CK5
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One Piece at a Time: My 1985 Diesel Suburban

We bought one at my last shop for trimming tree's out of the bucket truck. I was skeptical cause I'm a saw snob, but it was worth every penny, and not having to worry about melting the non conductive liner was well worth it.
 
Makes me want to buy a milwaukee chainsaw.
worth every penny
Asked and answered. Summit has a good deal on them from time to time. The big Milwaukee and the shorty one Nate had (nicknamed the Handjob Saw, or HJS) saw the most work. We only got out the big boy gassers for a handful of recently downed ~15” diameter trees.

David
 
Let’s start catching up.

The fan shroud needed mounts and some clearance for the steering box. It’s a universal type of shroud made to my dimensions, so some tweaking was expected.

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It fits very nicely. The gold tape just seals off the universal mounting slots in a race car kind of way.

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Also, new Switch-Pro 12 channel mount. Send cut send did everything but the flares and the welds. Easy day.

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Also, Greg had the 4L80 pulled apart yesterday, and he found that the 4th gear sprag had left the chat. He’s putting some heavier duty stuff back in, because I guess Big Chunky is a little tough on parts.

David
 
That's a very cozy engine bay!
Yeah, didn’t end up saving any room after moving the batteries. It just made room for other stuff.

It's like working on a 9000 Lb semi filthy Formula one car.
Even after a good cleaning, there was still so much Oregon dirt. I had to apologize to Donny and Marty.

For the roof rack, I did some hack prep. On this truck, I don’t buy the patina argument. It’s just rust, and it needs to go away, so I did some light DA work and rush converter.

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The thing performed really well. It carried gear, and I pulled myself up every time I needed to get the chainsaw. So, a lot. It also took a beating through the tight trees and didn’t seem to care. The look has also grown on me.

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From this angle, you can see the truck slowly getting sucked past the overlanding event horizon.

David
 
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A few more catchup details.

Links looked ratty, and the bushings could stand some service. Stephen has the bushings in bulk, which is about half the cost of buying 8 service kits from Currie.

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Freshie.

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And the Seymour MRO paint is a dead ringer for ORD FDE.

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I went with the Yukon shafts and super duper joints. Not that this was a strenuous wheeling trip, but maintenance and upgrade kind of overlapped.

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Greased bearings and it’s all back together.

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Banged the rear skid back into shape. I need to do something more permanent with this.

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And the 12 channel in its home.

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Really, it was a lot of small prep items that just added up. That’s kind of the norm these days. Huge transformations are less frequent, but lots of tweaks and refinement are still needed.

David
 
Did you buy the tool for rebuilding the johnny joints, or are you using a socket and press? (or some other method)
 
Did you buy the tool for rebuilding the johnny joints, or are you using a socket and press? (or some other method)
I have one that I made I just saw in my storage shed from back when I had one on a ladder bar in my K5. Used to instructions knocking around somewhere for making one.
 
Did you buy the tool for rebuilding the johnny joints, or are you using a socket and press? (or some other method)
I was able to put it together with sockets and my bench vise. It's a bit clumsy, but not bad for something I don't have to do all the time.

David
 
I was able to put it together with sockets and my bench vise. It's a bit clumsy, but not bad for something I don't have to do all the time.

David
I assumed so. That's how I did it, but my socket is BARELY small enough to get the snap ring out. One of these days I'd prefer to get a piece of scrap tubing to make it easier, but like you said, you don't have to do it often.
 
I assumed so. That's how I did it, but my socket is BARELY small enough to get the snap ring out. One of these days I'd prefer to get a piece of scrap tubing to make it easier, but like you said, you don't have to do it often.
I actually did use a piece of 2.5” exhaust tube - forgot about that until you mentioned it. Socket on one side; exhaust scrap on the other.

David
 

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