The High pinion idea has many merits. I spent 20 min in our lovely -3F weather this morning studying under my daily driver Dodge... I am unsure at the lift height I want to run, that the HP may not cause as many problems as it solves. I may revisit this a bit further when I have the frame on stands and just go ahead and test fit a Ford front axle and measure.

The strength issue was one of my motives also.... although admittedly every Dana 60 front R&P I have broken, it was always the pinion shaft that failed.

Side note on the pinion shafts failing; typical culprits are a lack of carrier bearing preload, especially with setups done at home. Essentially, one can not "over-preload" carrier bearings, but it is very easy to under preload them. if you don't have a housing spreader it's darn near impossible to get a properly preloaded carrier installed into a dana housing because the additional shims added to the carrier to establish preload increase the width. most guys at home leave a few thou out of the equation to allow for easier install, which is fine for daily avg use, but when you apply torque to big tires, the housings can flex and allow the pinion teeth to walk out on the ring gear teeth to the weaker edge of the tooth, allowing them to chip, crack, break off entirely. once one goes the others like lemmings follow it's lead.

moral; make it so tight you swear you can't get it installed, then force it in. as long as your pattern is good, a few miles of driving with oil in the bearings will loosen it up a tad and even one you couldn't previously turn by hand will operate flawlessly.

Dents and all it's a good looking truck. I have to admit that I've always liked the earlier fords for pure truck styling. Nice work on fuel storage; I know who to target for siphoning :P

^^^^ What's that roller skate girl truck thing doing here?
I would have kept that a secret there JR!  :)

Easy there fella. That little zuk would probably make it farther than your tundy in an offroad competition. it's a toy and a fun one at that!

Concur. there's got to be enough material on the inside of those fenders to slot the holes out. Put your fabrication hat on.

Unfortunately, a gov lock that's locked up is a common issue.  If it's sat for some time it could just be rust holding the governor in place. 

AAM made the case. The Detroit is inside.  Std open 4 pin case the Detroit replaces the spiders.  You'll need two people for this experiment but hold one shaft and have someone turn the other.  They week want to go the same direction. While applying tension clockwise, suddenly jerk one the opposite direction and it should pop loose and ratchet. Slowly come back and it will lock back in.  You may be able to do this on your own if you turn one way the hard back the opposite.  Might not have enough force though. Definitely not g80.

I like HP D60 for one more reason; in the front they actually run on the drive side of the ring gear, making them about 40% stronger than a standard rotation front which inherently is running on the coast side of the gears.

Quote from: EL TATE on February 24, 2015, 05:05:09 PM

Incredibly insightful use of tech on the rust removal. I'll be all over that one in the future. That housing appears to be in very good condition and ready for action. the G80 governor locks should have been the only option for those housings. if they are Mil-spec they could be Detroit lockers. Any photos of the innards yet?

BT (Bro Tate)

Not a G80. I was looking inside a couple of them while the guy pulled the covers off, No little spinny thing. I thought it was a Detroit locker, so you may have just confirmed my suspicions.

Think about it...These Burbs are not sold to the public in the configuration they came to us. They all have the 8100 big block engine. Now am I mistaken, but did the was the 8100 ever offered in the 3/4 ton burb for public sale?

These axles came from a fleet of specially ordered vehicles that were built in a hurry when we were spinning up Iraq. Most (almost all) of them got hot rodded, massive bumpers and armored with 2" thick glass and steel plate. They were built for GM specifically for this contract. Uncle sugar knew they were headed for a shootin' war so they pulled out all the fuses.

If a DT Locker was offered to the guberment, then Du-ane owns one!

That's how I understand it. 8.1 burbs and Yukon xl's for gov use. Mexico uses them now for their presidential motorcade, (I've geared up most of them). it's std open, gov loc, or Det. so by process of elim, I would agree on the Detroit. get over there and hold an axle hub still while duane turns the other and listen for the ratcheting sound, or get that cover off for an "in depth discovery photo shoot"

I like the "El Paso K20" or "K20 Widower Maker"

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

John 8:12

I see there's no shortage of DOT activity on my build thread. Some things just go on and on and on.

Junkin', screwin' up the place
 
  Don's thread turns to, such a disgrace!

Weather here, chit chat there

  Oh what the heck, I just don't care!

The man he writes and builds this truck

  And do we help? Oh no-such luck

Although it's others he tries to teach

  And by the scriptures sometimes, preach

We gotta talk, we gotta chat

 About mindless things, just this and that

Along we march, no goal in sight

  Worried not so much, about our plight

For we have no purpose, we have no plan

  Just throw Don's work in the trash can!

Got a little Run "Don" MC there. nice work

who's this "Murphy" guy I keep hearing about? He seems like a jerk! ;) I hope the freeze plugs are your issue. I did some internet hunting last night and found some timing cover issues, coolant return lines entering into the water pump housings rotting out, all sorts of fun.

have the tech double check the coolant reservoir; I have been on hand for 2 head gasket jobs that turned out to be simple coolant reservoir seal failures. under pressure they blast the hot coolant against the hot block, run the level down and the temp up, but often they are the only issue with these 4.0L's. Hope that's the case Bobby.

this is the one I've been using for years. solid handle though, w/ no saw blade. don't have a real pic, just the advertisement, but this thing holds an edge.

