Shorty the crewcab. (Been saved from the chopping block)

[sweetk30]

few pics of the angle iron brackets i made to hold the blazer 31 gal tbi tank and install in a k30 long bed .

hope this gives you a few ideas . the 45* notches are or wires or fuel lines to pass threw . the rear unit also replaces the old o.e.m. stamped steel tin cross member .

 

[shady]

When I put the front driveshaft in it seemed like maybe they did something wrong . I called the place, talked to a guy to verify that I knew how to measure it, and measured the way he told me to.
When I put it in I pushed it all the way in, and extended it way out, just to see it's range. Then it pretty much centered it's it's again. When I got the flange end on, I had to pull it all the way out to the range of the dust boot pretty much to get the yoke end mated up. That doesn't leave a lot of droop left ....? Not entirely sure what to do besides run it and hope.

 

[shady]

Well I did some looking yesterday, and it looks like I won't be putting the blazer tank in its final spot just yet. It'll have to move again when the shortening gets done.

The rear most shock mount at the frame is in the way. And I'm not messing with moving shock mounts right now.

The rear cross member will be moved forward, and be the rear tank mount, and the one with blue will move up and be bolted in underneath the top rail and serve at the top cross bar holding the tank in. Which puts the shock mount in the wrong place.
I have a final solution, but I'm just not doing it right now. I'll inboard the shocks later.

For now I'll leave the rear one where it is, and mount the tank the same way.

 

[shady]

Snapped a pic of my current front D shaft angle today. From eyeballing it with an angle gauge it looks like I'll need 6*-8* of shim.

 

[sweetk30]

if you shim the front axle it will KILL the caster angle and make death wobble a LOT more possible .

years ago on a project jesse at H.A.D told me ditch shims and do 1 of 2 options . cut/turn knuckles if real tall . or go 1410 u-joint at the axle end for a lot more working angle.

 

[shady]

I've heard of people turning the knuckles.... I'm not sure I want to tackle that lol. But I never even thought of the caster angle.

For now I was planning to run it, and see how it goes. Only 4x4 time will be on trial. So hopefully it's not bad until I can get something done.
Driveline angles are something I've read a lot about. But never really actually dealt with myself

 

[sweetk30]

i did this blazer build

i used 4" tuff country hd front and 1" zero and pushed 1.5" forward . its close like yours and he has a few good flex pics and it didnt pop out . and thats with a 1" drive shaft flange spacer .

i can tell you anyway to make the shaft LONGER helped a LOT on the angles we had to play with . i wanted to do a custom long slip unit on it but he didnt want to yet .

if we could have done a custom long slip unit thats in the 7" working range over the stock 3.5"-4" range and no shaft spacer it would have been perfect .

 

[sweetk30]

good info i picked up my self and from other members here . https://ck5.com/forums/threads/long-slip-front-shaft-ideas-updated-info-inside-any-ideas.336915/

 

[shady]

The Tom woods I got has a longer full spline style slip on it.
I'm not sure how long. It's just the better of their 2 options is all I know.

 

[folkenheath]

I agree, don't shim the front axle, ruining your caster will result in bad handling even if it doesn't death wobble.

I had to upgrade to the longer spline because the shorter one would just bottom out and break when the leaf springs cycled. I thought I had it fixed until I put the big block in then I broke the CV again the first time I tromped on it in 4WD.

Rotating the inner Cs is a big undertaking, completely disassemble the axle and then I gouged out the welds with the plasma or torch. Then I tried moving them and they were so stuck on there I had to take them to a guy with a giant press, it took 60 tons before it moved after a loud bang! Some members have said they move a lot easier out west. Probably rusted on there, once we cleaned up the surfaces and burrs I was able to tap them back in position very easily and weld them up.

 

[Truckman4life]

Since we are talking about this and I am in a similar situation. What should caster be and where do you get an accurate reading on it on say a 10 bolt front axle or any I guess? I assume you need to level the vehicle somehow front to back to get the correct degree reading, I'm guessing a floor or driveway that slopes a 1/4 bubble or so would throw off the reading. Maybe run a string level from the front tire to the rear one and jack up the low end to get things leveled?

 

[shady]

Got some stuff done. I was going to put it all together to get it in, and move the tank when I do the shortening. But I figured I'd get as much done now as I can.
So I moved my shocks to get the tank far enough forward that I can just lop 4" off the end of the frame when the time comes.
I built some shock mounts out of some scrap and leftovers we had around.
I realized that it'll have to be cut out to ever be removed, but I'll flange it if that time ever comes.
Both of them on the front of the axle probably isn't ideal. But to get that tank in there I didn't have much choice.
The rear cross member was de-riveted. And bolted back in for now. It will move forward 4"-5". I also cut and drilled the angle iron that will be my front tank strap mount.

When I in hooked the shocks I realized that the factory mounts only gave me about 2" of droop . They're 11" travel shocks.
So I measured the amount of up travel I would have if sitting hard on compressed bump stops, and gave them 1" of extra room. Then mounted them accordingly. Now I'll have the ability to smack the stops without hurting the shock, and have about 6" of droop available.
Shock bolts are now 5/8".

 

[shady]

After the tank gets in there I'll be fully ready to shorten it. Probably this winter.

At that point all I'll have to do is Mark the frame, lop n weld, then lop the extra off the rear. Shorten 2 lines, and have the D-shaft shortened. All other leg work will have been done.

 

[shady]

Got the tank mounts done. Ignore the yellow. Ran out of black and wanted to Seal the primer.

And the shocks are in. I had to drill the lower bushing out to 5/8". But it went easy.

 

[shady]

Also put some sound mat stuff on as an isolator between the mounts/straps and tank.

 

[folkenheath]

Since we are talking about this and I am in a similar situation. What should caster be and where do you get an accurate reading on it on say a 10 bolt front axle or any I guess? I assume you need to level the vehicle somehow front to back to get the correct degree reading, I'm guessing a floor or driveway that slopes a 1/4 bubble or so would throw off the reading. Maybe run a string level from the front tire to the rear one and jack up the low end to get things leveled?

I just used one of those digital angle finders and put it on the flat part of the steering arm. The trucks from the factory were either 4 or 8 degrees I believe ( so the top is tilted back). So I think 4 should be the minimum and you should shoot for 8, I think the extra caster helps handling. So you just need to know your caster and pinion angle before you take it apart, and then you can calculate how much you need to move it to get the pinion angle where you need it with the caster where you want it. I was starting over with the suspension and axle so I ended up off a degree or too, I think I have 9 or 10 degrees of caster, but I like it that way, handles great.

 

[Truckman4life]

I just used one of those digital angle finders and put it on the flat part of the steering arm. The trucks from the factory were either 4 or 8 degrees I believe ( so the top is tilted back). So I think 4 should be the minimum and you should shoot for 8, I think the extra caster helps handling. So you just need to know your caster and pinion angle before you take it apart, and then you can calculate how much you need to move it to get the pinion angle where you need it with the caster where you want it. I was starting over with the suspension and axle so I ended up off a degree or too, I think I have 9 or 10 degrees of caster, but I like it that way, handles great.

Ok thanks. I have changed enough that I have no starting point but I just want to see where it's at now that I have moved the axle forward to know if I can mess with my pinion angle at all and not make the handling all screwy.

 

[shady]

There's a LOT of guys running lifted squares on D60's.... So what are the guys that don't rotate the C's doing to make it work

 

[centexk5]

Ignoring it and driving it.

 

[shady]

Gotta be hard on drive shafts.... Mine looks like it'd run out of angle pretty quick in a decent droop situation.
Maybe it just looks worse than it is.