Cleaned up the old gal

[Cat_Rebel]

Has anyone ever figured out why we continue to throw money at these trucks? Is it the love of the truck itself or is it something that goes even deeper?
Back in May after I got the shift kit in I thought it was high time that I take care of the busted leaf springs & hangers that I had been meaning to take care of since late last summer. Since my old bed was mostly trashed from the last owner never washing all the old road salt off it had taken it's toll on it. Without plans to keep it I thought I would throw it off & scrap it later & also allowing me full acess to work on the frame & clean the rust off it.
Bear in mind I was on my own durring this whole project. I also don't have a air compresser or air tools nore do I have a normal floor jack & jack stands. The torches were empty so all work was done with grinders & a hand held propane torch to help loosen bolts.

To start things out this is how it looked when I started the tear down...
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This is what the frame looked like & the busted leafs....
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This is the result of sitting there with a angle grinder with a sanding wheel, wire wheel on a buffer & good old hammer & chissle....
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The next step after the frame was cleaned & painted was to get the old springs & hangers off, no torch so it was just grind the heads off the rivets & bang em through with a hammer & punch. You can go ahead & laugh at my Redneck jackstands but they held it up for weeks just fine. Oh yes in the process also found out one of the leafs on the pass side broke so good thing I planned on replacing em anyways.
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Here's what it looked like when I was grinding the old hanger off...
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I'm going to make another post because I'm only part way though & I think I'm at my limit for pics in one post.

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

Has anyone ever figured out why we continue to throw money at these trucks? Is it the love of the truck itself or is it something that goes even deeper?

Cause it's still cheaper than a payment for a replacement truck.

Gitr done!

 

[Cat_Rebel]

Part II...

Well now I needed springs & hanger & I had been thinking about going to a set of F350 SD springs but I would have had to pay shipping or fork up a chunk of change for the stock springs & new hangers. Me being the way I am I wanted to save money & do something diffrent. I got intough with a guy down in Ohio that had a F450 frame with springs, hangers & Reece hitch for a price I couldn't really pass up since I needed springs & I planned on using or scrapping the rest of the frame anyways. So we met up & threw everything in the back of my Ma's Superduty & headed back for home!
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Knowing that 10 springs is kinda overkill on a pickup (the F450 was rated around 17k GVRW) I trimmed it down to 5 springs + the overload. This was the mockup on it...notice the stock U bolt works just fine.
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The next hassle would be getting the F450 brackets on my curvy 93 pickup frame since they were off a F450 straight frame....
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After much mesuring & some & playing with a 1/2" drill I got the brackets on there & did the shackle flip on the rear. Oh yeah found out a brake line bust as well, it was rusty & needed to be relaced & luckey for me it cracked when it was on blocks & not with the bed on going down the road.
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Stay tuned till part III when the real fun begins....

 

[Cat_Rebel]

Part III little problems keep popping up so my basic trick is get then walk ayay & come back & look at it again & see what we need. Well I did some road testing & was worried that it would dog walk if I didn't get the axle perfectly straight. As it turns out I didn't have a problem because it drives straight even with your hands off the wheel. I talked to my buddy & got his old pickup bed he was thinking of scrappin in trade for my old bed to scrap. So I was getting back in the game again. Then find out when we go to bolt it on that the flipped shackles are hitting the crossmember. Wonderful, but it was on there so I would deal with it later.
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Then I can't help but notice the nice T case seal like I have now. I go well I'll just replace that & the U joints when the driveshaft is off. So I try to pull the Driveshaft off & can't figure out why it won't come off.
Then it dawns on me looking at this...
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When I was working on the leaf springs the axle tipped back on me & pulled the shaft & yoke out of the T case. I went to put it back but I ended up mounting it about an inch too far foward. So after much fighting I gave up & found a driveshaft shop over in Flint MI that I went to. I ended up mesuring the thing wrong & told em to cut about 2" off. Well lets just say I should have known to stay outta flint (broke my own rule) because it's all a bunch of crooks & GM owners. Anyways back to the story I get the drive shaft back & get it installed & this is what I'm looking at now....
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It still had about 3" on the output shaft & when I drove it around there seemed to be a vibration around 45+ that just got worse the faster you went. I got talking to people & they asked me if the place balenced it & sure enough they didn't. Well I called the place back & the woman at the counter told me another $81 to balence it ($61 to cut & reweld) & I said "Okay why did you let a unbalenced shaft leave the shop without telling me it needed to be balenced?" She told me & i quote "Not every shaft needs to be balenced, we tell people to go & try it & 9/10 of them are happy & don't need to come back"
So I had enough of that shop & their plain ignoreance so I called another shop that I wish I had went to in the first place. I found out this place charged half the price of that hack shop from flint & did alot better work. I got to walk into the back & see the operation & just the fact it was a very clean shop with friendly & helpful people. I went down there to balence it & he said let me look at it first so he put it on the machine & told me this other place rewelded it .040 off & the factory is .020 off & this place strives for .005 off.
So more pics in part 4 of this story alittle later...

