Dug into the Dana 70 Today

The rear axle for this guy was from a cab and chassis dually. The c&c housings are only two inches wider than the standard pick-up axle and since this one had 3 inch brakes and a limited slip, I thought I would just replace the 5/8 inch wheel studs and use it. That plan changed today. The first thing I noticed was the magnet in the cover. Yuck. Hopefully that is just magnetic friction material. I was planning on rebuilding the Power Lok anyway.

Then I noticed this. Well, Maybe I can polish the rust off with emory cloth. maybe the hardened surface of the ring gear teeth aren't pitted. Then, I wiped the oil off the side of the ring gear and saw that these are 4:10 gears. Nooooo. With the tire size I will be running and the type of driving, I wanted them to be 3:54s. For a couple of years now I have thought they were 3:54s. I do not kno where I got that thought, But I was stunned this morning. What makes it even worse, I recently bought a set of dana 60 4:10s for the front of my ramcharger and had M&H machine install them for me. They took out 3:54s. I could have just swapped axles. now I will not only need to have them drop some 3:54s in my rear axle, I will need to have them put my old dana 60 ring and pinion into this truck's front end. Good grief. Anyway, I have a spare dana 70 rear axle that has the proper gears. I will just have M&H put the Power Lok in that one.
I took this pick so I would have a guide for putting the brakes back together.
I wonder if the same guy who silly-coned the king pin dust cap also put this hose clamp on the parking brake cable/lever.

Cab Work - shifter holes and sound deadening.

One of my goals for this truck is to make it at least as quiet as my second generation cummins dodges were. My first step in accomplishing this task is spraying sound deadener on the outside of the floor. I thought this would be easier if I stood the cab on end.

As I,ve said before, this cab pretty is rust free. You can see the factory 4-speed hole in the tunnel as well as the round hole I put in for the NV4500 shifter. The round hole was barely big enough so In the process of patching the other hole I enlarged the new one to factory size.
Here you can see the rough opening of the new hole and the patch on the old. You can also see two smaller holes. These are the end radii for the transfer case shifter.
This shot is from the inside. The black on the floor is POR 15. I put it on all the surfaces that showed a hint of surface rust.
Back on the bottom side, I went over the floor with a cup brush in an angle grinder and followed that with a scotchbrite pad. Then, I used brushable seam sealer on all the seams and on my patch. You can also see the finished transfer case shifter hole.
Here is the ugly mess of sealer and patch.
Next, I started spraying the sound deadener with an undercoating gun. You can see the texture of the first pass.
The plan is to get about 1 mm thickness per pass and do two passes. The temp in the shop is below 50 and I have to put my halogen lights on it to get this water based stuff to dry.
About halfway through the first coat.
This is the product I am using and the gun. The stuff is called Spectrum and its made by Second Skin. It runs about $60 a gallon, and it is thick stuff. It goes on a bluish grey, but dries black. It seems pretty hard when It dries. I have right at a gallon on the underside of the floor with two coats.
The finished product.
After setting the cab back down on the floor, I also did the engine side of the firewall with two, or was it three, coats. That was a week or so ago. Today I scuffed and cleaned the inside of the cab and shot the first coat on the inside of the firewall, the floor and the back wall.
I have right at two gallons on the cab as of now. The second coat on the inside will take most of a third gallon.
The texture is not bad and I am thinking of using it on some exposed surfaces and painting over the top of it. I did put it on my kick panels. They may get covered with plastic trim, but then they may not.

More clutch linkage work

A few posts back I made this ugly hole in the firewall for the clutch master cylinder. I started by drilling a hole, decided it was too big, patching it up, drilling another, cutting notched and finally fitting the cylinder in there. I did all this because I did not know how it would have been done on a factory hydraulic clutch rig. Then, the other day I was a wrecking yard to pick up some parts and they had a cummins dodge in that had had a stick. I looked up under the dash and found the bracket I needed. I was worried about the set-up the way I had it because I figured that over time the firewall would crack from stress.

Here is the bracket clamped in place to mark the bolt holes.
Here you can see the bolt holes and you can also see that I rehogged the hole in the firewall. I had to weld a plug over the hole to guide the pilot bit for the holesaw, but now I think I am finally done with this hole.
All bolted up.

King Pin Overhaul and Dana 60 Install

If it seems like I am jumping from one thing to another on this build it is probably because I am. I have been having trouble with focus. I am really trying to get to the point where I can put something together and leave it. You know, real progress. It has been too cold in the shop to paint so I can't start bolting things to the firewall, so I decided to start in on the front axle.

When I got the knuckles off I found this thing in the upper king pin.

And, I saw serious wear. Notice how sharp the edge is in picture right. There is a lot of steel missing here. After inquiring on dieseltruckresource.com, I found that the hex thing with the cross in the top is part of a caster camber fix kit. There was supposed to be a pin in the cross that held an offset upper bushing, but there was a stock bushing under the cap on the pin.

I also found this ugliness on the dust cap. At first I did not know what was going on. Then...
...I found this. This gob of goo is sealer due to holes punched by somebody who was to cheap to replace a dust cap.
More carnage. These bearing races have seen a few too many miles and maybe a little too much water.
In this shot you can see the lower eccentric from the kit mentioned before. You can also see the condition of the dust cap. The seal that usually covers this was just sitting there lose. Unless the kit comes with an offset seal, I cannot see how it would work with this smaller bearing holding the lower pin off center. The seal that I took out was all mashed, but looked like a stock seal. Who knows.I did not get a pick of this when I finished welding it, but it did not matter. It did not work. I was trying to make a tool to remove the upper king pin. When I ordered my parts from 4wd factory, I forgot to order the big hex wrench. I welded the doodad that was in the upper pin to an old tie rod I had in the corner. I proceeded to break the nut off a couple of times before I gave up and ordered the dang wrench.

Here is the big honkin' allen wrench chucked into the king pin. I propped up the inner c away from my wood saw horse so I wouldn't catch it on fire when I heated it with the torch.
The white bar is the handle off my floor jack. They call this a "swede" and I tink it'll work pretty good, ya sure.
Now the heat. I heated it for a while and then hung on the swede and bounced until it let loose with a clang. It did no favors for my bulging disc in my back. Then I had to do the other side.
The torque spec on those id 600-700 pounds. sheesh. Once it clanged, it threaded right out. I did not take any picks of the new one, I simply put it in with loctite and bounced on the bar a few times to tighten it in.
Next, I finally saved enough to replace the badly worn axle u-joints. Both sides were bad. This is one of the places I had robbed from this project to keep other trucks on the road. One side was off my ramcharger, the other was off my 91 ctd. They both had orange dust where the needles were supposed to be.

Man those u-joints are beefy.
I torqued the front leaves on to the axle housing with the old u-bolts. I thought this one looked a little hinky (notice the bend). I will definitely be replacing these bolts.
painted-up and ready to put back under the truck.
Back in where it belongs.
New rotor and freshly painted parts.
Shortly after this pic, I put new calipers with like-new pads here.
And its back on the ground with the wrong tires. These are a set of 16.5" I got from a neighbor mainly for the wheels so I could mount my old 35s on them for a future project.
Done.

3 years

I started this blog on January 26, 2008. My last post was in January of 2011. I have spent three years working on and off on this thing. I think it is time to get it done. I have been working on it over the last four months (since my last post), but I have not taken the time to post. I will try to get it up to date today.