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:

 

[IZwack]

Hey, weren't we all supposed to have our trucks ready to go by like August? What ever happened to that plan?

Dont remind me of my failures k?

Okay so I think this is pretty much it for the exhaust. The muffler (Dynomax SuperTurbo "brah") is hard mounted (idea stolen from Jimco's TT for Voss Motorsports) and some sort of a turn down tip will be added later. There is another flex pipe thingy after the catalytic converter and before the bulkhead connection.

 

[cybergasm]

Just wonder who is gonna be the first victim of the Weenie Roast ???

 

[IZwack]

Just wonder who is gonna be the first victim of the Weenie Roast ???

Driver and passengers shouldn't have any heat problems - the van's turbo for example, is only inches from the plastic engine cover and its fine with just a cheap heat shield barrier. The Explorer will get some better quality heat shielding. I'm more worried about keeping the catalytic converter hot enough so it actually does its job.

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

i find that when i look at pictures oif this thing i find myself doing head tilts as if looking at it from another angle will help me understand this masterpiece better....

but alas i degress it all seems way too thought out for me to wrap my meager mind upon

brah

 

[colindo94]

is the engine all wired, mounted, plumed, ect...Im sure I could find this information out, but I have class in a few hours:

 

[IZwack]

No its not

EDIT -- well yeah it is mounted but not plumbed or wired.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[IZwack]

Made some rails to contain the radiator. There will be some strips of rubber (maybe 1/8" or 3/16" thick) that will go in between the radiator and the rails to isolate the bumps a bit.

Rails:

Finally found a use for the dimple dies:

 

[cybergasm]

lol nothing beats Fabricating in you Kitchen

 

[IZwack]

Its cold (!!!!) in the garage - I figured I'd bring it in instead of freezing my cornea onto the camera (woot, rhymes).

 

[410Fortune]

Lowes has Stanley shop heaters on sale here for $37 fyi... normally $50

they work great in my two car, enough to paint (no I dont paint with them on) and its 42 here today and sunny.... not exactly warm... my house faces North = dumbass first time homebuyer in CO
Neighbors across the street = shorts, me = carhart suit

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

You need an industrial solution, this is what I use at my folks' garage in Boston:

220v/30a, heats it up really well. It's able to maintain 60 degrees (and cycle off!) in the 2-bay garage when it's in the the 20s outside.

Here I was using it to thin out the VW's DSG transmission fluid before filling. That stuff costs $20/quart!!

 

[Rick]

I've got this one: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200395369_200395369

Works great, but boy does it make the meter spin...

 

[BKennedy]

Its cold (!!!!) in the garage - I figured I'd bring it in instead of freezing my cornea onto the camera (woot, rhymes).

It's cold here too! It must have gotten down to 42 last night, and today..........brrrrrrrrrrrrrr 65!!! I mean, 65!! I had to put on a sweater.:

 

[jwrezz]

Here's mine since we're all sharing. But we're not talking cold as in below 50. Tonite it's warm,and it's about 30. Teens is cold for me, although I know you real cold weather guys are gonna laugh at me! Any way here's the pic...I'm a fireman, I know the hazards.

 

[SuRrEaLNJ]

yay title change

 

[jwrezz]

Hey, where'd my pic link go?

Ok, twitpic wants my pic to link back to twitpic.com, but html is off for the forum. What do I do w/ this? If I post a direct link to the photo, it expires shortly.

<a href="http://twitpic.com/okhve" title="Share photos on twitter with Twitpic"><img src="http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/okhve.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Share photos on twitter with Twitpic"></a>

 

[410Fortune]

the 220V heater I want is like $350 LOL I had $40 I could spend, geesh now I feel cold in comparison!!

 

[colindo94]

I bet those 220V take a powerplant to run

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

I bet those 220V take a powerplant to run

Or the same outlet as your welder (if you're not welding).

 

[jwrezz]

So yeah, I'm only on page 36. I have it set to display the maximum amount of posts per page, which really seems to make the most sense, unless you're on a really slow connection maybe? I'm just rambling since we're so darn snowed in!

Happy snow-day y'all!