Ramination's Build - One tons, finally

[Ramination]

Haven't been around much lately, but I am back! Had a little downtime from the off-road world. Been around the site, but just as a reader for the past year or so. Sporting the PS.com sticker all along of course

I bought KB440's axles a while back, and got them under the truck!

I will be using this first post to keep track of what is done, and what needs to be done, for my own sake.

Checklist of stuff to get done:
New Speedo gear for t-case
Change front diff seal


Future Additions:
Long Arms
Roll Bar/Light Bar
Front Bumper
Winch (front and rear)
Rock Sliders
Disk conversion on D70

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Just to get started, here is the truck shortly after I got it when I turned 16. I did the usual, added a 3” suspension lift and some 33’s



Got t-boned by some dude who ran a stop sign, he hit my front axle and bent it. I replaced it with a 44 out of a ’99 ram, and at that time since I was already under the truck I added skyjacker control arms, and another 3” of lift along with a set of 35 inch Toyo Open country MTs



Along the way, I had the rocker panels rhino lined, de-badged the truck and built a rear bumper for it. Added the usual dual exhaust, hypertech, blah blah blah just like everyone else too.

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Now, for the axle swap, went pretty easy. I took some time and prepped the axles, painted them all up.







Needed new shocks, i have been running the same ones for a LONG time, very worn out.

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I wanted some pitbull rockers, but couldn't get the size I wanted. So, for the time being I got the 37s on re-centered H1 wheels. I actually found the guy who does these after I had already ordered other wheels. Luckily they were on backorder and the guy let me cancel the order.

The tires & wheels looked like this when i picked them up



So i broke them down and painted the wheels. You can see the beadlock ring on the outside



And the blue PVC inserts made the wheel a double beadlock by keeping the inside bead against the wheel











Shackle Flip

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Tires are balanced using airsoft pellets. I ended up doing a little more than the 10 oz per tire i planned because the tire are F'ing heavy!



10 oz/tire x 28.3 grams/oz = 283 grams/tire

The tub of airsoft pellets i bought were 1,200 grams total, so i just split it up evenly and did 300 grams/tire.

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I took my truck to my roomates house to do the swap, very grateful to be able to do it there, it rained a lot of the time, o yea, it was nice being able to lift the truck up off the axles and stuff too

















F U dana 44!








Note- this isn't ride height, the front is on jack stands and the suspension is only partially compressed to ride height

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Here's what we started with



Taking it all apart wasn't too bad, from the time the impact came out for the wheels until the axle was in the lawn was only about 3 hours, significantly faster than the front. lol







However, unfortunately this happened:



The line was too rusty, so as soon as i tried unscrewing the brake line it cracked. I had to re-do the whole thing. This plus the fact that the block on the rear axle was completely different than the one the service manual showed made getting the right parts/fittings hard. It was a big ordeal, but finally got what I needed. The auto parts store I go to has two good guys there, the rest don't have a clue what they are doing, IMO. It's hard to trouble shoot and rig stuff up with an unhelpful dink on the computer.

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When it came time to remove the stock shackles, it was like pushing a bulldozer up a mountain. So out comes the torch...







Mounts for the shackle flip all dressed up and ready





BAM! Shackle flipped!



Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the shackle flip to the finished pictures, but she sits on her own again!





I think my u-bolts should have been just a tad longer, a little close for comfort. haha I didn't cut them off yesterday, too excited to drive the beast. Will cut off next weekend

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Like I said, I was anxious to drive the beast, so I only got a few pictures. Aside from the clearance in the front, everything seems to be working good.





Didn't hit any mud too hard, because I am not a big fan of it and I didn't have my front driveshaft at myfriends house to put it in.

We checked the fit of my 35's against my friends brother's Dakota. I think they'd fit, if he didn't turn or hit any bumps. lol



Loaded all of my stuff back up to take it home for now.



I like the stance it has right now, especially the rear so I am now unsure if I should add a body lift. It does sit 1 1/2 to 2 inches higher now than before. The clearance in the front is mild, which is the reason I was considering the BL, but I think the rear looks good now, and if it is much taller I feel like the rear tire will look too small in there. Next weekend when I put the front driveshaft in place I am going to trim the front bumper where the tire keeps hitting, but I dont really want to cut near the door.

Body lift or not, ideas, thoughts, opinions?

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Unresolved Issue #1. Haven't done anything about the tires being slightly unbalanced, sometimes they are worse than others. There have been a few times that they truck never shimmied, and other times it shakes from 45 to 55. Plan to add more beads to rears, because it didn't shake too bad with just the 37s on the front.

Unresolved Issue #2. Found a place to get the speedo gear, just need to order and install.

Unresolved Issue #3. Bought axle seal, tried to replace. Of course, I didn't have the proper size socket, biggest I had was 1 3/16", went out and bought a 3/4" drive 1 5/16" socket that seemed to fit perfect in the parking lot. Had to go back to get a 1/2" to 3/4" piece to use the socket. Turns out the socket was too big. Tried to use it anyways, bolt is too freakin' tight while laying under the truck using an oversized socket. Tried using "incentive", no luck. Ran out of time, had to go to grad parties.

Resolved Issue #1. On the way to grad party, all of a sudden noticed "check engine" light come on. Then, just like in a movie or something the truck became unreponsive. Had to go WOT to get it to accelerate. It was all about hic-uping and lurching and not wanting to move. Limped back to mom's house, grabbed the Hypertech and plugged it in. Throwing a code for bad #1 O2 sensor. Great. Cleared code and drove to auto store, barely. lol. Bought O2 sensor, $62, installed on truck, burned both forearms (wow that hurt), one blistered, made it to the grad party 30 minutes late.

