This one is quick...^^^^^^^^

Tate, Ken possibly, the inner knuckle seal on these superduty axles is only there to to help create the vacuum needed to operate the stock vacuum operated locking hubs? This is my assumption anyhow, can you guys verify that seal doesn’t stabilize the stub shaft going into the unit bearing or some crazy thing I’m overlooking does it?

When weaver machines the knuckles they machine the vacuum port off the knuckle anyhow and my plan was to run drive flanges.

Quote from: cruizng on January 12, 2018, 08:29:57 AM

That is my style of cooking. I can burn water. My wife does all of the cooking and it is probably a good thing or I would weigh 65 pounds or have a standing table at Taco Bell. I do grill hamburgers and hot dogs when she asks and they come out ok. Or at least kids will eat them. 

I'm runnin' about 50/50 on the burgers...

Whatever you do, do not answer Nate’s texts or phone calls. In no time flat he will have you spending a grand on equipment that will make you look like you know whatcha doin.....

Case in point, my GMG & Christmas dinner that included prime rib (holy cow my Christmas dinner budget tripled thanks to Nate )

So the next step or my next step as I await the artec kit is to start getting additional hard parts machined and or in process. For the 99-04 Dana 60 front axle there are only a couple current options for knuckle upgrades. After quite a bit of due diligence the one company that stood out & looks to have it down to a science is Weaver Fabrication.

https://www.weaverfabrication.com/

The product I will be purchasing is the 99-04 machined knuckle and high steer arm kit. They machine the top of both knuckles to accept their 1" thick arms that are not drilled which for me is perfect as it allows me to configure the steering in a way that works best for my setup. Once I get the old ball joints pressed out I will have these on their way to get machined. I just contacted Weaver this morning and gave them a heads up on the inbound parts. I will keep you updated on the process with them.

https://www.weaverfabrication.com/product/1999-2004-hi-steer-complete-kit/

I justify it as renting, I'm renting this place because in 5 years I will no longer be here. It is not a forever home, it was purchased to live out of for a set time and with the intent it would be easy to move when we need to do so. I don't like neighbors or HOA's and a place I buy and not rent will have neither, well it may have neighbors but 1/4 mile away would be minimum distance in my mind.

Yeah it’s s High cost for sure!! Imagine out where Jr is and that value change


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Denver was ranked higher cost of living than San Fran last summer fyi.......

Dave, my estate in Indiana was 17 acres, 3.5 acre stocked pond, custom 3500 sq ft home with oversized 3 car, separate 4000 sq ft shop and I sold it for 500K

My home here in Boulder County Colorado is 2500 sq ft with a small 3 car garage on postage stamp lot and it appraised right at $480K 4 months ago........... this house is 3 years old and compared to my old place is a POS but unless you want to spend a mil here and I didn't then that's what you get.

Coworker just moved to Denver, he paid double for his house,


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Quick inspection of internals and all is good!

Salida Co if I was choosing Colorado. Property is still reasonable and winters are pretty mild as it’s still front range. They also have a pretty conservative bunch that lives in that area.

NRA

They have a storied history of at times bending towards more restrictions on guns. Most recently bump fire stocks after LV, you know since so much information has been presented on that tragedy......

Wife does the cauliflower taters, I agree not what you think & very edible.

I stripped that eb nine axle down today. If anyone is looking for a solid third w/ 4.56 gears, Detroit & Dayton support let me know.

Tomorrow I start tearing down the 60 front to get ready for truss system & send knuckles off to get machines for high steer.

Only thing I might have done different for a portable structure would have been to use treated plywood for the floor. It's pretty pricey but tough and a solid floor at 3/4" thick. My current shed sitting on treated posts uses this same material.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-08/after-government-corruption-driven-mistrial-judge-dismisses-case-against-bundys

This might be a dumb question but why did you wait until the end to pour the footings? Then since you waited do you have to do any jacking of the structure etc to get things in their rightful place as a result? Assuming you are going to check for that?

Something to mention, the front superduty unit bearings can be bored out for 35 spline stub shafts and machined for different mount patterns such as 5 on 5 1/2. So after deciding to donate the Sterling I recalled a rear custom jk housing on CL local a couple months ago. So a quick search and a text I discover that brand new housing is still available. It is a currie built JK F9 rear housing with 35 spline shafts, read direct bolt in to my JK. Even can use standard JK brakes and sensors, pretty nice unit. The shafts come dual drilled for the standard 5 on 5 jk pattern and also the 5 on 5 1/2 which would match the front 60 potentially modified units bearings. One of my end goals is to run 38-40" rubber on this jeep and this setup will work out just fine for those parameters. The front 60 measures 68.75 and this F9 housing measures up 66 so close enough and it should track well down the pavement. No gas tank issues and I do not have to stretch the rear if I do not choose to do so. Reality is I probably need to stretch it 1-2" to center the larger rubber in the rear wheel wells. Here are the specs on that axle. Maybe Tate will grace us with his presence and let us know what kinda cool options Randy's has for a center chunk.

https://www.currieenterprises.com/jk-f9300r

And here is the housing and axle shafts in my truck this morning........

