Looks like a solid find for sure 
CK5
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Project Penny - All good things must come to an end
- Thread starter Russell
- Start date
So you finally gonna get some big tires 
?
Removable cage ? Thats gonna be a serious pain but will be cool.
?Removable cage ? Thats gonna be a serious pain but will be cool.
Invest in lots of those removable tube clamps.
Holy crap!!! Someone stole the tire right off your spare! Call the popo's that ride horses.
Ha! There is a story behind that... I'll tell ya'll later when I am on break at work today
Story:
I've taken Penny to King of the Hammers the last couple of years to use as a camper / chase truck / run to town for parts, showers, food etc rig. This last year I wanted to install my hi-lift jack on the rear bumper which required me to install a wheel spacer on the spare tire carrier to move the tire out a bit. The carrier uses a 9/16" lug nut but the wheel spacer I wound up with has metric lug nuts. The only lug nuts we had available to us at the time were spline drives. One of the other chase trucks in our group had the same spline drive lug nuts on it so we tightened my spare up using his tool and carried on our merry way.
Of course, when I had the tool available to me I did not need the spare for anything. However, I blew a tire out a couple months ago while driving through a canyon. The same canyon that I tin canned my box side, dented my door and broke a window out in. I went to go change my tire after getting my truck out of that canyon and quickly remembered that it has spline drive lug nuts on it now. Which I don't have the tool for.
The only other option was to remove the tire from the wheel on the carrier and swap it onto the other rim. We tried pulling it off with a winch first (There is a video of it on facebook, LOL!). Then wound up taking the carrier right off the bumper so we could get the hi-lift off and used the hi-lift to remove the tire from the wheel still attached to the carrier.
When we tried to get the blown tire off the other wheel it was big time stuck on there. We couldn't get it no matter what we did with the high lift so we grabbed a big knife and tried to cut the tire off but there is a steel cord in the bead which we couldn't get through. So we cut the rest of the tire off, tossed it in the back of a Jeep along with the spare tire and headed to town. We located a grinder with a cutoff wheel and got the rest of the bad tire off the wheel and mounted the spare tire back up.
At 11pm in the dark me and one other guy took one Jeep back out to my truck to put the tire on and get my truck out of the bush. His Jeep does not have doors or a top on it. And the woods are daaaang creepy. And we were talking about bear maulings and cougar attacks the whole way out haha!
We very quickly swapped my tire on, fired up the truck and raced out of the woods as fast as we could. Both of us felt like we were being watched the whole time and didn't feel better until we made it back to camp, LOL! I don't know if Shannon Campbell himself would have been able to keep up with us :P
So, I still don't have the tool to get my wheel off the carrier so I can put a new tire on it. Hense my spare wheel on the carrier without a tire or beadlock ring, lol!
I've taken Penny to King of the Hammers the last couple of years to use as a camper / chase truck / run to town for parts, showers, food etc rig. This last year I wanted to install my hi-lift jack on the rear bumper which required me to install a wheel spacer on the spare tire carrier to move the tire out a bit. The carrier uses a 9/16" lug nut but the wheel spacer I wound up with has metric lug nuts. The only lug nuts we had available to us at the time were spline drives. One of the other chase trucks in our group had the same spline drive lug nuts on it so we tightened my spare up using his tool and carried on our merry way.
Of course, when I had the tool available to me I did not need the spare for anything. However, I blew a tire out a couple months ago while driving through a canyon. The same canyon that I tin canned my box side, dented my door and broke a window out in. I went to go change my tire after getting my truck out of that canyon and quickly remembered that it has spline drive lug nuts on it now. Which I don't have the tool for.
The only other option was to remove the tire from the wheel on the carrier and swap it onto the other rim. We tried pulling it off with a winch first (There is a video of it on facebook, LOL!). Then wound up taking the carrier right off the bumper so we could get the hi-lift off and used the hi-lift to remove the tire from the wheel still attached to the carrier.
