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New life for my '76 K10

Next project.

I've got a 12 Bolt Rear and a 10 Bolt front, going to see if my rear diffs open or limited slip/ posi tomorrow.

But the diff cover now looks horrible and has fluid all around it, it's been like this since I've had it and I haven't had problems yet, but I think it's time to take care of it before something bad happens.

Note: I'm going to get a 14 BFF once I get to Kentucky, but I need this to hold me over until then + I plan on doing some wheelin once the weather gets a little better and I can coordinate with some other members on here and I don't need to blow my gears on the trail).

Current situation:

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The solution:

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Once i find out if I have posi or not I'm gonna take the old cover off clean the hell out of it with like 10 cans of brake cleaner and bolt the new one on and fill with gear oil and If I have posi put some of the GM additive in there too.

Now do you guys recommend I use the gasket in conjunction with RTV or just use RTV by itself? The gasket seems to be rubbery??

Now I've did some research and what I've came up with is I should use Ultra Black, Ultra Grey or Ultra Blue RTV and I was wondering which would be the best, they don't make a lubelocker gasket for my diff so I can't get one of those or I would.

Also, which gear oil? I'm partial to lucas, but I've heard that Royal Purple is good and that AMSOIL is the best.
 
n_martin said:
Once i find out if I have posi or not I'm gonna take the old cover off clean the hell out of it with like 10 cans of brake cleaner and bolt the new one on and fill with gear oil and If I have posi put some of the GM additive in there too.

Now do you guys recommend I use the gasket in conjunction with RTV or just use RTV by itself? The gasket seems to be rubbery??

Now I've did some research and what I've came up with is I should use Ultra Black, Ultra Grey or Ultra Blue RTV and I was wondering which would be the best, they don't make a lubelocker gasket for my diff so I can't get one of those or I would.

Also, which gear oil? I'm partial to lucas, but I've heard that Royal Purple is good and that AMSOIL is the best.
Click to expand...

I use ultra black, didn`t bother with a gasket...no leaks.

But if you got a nice new gasket use it with a nice thin coat of rtv.

My rear end has a gov lock in it, I used regular 80/90 but I don't care about that rear end.
 
Ok. Thanks, I was leaning towards the Ultra Black.

Well my Chilton or Haynes manual forgot which one I saw it in says to use 80W90, so I'm going with Amsoil. Didn't check into seeing if it was open or not yet, but I'm gonna get some of the GM positrac additive anyways. Probably not going to do this diff cover/ oil swap until next weekend.
 
Just found a 14 BFF on Craigslist here and I'm really considering buying it. Still gonna fix up my 12 bolt and redo the 14 bolt if I get it and just have it on standby for the next truck.
 
the tires spin opposite ways when up in the air and in neutral, so I have an open diff. I already got the limited slip additive so I guess I'll be holding on to those.
 
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Update

Still trying to get the 14 bolt off of craigslist.

Also, my heater is a piece of sh**, somethings wacky with the wiring. It worked fine and then one day it just stopped, the blower motor is fine, the heater core is fine, but somethings up with the wiring, unhooked the wiring from the blower motor and heater core and unplugged the wires from the switch and the brown wire that tied into all the other wiring up near the gauges. Hooked everything back up and it would only run when the ignition was all the way towards me in the off position which I really don't want.

So I bought this from Summit:

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This isn't my photo, it's from a website and the heater is setup in an old jeep.

I'm going to remove the old heater core and either have a piece of sheet metal cut to size to block off the heater core hole and have the holes drilled for mounting screws and the 5/8 hoses.

Here's the link to the heater: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-991101-1/overview/
 
Update

Heater and ducting still in:

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Heater and ducting removed:

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New heater installed:

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Heater Switch:

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Power wire with fuse for heater:

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Old diff cover removed and everything cleaned:

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New cover installed:

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Had all of the hvac holes on the firewell welded up and put black caulking around them on the inside. Cut the heater core inlet and return hoses with a holesaw.

Wireing was very simple, 3 wires attached to the switch directly from the heater and I had to run 1 16 GA wire from the battery to the switch also with a 7.5 AMP fuse splice in near the battery.

Used a holesaw to cut a 1" or so hole in the dash to for the heater switch.

Unbolted the old diff cover and about 1 quart if that drained out, glad I took care of that, the fluid was a milky brown color. Cleaned everything off with brakleen and carb cleaner, the gears looked fine,

Put RTV on the new diff cover, layed the gasket on there and put on another layer of RTV. I only let it cure for about 30 mins. before I bolted everything together. torques everything to spec and filled with 2 quarts of Amsoil 80W90 and haven't had a leak yet, knock on wood.
 
What's wrong with the wire, the heater works great. and I'm not sure about the rub pattern. Everything looked pretty good to me.
 
Mostly just the exposed hot connections. I know you have it sort of zip tied, but there is a right way to do it.
 
Looks kind of funky stuff on the carrier unless its the picture. Looks like rub mark and the carrier is cracked :dunno:
 
I just looked at the photo again and it does like like some kind of marks on their. I'm like 99% positive that the carrier isn't cracked, but I do see that line in the photo though.

Also, the gears are 308's. How well do you think they'll hold up with some 33's on them? Just being used as a daily driver for now, I have a line on a K20 that I plan on turning into my wheeler.
 
Yea, I figured they would. I assumed I had 3.73's just because that's what I though came stock on most of the older chevy's. I guess I'll just have to suck it up until I either do an axle swap or I just get the current axles regeared. I talked myself out of a 14 bolt for now because I wanted to do the DIY4X drum to disc conversion kit, but from what I understand I would have to get a brake controller thingy (forgot what it's called) to kind of adjust/ control them so the brakes don't lock up + all of the other stuff that has to be done and I would want to blast the whole thing and paint it, so for now I don't think my funds can support that, plus I would either want to pick up a Dana 60 at the same time or shortly after while the 14 bolt was getting worked on. I would rather upgrade and spend the money than get the current ones regeared, but I'll just take it one step at a time and do what I can.

Will I have any problems with 3.08's and 33's besides downshifting? I don't drive my truck on the highway, the highest I usually get is around 60ish and that when I'm speeding so it doesn't run at that speed for too long. Will it cause premature failure of anything or anything bad to happen?
 
I finally got a 4 day weekend Friday-Monday) so I'm starting the front lift tomorrow morning as soon as the sun comes up. Truck's already on jackstands, a few inches behind the shackles and I sprayed PB Blaster all over everything and will probably do it once or twice more tonight.

Nothing is too rusty under the front end due to all the fluid that have leaked all over everything over the years, should make the job easier than the rear, cause everything was rusted together and had to be cut off.

Parts I'm using:

Tough Country EZ Ride 4" lift springs with the old bushing out and new greasable stuff in.

Tough Country shocks, black shock boots

ORD HD Shackles with greasable stuff

2" Drop pitman arm

... I think that's it. I've got the steering box support thing, but probably won't be putting that on just yet.

When the lift is done I'm going to have the 33's put on and the new stainless braided brake lines installed.

I've got some other things I'm going to try to knock out this weekend:

Transmission pan seal and filter, new dipstick, tighten down tranny cooler lines and put fresh fluid in it. Possible the front and rear output seals on my 208 and I think thats it.
 
I've done rear disc brake swaps on a couple 14bff's and never changed anything in the brake system other than the rear calipers in place of wheel cylinders. Both times the brakes worked just find.

Martin
 
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