Alright. LONNNNNNG weekend, still didnt get the SAS done but got quite a bit of progress on it. This will be nowhere near an in depth write up, as I plan to tie that up after its all done and I can take the time to do it.
But to start it off, got the truck in the garage, and started pulling all the front off, bumper, grille, filler plate, lights, and all mounts.
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Mocked up the front brackets (the kit I got was used.) They had them on a 1 ton truck and had put on some extra plating. This needed to be removed, along with the weld. I took a cutting wheel, and hard disc grinder to clean them up.
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This picture shows some of the slop and extra plating that was cut off on the far side. It didnt allow it to sit flush on the frame, and line up with the stock bumper holes, or lower tow hook mounts. It also shows the mess that came with my leaky oil cooler line.
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Had to run to the local station for some dinner and some more beverages. She definitely ran a little cooler. Also shows the gap on the pass side bracket that wouldn't fit right.
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Got my custom spring plates cut, bent with the brake, and drilled for the 3 3" UBolts and the funky 3.65" bolt for around the pumpkin. (You can see those holes are ever so slightly bigger on the top plate). Will need to mock up and cut out the side to fit around the lip of the pumpkin. Also will be drilled for the center spring pin, and then have the lower shock mounts fabbed to the top. And the custom bent 5/8s UBolts. That axle shouldn't go anywhere for a while.
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That sloppy mess I had to cut and grind off. Already been halfway removed.
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Ahhhhh more betta! As you can see it uses the stock 3 bumper mount holes, and the two holes for the stock tow hooks on the bottom of the frame horn. And 4 more holes drilled on the inside of the frame horn.
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Then we found out I had the wrong pitman arm that came with the linkage. So that got overnighted back to get a new on in. So that means it wasn't going to get done this weekend. So we tackled everything else we could while we were at it. Cracked open the 14ff and it was SHOT. So am going with a 1 ton D70 out of a Chevy. Bolts in the exact same as a 14ff. Slightly heavier, but will work for now, til I find a good 14ff to put back in it.
First things first, removing the Trac bars and
Aux shocks. EVERY SINGLE BOLT was seized in the bushings on that setup. So pulled out the grinder and sawzall again. Lopped off the bolt heads on both sides of the bars, all 4 bottom shock bolts, and got a BFH and punch and beat the hell out of it. Finally wrestled them out. Then tried to get the top shock bracket off, but it was designed by some genius, who ran the front spring bolt through it as well as like 4 other bolts. And all 4 top shock bolts were seized as well. SO, I chopped those shocks THE FUGG OFF. I was done at this point. Took me almost 5 hours to get the bars off.
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Oh yeah, and they routed the aftermarket emergency brake cable THROUGH the trac bars, so had to chop those too. But I will get new ones with the D70, so no worries.
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My wrenching buddy was done. Not having thumbs wore her out.
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Bars off.
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Also chopped the outer UBolts on the 2500# helper pack, which, turns out, was NOT adjusted right by whoever put them on, as they SHOT those UBolts off. There should have been very little pressure on them until the stock springs were compressed.
But here is the final product of that night of work. So much cleaner looking. And the truck rides SO much better. We had planned on tackling the shackle flip in the rear, but decided since the whole spring setup needed to be removed anyways, we would wait to just bolt them back onto the D70 and roll it under all at the same time.
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Then, it was on to the donor truck. I wasn't in much of a hurry since it was put on hold anyways. And it was 15* outside today. So, I had to break loose 44 year old bolts laying on ice and snow. Great haha
Getting the Ford onto its new resting place on some dump truck stands. Had to get that truck WAY up to get the front stands in. Took some lifting, then blocking, then more lifting, and so on. But she got there.
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Finally got all the rust broke loose, and the front dropped down. Then the rear shackles wouldnt budge so back out with the sawzall.
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Found some nice caps in the pile, definitely thinking of using these with a nice set of beauty rings.
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Finally, back into the warmth! Had to let the metal warm up a bit because bare skin stuck to the axle and springs!
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Then, the impact, sawzall, AND grinder took a
. So I used a hacksaw to remove the last two UBolts. Then just started scraping 40 some years of road grime off. In between the webbing looked like it was solid, til I started using a wire brush and cleaned it all out!
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And at that point. I called it quits. Plan to tear the axle down the rest of this week. Clean, blast, paint, and swap to the Chevy outers with 8 lug hubs ground down to fit the 15s and get it fully ready to be rolled under and bolted up.
