A-man930

anyone know by chance how much the stock bumper weighs? I'd be interested to see how much weight I'll be adding with this crazy thing.

Got some 4x6x1/4 rec. tube "donated" to me by a neighbor so I headed out to a buddy's house and got the welding and grinding going earlier today. Don't expect to get to work on it again very soon but here's the progress.

Hate to post up a new topic for this but I'm having a tough time with this one. I have my whole column sitting on the workbench waiting for this ONE part to be found. The stealership evidently only sells the lower bearing by itself, to get the upper you have to buy a kit that contians the componenets for the tilt and such for like $60. My order won't drop till monday afternoon so if I can find an alternate source soon that would be great. And yes, I know the problem is a bad bearing, saw the balls fallen out of the plastic cage and the E-torx screws in the back are indeed tight.

yep, the Chevy drop shackles will give you 3/4" or so on the bottom (er, top) bolt hole. Mine have two holes. I didn't use the upper hole for fear of changing the pinion angle too much.

Haha thats awesome man. My MJ was around before my girl though, so she doesn't pretend to have senority :rotf:

always interested in this topic. I'll be doing it someday.

The only adjustment/check there is to be done on a solid rear setup is the offset of the whole assembly to the left or right. Only typical way this becomes a problem is after a collision. Correction: You can also check if one wheel is pushed further forward than the other. neither of these are terribly likely to be an issue for most people.

You would be the guy to ask this question. Would it be possible to use the old style interior door trim on a new style door? Do you have any pics of the two??

Interstate is nothing but a name and distributor. JCI (Johnson controls) makes Interstate, Die Hard, Duralast, Optima and tons others. Now I can't say with certianty if all the manufacturing processes are identical, but one would suspect that to be the case whenever they can get away with it. The only other true battery suppliers are East Penn (Deka), and Exide; and distributors switch all the time. An example: The NAPA stores here in the midwest just switched their battery supplier from Exide to East Penn about a year ago... so the NAPA legend 84 month that you bought in '05 is NOT the same as the replacement on the shelf. The same is probably true with Interstate. iirc they were East Penn not too long ago, now they are JCI...

DID THAT! Some of the older folk at the wedding didn't quite get it I don't think :nuts:

swapping in a different assembly is 1000% easier than re-gearing. Even with welding in some new perches. I found an 8.25 with 3.54s and never looked back, so what if it has drum brakes? why do you want disc so bad? If its primarily a street truck then you don't have to worry about rocks/dirt/water collecting in the drums (the primary reason disc brakes are better for a trail rig.) I've been guilty of over-thinking projects myself, as I believe you're doing. But it's better that than diving in without doing your research and knowing all your options well. I'd find a 8.25 and matching front D30, clean out the housings well, maybe replace the wheel seals and bearings on the rear, and get gone. You will love the difference in how it drives :D

subscribing, I'll be needing a set of pioneer stripes someday

mine just went out today. I'd be interested in this as well

I'd be interested in this as well

Is that my MJ in the background!? haha awesome! Glad I snatched that up when I did :yes: Good to see you're giving the remaining one some love

Gotta consider too that most flushes on the market are solvent-based. Kerosene, sea foam, gunk, etc... all have the same effect as carb cleaner from a spray can; very agressive and won't offer any lubricating prioperties. Another old-time trick you might consider instead is adding a quart of ATF to the crankcase in place of some oil (or slightly overfill it). Its oil, with tons of detergents... not so agressive as to dislodge chunks of stuff but still effective at removing sludge buildup and freeing sticky lifters and rings and such.

+1 on the getting me to work! The DD is out of comission for now so its MJ time for me :clapping: Man I miss driving her every day

Add me to the list. Any of the mentioned swaps would be cool. I personally would do an LSJ or LNF swap on the ecotec front, don't mess with the boring ones :clapping:

Valvoline Max Life synthetic blend/full synthetic are both designed for older engines. That would be my suggestion.

sounds like I need to call this guy and get some details about the process and what he is capable of in general. And it sounds like an acid dip would clear any and all surfaces of pretty much anything. I'm wanting to do box tube rockers along with frame plating, tube fenders, and custom bumpers before all this happens, so I'll be done with all major welding prior to this, because I know how toxic welding galvanized metal can be.

Thanks for the replies! To the questions as to weather I could get things clean enough, I think the acid dip is dessigned to take care of any residual rust/grease, and it sounds like this is a standard pre-dip step when galvanizing anything. I'd obviously need to get as much as possible off with sandblasting or whatever. I didn't realize this. Why exactly is this true? I was considering sandblasting, welding, acid dip, then galvanize... explain. My real concern revolves around the cab being able to take the heat of the process and not warp or anything weird like that.

Comanche forever? So I found out that one of my customers can hook me up with galvanizing services, I really want to ask him if he'd be able to do something as big as my cab/frame. But before I bother him I thought I'd ask around here to get some opinions. I know it would have to be stripped down to nothing, be pretty much free of dirt/rust/paint, and I'd have to be pretty well done with any welding to the chasis. I can't see why this wouldn't be a great investment, as the truck is virtually rust free right now. What better way to preserve it?!

subscribing

battery cable?? could have lurched the motor hard enough to short out the pos cable to the starter.

I can confirm that the renix intake manifold will bolt right up to the HO head and the engine will run (everyday :D ) No the ports don't line up just right, but it does run and there's no fabrication required. Obviously this is a less-than ideal setup, but if you're not up to the fabrication of adapting the renix tb to the HO intake, or the wiring headaches of swapping both the dash harness and the engine bay harness, then this would be my suggestion.