progress!!!

[Benrs86]

woohoo, today i put on my checkerpro cover and bought me some rims and tires, fiiinally!! buutttt, always got some bugs, my rear end started as a squeaky rattle, now it truned into a tick. it is coming from the rear only when im rolling sometimes, and its not brakes, (it does it when my foots not on the brakes, and does it with the clutch in or out) so should i just take off the cover and take a look, or....?

also, my front wheels stick out farther than the rear, would a disc brake setup change that? or should i space out the rear to match?

thanks for any help or advice!, Ben

[Mountain Man]

Lookin good man!!! That is an excellent truck. I would pull the rear cover on the diff, and check the ring and pinion teeth. Probably need a gear oil change any way. You can look at the gears, bearings, and check for end play. If every thing checks out o.k., I would change oil and reseal.

You have done a great job on that truck!

Do you have any interior pics?

[racedvl]

Should have chased that guy out of your picture!! Sharp looking truck!!! Great work!! But wait.......hhmmm I see missing side markers!! Hehe....j/k

[Zkast]

If you have gone from a squeak to a snapping or popping sound, might want to take a quick look at the u-joints. Pull the drive shaft loose from the rear and physicaly move them. More than likely they wont be loose (that you can feel) they will be binding from rust or lack of lubrication.

If that doesnt prove anything then definatly pull that rear cover and find out whats going on.. nothing quite like shelling a rear end at 60mph :O

[Pumkin Truck]

Always wondered what your truck looked like becuase all I have seen is your avator pic. That truck is indeed sweet! Sorry that I can't give you advice concerning your sqweaking, but I can tell you to scrubb the blue off the lettering on your new tires so your truck would look SWEETER!!

[Benrs86]

thanks for the compliments. my dad is one of those people who cant take a picture without someone in it. so if you want a picture of my pickup and just my pickup i will have to sneak out there alone mountainman, i think i have a bad interior pic of my bad interior, but ill post it anyway. im thinkin cover it all in headliner or something. thats next. about the sidemarkers, im workin on some homemade lexan blinker/markers, using leds. still in the design/prototype stage

i guess i iwll check the ujoints, then rip that cover off, i should change the oil/gear lube in there anyway, so i will just do that. anyone know if front discs would narrow the front end? thanks a lot guys, Ben

[Benrs86]

oops forgot the pic

[Pumkin Truck]

That looks like a sharp interior, far better than my pep boys bench cover!

[Longhorn Man]

disc brakes will make the front track a little wider actually.

[Benrs86]

bummer, so if i cnat narrow up the front i guess ill space the rear?? also, if you notcie, my tires are small, my pickup is high, for them to fit under the wheel wells better i think im gonna lower the front. but the problem is i am in highschool, which means i am dead broke, so if i was to lower a cheap way, by means of heating or cutting, which would be better? ive talked to a guy with a 70 who heated them up, and he said it rides fine. heating would be the easiest and fastest too. let me know what you have done and tried. thanks a lot, Ben

[Longhorn Man]

Heating can also make them shatter at any given pot hole.
I would cut them, but no more than 2 inch drop though. Even though when you cut them, you do in fact heat them (cutting torch) you are only doing a small area which does not flex much (the very end) If you mus to it one of these two ways....chop the end of it.
The rear you are stuck either heating, replacing, or carying a load all the time to lower it. Or lowering blocks.

[Benrs86]

the rear i dont mind, i think the front just looks goofy. im just curious, because everyone says heating and cutting is bad, but has anyone here had an experience with a coil breaking from lowering with the heating method? just curious, because im leaning this way because it would be so easy. oh yeah, also, i am only wanting a small drop. slammed is not for me, maybe 2 or even 3 inches is all i want. thanks for any advice, Ben

[Tink]

Damn, you've got a sweet truck! What are those seats out of? I'd really like ones like that for my 69.

[Longhorn Man]

We shattered some on an S-10 in high school by heating them...it rode like crap too. My budy was driving it to school and hit a pot hole. I doubt he slammed into it real hard or anything, that don't sound like him, he babied that fugly POS. Either way, the front right spring shattered and then we put Chivette springs in it for a good safe 5 inch slam.

[Benrs86]

tink, thanks, they are out of a 97 dodge ram...not too hard to get to fit, but a little high they are

bummer longhorn, thats the first first-person bad experience ive heard. i guess i wont have it lowered by next weekend, ill have to finda time to rip it all apart