Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Also where the fuel pump bolts up it's not that hard to cut the Cross pin and pull the lever off the back of the pump so there's nothing protruding and then use a fuel pump block off plate. And then the only gasket they can possibly leak is between the plate and the block which generally does not happen. And then you can do like I did and put a gasket between the pump and the plate just for aesthetics.

The line for the vacuum advance is just a piece of zinc plated 3/16 brake line.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Cool idea, you could sell those likely.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

took me a second to see just how much you ported out of the manifolds, good win. and the cosmetic pump is awesome, well played!

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

They didn't photograph very well unfortunately. It was needed though.

Thanks

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

love the bed floor!

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Thanks. I do too. Really blends in with the rest of the truck. Now I just got to figure out something different for tail lights. Those were just temporary to make it legal for cruise nights.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

if you dont mind a suggestion, my all time fav is 36 truck housings with 36 car LED lenses. I did it once and if it wasnt so expensive I would do it every time, its a great look! next time I think I will try to get chrome originals though.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Those aren't bad at all.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

somehow i posted twice. so i will edit this post to just say again how innovative some of your mods are.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Just stumbled on your build...you've done some REAL creative things there! Keep us posted on the progress, Lorne

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I saw that lol. Thanks. I'm not done yet.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Thanks.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Currently serving was the weak link in the drivetrain is the 700r4 that was originally behind the 4.3 that came with this chassis. The intention was that if I drive it like a responsible adult it will hold up long enough to decide what I want to run permanently for a transmission.
Spoilers- I'm 46 and not a responsible adult.

Behind the 4.3 it shifted good and would actually get second gear tire chirps if I got after it. Surprisingly there was no signs of clutch material in the pan when I checked it out. It got a thorough cleaning with the power washer, new filter and pan gasket a couple coats of semi gloss black. Reasons for the black, everybody does silver. Silver looks good but also shows any imperfections. Black hides a lot while at the same time making the orange on the transmission pop even more. Plus it gives it a mean look underneath.

The S10 dipstick tube fit almost perfectly with just a little tweaking to clear the firewall.

Behind that is a GM driveshaft that I have no idea what it came from but it just happened to be the perfect length for this application. Gotta get lucky once in as while I guess.

Little tip for those running a nine inch and a GM driveshaft. The yoke I'm running on this one is 1 1/8"x 3 5/8". It's very close to the GM metric joint, 534g I believe. They make a combination joint to match up between the two. Easier solution is to clearance the ears on the yoke for the joint. Then from there forward it's just a standard s10 joint.
A set of digital calipers, a note pad, and a Dremel with a cut off wheel. Measure the distance inside the ears on the yoke. Write that down. Take a small amount off one side, measure the difference then take that same amount off the other side. Keep doing it evenly until the joint fits snug like it's supposed to.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Out back is a 77 Lincoln nine inch that I picked up a while back. Currently it's 65" flange to flange. With 8 inch wheels they stick out past the fenders by just a little bit. The wheels that are on there now are 7 inches wide with 3 1/2" back spacing if I remember right. With these wheels and the 65 inch width have 275/50/15s on the back with just enough clearance to work. Not sure what I'm going to do long term but if I do decide to narrow it I can. It also had the 5 on 5 pattern to match the fronts.
It came with 3.00 gears and a 28 spline trac-loc. On the bench right now I have a 3.50 gear set and a rebuild kit for the posi. I also have a new pair of axles from summit waiting to go in. I'm not sure what the history of this rear end was but both shafts are bent pretty bad. I'm in the process of making an alignment bar and the pucks for it and when that's done I'll pull the rear end out and go through it. I'm pretty confident that the housing is going to need tweaked as bad as the shafts are.
The sway bar mounts are just standard rear S10 mounts welded to the housing. The lower spring pads were cut out of a piece of 2 1/2x 5" tubing. I'll gusset and cap them when it comes out. I don't remember how far forward I offset the pads but it seemed like a lot. After it was together I added a 1.25" lowering block to fine tune the height. I actually took one block, cut it in half and added it to the other two to make up for the long spring pads.
The torque arm was made from a kit I got from one of the 4wd places. It came with everything except the round tubing. I used 1.25x.125 wall tubing for that. I deviated from the design slightly by putting the heim on the bottom in back. The idea there was it would not pivot under normal suspension movement. I hate heim joints on Street vehicles because they always get dry and noisy. Also with it on the bottom in back I can use that to fine tune pinion angle. The bottom mount is on both sides. The top one will be when I pull it out and go through it. The front end has the shackle mounted to the middle cross member that will eventually also hold the driveshaft loop.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Evidently I didn't get many decent pictures of the torque arm but this one shows it pretty good.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Nice descriptions and pics to show how you dealt with issues. That yoke trick is clever (I can't say for sure from the pics, but it looks like you didn't have to remove very much material at all to get a perfect fit).