 

[icanfixall]

Nice to find a good driveshaft shop isn't it.... Some peopel that "hang out a shilgle" shouls be run out of town... But some need to learn on you sometimes too... Just not me.....

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Which shop did you end up using? I took the front shaft of my old jacked-up '78 F150 down to Arrow Truck in Detroit (by the Ambassador Bridge), they work mostly on big trucks so I figured they'd know what they're doing. Well, $140 later it was 2" longer, very nicely welded, with new heavy-duty Spicer U-joints on both ends, balanced, and painted as well. Guy did a great job, and I didn't even have to leave and come back later, he took care of it all in less than an hour.

 

[hoodshauler]

Cause it's still cheaper than a payment for a replacement truck.

Gitr done!

And the fact that we can work on these trucks much easier than the computer driven models of today.

 

[Cat_Rebel]

The bad shop is on Dort highway in Flint MI & is called "Automotive Machine Shop guess they couldn't have thought up a better name... Anyone in this area STAY AWAY! I talk to more people & find out I'm not the only one that has issues with em.

The good shop is called CCI on 26 mile road about 3 miles east of I 94 for the quality of the work & the was the shop & people are it's worth it to make the extra drive.

Now back to the story, they guy there ran through all the options we had on the driveshaft issue.

1-Bust open the hack weld, reweld it right & then balence it, but being shorter then normal it had a better chance of wearing stuff out quicker

2-I call them back on Monday (it was right before the 4th of July weekend) & give them a mesurement & they could build me a shaft EXACTLY for my truck.

I said well might as well do it right the first time & said I'll be calling you back. He was very helpful & made sure we were on the same page where to mesure from & drew up a little sketch. So got the mesurement to him on Mon & went down to picit up on Tuesday. All I can say is WOW when you look at both shafts!

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Hack shop's weld...
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Good shop's weld...
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Anyone else see a slight diffrence in weld quality...

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Right, that first "job" looks pretty damn scarey! The new shaft looks very much like what the Arrow guy did for me, nice and clean. You gonna paint it now?

Also, dunno if you know, but stock shackles don't hold up very well to being used in reverse position, they are fairly thin-wall and they like to bend under heavy loads. Just something you may wanna consider for the future.

 

[Cat_Rebel]

So I ended up cutting holes in the bed instead of trying to build a body lift. In all truth they don't stick up that much, I have to get my old rubber bed mat out & lay it over em & you'll never know.
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For the first time in years it finally sits level on not crooked in the back! ;p

Finally got to pull a good size trailer with it, glad I backed the pump back off. Before under hard throttle or pulling a trailer it would just smoke like a train & the EGTs would shoot right up to 1000*-1100* now it won't even hardly haze under a load but then again my foot wasn't all the way down with the trailer. Nice EGTs stuck around 700* & would go down to 600* on flat land or downhill & up to 800* on slight hills or getting up to speed. MPG still seemed to be around 14-16 like normal so I'm happy. We grossed about 9960lbs going up there doing 55mph in OD the whole time.
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The ride wasn't that bad at all with the trailer on it & the junk in the bed. Unloaded it's kinda bouncey though!
I'll update this thread as I do more to the truck, for now it's running good so I'm going to leave it alone. Just thought I'd share my story so others know they aren't alone with crazy ideas & spending money on these things.

 

[Cat_Rebel]

Right, that first "job" looks pretty damn scarey! The new shaft looks very much like what the Arrow guy did for me, nice and clean. You gonna paint it now?

I knew forgot to add a pic...
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Gave it a coat of primer then a nice coat of glossey red. It's so pretty I can't help but stare at it some times!

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Oooh, that's a purdy red thing for sure. But yeah, I edited my post, if you gonna tow big read about the shackles.

 

[Cat_Rebel]

I will keep an eye on it, chances are I won't have to tow or haul too much super heavy stuff with this truck. If I get to that point it should only take less then an hour to flip em back the other way.

 

[greythorn3]

I knew forgot to add a pic...
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Gave it a coat of primer then a nice coat of glossey red. It's so pretty I can't help but stare at it some times!

that looks like a dogs ****!

Ray

 

[Agnem]

Obviously your spending too much time under a dog, instead of your truck.

I paint mine while it's on the truck, and spinning. Looks more like a driveshaft that way.