Quote from: EL TATE on February 12, 2015, 12:44:52 PM

you're on the right track. in fact, 12.0" gm dodge stubs, 11.4" for stubs. but Don's hubs were in functional/in use prior to disassembly, stubs changed, but only in spline count. original axle measured up the same so I'm doubting the ford hub scenario. I'm leaning more towards the fact that these come with two possible spacer scenarios, one for dodge/gm and one for ford. originally he had these installed in the HP d60 destined for Cmax, a ford application. if he "lost" the other spacer that could create this scenario, but the main gear could also be mismachined. I'm hoping for a simple solution that involves me shipping a few extra parts and Don happily installing them. Stay tuned...

It's weird, but I removed that small spacer altogether and the assembly still sticks out.
I'll get some pics of it in the shop today and dump them on the thread tonight

My guy called and left you a VM this morning. can you confirm?

And with that, I could hear the chow bell, time to call this one done for the day, #216 in the ever evolving SquareD build project

*sigh... it would be so much better without those empty spaces in the wheel hubs starting back at me.  I feel like tomorrow should be a problem solving morning.  Fuel system is top notch.  Good call on the "buck a foot" hose.  Did that on my Wagoneer too.

Getting excited over here buddy.  ;D

Quote from: OldKooT on February 09, 2015, 12:25:31 PM

Quote from: Flyin6 on February 07, 2015, 05:53:58 PM

Quote from: OldKooT on February 07, 2015, 03:00:04 PM

Something else to consider. The Cummins will run easily to 8K miles on a oil change using standard good quality dino oil. In a SHTF situation I am fairly sure that you could stretch that considerably if required.

I always start our well plants on high zinc break in oil, then I run them a hour or so drop the oil and filter refill and then call it good.

Your updates and project in general are great motivators to my own project.

Heck post up what you are doing, we'd all appreciate it!

My wife and I are going to resurrect our old 85 W350 USAF crew cab. A bit of an expedition/SHTF type of build.

This i what it looked like back many years ago. We will be starting with a bare frame/cab and not much else as soon as it warms up enough to extract the frame from it' outside resting place.

Start a build thread on that thing

We'd have two old Dodge crews going at the same time!

I want to cry... She's a thing of beauty. Don's ain't bad either ;)

you're going to need to source some GM bearing hubs or 1993 and earlier dodge hubs that already have internal locking hubs. The GM are consistently the ones you need, dodge on the other hand can often be the full time hubs with the wrong snap ring locations and don't fit right. 1972-1991 and older GM heavy 3/4 and 1 ton front should be your donor trucks, and 1975-1993 dodge. BOM 610033, -2,3,5,6 The stock wheel hub doesn't have a snap ring provision to retain the hub, I just realized this may be Don's issue as well. check for axle tags and email them to me. I'll ID them for you as they come in.

it's getting so close it's electric.  ::)

I had to lose mine back in 2010 due to "family expansion". I know how you feel. but you're getting back into another Duramax, I got stuck with an 04 Yukon... go Hawks!

JR, you've got the independent front suspension or is it still a solid axle under your burban? if it's IFS you're in the same boat as Redneck; Eaton Elocker as the only option. For the solid axle 8.5 on the other hand, the sky's the limit. The true tracs are great units; only downside being directionally cut, so reverse is sketchy, but ideal for street. There is a true trac available for the 10.5 14 bolt rear that is massive. (about 45 lbs).

Starting to look like a real truck again. Nice work on the PD track too; those kids will remember that forever. I know I did.

Gents, I'm at my outer limit of experience when it comes to LSD/Lockers.  When we raced, it was spool or nothing.

For my 2001 LB7, I'm investigating upgrades to the front and rear diffs.  I will probably start with the front.

What brands/types do you like and why?  I like the idea of a selectable locker like the ARB and I plan on having on board air like I do on the Dually.  If I have it in 4WD, its going to be off road and will benefit from a locking front diff.

I wouldst greatly appreciate the input and knowledge of the finest men

Redneck,

Grizzly locker for the rear is a great choice. Brute strength, 100% traction with fewer moving parts. For the front diff, the only current selectable locker is an eaton Electric locker. If you check back on CMAX thread you'll see where we all learned the hard way that they only fit 2010 and older. (perfect for your rig). Selectability without the air compressor, and the size of the front diff makes it a tough bastard.

That being said, if you tow more often than not, I actually will talk you out of the Grizzly and into a True Trac. The True Trac is a limited slip, so you won't see 100% lockup, but you will also not ever know it's there under normal driving. the downside is if you get one wheel on ice or wet grass or off camber, you may have to feather the brakes to get it to engage as it requires a small amount of resistance to the unloaded tire to transfer torque. it is also directionally cut, so it doesn't have much traction in reverse. The Grizzly locker's downside is that under heavy load, it can be difficult to get the locker to disengage in tight corners making parking lot negotiations more difficult. If traction and strength are of higher value to you, however, do like Don and many others and just go with the Grizzly. You won't be disappointed.

I have many distributors in the lone star state, but can also take care of you personally. Please ask any questions you may have.

Lucky you. 29 spline axles vs the 27 is a good thing. 8.25 vs 7.625 is another good thing. parts are a little more expensive but we have a lot of options.