Another day with not as much progress as I would have liked.....
I got 90% of the old parts broken down and ready for sale - one torsion
bar doesn't want to come out of the lower control arm, but I'm sure
after a night soaking in PB Blaster (as in, I filled up the cavity with
PB, about a quarter inch deep. soaking.) it'll be able to be
convinced. That cleaned up the garage quite nicely.
Took 5 minutes and pulled the rear driveshaft. Looks like the ATF
that's leaking all over is from the transfer case, which I look at as a
Good Thing since that's a far easier fix than the transmission as far
as I'm concerned.
Spent a couple hours beating the drums off my Sterling 10.25". They
were pretty badly rusted on around the backing plate. The innards look
mostly passable, except for a broken lower return spring on one side,
and a screwed up auto adjuster on the other (had come disconnected, and
I think is bent....). The shoes are also mismatched: on side has
bonded pads that look brand new, the other side has riveted pads at
about 75%. So I'll pick up pads and a hardware kit. Nothing caked
around the wheel cyls, so I'm pretty sure they're in good shape. I
also ripped a brake line off (while dropping the axle), and there was
fluid, so they should still be wet and alright internally rust-wise
too, I hope.
I broke down my wheels and knocked all the studs out and took the
weights off, so they're ready for prep and either paint or powder,
along with replacement studs and nuts. I think I'm just going to go
with a gloss black. I've got to clean up the axles' hubs too, since
they won't be covered by anything.
I was also going to get the crossmember finished up, but I couldn't get
the spacers I need to make finished tonight - I broke a bandsaw blade
(fell apart at the weld while working through inch thick Al in
horizontal mode) and the only replacement around was just about
completely toothless. I finished the cut I was making, and confirmed
that my pattern is right, but I need to finish shaping the bracket
before I hog out the holes and bolt it up in prep to weld. (the Al is
serving as a spacer for a bracket welded to the crossmember securing it
to an oddly shaped section of frame)
Still to do:
take care of the machine shop stuff - taking the spindles off the
knuckles, turning brake drums, getting a broken off tap out
32 lug nuts
32 split rim studs and nuts
clean out the front axle tubes so I can reassemble it
fab the 4 axle-side link mounting brackets
mount panhard bracket on the truck
fab coil buckets for the axle
either rework the coil buckets I got from the JY or fab new for the
truck end as well.
fab links
steering
rearend everything
brakes
-- Mike Maskalans <http://mike.tepidcola.com/dodge/> '84 RamCharger Daily Driver '98 Dakota under the knife mobile.612.618.4652 home.585.935.7129 fax.360.364.3930
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