Truck Build - DD, Tow Rig and play!

very nice work!

Garrett

JFlagg said:

Thats some nice machine work and fabbing you did there! I think the 37 spline is a good upgrade for the D80's. That, along with the bigger bearings and 4.10's should make for a great rearend for a tow rig. Now the next question is, when are you doing the 4.10's in the front? Or did you do that at the same time, but didn't mention it since it didn't require any fancy fab work? LOL

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thanks, i'm pretty stoked on this rear end. been drivin it the last few days to work and it's drivin really nice. no big jump between gears any more, should been sweet when i tow. drives like it did w stock tires.

as for the front end i have not changed the gears. funny thing about that is my wife and i were up at my parents house last week and we got our first snow storm this year. there was only a few inches that were stickin to the ground but it was more then enough to make it really slick for a 2 wheel drive. my wife was like "glad we brought your truck". i dident want to explane to her that i have diffrent gears in the front and back and that the 4 wheel drive wont work. :bang well my parents house is on a pretty steep hill and to make it up i had to put it in 4 wheel drive and just creap up the hill. its only 3 more houses till the top then its city owned streets and they are pretty good and plowing them. i could feel the front end dragin the rear as i was creapin up the hill cus the front tires were turning faster. :hehe: it was slick enough and i was going slow enough that it dident hurt any thing.

anyways to answer your question i have not changed the gears in the front because i'm going to build a custom front end so i dont want to put any money in to it.

Goinbyyabig said:

X2 on the "I need to buy some more tools", having access to the lathe, bridgeport, welders, etc. is nice but only part of the game. You have some excellent fab and machining skills man, takes brains as well for that stuff to come out right and last, keep us posted!!

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thanks man

SSpeeDEMONSS said:

very nice work!

Garrett

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thanks

so i've been drivin her the last week or so to work and its sweet! i really like the 4.10's. i dont have the top speed that i did but it shifts alot better. no big jump between gears, back to like it was w stock tires. should be sweet for towing.

did a little more tuning on the twins also. put a stock wg elbow and tightened the pre-load on the wg and now shes runnin sweet. got the emmissions checked on it last week also. i chickened out and turned off my comp box but she passed with flying colors. maybe next year i'll leave the comp box turned on and she what she blows. :rockwoot: now i'm working on getting my saftey instection. hopfully i can get that done this week and get her all registered. :cheer:

so the next thing i'm going to work on is the front axle. the plan was to just change out the gears in the rear end and then build a custom front end all before the snow falls this year so i would have 4 wheel drive. well it snowed last week. this front end build should go pretty quick, i've been collecting parts for the last 8 months. here is a few of the parts that i have. dont want to post all the parts cuz it will ruin the suprise. LOL

14 bolt rear end out of a chevy van. think it was a '99 or '00, pulled it out in july for like 80 bucks. its got 4.10's and a open carrier in it already. this will be my new front end.




tie rod ends for over the road trucks. going to use these on the ends of my tie rod and drag link. should hold up to my heavy tires. the shank on these is 1 1/4" :rockwoot:




thats all for now

I think I know whats going on.... I bet it gets some Dana 60 steering knuckles on a 14 bolt? Though, I ask why? I guess with all your machine tools you can make it stronger than a 60 for cheaper than building the 60... but I'm sure the 60 would be more than strong enough for anything you would throw at it. Unless your just going for the coolness factor

I'd take the 14 bolt and put some 4340 axles in it with a limitedslip with D60 outers with lock out hubs. I would switch out factory coil for some air shocks or some King coil overs with new four link set up with at least 3/4'' joints thats rebuild able. I'd also but hdryo assit steering on it. PSC has some good steering parts its what on my jeep.

id throw some d60 deadenbear ends on it with ctm axles and ujoints and an arb

JFlagg said:

I think I know whats going on.... I bet it gets some Dana 60 steering knuckles on a 14 bolt? Though, I ask why? I guess with all your machine tools you can make it stronger than a 60 for cheaper than building the 60... but I'm sure the 60 would be more than strong enough for anything you would throw at it. Unless your just going for the coolness factor

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well about 6 months ago you would have been right on. i had some 60 outer stuff i was going to put on a jeep but dident, so thought it would be perfect on my truck. but i ended up selling it to my friend for a 9" he is building. so now i'm going a diffrent way. still going to use the 14bolt as the center just run diffrent outers.
so to answer your question why: besides the fact that i kinda have a problem leaving anything alone, i dident like how weak the front end was. not the shafts or the center section, i'ed prolly never have a problem with them. but the unit bearings, small tie rod ends and ball joints just could not hold up to the stress they were under. they could not handle the 22.5's. so i was just going to throw the kingpin 60 outers on the 60 under my dodge but figured i could get a 14 bolt with the right gears for 80 bucks, cheaper that new gears for the 60, plus i could build the 14 with out disabling my truck. then just swap it over when its done. and there might be a little coolness factor in there. just cuz i love 14 bolts!

so here is some pics of the 60 stuff i was going to run. dedenbear knuckles and inner c's with ford spindles and hubs.

jordanjames81 said:

I'd take the 14 bolt and put some 4340 axles in it with a limitedslip with D60 outers with lock out hubs. I would switch out factory coil for some air shocks or some King coil overs with new four link set up with at least 3/4'' joints thats rebuild able. I'd also but hdryo assit steering on it. PSC has some good steering parts its what on my jeep.

