Project Penny - All good things must come to an end

[Russell]

Actually not that bad, when you have a skid steer to help ya out! I'd guess around 400 lbs or so fully dressed...

Anyways, as you can see, I've got the front bumper mounted. It is still loose though, I need to set the gap and tighten everything up. I still need to find some corner markers for the truck, then I can finally get the grille re-installed.

I also installed my CB radio today and finished re-sealing / installing new bearings on the D60. I got my brakes all hooked up, but apparently I cracked the factory line out back. I'll need to get a replacement section tomorrow to install before I can finish bleeding all the brakes out. Speaking of bleeding brakes, I got the Ford stuff installed on the K5 and holy cow does it ever like those dual piston brakes! I've actually got a solid pedal in that truck for the first time ever! Whoda thunk that "downgrading" the outers on it would result in such an upgrade in the brakes

As I hoped, I was able to build myself a new front driveshaft for the Tahoe. I cut the CV off an old spare front driveshaft I had kicking around for my K5, and welded it onto the original IFS driveshaft after cutting it down a few inches. Should hold up just fine until I get the new stuff from HAD.

Tomorrow I gotta shorten both the drag link and the tie rod about an inch each. At center, the pass side wheel is obviously turned right, and the driver's side wheel is definitely turned left Fortunately, I have a tap to re-thread the drag link, and I think there is enough adjustment left in the tie rod to get the wheels slightly toe-in. I'll get a new chunk of brake tube and a conversion u-joint to go from the S44 driveshaft to the 1310 yoke that is on the D60 right now. I should then be able to finish bleeding the brakes and get the front driveshaft installed.

I'll also run the cables for the winch, gap and tighten the front bumper, finish installing the rock rings on the bead locks and measure how much more the rear needs to be lifted to give it a slight forward rake.

Should leave me just needing to install my shocks and new rear lift springs next Thursday before I take it to the mountains for a shakedown run. Hopefully things go well, and I don't have much fine tuning to do before Moab!

Here are more pictures for you guys! I also tossed one in of the K5, just for the heck of it!

 

[Russell]

And a couple more...

 

[DK5]

Looking really good Russell. Do you know if they make a bumper like that for our older style K5's? I like that bumper, don't have to worry about any wildlife disabling the vehicle on the way to the trail!

 

[Russell]

Actually, this particular bumper is designed to crumple and definitely wouldn't take an animal impact overly well... It is designed to allow the air bags to deploy in a collision, which requires the front end to crumple up a fair bit. It'll handle rough offroad service no problem, but a high speed impact will have it twist up pretty bad. It is definitely considerably beefier than the stock bumper though, LOL!

 

[AJMBLAZER]

ARB doesn't make a bumper for the older trucks. Only started in the American market in the 90's so 88 and up body style and on.

They have a bunch of screwy rules about " 'Roo Bars" down in Oz. That said...everything runs them down there, even cars, if they go out in the country much. They are intended down there to take hits from Kangaroos and the like. They have kangaroo vs car issues like we have deer vs car issues in the northern areas. I'd bet that bumper deflects a deer quite well.

 

[folkenheath]

Lots of progress! Looks good. How did the SAS brackets turn out for you?

 

[Russell]

Really good! I had some issues with my passenger side front bracket, but that was due to a slightly twisted frame rail. I had to notch the bolts a bit on the body mount is all.

The bumper and the SAS bracket play nice together, no interference problems at all. I would most definitely recommend them!

 

[max 02]

That is all looking AWESOME!!

Fort mac must be treating you well...It`s nice to see a guy use the money they make up there on something usefull instead of the usual,spent it all on booze and drugs.

Keep it up! You are doing good.

 

[Russell]

Yup, just found out I am getting a $1400 bonus on my next paycheque next week too! Sometimes I think booze and drugs might be cheaper than my addiction though...

Anyways, I've got a few more pictures for you guys! Sorry they are a bit late, but I didn't get home till right late last night, and just got home about 40 minutes ago from a 12hr day at work after only 5hrs sleep last night, haha! I'm a bit of a wreck after staying up past midnight all weekend working on the hoe...