Norm, here was my earlier thoughts on that front width. I like to keep things oem as possible for parts availability. KISS principle if you will if permitable & goal being to do some longer range road trips so I think stock width is best. Any further thoughts on that stock width?

 

If it does buckle it will be those darn swivel casters....

who really knows, Shawn.  I have 2 girls, 12 and 14.  I may never see retirement.  My hope is 10-12 years, but retirement for me would just mean doing something different.  Small business or something until they kick dirt on me.  I can't stand not to be doing something.

I understand, after move to CO (hippy land) I had to reinvent myself a bit. It’s been a slow pace (conservative & trying hard to crawl before I walk to manage savings & investments) as it’s a whole different world here & how things work comparably. I am the same way though & will be doing something until I am no more. The slower pace has been a nice break & I see things picking up so trying to manage that as I don’t need nor want 18 hour days ever again.

Quote from: stlaser on January 05, 2018, 02:58:25 PM

I agree with Nate, we already have to many places for me to view stuff that makes me fatter......

You do have an ability to block threads can’t you? 


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I really have no idea, I believe I’m a mod in title only.......

I tend to block or foul them up with my own finesse!

Can’t say I don’t agree with Tate, hate it when he makes sense & he does it all the time when I’m
around too.

I’d shop around, you can find dual fuel 5500kw gensets for that price before I would buy a harbor freight unit. A little more and you can get a larger unit so I’m thinking watch sales etc or open a card to get a discount kind of deal at box stores. Stop by the post office and pick up a change of address packet many times Lowe’s, Sears or HD have 10-20% off coupons in them.

I’ve cut parts for plenty of guys building them. I think you’re spot on everything. Grader blade is normally 1/2 unless you find a light duty snow plow blade. Some of those are 3/8” & it should all be ar500 for that. An old dump truck bed might have lighter guage impact resistant material (thinking 1/4”) for the bottom FYI. If you found one in a junk yard it might be cheap steel source. A lot of secondary steel sources carry ar500 at less expensive prices. Normally rusted and sitting outside but for your application it would be fine.

So after a few weeks this unit has made me look like I know what I'm doing, which is no easy feat because I'm no cook. We had prime rib for Christmas and I've done an assortment of meats on this unit. This morning I fired it up for a 500 degree hour long clean. I will be running some chicken legs on it for supper and then late tonight I have a couple butts I will be running that should finish up sometime early tomorrow afternoon. I'll post up some pics later as I have not forgotten the rules altogether as of yet.

So I moved the axles I'm currently needing to work on indoors yesterday freeing up some space in my shed and emptying the trailer for other uses shortly. This morning with it being 50 mid day today I decided I would wash this ford 9" axle of the KY mud that it is caked with. Mud is a foreign substance in Colorado so there may be a polar shift when I wash this off and it settles on mother earth here.......

I need a 35 spline center chunk and the local 9 guru (4 car garage is wall to wall 9 parts) is interested in this axle. So I am stripping it down and going to see what kind of barter deal I may score with him. Whatever I cannot get via him I will then give Tate a call at his day job Randy's Ring and Pinion to secure the rest of the axle parts. Here is said axle minus the calipers and rotors which I pulled this morning. I will be keeping the pinion guard and 1350 yoke for the JK.

So I unloaded the superduty axles from the trailer today as I will be needing that trailer for other duties shortly. Then low & behold one on my neighbors shows up asking to borrow it, think they may have been stalking me. Subdivisions.....

I charged the battery on the wr450 & to my surprise the maintainer had it topped off in less than an hour. Not too bad since I haven’t riden it for two months. After getting the bike out of the storage shed I pulled out the cherry picker & the ford 9” rear I had under my former eb crawler (sorry Norm, that 60 is still buried in front of shed). So I now have the superduty axles on floor in garage & that 9” on the bench. Tear down and clean up on the 9 will commence tomorrow. I may be able to use some of it for trading stock for that new jk rear center section. Local 9” guru is interested in it for parts. Pics to follow tomorrow on the jk build thread.