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Thanks It's not much at all that's why I said go slow and measure. It's easy to take to much and then you have to throw a tack on it and regring. Been there did that. Sometimes depending on the yoke and joint it will fit without cutting anything. If it's too tight though it will squeeze the bearing caps to tight.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

this is proper engineered hacking and i love it! i never thought about doing that and always just bought that stupid conversion joint.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Engineered hacking. I like that lol

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

i'm a huge personal fan of this style of torque arm for leaf's, i run the same basic thing on my YJ off road and it's been doing great work while being BEAT on for years. only difference in mine is that the bushing welded to the crossmember on the jeep is a JohnyJoint style spherical ball to allow more articulation. but that's obviously not a problem for your truck.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

I think the kit initially planned on the heim being on the front end of the arm for just that reason. Ya, articulation isn't really a concern. It does it's job though. It surprisingly hooks up really well. I want to get it on scales at some point just to see how I did but regardless of how hard I wail on it there is no sign of wheel hop. It just launches straight and goes.
Also, the transmission isn't happy about that fact lol

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

:lol:

:metal:

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

As I mentioned in my previous post, Im real impressed with some of the ways you worked around & made things work (Frame spread, Rack, gas & brake linkage, ect. ect.) Love it!

As has been mentioned, there is in many cases: "No such thing as overbuilt" so Id like to bring up a couple items that would greatly improve your rack installation.
First, The tabs you have made that the rack is mounted to. There is a great deal of opposite force (with a fair amount of leverage) going on every time you turn the wheel...working on those bolts 6" or so back. A single plate made (even out of 1/4") that profiled the shape, straight out, then around the inboard area of the bushing say at a 30* angle with a big inboard radius back to the crossmember, out at 30* to the other bushing & then straight back...making like a reinforced "C" would eliminate the Two independent "sticks" working hard on the back bolts. If one of those back bolts gets tired of the force & snaps, things could get NOT good in a hurry. This couldnt happen with a single plate. Same mounting system, same bolts but a MUCH better outcome. With a bit of creativity (which you sure have), you could add a couple more bolts/nuts in the center up through the crossmember as well. Maybe now cut a smaller plate (even out of 3/16") to "fill in" the area Im talking about between your existing brackets?

Likewise, the rack mounted in single shear on the bolts looks like it could be improved on rather easily. If you profiled a 3 sided "gusset" & welded those to the frame sticking out (I realize the Left side looks to be a bit of a challenge with the tubes there) with a hole in it would keep the saw motion from happening vertically in the bolts. Again, rather light material, say 1/8" (think about all thicker the original Ranger/Explorer tabs/ears were) would make a huge difference & wouldnt get in the way of your needed "down & out" on the rack to remove/install. The bolts could even be dropped down through then for even more added safety. Just thought Id bring up a couple things rolling around in my head. Do with it as you see fit. Take Care & Keep us posted on the progress, Lorne

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Just a couple pictures showing what I have for tire clearance out back with the 275s and 7-in wheels. plus a wide angle of vehicles waiting to go through the shop. The GTO is ready to go home.

Re: It's my turn, 47 S10 build
 

Thanks for the response, and I welcome any input throughout the build. In regards to the rack mounts, there's a lot that hasn't been shown yet. The four bolts you see in the bottom picture holding the bottom straps up are for mockup purposes. Once I got it in the shop here this past summer those got fully well the to the bottom of the cross member all the way around. And there's also two short angled braces welded in behind the rack going up to the crossmember to give it some support. I'm kicking myself because I didn't take more pictures at the time. The plans are that once I finalize my AC compressor mount there's going to be another ear that welds in above the rack so the bolts are in double shear, and then the big chunky front edges that are hanging off the front are going to get rounded and be mounting ears for the back edge of a skid plate/brace that runs forward somewhere up by the sway bar mount. I'm not totally sure on that yet. The skid plate is needed for my gravel roads. This style of rack as opposed to the mustang 2 rack mounts pretty much in line with the lower control arm bolts, and the county likes to windrow gravel when they maintain our road. If I do hit an unexpected spot I really don't want to go and plow gravel with the rack. The double shear mounts on the bolts realistically is enough to hold it in place cuz that's how Ford did it with the rangers originally. Having the front edge mounted to some braces with a skid plate on it should just help make it more or less bulletproof.