Making an old Girl feel young again...

[Robert B]

oh and yes i have this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDA5BA71IrU

[Coonburger]

looking pro

[Robert B]

i should probably say this but it now has a (stock) 1987 chevy 350 motor......1993 NV4500 ......1986 dodge 208 t case........1977 matched 14bolt rear end and true heavy duty dana 44..... brand new custom exhaust

[Rick]

oh and yes i have this videoWhere is that at?

[tonkatoy]

what trail were you at.

[Minnesota]

I have to bring up my favorite RobertB quote...






"Now THAT'S how you stuff a tire!"

[glacierpaul]

Very nice Robert!!

[Robert B]

that would be the Illinois Gulch trail down here by woodland park

[Rick]

Illinois Gulch traillooks fun on your video

[Robert B]

thhats the hardest part but yes if anyone ever wnats to do it let me know :) id be game to go again

[Robert B]

kay had more problems with my fuel lines but i gave up and spent 70 bucks on fitting and am going to rubber hose !!

[glacierpaul]

Nice!! Well spent $70, fuel delivery is pretty important :)

[Fordguy77]

Looking good bro, how come I don't get sneak peaks anymore? Did you forget about me?

[Robert B]

well your in CA and im still waiting for the giant earthquake that ends up sending CA into the ocean...........:) mainly i seemed you were working before the sun came up to after it went down lol now we have to go wheeling again and you can see the beast in action

[Fordguy77]

well your in CA and im still waiting for the giant earthquake that ends up sending CA into the ocean...........:) mainly i seemed you were working before the sun came up to after it went down lol now we have to go wheeling again and you can see the beast in action
Ha well ya, i only work 7 to 7 haha but its been dark to dark, kinda messed up, looking forward to seeing the sun again, and to see the beat in action since shes been out of commission for so long.

[The StRanger]

41 is NOT OLD :p

41.... I remeber that week !!!!!

[Fordguy77]

I was going through some of my old photos, and i found this from when You, Brad, and I hit up china wall, back when we still had Kateys Explorer. It really shows how far your rigs have come.
Look at the before and after on the flex bud! Hell of a nice build you have had!

[Robert B]

so i found out 2 fun things..........1 if your driveshaft is held onto the transfer case flange by 4 bolts and 2 of those bolts back out about 1/2 inch and the other 2 loosen a little bit it gets real fun....and you get an immense vibration and some nice clunks and stuff........ and very odd acceleration ...and 2 i found out in 5th gear (no power by the way) i can do according to my GPS 80 mph at about 2300 rpm

[Robert B]

new "fuzzy" tires installed today :cool:

[Jackie]

Luv the fuzzies! :thumb:

My fuzzies are all gone and starting to turn into chunkies. Maybe next year...:erm:

[Minnesota]

new "fuzzy" tires installed today :cool:

Nice man! "Fresh Rubber Day" is a beautiful thing.

[Rick]

Nice!!!!!!!!

[CS79bronco]

Lookin good, would love to see some "whiskers" under my fenders too.

[Robert B]

finally got some fender trimming done on the front as eagle rock and the new and improved saran wrap (much harder now) had the tires hitting the fenders a whole lot and this is the end result. took about 3 inches off from the inner wheel well stock spot and that makes the outer fender between 5-6ish inches cut back. and it may not look like it but there are 3 layers of metal in that fender and some are 1/4 inch per layer almost... very heavy stuff and it took a lot to bend them

[Robert B]

heres a reference photo

[alexb]

I like the new fender lines much better. :) Nice work.

[Robert B]

okay it has been a while since I have done much work on the old girl but here goes with the last weeks job ......I knew the ball joints were a little loose when I put the dana 44 in but it was something at the time that was okay and to be done later .......later is now lol.......after seeing the tires were feathering pretty badly and the dana "lean" was gone from the front tires things needed to be fixed......... all four ball joints are completely greaseless and rusty enough inside I could not put grease in them and on top of that they just flop around and have up and down play in them so they are beyond bad .....also found out the driver side wheel hub nuts had about 5 foot pounds of torque on them if that which means the wheel bearings were loose on top of the destroyed ball joints...... I also changed the axle u-joints as one was getting to the bad stage and the other was okay but I had the 50 bucks and figured why not since it takes a lot to get to them ....... then part way through the teardown my dad mentioned the flat top knuckles I had in the shed and things got more expensive :) sent the passenger knuckle off to ORD to be drilled and witht that noticed that these knuckles are off a drum brake truck from somewhere in the early 60's most likely..... this may not be a bad thing to some but the 6 spindle stud holes are at a different rotation..... also not a big deal except that rotates the backing plate which locates the caliper and it moves the caliper extremely close to the steering arm and I did not buy the cross over arm yet but it may have to be modified to even work with that .....the bonus with these knuckles is that the tie rod is factory drilled to be on top so I also bought ORD's overkill tie rod as mine is bent and not the strongest and those end joints were also flopping around and were toasted ......moving the tie rod onto the top means I had to move the leaf springs up to clear it ......plus I added one leaf to remove the wave I had in my leafs at rest height.... this made me add at least 1.5 inches of direct height above the axle plus the heaight the extra leaf gave it ... as this was done and needed after I had it apart I have no before measurement but at the wheel it is looking to be over 2 inches higher than the rear and it was higher in the rear before I started......and I found an old pic for the difference in the tie rod height also and some other fun comparison pics and the video showing the scary balljoints and the loose wheel bearings :)
oh and the 2 pics showing what a flat top knuckles looks like for those that don't know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOjMIs3zIq0

[Robert B]

also in my dads box of hub parts I found some brass washers for the axle seals which are much better than my plastic ( and cracked in half) ones ...there was even some new seals in there for my axles since mine are beyond bad................ here are the pics to show the difference in the spindle stud rotation also

[Robert B]

heres how the passenger knuckle came back to me and the cover plate I made to keep the machined surface nice and clean and I bought some bolts to keep the threads clean and i forgot to get a pic of the leafs before hand but the bottom leaf and the spacers were not there before and the leafs had an up and down wave to them instead of the nice curve they have now......theres the difference of the tie rods and how it sits now.... the front end is also on the downhill side of the driveway so on flat ground it looks even higher :)

[Robert B]

oh and just to clarify that front tire is my spare tire as i rotated the tires since there were feathering so bad and thats just dust that has accumulated from the last couple offroading trips :)

[Hypoid]

sent the passenger knuckle off to ORD to be drilledHow bad did that hurt?

[Robert B]

including shipping both ways about 120 $