Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

The fold down seats have taken a back seat for now. It became apparent that the carrier bearing was no longer happy. It looked as if it could have been the original. I was able move the drive shaft up and down about 3/8" and that seemed like a bad thing. (Photo 1) So I pulled it out and had it converted to a urethane billet style with a slider on the back half. Having heard lots of people complain about the billet style having a short life span I asked the shop about this problem. Their explanation is that the factory style was designed to move forward and aft as the axle moved up and down. The billet style isn't designed to move forward and aft. By putting a splined slider between it and the axle the carrier bearing no longer has to move forward and aft. So the carrier doesn't fail from being side loaded. Sounds logical to me. Now the new drive line is installed it is much smoother accelerating from a start and the odd vibration at 55 mph hasn't returned. But there is more noise from the rear end and when coasting down hills at 40 or more mph there is a definite new vibration in the truck. I hope that some of that will fade as things break in.

[HO455]

Driveshaft installed photo and the box from the new U-joint straps which I replaced. They were mismatched and one had taken a couple of hits from a hammer. Plus the threads on the bolts were showing their age. The strap part number is good for the half ton 1310 U-joint. One photo of the WMB on the stands where it spent the week. After getting the new drive line installed I replaced the rubber hose the factory used to hook the front fuel line to the rear fuel line. I cut the ends off of the hard lines and using Aeroquip compression fittings connected a piece of 5/16" hard line where the hose was. These are easy to install just do good prep work, cleaning and deburing the tubing. No more worries about a pressurized fuel hose next to the muffler. I forgot to get a before photo showing the hose.

[HO455]

A local gendarme took time out of his busy night to stop and ask me about my lack of a license plate light. My response was that the PO had removed it and the pieces that mounted it and I hadn't located replacements yet. He kindly suggested I make more of an effort to find one and sent me on my way. What the PO had done was install a hidden hitch and then used what looks to me to be a license plate bracket off of a 67-72 A-body and mounted it upside down on two pieces of angle iron without the spring so it would swing up when the stinger was in the receiver. Which is a pretty good idea but with no spring it is always rattling. So I replaced the two pieces of angle with one larger piece ( 2" instead of 1 1/2"). Now I had a place to mount a light and set the plate deeper into the bumper like the factory did. I found this perfect little LED light with a shield at Potter Webster (the place that made the drive line for me. They are a heavy truck supply store.). After rehabbing the plate mount (It had led a hard life was lucky to still be around) I found a spring and mounted it to hold the plate down and keep it from rattling all the time.

[HO455]

The old mounting compared to the new.