Darkness's new project~ D44 & 9"

[Savage Wolf]

Track bar is done, tho I forgot to take pics of the frame mount : oops
To be driveable now I just need to fix a small exhaust problem, bleed the brakes and hook up the wires on my new shifter stalk (will post the info on that in my v8 swap thread) So it might be a little while until I get this rig back on the road while I wait for funds to catch up to $$ I spent on parts and tools

But anyways, here are the pics for most of todays progress...

Hey look, track bar and draglink

Well theres yer problem

 

[zainyD]

Looks good so far. Did you butt weld that track bar back together or did you sleave it? I would seriously consider sleaving it if you haven't already. A simple butt weld may not hold up to the stresses that are exerted on the track bar. Just my .02

 

[IZwack]

Looks good so far. Did you butt weld that track bar back together or did you sleave it?

LOL Wolf and I were talking about this. But after more than 190 amps of TIG welding power and beveling the butt weld so that there's only 1/2" left of interface between the two metal for a deep root pass, we concluded that we're going to roll the dice and assumed it will be strong enough.

But this brings up the question, why are you people up so early? go back to bed!

 

[Savage Wolf]

Looks good so far. Did you butt weld that track bar back together or did you sleave it? I would seriously consider sleaving it if you haven't already. A simple butt weld may not hold up to the stresses that are exerted on the track bar. Just my .02

There are no "simple welds" on my rig, unlike most of the welds you will see on most of the home done swaps, A: I am a cert welder B: I am using real welding equipment (no 110v 75amp crap)
As IZ said the track bar (and the tierod/draglink) were GTAW together @ 196 amps, the track bar took 3 passes to fill in the bevel I made on it and the root pass was hot enough that it should have full pen to the center of the bar, Really I am more worryed about the frame side track bar mount breaking then the track bar

To give ya a idea here is what is being used to do all the welding

 

[Savage Wolf]

And here are some pics of the track bar frame side mount, to be honest the welds on it look like crap and I may redo them, tho the ones between the coil bucket couldnt be helped much due to the lack of room to get the mig torch in place at the correct angles. At worst I may have to redo them with the coil bucket off or with some 7018 stick rods

 

[TheRookie]

Straight vertical welds on the high carbon frame???

 

[Savage Wolf]

Straight vertical welds on the high carbon frame???

Yep no room for a fishplate on the coil side of it. It doesnt show in the pics but the 2 side plates follow the frame at 45* (frame isnt square) if it breaks... I'll fix it

 

[Savage Wolf]

to be honest cutting down the 78/79 d44 is the last thing i would recommend someone to try its a total pita

Quoting it and saying it again, I do not suggest anyone to narrow a 78/79 HP d44 like I did, the location of the pinion causes some major headaches, too close to the center line of the truck, granted that I am sitting at about 5-6" of suspension lift (I think) more lift would probably help remove the problem some but I dont want the truck any taller...

...Just random thoughts on my swap...

 

[Nick26]

Quoting it and saying it again, I do not suggest anyone to narrow a 78/79 HP d44 like I did, the location of the pinion causes some major headaches, too close to the center line of the truck, granted that I am sitting at about 5-6" of suspension lift (I think) more lift would probably help remove the problem some but I dont want the truck any taller...

...Just random thoughts on my swap...

haha, its that bad? I was hoping to do a swap exactly like yours this summer with a 78 HP D44, what else would you recommend I do? I wanted to keep it cheap and use off the shelf parts.

 

[Savage Wolf]

haha, its that bad? I was hoping to do a swap exactly like yours this summer with a 78 HP D44, what else would you recommend I do? I wanted to keep it cheap and use off the shelf parts.

Well really I didnt think about clearance issues as much with my swap, just sorta shoved the axle under the truck and made it all up as I went...
But having a 5.0 under the truck and the 4r70w tranny makes things alittle weird on my rig, If you do some planning, looking and measurements It very well may work better for you (esp w/ the stock 4.0 and 5speed tranny)

 

[TheRookie]

wouldnt a dual exhaust cure a lot of your problems? thats fairly simple. What else is in the way?

 

[sn0border88]

a dual exust with no x or h pipe would be what fixes it. Maybe an h pipe would clear the pumpkin.

 

[TheRookie]

any exhaust guy worth a damn could still get an x pipe to work

 

[sn0border88]

I figured it out, side pipes.

 

[Mud Bug 94]

no, i figured it out... headers....then...well thats it!!

 

[Savage Wolf]

well how much space do you think should be between the top of the diff and the exhaust and I really dont see how duel exhaust would be much better cause the drive shaft and t-case would be in the way for it, or the whole exhaust pipe would have to go under the t-case skid (the atlas has about 1/4" clearance to the skid plate and about 2 inchs to the frame)

Not that much of this matters I redid the y pipe with what I had for the time being, at some point I'll probably redo the whole front half of the exhaust system w/ custom built headers and whatnot but thats alittle ways off still

 

[Savage Wolf]

Oh and I dont think any amount of exhaust work is going to fix this...

 

[Mud Bug 94]

i guess long tube header would do i... look up l&l headers.

 

[Savage Wolf]

i guess long tube header would do i... look up l&l headers.

So a long tube header will move my diff over or make the tranny narrower?
Oh and the headers that are on the truck now are L&L.... Nice but poorly designed for the swap that I did...

 

[Mud Bug 94]

do a real sharp 90 off the collector, i.e if its 2 inch pipe then it drops 2-1/4 down off the collector and go right in the middle of the body,t-case, and frame...or kink and shorten the header out towards the tire, and theres always the alternative...more lift.