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I think I have it figured out, but I won't know for sure until I get the axles under it. That may be a few weeks down the road. When I get there I may hit you up for some pictures. Thank you!! |
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Ahhh, yes.... that 15 minutes after the kids go to bed... what can a guy get done before you get the eyeball from the wife for being to loud?
I was able to get the crossmember installed, I still need to tighten the bolts. Lol. What is funny is that I may have installed it backwards. I'm not sure if you can though?. I have to look back at pics. It seems to look the same either way. Sadly the thing was a bear to get installed. I am using 3/8" bolts and I think it had a size smaller, maybe 5/16 holding it in prior. I had to use a ratchet strap around the frame in order to bring it together closer so that the frame bolt holes lined up enough for the bolts to slide in. Fyi, bolts off of ebay are extremely cheap. I purchased a package of 100, 3/8-16 x 1" stainless steel flange bolts grade 8. What I was paying more than a dollar each for at the local hardware store, I was buying for .19 each on ebay. All of the nylon nuts and washers are equally affordable. Pretty cool! |
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cool build subscribed!
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Nice work. I'm on board.
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Spending some quality time today dinking with brake lines and bolting together the engine and transmission crossmembers. I'm kind of in a holding pattern till I get a hand installing gears in the axle housings. I prefer to have someone with more knowledge than I double check my work. Win Win right? I get to learn something new and my expensive parts get installed correctly. Yes! Unfortunately the old man's buddy that offered to help just had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands. Apparently it is not very fun to get old. Question, Did you have a a fair amount of tweaking to do on the rear axle brake lines? Mine will fit, I'm just curious if you had to do the same when fitting them? I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, so I'm just checking. :) I also realized that the front brake lines will need a fair amount of massaging since the front crossmember is from a 73 or later truck. Lol. Look at the pic as I was taking it apart. I thought the front crossmember brake lines looked a little funky. I wonder what the PO thought when they put this together. |
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I have the art of spending money and not accomplishing anything down to a science.
I picked up my tranny today. Very pleased with the process I went through - great customer service. If the transmission runs as well as the interaction has been during the build I will be ecstatic with the finished product. It is a th350, I looked at a th400, then I looked at the cost needed to mate my np205 and passed, because I'm cheap. Not sure if I made the right choice... but I'm not hot rodding this truck so I think I will be OK. I had the guy build the tranny as much as he could for a th350. His name is Kieth Just, he spends time between Longview, Wa & Phoenix, az. I will attach the build sheet with his cell number, he is reasonable, definitely way cheaper than taking it to a shop and he gave me a 1 year warranty starting from when I install it. He said he wants to go for a ride. I had a th350 behind a hot 383 in my 79 swb 4wd with a 4" lift & 33's... and at 19 I beat the living poop out of that truck and that tranny held up way better than the 10 bolt in the rear. I blew a supposedly new rebuilt 700r4 out of my 1st blazer before I put a th350 in it. I wasn't very kind to that vehicle either. I kick myself for selling both of them. But this 72 is making it all worth it. |
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Quick update!!... and brakes are done.
Not very fun when doing them on loose backing plates. Although, way better than being inside of a wheel well when you are up on jackstands. Lol. Other things.... I picked up my new gas tank, I need to have the neck out of my old one attached/soldered to this one still. Wondering if it may be easier to weld the neck off of the old tank to the end of the new one. The tank from LMC looks like it has one heck of a solder job on the inlet nozzle, I would assume that they will need to heat that tank up pretty good to get the new nozzle out. Im not excited about the finish on the tank being toast. Also picked up my "new to me" tilt steering column. I need to clean it up and paint it... that will come later on down the road. Lastly, I bought two cheap inner pinion bearings. The plan was to grind the inside of the bearings so that I could slide them off and on by hand therfore making the process of setting the backlash way easier. Unfortunately they gave me some weird bearing for my dana 44... so now I need to take that one back and get the correct one. |
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My new tank was brazed on, used a dremel cut off wheel to get rid of brazing, just kept grinding the gold til I got down to the silver. the nuts were another challenge. your old tank is easier as it is soldered on. Just cut it off with tin snips, start a hole with a sharp chisel and follow it up with the snips. Tilt may require some special tools or creative thinking, the first thing you will take off is the turn signal cover, and some of them seem to be quite stuck, here is where you have to be creative on the puller, you don't want to distort the sheet metal Next step, than you will run into is the pins that have to be pulled out. I made some threaded pullers with spacers out of long bolts and nuts of the correct thread size also, the top nut that holds the upper bearing on was a goofy size |
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The tilt was supposedly gone through. Originally it was a van tilt. I still want to take it apart, clean it and paint it. Also check how the shaft was lengthened, hopefully with a coupling. If someone took the trouble to go through it... you would assume they would have painted the internals before reassembling? I guess I will find out soon enough. Lol. I read a tutorial on how to disassemble the tilt and it made my eye twitch. |
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Looks great, glad to see another local Washington build coming along nicely. I'm in Redmond.
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I finally got some time in the garage yesterday. I'm almost ready to get my carriers installed.
I ordered the Ratech install tools for the pinion depth. I hope to have those this week and then finish installing. I have never installed bearing races before. Not very fun, but it is cool to learn how to do this stuff. The axle bearings and seals on the 12 bolt were easy. The inner seals on the dana 44 made my eye twitch. Lol. The inner pinion races are the devil. Smashing my hand with a 4lb sledge hammer didn't help my opinion on the inner races. I finished up my dummy inner pinion bearings, and.... I was finally able to remove the bearings from the old pinions gears. I had to remove the bearing cages that held the roller bearings in place. This allowed me to get a good bite on the inner bearing housing. A couple weeks ago I broke part of my bearing puller when trying to remove the bearings from the outside of the cage. |
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More pics...
