[Chaparralman1974]

4/4/2023 - 4/23/2023
Front Axle Swap…..Again!
I have come to the conclusion that I am a glutton for punishment and enjoy repeating work efforts….NOT!
After a lot of thought and back and forth, I have decided to stay with the original closed knuckle front axle on the truck. I had to sit back and rethink what my overall project goals are. First off, this truck will never be a daily driver….nor will it ever be driven off road. Moreover, it is unlikely that it will be driven more that on the weekends to go get ice cream or maybe to a car show or maybe to Home Depot to get a bag of grass seed. The point is, I realized that what I want is an original 1967 K20. So, out with the Dana 44 front disc brake axle and in with the closed knuckle original axle.
The original axle did have some issues. The driver side axle shaft was snapped in half, there was a huge dent in the front cover, and the ring gear had a chipped tooth. The tooth wasn’t a big deal to me. I simply ground down the rough edges with a small DA. The inner axle seals were clearly toast as well so I replaced those and did a complete and thorough cleaning of the inside of the axle.
The spindles were ok, but there was a slight groove on each of them where the grease seal rides. This was remedied by an SKF Speedi-Sleeve (99253). The bearings and races were all in good condition after cleaning in kerosene, so I reused those.
The brakes have been a bit of a challenge. First off the drums are Unobtanium! While I was able to have my original drums turned, the driver side has a warp in it. I can only think that this warp is my own fault as I beat on it pretty hard to get it off before I realized that you need to rotate the adjuster star inboard in order to bring the shoes in so you can get the drum off. I am going to try to get it straightened out somewhat, but I am on the lookout for a new set of drums.
The shoes were easy to find at rock auto, as well as some of the springs, but the rest of the brake hardware is a bit of a challenge to find as well. I know that the springs are fairly standard, and I imagine that I could search through bins of springs to locate ones that matched, but all in all, mine were not too bad, so I cleaned them up and decided to reuse them as there was no rust on them. Just grease and dirt.
All of the knuckle bearings were ok, save one so I replaced that one and picked up some new king pin shims. After getting the new wipers installed, both sides were filled with corn head grease.
I installed the spicer locking hubs and cleaned up the front tie rod and installed new ends.
Also worth noting is the lug studs for the front hubs. Originally, the truck had ½” studs. I wanted to upgrade to 9/16” studs. As it turns out, the knurled holes for the original studs is .625”. I found that the Dorman 610-181 studs have a .623” knurl and are only slightly longer. They fit like a glove and now I have updated studs for the front and rear.