Build Project - SS Cherokee

[mucovich]

Got started on tearing down the 60 today, everything came apart fairly easy considering who know when the last time it was apart...

every thing looked good inside the housing... and i was pleasantly surprised to find that the stock shafts are 35 spline!

all stripped and ready to plasma the stock brackets off and clean it up...

late this afternoon the fedex man dropped off my barnes 4wd 13 bolt cover - i'll be shavin tomorrow!

 

[aweber]

and i was pleasantly surprised to find that the stock shafts are 35 spline

The stock inner's are 35 spline but the outer's should be 30 spline. :beer:

One thing to check is if you have the older "neck down" style of inner's or the newer bigger inner's:

Undesirable one being the one pictures on the top...

 

[aweber]

Here's the guy I got the stubs from:

http://www.rwkhaussupply.com/magent....com/magento/drivetrain/specials/dana-60.html

 

[mucovich]

cool, i was going to ask you about that - did you require to bore out the spindle to get those to fit? I've heard that has to be done in some applications.

 

[aweber]

Not on the Chevy Axle, the ford might require it though. He does have ford specific cromo stubs for $100 each listed on his site though.

 

[mucovich]

sweet, i'll be checking that out.

 

[mucovich]

Ok, time to shave, pulled the old cover off and pulled the carrier out (preping to install locker in the future)

Fitted new cover to mark the cut line...

And alittle cutting later...

After grinding it smooth i took the liberty of throwing some paint on...

Then started cutting off the stock brackets on the 60 - i'll continue the cleanup tomorrow...

 

[mucovich]

Here's the guy I got the stubs from:

http://www.rwkhaussupply.com/magent....com/magento/drivetrain/specials/dana-60.html

checked these out - best price yet!

 

[mucovich]

Did a bunch of "dirty" work today on the 60, smoothed out where i cut off the brackets and cleaned all the crap off it and painted all the cast with rust converter... now it's time to carve some pumpkins!

 

[O.D.]

Really nice!!!

Question.... By shaving the bottom off like that, are you not in essence reducing the wall thickness of the housing in the area that is going to probably see the most impacts? Or, are you just basically trimming the overhand lip and nothing else?

Keep it up!

 

[mucovich]

good question, i'm not taking anything off the bottom of the diff, only taking the lip off - there is still quite a bit of housing there

 

[mucovich]

The stock inner's are 35 spline but the outer's should be 30 spline. :beer:

One thing to check is if you have the older "neck down" style of inner's or the newer bigger inner's:

Undesirable one being the one pictures on the top...

checked this - i have the newer bigger style, figurered as much but i did double check with Bill's tech article.

 

[mucovich]

update - well thanks to canada post i haven't received my upper link brackets yet (should be here tomorrow) so i got to a few other things that needed some attention. The last couple of times out i was having a fuel delivery problem. It would take a few cranks to build up pressure before it would start but once running it was fine. So i figured it was either a bad fuel pressure regulator and/or a bad fuel filter (on my year it's a combined unit). I was also having problems with the sender and it's easier to buy the hole pump/regulator/sender as one unit that's what i did - now no fuel problems.

Old punp assembly...

and out of tank...

I've also realized that with 40's i'll have clearance problems with the back end of the wheel wells in the rear so the easy fix is a comp cut, this is just the preliminary cuts phase as i'll get back to this later this winter.

tubing cut first...

then hack away at the sheet metal...

and lastly i separated the 14 bolt carrier in anticipation of the locker install...

and spiders and cross pins removed...

 

[O.D.]

Multi-tasking rules!!!

 

[mucovich]

well, i'll toss another update out - melted in the upper rear link mounts. now i'm just waiting for the grizzly and install kit to gear it...

I've also lowered it by about an inch so this is it at about ride hight...

 

[mucovich]

Took yesterday afternoon to clean up the dana 60 knuckles, after abit of wire brushing...

primed them and sprayed them with paint...

and painted...

 

[Dirk]

Digging' the colour.

 

[mucovich]

thanks Dirk, so do I - i think i'll do the inner C's too, if i'm gunna build em might as well make em look good!

 

[mucovich]

i should update - been workin on this off and on the last couple of weeks. some bracing on the front bar - notched some tube first of course...

and then welded them in, nothing fancy (more tube work planned this weekend)

then i had blue santa show up and drop of some gifts, some 14 bolt sweetness...

installing the grizzly into the carrier...

and all together with the ring gear installed...

 

[mucovich]

today i started to cut some sheet metal to close in the rear where i cut the fender - i tried to keep this real simple and to create the minimal amount of work to get this done.

cut some sheet with the plasma...

then tacked (and hammered them) into place...

and did the same for a top piece to finish it and welded in...

tomorrow i'll seam seal them up and toss some bed liner for that finishing touch.