Month: December 2014

Moving inside.

Posted on by Kevin

While up on Christmas vacation, I spent some time with dad on the truck. We cleaned out the shop and got the frame inside, and started with mounting the new spring perches, and started dis assembly and restoration of the front leaf springs. The truck only has 6 front leaves, and nine rear leaves per side.

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The prior perches needed to be replaced. The bolt holes which should be round were instead oval. Seriously? who does not notice this? I decided it was far better to simply replace all the perches vs try to weld the holes closed, and re drill them correctly.

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The new perches on the truck. I like the black offsetting the grey. A happy mistake that is working out well. The new perches are bolted with grade 8 bolts, nuts washers and lock washers, loctite’d and torqued to 70 ft lbs. We decided against welding them as well as bolting, because honestly by the time you break these bolts, the truck is going to be having much bigger issues.

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Its been a while.

Posted on by Kevin

So its been a while that Ive updated the truck’s progress. We have ordered new perches to mount the springs, as the old ones were elongated from being ran loose. Who drives around with loose spring shackles? Seriously? it must have handled like crap. Anyhow, we now have replacement perches, as well as new bushings for the front and rear springs, new bolt hardware etc. so it will all line up like butter, and work as intended. Ive also ordered the full body mount kit, and if things go well over Christmas break, we may get as far as mounting the cab back to the frame.

There are still some frame cracks to weld, and re undercoat etc. the goals are to get the springs pulled apart, and get them cleaned of rust paint etc. and lube and re mount the springs on the axles,  then get the axles mounted to the frame, the power steering mounted up and aligned right, and pull the things we want to salvage out of the part trucks, and get the rest sent to the scrap yard.  There is going to be more work than time, but hopefully we can get a good start on things.