When we tried to get the blown tire off the other wheel it was big time stuck on there. We couldn't get it no matter what we did with the high lift so we grabbed a big knife and tried to cut the tire off but there is a steel cord in the bead which we couldn't get through. So we cut the rest of the tire off, tossed it in the back of a Jeep along with the spare tire and headed to town. We located a grinder with a cutoff wheel and got the rest of the bad tire off the wheel and mounted the spare tire back up.
At 11pm in the dark me and one other guy took one Jeep back out to my truck to put the tire on and get my truck out of the bush. His Jeep does not have doors or a top on it. And the woods are daaaang creepy. And we were talking about bear maulings and cougar attacks the whole way out haha!
We very quickly swapped my tire on, fired up the truck and raced out of the woods as fast as we could. Both of us felt like we were being watched the whole time and didn't feel better until we made it back to camp, LOL! I don't know if Shannon Campbell himself would have been able to keep up with us :P
So, I still don't have the tool to get my wheel off the carrier so I can put a new tire on it. Hense my spare wheel on the carrier without a tire or beadlock ring, lol!
I despise lug nuts that aren't hex head.
Martin
Martin
That is a pretty good story lol.
Drive an impact socket down on it with a hammer if you can. I've had to do that before with aftermarket lug nuts.
only bears you gotta worry about up there......
So will we see penny 2.5 in time for KOH this year?
If I make KOH it'll be in Penny 1.25 with new diffs and suspension. Otherwise you'll see me there in a 98 ZJ 4600 class.
I am going to be order a new front diff housing for my truck here shortly. It'll be a Ruff Stuff Sixty9 housing. I'll run a Jana Sixty9 dropout third member with 4.56 gears and an ARB locker. I'll be fitting it with Reid Racing knuckles and re-use my Solid Axle Industries outers + Yukon chromoly axle shafts and hardcore hubs.
I'm going to have the fabricator install all the 3 link bracketry, steering and a truss while he re-does the suspension.
Out back I'll be running a 14BFF with 4.56 gears and an ARB locker as well. I'll use the factory brakes and shafts but I'll have it trussed to work with 63" leaf springs but leave it possible to fit the rear suspension with links as well sometime in the future.
I'm kind of looking forward to getting Penny driving the way she is supposed to after all these years of putting up with terrible handling and white knuckled driving.
I am going to be order a new front diff housing for my truck here shortly. It'll be a Ruff Stuff Sixty9 housing. I'll run a Jana Sixty9 dropout third member with 4.56 gears and an ARB locker. I'll be fitting it with Reid Racing knuckles and re-use my Solid Axle Industries outers + Yukon chromoly axle shafts and hardcore hubs.
I'm going to have the fabricator install all the 3 link bracketry, steering and a truss while he re-does the suspension.
Out back I'll be running a 14BFF with 4.56 gears and an ARB locker as well. I'll use the factory brakes and shafts but I'll have it trussed to work with 63" leaf springs but leave it possible to fit the rear suspension with links as well sometime in the future.
I'm kind of looking forward to getting Penny driving the way she is supposed to after all these years of putting up with terrible handling and white knuckled driving.
y5mgisi
1 ton status
Ha! That's a long tire change!
I bet one it's done you'll regret even wasting the time on the buggy and not just fixing the penny up right instead.
Be like a big fluffy hardcore marshmallow.
Be like a big fluffy hardcore marshmallow.
So, I took Penny wheeling in Moab a couple months ago in early Spring. While I was there I started hearing a sketchy noise in the driveline and could feel it "grabbing" while slowly crawling around. If I put it into 2wd the noise went away immediately. If I unlocked the hubs the noise stayed put in 4wd.
My transfer case had a known about crack in the housing which I'd sealed up with silicon and JB weld a while back. I figured that crack must have gotten worse with all the rock crawling going on and was on the verge of failing.
So I ripped the transfer case out and tore it all down. And other than the crack (which was no worse than before) I found nothing wrong with it. I'd already located a replacement t-case and it was on its way up from Colorado that night so I decided to just wait and put my specialized guts into the new and un-cracked housing rather than tossing the cracked one back in.
