Well, finally have 4x4. Instead of getting a new drive shaft made, for the time being anyway, I spent half of yesterday disassembling the CV on the front ds from the 91 Dodge donor that axles came out of. Luckily a 1310 flange on the NP205 and 7260 at the diff means it matches up. Shortened it a few inches to fit. The angle was not going to work originally. The max angle had the ds at the diff at ride height right at its limit.
Didn't take any pics of the areas I clearanced (probably should have) but here's the result anyway.
At ride height it'll give me around 5" of droop now so should be plenty. Of course being me, had to bolt it up and after a quick test that it didn't explode in my alley, headed straight to Mclean Creek to play on some trails.
Happy to report that everything went very well! I will say that I didn't torque the he77 out of it, but so far so good.
Always glad for a shakedown run... Did find one weak spot, and yet another result of frame flex / frame to body flex. Torqued the frame and the steering linkage actually pulled right off the bottom of the column! I was really confused why it I kept bumping up a wall when I distinctly remember turning away from it.
Of course, after carefully packing all my recovery gear, and tools, and everything else, I left my tool case sitting in the driveway. I was able to borrow a crescent wrench from some hunters (luckily) to loosen the clamp on the linkage, then threw on a glove and held a lighter to the slip to warm up the plastic inserts enough I could collapse it a bit. Going to make a point of burning them out and greasing that linkage so it slides, then drilling out and bolting the linkage to the column this afternoon.
Fun stuff, won't make the no tools mistake again!
On a high note, tools were sitting in the driveway right where I left them when I got back...
