Got the axles in and most everything buttoned up. As is always the case with this kind of thing there are some items that came up that need to be addressed. Nothing that can't be fixed fairly easy, but my vision of driving this thing around over Christmas is not to be! As I mentioned to my wife yesterday, we did all that work for the past two days and now I'm actually FARTHER away from driving it than when I started on this on Thursday... Oh well, such is the nature of these things. Hopefully today we can get the radiator and fan installed, along with the new spark plugs. Since it's been sitting for 5 years or so without starting we will try and turn it over by hand first without the plugs in it to make sure nothing is frozen up. Wiring up the fans might not happen, but if I can at least get them mounted I'll be that much closer to getting this on the road again.
So, here are the things that need to be addressed mechanically to get it rolling again. Or, perhaps I should say, here are the problems we created from doing the axle swap:
So, here are the things that need to be addressed mechanically to get it rolling again. Or, perhaps I should say, here are the problems we created from doing the axle swap:
- Rear Driveshaft needs to be lengthened. Even though these are only 2.5" lift springs with a zero rate in the back, the driveshaft comes out of the tail shaft so much that there is only about 1.5"-2" left in the tail shaft when the truck is sitting on the ground. I wasn't actually able to get the driveshaft into the tail shaft with the truck in the air. The angle was too great, and the distance was so far there would have been barely any of the shaft into the tail shaft. Given the bind that is on the driveshaft now I'm going to have to get some high-clearance yokes on the tail shaft end, or maybe go with a CV. I'm going to talk to some of the local shops and see what they recommend. If it's really costly I might just order a Tom Woods or something similar and go with all new.
- Front Sway Bar Bolts. The ones that were bolted into the 10 bolts are the correct diameter and length, but the thread pattern is different than the top plates on the D60. My father in law thinks the threads we have on the bolts are maybe standard, and we need the metric equivalent. They thread in about 2 or three threads and then they bind up.
- Banjo bolts for the rear discs. I ordered new lines from ORD, and guessed which banjo bolts I was going to need because I thought my new calipers (specified for a '78-'79 El Dorado) would have the 10mm ones. Turns out I was wrong. We reused the factory banjo bolts that came on the calipers and the new brass washers. It doesn't look like anything could get past the washer, but it would be nice to have the neck of the bolt seated properly. We will try and bleed the brakes today and see if they leak.
- Longer brake line going to the "T" on the rear axle. I need another 4" or so of length from the hard lines to the "T" in order to bolt the bracket to the diff and have some slack for suspension travel.
- Driver's side rear shock runs into the exhaust (just barely) when the truck is sitting on the ground. It looks like maybe the hanger in the back could be bent just a little bit and it would clear.
- I may end up needing longer shocks in the rear. We ended up having to cut the shock mounts off the 14BFF since they were facing the opposite side than the upper mounts on the K5. We welded them back on, and at full droop they just make it eye to eye between the upper and lower mounts. If the springs were flexed opposite of one another I think it might be possible that the droop could go a little further than when they are both fully extended. The shock would be the limiting factor in the travel at that point. I'll run these for awhile and see if there are any issues.
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