CK5
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Setting up 14 bolt SF under k5

Mine came with six lug. not sure why but my dana 44 front and 14 bolt rear are matching 1981 3/4 and only the front lines up. The rear is 3 1/2" off but in any case i get fix the driveshaft angle. So no shims for me
 
Your sure that the rear is a same year? Far as I know from my research only 8 lugs are available in first gen SF axles! If you look on the carrier there is a year manufactured stamp. What year is there? They could have swamped that rearend in from a second gen!
 
Got the brake lines hooked up. Need to fill up an bleed them still.

Put in new ujoint 10 bolt to 14 bolt adapter joint. Fitted up just fine. Bought it from my local Bennet Auto Supply. No NAPA close by anymore? :-(. Cost $36 bucks!

Did realize that I should have either added more forward degree of rotation to the spring perches when i had them welded on or they came off a few degrees during welding. I have only 1 degree of angle at the pinion now instead of 6 degrees from the stock measurement! I may need to put an angle wedge on the spring pack to take some of the low angle on the drive shaft ujoint away. I'd hate to have to cut the off the spring perches an weld them back on again! Hopefully a wedge can get me the extra degrees, I need about 8 degrees to feel better! Right now the drive shaft is really close to the axle pinion at the 1 o'clock position of rotation an that makes me a little nervous!! Oh well! Live an learn I guess!

The shocks tabs did line up really good. Right on the money for those!

Still need to adjust the e-brake cables. I'll wait till after the first drive an after I do my back up adjusting with the drum brakes! Then I'll adjust the e-brake!

Added my 3 quarts of Lucas 80-90w axle oil to the diff this evening. I didn't put any additive as Lucas oil says it is not needed with their oil. So let's hope Lucas oil is as good as they think they are! I've never used their products before!

New reading of the pinion angle.... It's at 2 degrees which is way less then the measured 6 degrees when I measured the 10 bolt pinion angle. I should have tweaked those spring perches more. I put the pinion at the 6 degrees at the welders and assumed the spring perches should then be 0 degrees. That was apparently wrong. I should have measured the spring perches of the ten bolt along with the pinion angle.
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Drive shaft angle is at 17 degrees. Which is 3 degrees more than the 10 bolt, whic was at 14 degrees.
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Drums sandblasted, painted, and mounted to the truck sporting it's gloss black enamel paint job.
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Bolts from the differential cover before I sandblasted them. Looking pretty dirty.
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Differential bolts sandblasted clean and mounted in a box cover waiting for some silver base coat paint.
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Full line up of the bolts before paint.
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Silver base coat spray paint to give the bolts a nice shiny appearance. A little shine up for the axle to look good.
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All differential bolts painted and ready for install.
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Bolts installed on the shiny black painted axle Differential cover. Axle looking nice an shiny. Going be a shame after I take it off road and get it all dirty again!!!
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Got the U-Joint with the different sizes, so I can adapt my 10 bolt drive shaft to the 14 bolt axle with out any issue. Nice beefy unit. An my favorite part..... It's made in America! I always try to buy America made products.
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Installed the u-joint and got the drive shaft into position under the truck. Everything is looking good!
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Put in the Lucas oil 80w-90 oil. 3 quarts is what the manual says this axle will hold. So I'll try to add 3 an see if it holds it all.
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My only concern with the axle at this point is that the space between the drive shaft and yoke on the axle. This is all the space that is available at the 1 O'clock position in the rotation. I'm thinking I'm going to be needing that angle shim to get the upward shimming needed to increase the pinion angle degree to a better angle an there by increasing the space between these two pieces!!
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Bled the brakes today. Everything seemed okay until I was testing out the break after I bled hem an the right rear brake cylinder failed! Fluid dripping out. I took it apart, the cylinder had pushed itself all the way out.

So I took it back to the parts store thinking it was a bad cylinder. I put the replacement one in, bleed the brakes! Do a couple of test pumps of the pedal, then start to back out if the driveway an the pedal goes to the floor an brake light comes on!! I look an the right rear brake is dripping brake fluid out again!!!! WTF!!!!!

