74 Soft top Noob goes Tons! Post 21

[Hosalabad]

Hey guys, I'm starting a build thread to track my diy4x shackle flip and 56" spring install. I'm also doing a 14 bolt conversion in there somewhere.

Here's the truck before going under the knife. 6" block lift with negative arch in the rear springs. 35x14.5 Boggers.

Here's a shot in the garage with piece of tape on the support pole marking the center of the wheel arch at the start of the project.

So far so good, no broken bolts. I even let the wife zip off the lugnuts with an impact. She's so helpful.

Here are the goodies that are going on:

Diy4x Shackle flip kit, greasable bolts, zero rate and I threw some 6" shackles into the order so I can go from the 4.5" to 6" and back if needed.

Ruff Stuff 14bolt kit with perches, u-bolts, disk brake brackets, and diff cover.

Mid 80s 3/4 ton 56" springs.

Mid 80s Van 14ff - oh man this van had a york on it, need to go back for the bracket. For the other noobs out there. If you go to a pull a part to get springs, you're going to need a short crescent wrench to get on the inside nut on the front spring hanger. I left mine at home thinking, "oh yeah I won't need a wrench this small." There isn't much clearance between the bed of the truck and the spring hanger.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4784850059_1e3a86da9a_b.jpg

Later on I'm doubling with a 203/205 setup. I just picked up this 205 and 350.

 

[chaser0517]

Sweet ride!!!

 

[chevyuser74]

like to know about your driveshaft angle when its all said and done

 

[Hosalabad]

like to know about your driveshaft angle when its all said and done

You got it. I'm pretty sure the truck still has the stock shaft, it also had the stock brake lines with the lift, talk about scary, they were pulled tight at ride height.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Great start man, keep it up.

 

[scottishdave]

nice looking truck, hurry up and get those parts on there and post some pics.

 

[chevyuser74]

You got it. I'm pretty sure the truck still has the stock shaft, it also had the stock brake lines with the lift, talk about scary, they were pulled tight at ride height.

ya i want to do a shackle flip on mine but i didnt know if the driveshaft angles would be good or not, dont have the coin for a cv driveshaft as well

 

[y5mgisi]

Subscribed! Nice Blazer! Love the look of the dust cap front hubs with boggers!

 

[scottishdave]

Hurry up and get to work you got some nice parts.

As for angle, i think the flip actualy angles the pinion up making the angle better...I think...Atleast when i did mine it looked like it did.

 

[Hosalabad]

Noob gets out the rattle can!

Hurry up and get to work you got some nice parts.

I know right? Here's the deal. The wife works 2 days a week. I work 5. When she works I work from home with the kids, and she usually works one weekend day. So if I'm lucky I have a shot at being able to do stuff to the truck 1 day a week.

The good news is that she took the kids out of town today so I'm blowing off of work.

Here's where I'm at this week.

1. Painting + priming parts for shackle flip and the new diff cover and brake brackets.
2. Disassembling the 56" leaf packs. They are soaking in PB Blaster right now.

The pics are going to be pretty blown out, it's bright as hell outside.

First pic, cleaning up the parts. I started with the shackle bits.

Horrible pic but the first coat of hammered black on the shackle bits.

Then two coats on the shackle bits.

The rollup door that you see to the rear of the blazer goes to my shop. It's 15x29 in the basement. Yep we knocked out a wall so I could drive a car all the way under the house. I don't think the blazer will ever fit through there.



Priming the Diff Cover and flip kit

and

Primer on the welded stuff really made some of the spatter stand out so everything went into the shop for dressing with a flap wheel.

Flip with the last coat on the underside. I blocked sanded the flat surfaces on the brackets.



The flip brackets, brake brackets and diff cover are getting Rustoleum Red.



That's where I'm at for now.

This weekend I'm installing a toilet/vanity, throwing down a laminate floor, trimming out 2 doors and baseboards in 2 rooms, new stereo in the daily driver F150, and working on the blazer. So whenever one thing is drying, I'm just moving to the next.

 

[scottishdave]

Man you have your hands full, I just got my flip and 56's done yesterday. Painting parts is sometime the most fun, it really gets you excited to see how everything will turn out.

 

[Hosalabad]

The noob gets to cuttin'!

Bit of progress today. Wasted most of the day working on the basement.

At Beer O'Clock I went to work.

Here's what GM gave me to work with.

I went in with a grinder and cutoff wheel to cut the rivets. If they didn't pop right off with the chisel, I switched back to the cut off wheel.

It was great, when the first bracket hit the ground, I was so disheartened when I realized there was another piece to deal with.

Here's the other side all finished.

The tools to do this:

- Air hammer with freshly sharpened chisel and pointy thing.
- Grinder with 4.5" cut off wheel. It took a second new wheel to do the last two rivets on the second side. The wheel had worn down about 3/4" - 1" and couldn't reach the rivets on the bottom of the frame rail.
- 500 watt shop light
- Glasses/Face Shield/Gloves/Ear Plugs/Head Cover
- 1.5 beers - feel free to work slower or drink faster

I would recommend sleeves too, I have about a thousand pinhead sized burns on my arms. No matter how you hold the grinder, you take a bath in the sparks.

I'm going to put the 12 bolt back in for some pics before I remove any springs from the pack. I wanted to document ride height with stock 56" springs and note the shackle angles for posterity.