With the t-case ruled out I went to work on the front end. I tore the outers off completely and found nothing wrong with the wheel bearings, spindle bearings, locking hubs, axleshafts & ujoints etc. So then I tore the front cover off to inspect the gears and found that they looked just fine. With no idea what else it could be I was just sitting around under the truck looking around when I grabbed the front driveshaft to move myself and my pinion moved. Alot. Like 1/4" of movement up and down. Problem located and definitely wasn't something I was going to be fixing on the trailer in the middle of Moab. I decided I'd just run it as is and hope for the best.
When my replacement t-case showed up I had some concerns with it. Since I run the ZF6 manual trans behind my Duramax I must run a 29 spline input shaft in my NP241 to mate it up. The 29 spline input shaft is originally from an NP261XHD but it shares the same planetary gear set as the NP241 does so it drops right in. But it runs the newer 95+ planetary gear pitch and isn't compatible with the 94 down gear pitch. The case I received was supposed to have been pulled from a 95 truck except the case markings showed it was an 88 housing. And it had a front output flange instead of the yoke that the 95+ cases have.
I was assured that the case was from a 95 and that it was probably just fixed with an older case half on the back. Despite knowing better I believed it and tore the replacement case down. Go figure, but the input shaft dropped right into the planetary ring gear and seemed to turn freely without any binding. I guess he was right afterall?
I went ahead and swapped my slip yoke eliminator kit into the t-case and reassembled everything before installing it into my truck and filling it up. I went for a test drive and didn't even make it out of 2nd gear before the transfer case started howling. I've heard that noise before when I destroyed a 5th gear set in an NV4500 after I was accidentally sold a Dodge counter shaft gear and a Chevy mainshaft gear. It made it 5 or 6 miles before it self destructed.
So, I turned around and put Penny on the trailer 2 days early and hopped in with someone else for the day before leaving early the next morning for home.
Fast forward to yesterday. Thanks to Rene I got my hands on a proper 95+ t-case with the right gear pitch planetary ring gear to repair my case properly. I've always had some issues with my NP241s popping out of 4low but was always fine in 4high. I figured out why that is last night. The input shaft has a slightly bigger bearing shoulder on it than the original shafts do. That causes the planetary set to be a 5 or 10mm from being fully bottomed and engaged. When I shift it into the 4low the shift collar bottoms out hard on the input shaft and the shift fork doesn't quite settle into the detent on the shifter cam.
My solution is going to be to remove the front input bearing retainer and press the input shaft and planet assembly in so it fully seats into the planetary ring gear and that the shift collar does not bottom out on the input shaft anymore. I'll then need to measure the height that the snap ring that holds the front input bearing in place comes off the front face of the housing any make a spacer for it to sit up against and for the bearing retainer to be spaced out a bit with. There will be tons of bearing to housing engagement yet and the extra length of the input shaft will be no problem for mounting it to the transfer case.
I am hoping to more or less get the t-case fully reassembled tonight then need to figure out how to make the spacer needed to put it all back together.
The next step is going to be to get that front diff repaired. My finger has been hovering over the trigger for a drop out D60 third member and a new housing all afternoon. I haven't pulled the trigger yet but I am seriously considering it...
All I technically need to do to get my current housing up to par is to cut the passenger side inner-C loose and rotate it a couple degrees to make my castor numbers match on both sides and to replace the pinion bearings for the front gear set.
This would at least get Penny back up and moving and trailworthy again. I then need to decide if I want to more forwards with building a Penny V2.0 or if I want to move forwards with doing a SAS on my 03 Tahoe instead... I am leaning towards giving the 03 a small IFS lift and some 35s instead of the SAS...
My transfer case had a known about crack in the housing which I'd sealed up with silicon and JB weld a while back. I figured that crack must have gotten worse with all the rock crawling going on and was on the verge of failing.
So I ripped the transfer case out and tore it all down. And other than the crack (which was no worse than before) I found nothing wrong with it. I'd already located a replacement t-case and it was on its way up from Colorado that night so I decided to just wait and put my specialized guts into the new and un-cracked housing rather than tossing the cracked one back in.