I do need to point out that I bought the cheapest race instalation kit and bearing puller off of Amazon. Worth every penny. |
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Last week I picked up my 205 transfer case from the mechanic that rebuilt it for me. $312.
The guy broke it apart, checked everything, replaced the bearings/seals and installed my new twin stick shifting rails. He even painted it! Special note! The mechanic was very impressed with J&B twin stick kit. Have you ever not bothered telling someone something because you thought that there was no way someone would go above and beyond? I was going to tell the mechanic not to bother painting the case because I was going to take care of it so I could keep the aluminum raw and not painted. I didn'the bother saying anything because there was no way he would paint it... right? Yup, that guy bead blasted and then painted it. :) so now I am in the process of stripping paint. Lol. |
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Here is a funny one I thought I would share.
I had a guy tell me that I should put my races in the freezer before I install them. He said it would make it easier because they shrink when cold. The first race I installed was not cold and it was not going in for anything. I took a break from that one, had a beer and put all of the other races in the freezer. Once they were in there for a bit I tried a cold one, (not beer) and sure enough it went right in. I left the first one for last, once I came back to it I was still having a heck of a time. I ended up using a can of compressed air, the stuff you use to clean out computer key boards... upside down so that it would spray cold. I did this twice and that thing popped right in easy peasy. The down side is that I got a mouthful of the gas, tasted horrible for like 20 mins. |
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The only difficult part about doing diffs is setting up the pinion depth. Actually, it's not difficult at all. You don't need any special depth setting tools or gauges because all this will do is over complicate things.
It looks like you damaged the original inner pinion bearing taking it off, so buy another one because they are cheap. Take this bearing and hone out the bore so that it slips on and off fairly easily on the pinion. You can also use an abrasive flap wheel to do this. You can now use this bearing for your setup to determine the shim pack needed for getting your proper pinion depth. Once you get a nice mesh pattern, take off the setup bearing and press on the new bearing that you got in your kit. Take your time crushing the collar until you get 15-20 in/lbs of resistance, then reinstall the carrier and set the backlash. I've done it like this for years and it makes the job so easy. |
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Most likely the shim thickness that you took out of the original pinion will be within a few thou of what you need. At least that's been my experience in the past. I can't recall if you mentioned that you were reusing the original gears or buying new, but my first choice is Yukon. Richmonds are a bit cheaper, but I guess you get what you pay for because I've had some sets squeal like a stuck pig even though the pattern was dead on. Good luck and keep posting pics.
edit; I guess I should have read your previous more thoroughly because I now realize you already made a setup bearing ! |
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Thank you again! |
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Thanks guys for posting up, good info.
nice sturgeon, green or white? |
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I also went from 3.07 to 4.11's to go with my 12.5X35 tires. I have a 5.3 with a 4L60E and couldn't have picked a better gear, because the truck is very responsive and gets excellent fuel economy. Edit;FYI, I just checked both the Richmond website, as well as the Motive website and they are infact the same company. I recall a supplier telling me that the gears even come off the same manufacturing machines. |
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That is funny about them coming from the same manufacturing company. Thanks for the info, I just ran into this with Timken bearings and SKF seals being the same manufacturer. Seems like a waste of money from the marketing standpoint? At this point as long as I don't screw up the install and they don't go bang in the next ten years I will be satisfied. Back to the 4:11's with 35's, how are you at 70mph? What is your RPMS? |
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I'm still compiling parts that I am not ready for!
I picked up these stainless steel headers for my small block. Cheap at $250, they came with aluminum press style gaskets and a cheap set of header bolts. I'm happy, the head flanges appear to be pretty thick compared to some of the cheap headers I have bought in the past. I picked them up from a small auto shop in downtown Vancouver, Wa called "Line up and sound off" very nice people to work with. Line Up & Sound Off (360) 906-8514 |
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At 70 MPH I'm around 2100 RPM, but don't forget I have a 4L60E which has a 30% overdrive. I get a true 25 MPG (imperial) with my Blazer, and that's one of the reasons I used the 5.3 You won't screw up the gear install ! If you have a nice contact patch and the proper preload it will be perfect. Just take your time.:-) BTW, I really like the item you used for reference to show the thickness of the header flange. That was very Canadian of you !!:canada: |
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Yes, I was looking for something that would be easiest for most fellas to referemce. I guess it would make sense since I am of French Canadian decent! |
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Hey I would Like to give my input on you building your rears (I do at least 20 rear diff overhauls and gear changes a year at my shop) Start with the original shims!, set your back lash then check your pattern. I don't own a depth gauge but I have used them and don't like them and think you will be chasing your tail. The gear marking compound will be your friend. Well that's my 2 cents and I hope this helps and makes your job a bit easier.
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And one more thing I've learned over the years is do not use synthetic gear lube because you will never get rid of the chatter regardless of how many bottles of additive you put in. On my Blazer I tried using Amsoil's synthetic gear lube because they claimed it was compatible. Well, they were wrong because it sounded like the rear diff was going to break in two. I gave it a few weeks hoping the noise would go away, but it never did. I drained it and put in standard gear lube and a couple bottles of GM limited slip additive, and the problem went away. That was an expensive mistake because Amsoil products aren't cheap.
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The gears are manufactured to a particular dimension as far as spacing and center line are concerned.....but.....the housings are manufactured with certain ± tolerances as well...which may or may not be the exact same as what the gears are. The last set I put in my 12 bolt...I set the depth to exactly what was marked on the pinion gear......it wasn't anywhere close when I checked the pattern... |
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On my Blazer, I used Amsoil synthetic in the transfer case as well as the front Diff, but because the front is just an open diff, I had no issues. What's odd, is that it claims right on the Amsoil tech sheet that their oil is compatible with locking differentials. |
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