 

[scottishdave]

Looks good, just a sugestion...while you are there you could wire wheel that part of the frame to get rid of the surface rust and throw on some paint.

 

[Hosalabad]

Looks good, just a sugestion...while you are there you could wire wheel that part of the frame to get rid of the surface rust and throw on some paint.

Dave I was going to ignore the rust. But I didn't get to work on the truck for a while so it ate at me until I got the wire wheel out.

 

[Hosalabad]

The Noob installs a shackle flip!

Shackle flip installed.

While I was taking the bumper off, I had a little breakthrough on what to do for dropping the gas tank. It turned out that I had significantly less gas in it that I thought I did, but it worked out well enough to share.

I took a scrap 2x10. and routed a hole in it to match the pad on my jack. I just freehanded it, and considering it was the first time I have ever freehanded a router, I'm impressed with myself. I only got wild in one place.

The pad on the jack was 5" wide, so I centered a circle in the 2x10 and drew in a 5" circle with a really crappy plastic compass.

I used a 3/4" in straight cutting bit, and I cut the first half of the circle to full depth 5/8" in 1/8" increments. The router was at full speed since it was still a relatively small bit. Since it never bogged, I went ahead an cut out the other half with the bit set to 5/8" and I just went a little slower, but it never bogged down, kicked, or had any tearout. When I dropped the 2x10 on the jack, it slid on snugly like I knew what I was doing or something. The pad on the jack has a hole in it, so for something heavier I could actually coutersink a bolt from the top, and fasten the whole thing to the jack with a nut and a few body mount washers.

I left these images a little larger for the detail. The 2x10 didn't give me quite enough height to reach the tank at the height the truck was at, but I was able to space it with a pair of flat 2x4s.

If you turn the 2x10 lenghtwise it fits between the straps, so you can unbolt the tank and remove the straps without any interference.



Installed on the jack.



So now it's time for some pic whoring.
Shackle on the right side from the wheel well.
Had to hog out the top holes in the frame a little to get everything lined up. They were about 1/16-1/8" off from the brackets. They don't make the like they used too.



Right side from below. Yeah check out where the tailpipe is.

Right side view level.

 

[Hosalabad]

Ride height comparison

Left side from wheel well

Left side view.

Left side from below.

Ride height. Again, this is with the 35x14.50R15 Boggers.

3/4 ton 56" springs, 6" shackles, all of the stock leaves in the spring.

The tape line on the pole was the center of the wheel arch on the original lift.



Close up of tape line and arch.
I didn't think to get the measuring tape out, but I think it's come up an inch or two. If I didn't have the camera level it would really hose this perspective. I"ll get the tape out tomorrow before I start taking leaves out.

Close up of the 6" shackle. Measuring from vertical it's 33 degrees.
The holes in these shackles were only 1/2". I have a set of 4.5" shackles from Diy4x as well, and they were 9/16". /shrug
My local Home Depot barely carries 9/16" drill bits.

Here's a good one, why does your drill try to whip around (hand drill, don't have a press yet) when it's about to break through the back side of a piece of steel? I almost broke my nose tonight. I think I deserved it too, for holding the drill like a Nancy.




For reference, here is the pinion after the lift, with the weight of the vehicle on the axle. I pulled a tire and set the axle to height with a floor jack. 16 degrees from vertical |/. Unfortunately, I didn't take a measurement from the original lift, but someone had asked about it.

The angle on the driveshaft at ride height was 19 degrees \|. Here are two versions with mixed focus. I guess I could have gotten my tripod and gone for a smaller aperture and gotten them both closer to focus at once, but that would have sucked.

 

[85-m1028]

that exhaust pipe gots some personality yo! I think its talkin to me!!

 

[Hosalabad]

56s at height, and 56s minus 2 leaves w/zero rate

First off, the height to the center of the wheel arch at the start of this was 41 1/4".

With the flip and 56s installed, it went up to 43".

Today I pulled out two leaves and added a zero rate. I pulled the 2nd and 4th springs (from the top).

So here is the truck with the full leaf pack.

And here it is minus 2 with zero rate.

The net loss was 1 inch, and the shackle angle only went from 33 degrees to 35.5

From horizontal, Driveshaft angle went from 19 to 18.5, Pinion went from 16 to 17.5 degrees.

That'll be it for a little while until I can pick up a Dana 60, and from there I'll finalize my gear ratio and finish the 14bolt and disk brakes.

 

[docjake]

Thank you for the very detailed pics I think this will be the first modification I make to my truck when I get back from Iraq. Did the spring pack bolt right on to the existing axle or did you have to change the perches on the axle? Have you gotten the driveline angle sorted out or are you waiting for the axle upgrade? And finally the real newb question why did you pull leaves out of the pack?

 

[Hosalabad]

The spring pack bolted right in, I still have the stock 12 bolt axle in. When the 14 bolt goes in, the perches on it will have to be cut off, with new perches welded at the right width.

I'm not really worried about the driveline right now, but when the 14 bolt goes in, I can set the pinion angle before the perches are burned in. Right now there is only 1 degree of difference between the pinion and the driveshaft when it is attached. I'm a noob to so I need to check and see how big a difference the joints can handle.

I took the springs out of the pack to reduce the spring rate of each pack. Since they are 3/4 ton springs, while giving plenty of height, they are too stiff to really articulate. Removing leaves allows you to reduce spring rate, and then you can supplement the lost height with the zero rate.