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On the stand:  Stripping her down  OEM oil cooler. Don't have the hoses for it, not sure that im going to bother reusing this  Oh noes!  So the motor took a hit but aside from the cover it looks ok. Its now sitting with no oil pan or valve covers, ready to start being cleaned. New timing cover should be here Wednesday. Stock:  lift + 3/4 ton swap complete:    Keep in mind, there no motor under the hood yet. Once the motor goes in and the front settles out a bit, I think its going to be perfect! IMO this is how they should have looked when they rolled off the assembly line. Really like where it ended up lift-wise, and the 305s look good in the wheel well. Of course, 35s would probably look even cooler! Tomorrow will be spent doing clean-up in the garage, and then Thursday I get my wisdom teeth removed, which means this is probably the last update for the week. If all goes well, Monday I will begin on the motor! Rear axle is now complete! Brakes done and plumbed, new diff cover and full of oil  Bolted it in, installed a shocks, connected parking brake cables, and called it a day. Today I dropped off the rear d.shaft to get shortened, and then rolled it out of the garage so I could do some cleanup. So here's the money shot!  I shouldve built these years ago!!!! So, since I wont have my wedges for a few days, I decided to finish a shop project that I started over a year ago: Axle stands One finished  both done!  That said, I effortlessly rolled the axle out from under the truck, so that tomorrow (after some cleanup) I can begin refurbishing the brakes  The top of the stand is slotted to accept exhaust ubolts of various sizes, to clamp around the axle tubes. They actually work really good at holding the axle in place, to the point you can roll it around freely, or even set pinion angle. New Hangar, courtesy of Dorman  Springs are now installed, so this morning I got the axle mocked into place!   The axle is jacked up, with the full weight of the truck on the springs. The B codes flatten out nicely; should ride nice. They get close to the overload at ride height but don't ride on them, so it should carry weight pretty nicely. The stock tapered blocks are in there currently, and need to be, but theyre both cracked so ive got a new set on order from JBG. So no snugging up ubolts or putting it on all fours until some time next week. Sucks, but it gives me time to replumb the rear brakes, and get the driveshaft shortened. Near as I can tell, it looks like the B Codes lifted it ~3", but ill have to get it on the ground so I can get better measurements. If it ends up too tall in the rear ill drop the overload.  8.8 coming out:  Snow storm inbound, so I brought the 10.25 inside:  One of my wedges is cracked, ill have to get replacements  Moving on to the SD leafs. The fixed end is 18mm. I don't have any 18mm bolts (nor do I have an 18mm drill bit), but I do have 3/4. So ive opted to drill out the bushing & hangar to 3/4. Here's the difference in size, it's pretty minimal (.708" to .750"):
Done & painted:  stock pack next to the SD leafs. SD leafs "B Code" have maybe 1�½" more arch, and appear to be a tad longer. Probably going to need to keep overload, plus factory bronco block to get to 2½" lift, we'll see.  Pass side bracket is in pretty bad shape. D.side was replaced by previous owner, but this one is shot & needs to be replaced
Entire d.side frame has now been needle-scaled, wire wheeled & painted:  If it snows tonight/tomorrow like theyre saying, ill be home clearing driveway. If not, ill be at junkyard with a buddy looking for stuff. Either way, there wont be any progress tomorrow. Hoping Friday I can get pass side frame stripped & painted. New shackle hangar arrives Friday, so im hoping Monday to install that plus hang leafs, we'll see. ...and now to delete the 4WABS. Chop up some brake lines  Then remove pump & bracket  the 'brains' of the operation  and a ton of wires!  Weve got to open up the harness that goes to the ABS ECM  The 4 loose wires get spliced together to complete the speed signal. The rest of em in my hand? Useless!  Yup, that looks way better.  Weight reduction!  And now for Phase Two: New master cylinder & booster for a '96 F350  a spool of Copper-Nickel brake tubing  ...and shazam! No more 4WABS!  That pretty much catches me up to today. I went to put tires on the front, and realized the chevy wheel studs are too short! Hoping I saved the studs from the F250 I parted out, otherwise ill be buying 16 new studs. Im gonna do some general cleanup in the garage tomorrow, and see if I still have em. Odds are I wont have time to swap the studs until next week. Next week's plan is to lift the rear & swap the 10.25 in., and then do a ton of bleeding to the brakes. At least, that's the plan anyway. I took some time away from working on the truck, to source all the parts to put the 351 in. Which I now have. Add in some other things along the way and I lost a bunch of time, but still, progress! lift kit installed:  D50 stub shafts in place  front end complete!   stock pitman arm, next to a 4wd F250 arm  All new Moog TREs. Instead of using bronco TREs, these are the ambulance prep Van TREs. Beefy.  |