With the t-case ruled out I went to work on the front end. I tore the outers off completely and found nothing wrong with the wheel bearings, spindle bearings, locking hubs, axleshafts & ujoints etc. So then I tore the front cover off to inspect the gears and found that they looked just fine. With no idea what else it could be I was just sitting around under the truck looking around when I grabbed the front driveshaft to move myself and my pinion moved. Alot. Like 1/4" of movement up and down. Problem located and definitely wasn't something I was going to be fixing on the trailer in the middle of Moab. I decided I'd just run it as is and hope for the best.
When my replacement t-case showed up I had some concerns with it. Since I run the ZF6 manual trans behind my Duramax I must run a 29 spline input shaft in my NP241 to mate it up. The 29 spline input shaft is originally from an NP261XHD but it shares the same planetary gear set as the NP241 does so it drops right in. But it runs the newer 95+ planetary gear pitch and isn't compatible with the 94 down gear pitch. The case I received was supposed to have been pulled from a 95 truck except the case markings showed it was an 88 housing. And it had a front output flange instead of the yoke that the 95+ cases have.
I was assured that the case was from a 95 and that it was probably just fixed with an older case half on the back. Despite knowing better I believed it and tore the replacement case down. Go figure, but the input shaft dropped right into the planetary ring gear and seemed to turn freely without any binding. I guess he was right afterall?
I went ahead and swapped my slip yoke eliminator kit into the t-case and reassembled everything before installing it into my truck and filling it up. I went for a test drive and didn't even make it out of 2nd gear before the transfer case started howling. I've heard that noise before when I destroyed a 5th gear set in an NV4500 after I was accidentally sold a Dodge counter shaft gear and a Chevy mainshaft gear. It made it 5 or 6 miles before it self destructed.
So, I turned around and put Penny on the trailer 2 days early and hopped in with someone else for the day before leaving early the next morning for home.
Fast forward to yesterday. Thanks to Rene I got my hands on a proper 95+ t-case with the right gear pitch planetary ring gear to repair my case properly. I've always had some issues with my NP241s popping out of 4low but was always fine in 4high. I figured out why that is last night. The input shaft has a slightly bigger bearing shoulder on it than the original shafts do. That causes the planetary set to be a 5 or 10mm from being fully bottomed and engaged. When I shift it into the 4low the shift collar bottoms out hard on the input shaft and the shift fork doesn't quite settle into the detent on the shifter cam.
My solution is going to be to remove the front input bearing retainer and press the input shaft and planet assembly in so it fully seats into the planetary ring gear and that the shift collar does not bottom out on the input shaft anymore. I'll then need to measure the height that the snap ring that holds the front input bearing in place comes off the front face of the housing any make a spacer for it to sit up against and for the bearing retainer to be spaced out a bit with. There will be tons of bearing to housing engagement yet and the extra length of the input shaft will be no problem for mounting it to the transfer case.
I am hoping to more or less get the t-case fully reassembled tonight then need to figure out how to make the spacer needed to put it all back together.
The next step is going to be to get that front diff repaired. My finger has been hovering over the trigger for a drop out D60 third member and a new housing all afternoon. I haven't pulled the trigger yet but I am seriously considering it...
All I technically need to do to get my current housing up to par is to cut the passenger side inner-C loose and rotate it a couple degrees to make my castor numbers match on both sides and to replace the pinion bearings for the front gear set.
This would at least get Penny back up and moving and trailworthy again. I then need to decide if I want to more forwards with building a Penny V2.0 or if I want to move forwards with doing a SAS on my 03 Tahoe instead... I am leaning towards giving the 03 a small IFS lift and some 35s instead of the SAS...
Russell meet trigger. Trigger this is Russell. What do you have to say to Russell trigger?
PULL ME
PULL ME
Russell meet trigger. Trigger this is Russell. What do you have to say to Russell trigger?
PULL ME
Yup.
I can't believe you thought making us read all that would change our thought process one bit
Do it!!!
Stupid not to do it
