Superflexy install, diff drop and preservation

[BigSwede]

Why, you live in friggin' South Carolina for chrissakes...
We are under a Winter Weather Advisory today, 3-4 inches of snow tonight and hopefully not much freezing rain before the snow.

Anyway why would you clean all the grease out of your CV joints? Are you just trying to make work for yourself?

[tom4bren]

Thanks, I will fit it up on the ground and see how it fits on there. Joe D did the cut and weld, I did the grinding and finishing. Hopefully it fits just fine.

You didn't show a pic of the inside of the brackets. Did you grind all of the weld lines flat in there? The axle flange needs to seat flat against the bracket.

[Marlin]

Why, you live in friggin' South Carolina for chrissakes...
We are under a Winter Weather Advisory today, 3-4 inches of snow tonight and hopefully not much freezing rain before the snow.

This time last year I spent 3 or 4 days hanging christmas lights, I was wearing coat, gloves, hat, freezing my *** off. Definitely too warm for this time of year.
Anyway why would you clean all the grease out of your CV joints? Are you just trying to make work for yourself?

I cleaned the grease out since I had all torn boots, and I wheeled with em that way at uwharrie. I am sure there was dirt and whatnot. The solvent based parts cleaner is free to use on base Grease is cheap, CVs are not.

You didn't show a pic of the inside of the brackets. Did you grind all of the weld lines flat in there? The axle flange needs to seat flat against the bracket.

I did grind all the welds flat on the inside face. Hopefully its actually flat and gets a good seal. Isn't the axle seal the actual fluid sealing surface? Maybe I will put some RTV along the seating surface as well just in case the axle seal leaks.

I just borrowed Halo Reach from a friend at work,its very hard to decide to work on the truck right now...

[tom4bren]

[COLOR="Red"]I did grind all the welds flat on the inside face. Hopefully its actually flat and gets a good seal. Isn't the axle seal the actual fluid sealing surface? Maybe I will put some RTV along the seating surface as well just in case the axle seal leaks.

Yes, the axle seal is what controls the fluid retention. There's no need for RTV (other than peace of mind). The flat surface isn't hyper critical, just good sense.

[Marlin]

Yes, the axle seal is what controls the fluid retention. There's no need for RTV (other than peace of mind). The flat surface isn't hyper critical, just good sense.

Gotcha, that is what I was thinking, I think I will RTV it anyway. Its already apart and I have a ton of RTV from the locker install.

[Marlin]

Since Halo reach sucked, which took me 3 hours of playing to figure out I decided to drop the axle this morning. Not so bad, I even got it out without taking the steering linkage apart. Putting it back in, thats a whole new story...

I used the HF soda blaster to blast the whole thing down. Best toy ever!!!! Worked like a champ. Took about 15lbs of baking soda to get it cleaned up. 10 years worth of grime, dirt, grease, rust, gone in about 15 minutes or so. I should be able to start painting in about 20 minutes. I know it still looks rusty, but POR15 has to have rust on it to set properly. I had the blaster set to stun, or rather lowest concentration of media I also have the cleanest driveway on the block now. It is 100% environmentally friendly, so I just dragged it down by the curb and went to town.

[Ldub]

It's fun to stay at the...wait for it...



Y - M- - A

Back on topic...

Nice job...

[Marlin]

It's fun to stay at the...wait for it...



Y - M- - A

Back on topic...

Nice job...

Nice! I spent the better part of the last hour looking for my cans of POR15. The wife had been threatening to throw them away if I didn't put them up for the last several months. She is at work, so I can't ask. I finally gave up and used high temp engine primer to primer the damn thing. While that was drying, I went ahead and removed the passenger side axle and installed the new bracket.
Put the first coat of red on, letting it dry now. Then I will go ahead and mount up the passenger side. While the second coat is drying, I will yank the driver's side out...not the fun one. Its a PITA to get the axle bearing off. I also have to make sure I don't damage the axle seal, those things are like 40 bucks IIRC from replacing em when I did the locker install.

[Marlin]

After looking at the pics, I noticed how bad the oil pan looked, so I went ahead and treated that with rust neutralizer, and I will paint it as I go along. My poor old girl looks horrible. most of it is mud, but damn, its pathetic.

[Marlin]

Oil pan is done, and I used rubber undercoating, neat stuff. GOt the brackets mounted up, no problems with the bearings and seals. Will try to put it back in tomorrow, gotta let the paint cure.
Then I get to start on the flexy kit install. I know there are some that are lurking waiting for those pics. I will have some flex pics up hopefully by Sunday.

[VXorado]

Nice lookin' axle

This thread reminds me of all the work my front end needs before next summer, PITA but gotta pay to play

[Marlin]

Nice lookin' axle

This thread reminds me of all the work my front end needs before next summer, PITA but gotta pay to play

Yep, Buffy was the fire to get this done. That and there are a bunch of folks waiting to see the IFS kit in action!!!

[Marlin]

Yesterday we went shopping, and it rained all day and last night. Now its too cold, I did get a tarp set up, and filled the diff with oil, too cold to try futzing around with it now. I will wait till after lunch when its in the 60s I am going to go ahead and start on the IFS kit prior to putting the axle in, that way if I find anything I need help with, I can get a buddy to help me all at once. I will probably need a hand getting the axle up there, at least getting the bolts started. Stay tuned for afternoon pics.

[Marlin]

Been working for about 1 hour, got the rear brackets off, relocated fuel line, trying to get the damned front spline couplings off....grrrrr. Had 4 different pry/chisels jamed in there. Its backed off about 1/2" or so. I wish I knew how far I need to go. Now I am heading to Pepboys to get a 26mm impact socket and some bigger pry/chisels. If it wasn't for these getting stuck, I would probably be in the install portion already. Its actually not that bad, as long as you have the right tools.

[Marlin]

After two trips to the parts store to get sockets, I thought the torsion bar bolt was 26mm, which is also what the instructions say, they are actually 27mm...grrr.

I just gave up for today, I can't get either torsion bar bolt to move, I tried a 3 foot cheater bar, ran the impact wrench till it was smoking...notta, on either side. Not sure what to do now. I can guess I can try cutting the head off the bolt? Its not under load as far as the weight of the truck goes, but I am a bit hesitant to try that, but at this point, I don't know what else to do.
Anyway, here are a few pics:

What comes in the box:

Pieces that you remove:


The kit goes above this crossmember, and under the drive shaft


Splines exposed...finally.