Skee's 97 K1500 Stepside build thread

[AirmanSkee]

Laid out in about a foot of snow yesterday to pull the outers off the Chevy 10 bolt for my 44.

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But I got them all off, and ready to clean up. I might toss these brakes on just to get by for now. They are still good, just need a cleaning.

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Working on putting the axle all together today. And pulling the rear axle to prepare it for my truck as well. If possible might have the rear axle in tonight.

 

[AirmanSkee]

Didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped, due to weather, tool malfunctions, and mismatched parts. Doing another little writeup here.

Did get the pass side knuckle with steering arm and new ball joints mounted up.

Tapped out these little sleeves that screw into the axle housing. One on each upper ball joint hole. MAKE SURE you adjust these correctly, so the ball joints can seat properly. Mine gave me a hard time til I figured out I had it in too far and it wasn't allowing the knuckle to seat in properly.

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New arm with studs, nuts, and cone washers courtesy of WFO Concepts mounted to the knuckle. Great work on these parts, machining was spot on. The studs I tightened all the way to the base with my hands, and thats when you know the machining it PERFECT.

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Packed up all the rest of the Chevy Outers I pulled to bring to the hobby shop, and give a little sand blast treatment to.

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Also, if you are following this for SAS purposes of your own, MAKE SURE if you swap knuckles, to get a matching pair. I had one tie rod up, the other tie rod down. So pulling another knuckle this week, also just bought all new rotors, pads, and axle U Joints as I will need to swap the Chevy stub shafts onto the Ford inner shafts. They both use the same UJoint, just FYI.

Here is a quick shot of the shock hoops, I have had quite a few questions about them. They are dual hoops, but I plan on changing them to a single shock hoop mounted in the middle.

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[AirmanSkee]

SAS HOW TO thread started! Go check it out! It's a lot more in depth!

Snapped a few pics today! And picked up the final pieces I needed to finish the swap!

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[TylerZ281500]

when you put the u joints in make sure to deburr the insides and clean out the grooves.

 

[AirmanSkee]

Getting them pressed in at the local shop here with the ford inners and Chevy outers.

 

[AirmanSkee]

UPDATES: Sorry, still not under the truck. BUT did get the axle complete from hub to hub.

Took the set of Ford shafts and GM shafts and pressed the old UJoints out... (The GM ones were TOASTED. Ford was still decent, and kept for spares.) Put in new lifetime HD UJoints, pressing the Ford inner shafts to the GM stub shafts. Perfect fit.

Replaced all the seals, spindle dust covers on the stubs, inner hub seal, and all the rubber rings.

Cleaned up the old bearings. They were good Timkins, just dirty from where the box I had them in fell off the hood and into the dirt (just my luck.)

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Repacked with some new grease (the autopress I had broke, so back to the old fashioned palm full of grease, slap and pull haha)

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Cleaned and repacked the hub

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Put everything back together out to the locking hubs (pulling a new set off another axle). Then slid on my wheels and marked for the clearance. Between the white lines will need ground down a bit to fit the 15s.

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TIE ROD: Neither the Chevy of Ford tie rods will work in stock form, since the Ford ends are tapered differently (Cant ream the knuckle too much, or it would get too thin) and the Chevy cannot be adjusted enough to work. Picked up some DOM and getting some rod ends, and will be making a custom tie rod.

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Everything will be cleaned and repainted. My plans to sandblast the small stuff were shot down since the blaster cabinet was broken, and I was too impatient to wait to put it all back together.

And to show the backspacing... I guess my rotors should stay nice and cool....

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[TylerZ281500]

Getting them pressed in at the local shop here with the ford inners and Chevy outers.

you never use a press for ujoints

 

[AirmanSkee]

I didn't use a press for them, but I just meant getting the new joints put in connecting the ford inners and GM outers. Ended up doing them myself.

 

[IOWNJUNK]

you never use a press for ujoints

Since when?

 

[TylerZ281500]

Since when?

since always, theres a precedure to pressing in u joints.