So I dunno what the hell the problem is! It's like the push rod on the brake cylinder is failing an the entire piston is pushing its self all the way out! I don't believe I set the brakes up wrong in any way!

Anyone have any thoughts on why this could be happening!?
 
Okay!! Totally dumb realization moment!! I forgot to tighten down the star wheel to make the brakes tight against the brake drum! Which allowed the brake cylinder to push out to far an fail in the drum!

So kiddies!!! Today I learned not to forget to tighten the star wheel an making sure the drum is a tight fit before bolting everything on an the bleeding the brakes!!!

Yet another reason why disc brakes in the rear would be so nice to have!!!!
 
As far as the brakes go. It could be a few small things:
There not contacting the shoe properly.
The shoes are not adjust properly (way to far in)
The return springs are not in the proper place.
E-brake bar is not in the proper place holding shoes apart.
Needles to say, most likely somethings is in the wrong spot.

Edit: Looks like you got you're answer.
 
As far as the brakes go. It could be a few small things:
There not contacting the shoe properly.
The shoes are not adjust properly (way to far in)
The return springs are not in the proper place.
E-brake bar is not in the proper place holding shoes apart.
Needles to say, most likely somethings is in the wrong spot.

Edit: Looks like you got you're answer.

Yeah! Silly oversight on my part! Got in a hurry to get it done an forgot about running out the star wheel adjuster to make them tight against the brake drum!!!
 
Do you know if that 447 crossover U Joint is the same for a 14B FF?
 
Congrats on your progress! With the longer axle how does your slip yoke look now?

I have a np241 with a slip yoke. So not a problem on the adaption.. I am noticing drive line vibration a little bit because my angle is only at 1 degree instead if the 6 degrees like the stock setup. Plus I think, that having the axle be a little longer than the 10 bolt also made the angle less correct. I'm going to have to put a 6 degree shim in the axle perches to gain some correction.

It was the one thing I didn't take in to account. The yoke being closer to the transfer case causing a more severe angle at the axle yoke even though I measured the yoke angle to be 6 degrees like stock the extra length caused an extra amount of degree angle. So instead of having 6 degrees like I setup I ended up with only 1 degree at the axle yoke!

I believe if I had measured both axle yoke angle an spring perch angle I might have been a little better off. I only check yoke angle at the axle.
 
Do you know if that 447 crossover U Joint is the same for a 14B FF?

I don't know about that one! I went to Advance Auto to get my second ujoint which was a Moog. It was cheaper than the one I bought from Bennett an I like Moog products better.

So if you have an Advance Auto they should carry what ever you need.
 
I don't know about that one! I went to Advance Auto to get my second ujoint which was a Moog. It was cheaper than the one I bought from Bennett an I like Moog products better.

So if you have an Advance Auto they should carry what ever you need.

The people who work at Adance in my area are idiots. Can barely look up an oil filter by year, make and model. Forget about anything not stock. I found the U joint at another parts store. $40. :eek1: hopefully it will fit.
 
If you were closer, I have two extra degree shims you could try out.

Sorry to hear about the angle thing. I know my slip yoke is out a little so I'm thinking the longer 14 bolt will push it back in maybe an inch or two. But I do realize that we are decreasing the distance so the angles could potentially go bigger.

Anyways, keep us posted. You rear end looks awesome! Love the shiny black and the silver bolts!
 
I'm just going to buy my shims from diyx4x4.com. I'm thinking the 6 degree should put my driveshaft back in a nice alignment again.

Next axle I'll learn to take more measurements before I place my spring perches!!! Oh well! Nothing a little shimming won't fix up!

Truck drives good, just that tiny ujoint driveline vibration that is there due to the extreme angle that it is at right now!
 
Going to go with a 6 degree shim to try an correct the driveline angle at the axle since it is way to low!

Called up www.offroaddesign.com an they had the shims for only $25 bucks! What an awesome deal!

If this works out for correcting the angle, then I may look into doing one of their shackle flip kits! They correct driveline angle also! Think they said the 4" shackle flip is a 8 to 9 degree positive degree correction!

First thing first is get this thing back on the road. Shim is ordered an on the way!

After that then it will be time to send in the drive shaft to be balanced!
 
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