Something w/ rabbits. 72.5 pages of BS

So seeing as spring is just around the corner, I thought I'd start a thread on the future undertaking of swapping in the Dana 60.

The axle is from a 1986 "Fawwd" F-threee "fitty", sporting some kingpins and a whole lot of rust. I took this axle apart a few months ago (except stupid me didnt remove the pinion nut before breakdown ) and had it hot tanked. I wanted it sandblasted, but the machine shop owner smirked and said "naaah yo, that junx is too big for my blasting cabinet" .. okay except he didn't really say that cauz he's old and a really cool guy. ANyways *twirls blonde hair*, this is my plaannn:

- WMS-WMS this axle is just a bit over 69" wide so I'm going to cut the passenger's side down a few inches to match 'ye ol General Motors 14-bolt axle. So this is going to require custom axle shafts and I think I'm going to go Chromos and 35-spline outers off the bat from the most awesome guys at Complete Off Road.

- Drive flange or lockouts? They are about the same in price and its a dedicated trail rig so I'm leaning towards the drive flanges. Right now, the cheapest flanges I found are the Teraflexes at $180 for a pair. If anyone knows of a better deal, please let me know !!

- High-steer arms and a double-ended hydroponics goodness ("cylinder").

- Opposite-ended panhard bar! The idea is to mount the chassis end of the panhard on the passenger's side frame rail and the axle end on the driver's side. Doing so should allow a more simple and cleaner design since the axle-mount can be mounted on top of or near the differential housing, instead of a tower on the passenger's side (like in my current D44 setup). I also plan to boost the panhard as far up as possible to increase the roll center of the front suspension. Yeah the concept is a little strange but I'm hoping it'll work and won't have any issues (no drag-link to factor into the design). But if anyone knows of any problem running this config, please chime in!

*EDIT*
- Detoit Locker for the carrier. I'm please with how the Detroit in the 14-bolt has performed so I figured I'd run the same in the front. Of course 5.13s to match the 14-bolt.


So here's the little guy, he's been in this position for the past few months just collecting dust:

 

[james t]

Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to measure all the welds when its completed. I would like to know how many miles of beads are in this thing.

 

[IZwack]

I'll try but so far, I've used up maybe 3.5 rolls of 10-lb MIG wire (mix of 0.024 and 0.030). I have done some TIG but that's minor really (like on the shock tab reinforment/spacer stuff).
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[IZwack]

How are you planning on going about painting the tube? Your too fancy to just spray can it.

I'm not too fancy but I might get an el cheapo HarborFreight gun and spray it cauz doing it with rattle cans is just going to take forever. Unfortunately the cold weather is just around the corner so waiting for paint to dry might also take forever.

 

[Rick]

What are you doing for doors?

 

[IZwack]

I took the plasma cutter to the doors a while back and kept the left over outter skins. Ill try to build something behind them and bolt em on to keep the original look of the body.
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[IZwack]

This is all I got done this weekend - started the driver's side header:

This header will cross over to the passenger's side by going on top of the bellhousing (where the exhaust collector will be).

 

[section525]

Sexy! Welding those up will be phun!

 

[IZwack]

It'll be fun fun fun! Each tube will be removed from the exhaust flange and welded separately - i think the hardest part is going to be near the collector where they all come together (right now, over me, yeah come together, yeah come together...

).

 

[jwrezz]

This is all I got done this weekend - started the driver's side header:

This header will cross over to the passenger's side by going on top of the bellhousing (where the exhaust collector will be).

Over the bell-housing? That'll be lots of heat near lots of wiring, right? I'm dying to see what it'll all look like. This build is so fun to follow...

 

[IZwack]

Over the bell-housing? That'll be lots of heat near lots of wiring, right? I'm dying to see what it'll all look like. This build is so fun to follow...

I've got some ideas to help keep the Herpes-induced burning away from the humans.

 

[Turdle]

Ok, how did I miss the headers? Lookin good there IZ

I don't know about over the bell housing though, will it get hot in the ****pit?
Is that a dumb question?

edit, you say protect the humans--how?

I'm curious what you plan, I need a little help with that

 

[IZwack]

I've been looking at some materials to keep the heat away. And I also have another ace up the sleeve - we'll see if its needed or not.

But as for this thread, sorry to say this but its going to be super slow for at least the next 2 months until I finish school.

 

[JTX]

Hey Iz, how come the delete user button wont work? I was all excited!

 

[IZwack]

It only works if you have absolute belief in yourself and released ye ol consciousness of guilt.

 

[james t]

comment no longer available

He's right... concentrated really hard and he's gone now. It works!

:

 

[Tbars4]

Hey Iz, how come the delete user button wont work? I was all excited!

...From the day it showed up, You don't know how many times I tried to get that thing to work...:

 

[IZwack]

Headers all tacked up. Clearances are tight (about 1/2") but the engine will have a torque-bar (to stop it from leaning over to one side) so that should prevent the headers from binding against any of the cage's tube.

Driver's

Passenger's (which has to go "up" to make room for the remote oil filter cap thing):

 

[jwrezz]

Beautiful work! It's a piece of art. Your patience is amazing. And all this work being done on "Just a 4.0 SOHC" motor! I guess this is gonna be any thing but "Just"!

 

[IZwack]

And all this work being done on "Just a 4.0 SOHC" motor! I guess this is gonna be any thing but "Just"!

THanks!

The problem is is that the peak torque and HP specs of the SOHC motor pretty much happens after the variable length intake (VLIM) kicks in (3k+ rpms). I wont be using this stock intake plenum - which means no variable intake and therefore not as high in the performance department. So to make up for the lack of the VLIM, I'm trying to move the torque curve down a little and maybe optimize the output for trail use. So thats why we have long header primaries. I was also planning for long collector lengths but there's not much room for that. I might extend the collector a few more inches but thats probably it.

 

[DB_1]

Looks good as always IZ, this gonna be done before you move out west?: