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.
Drive shaft angle is at 17 degrees. Which is 3 degrees more than the 10 bolt, whic was at 14 degrees.
Drums sandblasted, painted, and mounted to the truck sporting it's gloss black enamel paint job.
Bolts from the differential cover before I sandblasted them. Looking pretty dirty.
Differential bolts sandblasted clean and mounted in a box cover waiting for some silver base coat paint.
Full line up of the bolts before paint.
Silver base coat spray paint to give the bolts a nice shiny appearance. A little shine up for the axle to look good.
All differential bolts painted and ready for install.
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!!!
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.
Installed the u-joint and got the drive shaft into position under the truck. Everything is looking good!
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.
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!!