the hubs, then installed the rest of the outers and put it all together.
I decided to go with Yukon 4340 shafts, including 35 spline outers and Warn 35 spline hubs. The Yukons aren't the best, but they were very affordable... it took some work grinding on them to fit, but they will do the job. The u-joints are Spicer 5-806X and I think they'll be fine for this truck.
Back when I used to work at Super Shops after getting out of High School, one of the things we used to offer people who bought new wheels was painting their calipers red. Kind of stupid, but it was funny to see how excited people were when they got new wheels and they could see their red calipers. My calipers were bare metal and I was going to paint them black, but decided to be funny and paint them red... just like the good old days.
Decided to test-fit one of the H2 wheels... yep, you can see the red calipers!
Still plenty of work to do, but it's getting there. At this point, the truck could be sitting on the axles, which is a huge step! I'm happy with the progress so far, it's going to be a couple weeks before I can get back to working on it, but it's all smaller stuff compared to the solid axle conversion.
Today was a good day, with the new Kingpins in the front Dana 60, I wheeled it into place under the leaf springs. Bolting it all up required some work, since the u-bolts are getting flipped you have to notch the gusset on the axle housing. After getting the housing bolted up, I finished replacing seals and bearings in the hubs, then installed the rest of the outers and put it all together.
I decided to go with Yukon 4340 shafts, including 35 spline outers and Warn 35 spline hubs. The Yukons aren't the best, but they were very affordable... it took some work grinding on them to fit, but they will do the job. The u-joints are Spicer 5-806X and I think they'll be fine for this truck.
Back when I used to work at Super Shops after getting out of High School, one of the things we used to offer people who bought new wheels was painting their calipers red. Kind of stupid, but it was funny to see how excited people were when they got new wheels and they could see their red calipers. My calipers were bare metal and I was going to paint them black, but decided to be funny and paint them red... just like the good old days.
Decided to test-fit one of the H2 wheels... yep, you can see the red calipers!
Still plenty of work to do, but it's getting there. At this point, the truck could be sitting on the axles, which is a huge step! I'm happy with the progress so far, it's going to be a couple weeks before I can get back to working on it, but it's all smaller stuff compared to the solid axle conversion.
Spork
Tin Foil Hat Equipped
- Location
- Saratoga Springs, UT
Looks great. Red calipers are pimpin'. :greg:
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
X2