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not doing the 60 outers/knuckles any more.
already ahead of ya on the axles
doing real spindles and locking hubs
i am ditchin the factory coil springs but not for air shocks. they will not handle the weight and coil overs are to much for a tow rig. i'm going with some over the road truck air bags.
also ahead of ya on the hydro assist steering. check the start of the thread.
thanks for the input :Cheer:

pics of the shafts that are going in the front end.

jackblack99 said:

id throw some d60 deadenbear ends on it with ctm axles and ujoints and an arb

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well that was the plan except keep the diff open in the front. i've got a detroit sittin around i could throw in it but prolly keep it open, perfect for a tow rig.

like your aviator by the way! :rockwoot:

so here is what i'm doing now. i'm still using the 14 bolt center but i'm using chevy spindles and hubs. the dodge brakes and rotors, the 3rd gen ones. and i'm fabin my own custom knuckles and inner c's. i like the chevy spindles and hubs better than the fords because they are a little bigger and how the spindles bolt right to the knuckles unlike the fords that have the caliper bracket between them. i'm also using chey dulley hubs because they have so much meat on them. i'm machining them down and then going to press and weld on a wheel flange, that way it will be right where i want it. :rockwoot:
chevy dana 60 hubs


all taken apart

i took the plaz to the hub flanges to cut them off. worked out pretty well.

before i started machining on them i took the hubs over to the belt sander to clean them up a bit. that thing is a monster! metal eater for sure! only took like 20 min maybe to clean up one of these hubs!

all machined down!


test fit of the lockin hub face to make sure the ends match up and dont look like crap.




i dident machine the back end where the flange is going to press and weld on yet because i dont know exactly where its going to be.

this is a sick build!!! Awesome work!.. I like how you made your own remote oil filter setup..i have been messing wiuth that for my excursion swap and i wa slooking at teh back of the housing debating were to drill and weld it up for the port... a lot cheaper then cummins or destroked... did you take any pictures of the back side?..if you did that would help me out ...
Thanks,
Deo

therabbittree said:

this is a sick build!!! Awesome work!.. I like how you made your own remote oil filter setup..i have been messing wiuth that for my excursion swap and i wa slooking at teh back of the housing debating were to drill and weld it up for the port... a lot cheaper then cummins or destroked... did you take any pictures of the back side?..if you did that would help me out ...
Thanks,
Deo

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thanks man, yeah it worked out pretty sweet. here is a pick of the back side. you can see the top passage way, that is the return port. the hole at the bottom or to the right in this pic of the passage way is where the return line comes in at. and the two holes just up or to the left in the pic are the turbo feed lines.

ok, sorry its been so long with out any updates. here is what has been happening thus far. not much! ok not as much as i would have liked. i took apart the front end, ( the stock dana 60 that is still under my truck) to throw some used 4.10 gears in just so i would have 4 wheel drive untill i could get this new front end done. it started snowing and i needed to do something. well when i got it all apart my front ball joints were pretty toasted! i knew they were a little worn but i dident think they were this bad. so i changed them and it drives alot better. and the 4 wheel drive works so thats nice when i have to drive to work in the snow.

i did take some pics of the bearings that i'm going to use for the knuckles, i'll get those posted up. and i also cut a hole in my front bumper. kinda spur of the moment thing that i was planing on doing at some point but it just happened the other day. so i will load those pics up right now. :rockwoot:

ok here is the pics of the bearings that i'm going to use in the knuckles. should be pretty beef! the stuff on the left is stock 60 kingpin stuff and on the right is the bearings i'm going to use. the larger one on the bottom of the knuckle and the smaller on the top.


left is the stock 60 kingpin lower bearing, middle is the new top bearing and right is the new lower bearing.

ok so here is the hole i put in my bumper. i've been thinkin about this for a while and i dont know how much it will help or if it will make that big of a difference performance wise but i thought why not. its not done yet but here is what i'm doin. my 2nd battery was behind the passenger head light and then the air box behind that. so i moved the battery back where the air box is and put the air filter behind the headlight. put a hole under the filter in the wheel well and in the bumper and put a tube between them. right now the air filter is just open right above the hole but i'm thinkin about building a box for it and then hooking it to the tube so it only gets air from the bumper but i dont know if thats a good idea. :shaking:

:drool1: This build is awesome man, this is going to be one of the stoutest pickup tow rigs I have ever seen. The machine and fab work is excellent!