It drives again! We started out this morning by rolling the axle under the truck for the first time and bolting everything together. I set the caster to 6° and tacked in the brackets for the upper radius arms.
With everything in place we jacked the axle up and located where we wanted the bump stops and tacked them in place.
We then dropped the axle back down, pulled the links off to finish welding and paint them, finished welding the bump stop mounts, painted them, installed the bumps, ran the brake lines, bled the brakes, hooked up the driveshaft and took a brake for lunch while the paint dried on the links.
After lunch we reinstalled the links, dropped the axle down and bolted up the coilovers! All the bolts were tightened (except the track bar and drag link adjusters) and we stood back and admired our work for a bit.
Here's the truck holding its weight on the front axle for the first time.
And finally with the tires mounted up!
After adjusting the steering and track bar a bit, I took it for a test drive. I need to push the axle farther forward, probably another inch, I also need to raise the front about 2" and put in more caster. I think I'll end up raising the rear another notch too (about 3/4").
One of the things I did while prepping the truck was to replace the power steering pump that's been whining for a couple years. The new pump seems to put out way more pressure than the old and blew out all the seals on the steering box, so now I'll need to replace that too. I'm also leaking fuel at the stock fuel filter location since it's pressurized now so I'll get a fuel filter bypass to fix that...
Outside of that I need to run the electric for the air compressor, rear locker and air horn, mount the air horn, run the air hoses from the compressor to the tank, fill the front diff, check the fluid in the t-case (it was leaking) and I need to finish up a few other things before I can take it out. Hopefully that will be next weekend, but probably not till Saturday afternoon or Sunday.
With everything in place we jacked the axle up and located where we wanted the bump stops and tacked them in place.
We then dropped the axle back down, pulled the links off to finish welding and paint them, finished welding the bump stop mounts, painted them, installed the bumps, ran the brake lines, bled the brakes, hooked up the driveshaft and took a brake for lunch while the paint dried on the links.
After lunch we reinstalled the links, dropped the axle down and bolted up the coilovers! All the bolts were tightened (except the track bar and drag link adjusters) and we stood back and admired our work for a bit.
Here's the truck holding its weight on the front axle for the first time.
And finally with the tires mounted up!
After adjusting the steering and track bar a bit, I took it for a test drive. I need to push the axle farther forward, probably another inch, I also need to raise the front about 2" and put in more caster. I think I'll end up raising the rear another notch too (about 3/4").
One of the things I did while prepping the truck was to replace the power steering pump that's been whining for a couple years. The new pump seems to put out way more pressure than the old and blew out all the seals on the steering box, so now I'll need to replace that too. I'm also leaking fuel at the stock fuel filter location since it's pressurized now so I'll get a fuel filter bypass to fix that...
Outside of that I need to run the electric for the air compressor, rear locker and air horn, mount the air horn, run the air hoses from the compressor to the tank, fill the front diff, check the fluid in the t-case (it was leaking) and I need to finish up a few other things before I can take it out. Hopefully that will be next weekend, but probably not till Saturday afternoon or Sunday.