Truck runs like a champ again, unfortunatly, still a 2wd though.

[Excessive]

Trucks looks great man, good progress.

Quote:Unresolved Issue #1. Haven't done anything about the tires being slightly unbalanced, sometimes they are worse than others. There have been a few times that they truck never shimmied, and other times it shakes from 45 to 55. Plan to add more beads to rears, because it didn't shake too bad with just the 37s on the front.

As far as this issue goes, search balancing beads on Google. Im told they work pretty well. Air soft pellets just dont seem to do the job. And there not to pricey either.

[Ramination]

Thanks.

As far as the beads go, I read a lot before deciding which route to go, and I have read a lot of reviews that were very happy with the airsoft pellets. I made sure I got seamless pellets, because there is a conspiricy that the seamed ones split and then dont work. I will go along with it. I am going to stick with the airsoft route for the time being. Adding more isn't that big of a deal since all I have to do is remove the beadlock ring and pull the tire away from the wheel. I wont even have to dismount them, or take them off the truck.

There is one tire that has a bit less than the other three, because I ran a little short on the last tire. I had pre-weighted that cup with beads, and it just so happens that a full cup was almost exactly 300 grams like planned. Came out a tad bit short on the last tire, which is one of the tires on the rear. I drove the truck for a week between swapping the front and rear. Front rode good, it was the addition of the rear that made it a bit rougher. There might be some slight driveline vibrations too. I think I saw a picture a few years ago with the proper driveline angles, anyone have that handy to link up? I had the zero rates tapered for me, to compensate for the shackle flip. I had him do 6 degrees, thought I remember someone saying that was correct a while back.

I figure you can probably add too much, but I think I will add a bit more one of these weekends...:dunno:lol. Like I said above, sometimes it rides nice, other times it bounces or shakes a bit. Keepin' it real

[Excessive]

Haha i know the feeling, i had my thornbirds unbalanced for a while, aside from the wandering i got anyways i also got an awesome vibration when i hit 100kmh. Decided that id stop trying to drive that fast But yeah i guess if they work why not right. But like you said i guess a small issue is you could infact add to many, although there is a chart on those balancing beads website which im sure you've seen already which might help you work out how if you had to many or little.

How are you liking having the rockers painted? i've been contemplating doing that to my truck for a long time now as i have a little rust there, nothing some liner cant hide....for a while anywayas Except i was going to paint from a little lower down then you did. Nice to see what it would look like on my truck and our trucks looks very similar!
White truck with black rims for the win!

[RamAford]

Truck looks good!!

You dont have any extra top plates for a u-bolt flip do you? i need to do that on my truck. I Hate the look of the u-bolts hanging down.

[LegendKiller89]

Really looks nice, sweet build man.

[KB440]

Hey Bo, glad to see you got the axles under the truck. The lower gears probably feel like you have a different truck altogether. The rest on my truck hasn't moved still you seen it last. I need to strip the rest of it down and get it out of the shop.

[Ramination]

Thanks everyone!

(06-25-2010 05:28 PM)Excessive Wrote:  How are you liking having the rockers painted? i've been contemplating doing that to my truck for a long time now as i have a little rust there, nothing some liner cant hide....for a while anywayas Except i was going to paint from a little lower down then you did. Nice to see what it would look like on my truck and our trucks looks very similar!
White truck with black rims for the win!

Love the rockers the way they are. They are true "rhino liner", I had them professionally sprayed a few years back. Although they have faded a bit, they still look great and are holding up very well. They put about an 1/8 inch on. It really deadens the sound rocks make when they ping off the rocker panels. They also did my rear bumper that I built at the same time, it looks a little more faded but is holding up really well too. I have since herculined the front bumper and bed, and although that stuff is no where near as tough, it can be touched up really easily with some black spray paint and looks great again!

I wouldn't hesitate to do the rockers again, plus I really enjoy the look of it. I used it to cover up some rust that was starting. I actually had the shop get rid of the rust first, then line it. If you do it yourself, be careful how much you put in the door jam, don't want clearance inssues. I had them not liner in that area, I just painted it black.

Quick funny story for ya, I got it done on a long weekend when I was out of town, and my Mom happened to drive by the shop right after they finished it and they had it outside. She called me to tell me how sweet this truck looked and so I asked where it was, I go hey thats my truck! She didn't know I was getting it done, or that it was my truck

(06-25-2010 11:30 PM)RamAford Wrote:  Truck looks good!!

You dont have any extra top plates for a u-bolt flip do you? i need to do that on my truck. I Hate the look of the u-bolts hanging down.

I don't, I made them out of some leftover plate I had.

(06-27-2010 03:37 AM)KB440 Wrote:  Hey Bo, glad to see you got the axles under the truck. The lower gears probably feel like you have a different truck altogether. The rest on my truck hasn't moved still you seen it last. I need to strip the rest of it down and get it out of the shop.

It does feel like a new truck, and I really enjoy it!

Somebody needs to buy the rest of this truck. Its got a mean motor! In the meantime, want some 1/2 ton axles to put under that beast They aren't nearly as heavy as that Dana 70!

Unfortunately I had to grind off one of those hydro assist brackets due to clearance issues with the thuren track bar, but I may finish what you started. I can see the stock 1/2 ton steering box failing, it already struggles during street driving.

There was some interest by a member who PM'd me about what driveshaft was used in the front, you said it was a stock 3rd gen didn't you?

[sicram]

Truck is looking good man. nice pictures.

[KB440]

Quote:There was some interest by a member who PM'd me about what driveshaft was used in the front, you said it was a stock 3rd gen didn't you?

That driveshaft I had cut and balanced. It is the same length as one out of a 2nd gen quad cab, with a 24v & 5-speed.