I chipped away at some work over the past few days. Felt good to be back in the garage.
New HD rear shackles are on. I had a hard time on the driver's side because the leaf spring eye was offset from the shackle. Needed to use a pry bar to get the shackle onto the spring. I am weak, so this was a struggle.
New u-bolts are in and chopped down... this went smoothly although my sawzall shook the s*** out of the u-bolts. lol
I put some blue loctite on these. The jury seemed to be out on the internet on whether that was standard practice. I check the torque at every other oil change so I am sure it will be fine.
With those two things out of the way, it was time to get started on trying out
@ZooMad75's rear driveshaft.
Unfortunately, I bought the wrong u-joint. I purchased the Spicer 5-460x, which is for 1310/1350 conversion. The 1310 side on this u-joint was too narrow, and the caps were also a little small.
I texted back-and-forth a bit with Rob and it looks like I needed the Spicer 5-648x for 1330/1350 conversion. So I ordered that last night.
Here's a pic of the 5-460x test fit. No bueno.
This next photo shows Rob's original u-joint on the left, my old u-joint in the middle, and the new Spicer 5-460x on the right. The two u-joints on the left measure about 3.625" across, and the new u-joint measures about 3.25" across (on the 1310 side).
With regard to the actual driveshafts, I was worried a little bit at first because Rob's driveshaft is about two inches shorter:
- Rob's Driveshaft
- Total Length: ~36.25"
- Yoke Length: ~6"
- Non-Yoke Length: ~30.25"
- Drew's Old Driveshaft
- Total Length: ~38.25"
- Yoke Length: ~6"
- Non-Yoke Length: 32.25"
HOWEVER, I held his driveshaft up beneath the truck and I think it might make it.
So now all that is left is getting this new conversion u-joint in... installing it... and then going for a test ride. Cross your fingers!
While waiting to get the new u-joint, I am going to install a new ignition module and am also going to put some dye into my coolant reservoir (tracking down a leak). Will keep everyone posted as always.