Everybody Needs a Truck - 1996 K1500

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Looking great DJ.

Thanks Preach! Not too many of these types of builds here so I figured it would be good to make the thread not suck!

Late March/early April 2022

Started axle disassembly. One of the six lug hubs was badly damaged so I elected to replace them both.

Knuckle off

Ended up having to cut u joints.

Breaking down the hubs and outers.

Had to get the studs out of the Chevy left knuckle as that one gets used without a steering arm now. They had presumably been in there since the early 1970s. Heated the knuckle and the studs backed right out with a pipe wrench. A testament to the metal quality.

Whole pile of parts coming home in the other truck. Axle and suspension related but also distributor, plugs, wires, coil and module that I replaced as the truck had been running somewhat poorly. The coil and module appeared to be originals.

Parts, parts, parts.

One thing I wanted to avoid when doing the axle swap was going back 30 years in brake technology. I was able to come up with a setup to use H3 brakes. That required machining the hubs smaller so that the H3 rotors will slip on the front side as opposed to the 70s style rotors going on from the back side. The wheel studs will be pressed into the hubs now.

July 2022

Two new Mevotech ball joints going into the Reid Racing knuckle. Also pictured are new Mile Marker hubs and Cunningham Machine door rollers.

July 2022

Axle housing stripped, cleaned and painted. Knuckles in place, spindles on. Ended up getting new spindles cause the ones from the Chevy D44 were rough. Had to get outer axle shafts too. All in all didn't end up using much from the Chevy 44.

Anyway, caliper bracket test fit too.  Up on stands getting ready for gears and the Eaton ELocker, old gears and carrier still in place.

Marked the bearing caps and pulled out the old carrier and gears. Marked shims that came out for future reference.

Custom ORD springs by Alcan for the front. Several thin leaves.

Maybe I should have been driving this more?

Lost the rear u joint on the way to the shop and had to tow it the rest of the way. Some concerns about the rear pinion angle, needs to be checked once the suspension gets dialed in.

Started in on the gear/carrier install. It's been a very long time so going is slow and we got a little off track in the process. Didn't get it dialed in that day and won't get back to it for another week or two but we will get there.

Tools of the trade. Pinion holding tool, inch pounds dial torque wrench, dead blow hammer and an oven.

30 minutes at 200°. Chef kiss.

Checking backlash, fighting an inaccurate indicator, have since gotten a better setup.

Note: that's not how you measure backlash, gauge is just sitting there.

Painted up

First pattern, a few issues here. Pinion is deep and the pattern is faint. Took some shim out of the pinion, that was as far as we got. Will put resistance on the pinion when we run the next pattern to hopefully make it more clear.

That essentially catches us up. I think I'll be able to work on the gear install again in a couple weeks. Should be able to get that dialed in then start on the actual install. Hoping to get it "done" (front suspension and rear axle swap) around Thanksgiving, depending on arrival of the Detroit for the rear.

Next time I'm at the shop I'll post some more pictures of the rest of the parts involved.

fixed a bunch of the early pictures that i lost to photobucket

Shoud be in the shop this weekend, hopefully getting the front axle buttoned up. at least the gearing portion

Ended up going .003 deeper on the pinion after that pattern. Got the preload dialed back in checked the backlash. Ran a pattern I liked then pulled it back apart and put in the real pinion race and carrier bearings, axle seals and pinion seal then buttoned up the differential portion for final assembly. Next is axle shafts and outers. Hopefully under the truck by the end of the month.

Heating the collars for installation on the axle shafts.

Drilling the housing for the E Locker wiring harness.

Harness in. Cover on. For the last time? Who knows.