Anyways, yesterday I got the ARB bumper tightened up, wired the winch up, two more tires mounted on the beadlocks and installed. I also tried bleeding the brakes after repairing a cracked line on the rear circuit but was too late -- The ABS unit is full of air and it ain't gonna bleed out for me. I'm just going to eliminate it and put in a good ol disc disc prop valve with an adjustable rear circuit and a 40 mm bore master cylinder that comes stock on the disc disc diesel burb. The tie rod was definitely way too long, but fortunately ORD came through last second and I found my new hi-steer arm and tie rod sitting on my front porch when I got home tonight I also measured and found out that I need an additional 4" of lift out back. Fortunately, a local offroad supply house has a set of them in stock and they now have my name on them.

So, Thursday is my final day to work on the truck. In that day I need to swap my rear springs out, install the shock tabs and shocks front / rear that arrived this week (man, everything is just working out for me with shipping for once!), install the hi-steer arm and do a quick tape measure alignment. I need that all done by 4:30 so I can drive the truck over to a friend's place where we are going to fabricate and install an engine crossmember and weld some DOM between the front frame rails to keep them straight as well. I am then putting the truck on a trailer and hauling it off to the mountains to see what it can do! Should be a fun weekend, definitely find out all the little things I missed while building it, haha!

The good news is that I have 4 weeks after this run to fix any problems with the truck before Moab. I'll definitely be taking it in for a proper front end alignment and exhaust, and hopefully be getting my SYE / driveshafts installed before I leave.

Anyways, on to a couple more pictures!

 

[dfl701]

that bumper looks good!!!!! making good progress on it and lookin forward to some wheeling pics!

 

[dustin.dstroya.montoya]

Man that thing is sick, can't wait to see it in Moab, see you there.

 

[dhcomp]

Looks killer, makes me miss my 2 door!

 

[folkenheath]

Man that thing looks tough, I like the whole truck, nice work. The only thing is the pumpkin is on the wrong side?

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Looks killer, makes me miss my 2 door!

I know, right?

Man that thing looks tough, I like the whole truck, nice work. The only thing is the pumpkin is on the wrong side?

Ford high pinion, reverse cut gear D60 front > Chevy low pinion, standard cut gear D60 front

 

[folkenheath]

Ford high pinion, reverse cut gear D60 front > Chevy low pinion, standard cut gear D60 front

Sure, get all serious and ruin my lame joke...

The Chevy's stronger if you are in reverse!

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Uhmmmmmmm...yeah...

 

[Russell]

Reverse is for girly Jeeps

 

[Deuling]

Lookin great man. One thing though, is it just the camera angle or is your passenger front tire sticking way out???

 

[scottishdave]

Love this so far...I have a 96' 2-door tahoe which i cant look at without picturing a SFA under there.

Keep it up.

 

[Russell]

Well, it has been a little while since I posted an update!

I finally got the truck finished enough to take it for a run out at the mountains this weekend! I had a great time, though I did find a few issues that need to be addressed on the Tahoe...

1. Driveshafts. Absolutely need to be doing driveshafts I have major binding issues both front and rear with the slightest bit of down travel. I've got a SYE here and will get it installed so I can get some driveshafts made up locally.

2. Brakes. I did manage to get the ABS unit bled out using my scan tool, and got a decent pedal out of it, but I still need to yank that ABS unit out and put in the Wilwood adjustable prop valve I bought. My rear brakes come in way too fast and hard in a panic stop which makes the rear end come around right away. I also still have a bit of a spongy pedal due to an undersized master cylinder. I've got everything on hand to fix all this up, shouldn't be a huge issue. I also need to swap out my rear brake line as it is a bit tight when articulating, again also have one on hand.

3. Steering. The truck needs hydraulic assist pretty badly. I've got a bit of bump steer going on, and I can't turn the wheels when sitting still, particularly so with the front locker engaged. I also need to swap the steering arms out with a kit that puts the tie rod infront of the drag link. The drag link end is directly above the tie rod with the ORD arms, and I hit there a few time this weekend.

4. Rear suspension. As much as I hate to admit it, I had to put a set of 4" blocks in the rear of the truck. I bought some Procomp 4" lift springs for the truck, but they have so much arch in them without any weight on them, I can't even reach the rear shackle. If you put weight on them to flatten them out, you can get them into the shackle but it goes up the wrong way I am not sure what I am going to do out back instead. I am thinking about leaving the block in for Moab and doing a triangulated 4 link out back over the winter.

Other than that, the truck performed really well this weekend! I did get myself a bit stuck in some muskeg (thank god for M12000 winches... That thing pulled hard to get me out!) but had no issues otherwise!

I didn't get very many pictures because I was on my own this weekend and was driving the whole time, but here are the few I did snap with my cell phone!