Bruiser,
Does your truck have an 8 foot bed? Do you still have your rear driveshaft dimensions & parts list available? This could save some of us some re-engineering in the future. In other words are you using the almost standard 28" length from the rear differential to the bearing support, then having an custom driveshaft made from there forward to the slip joint off the rear of the transfer case? Or, did you use a longer length rear drive shaft to the pillow block bearing and have a custom front section fabricated to the slip joint on the transfer case?

Thanks & appreciated!

 

-the 92 CTD was a standard cab with an 8 foot bed.
- the u-joints are 1410 and it had a one piece driveshaft

- the 85 is 4 door with a short bed..
- the u-joints are 1310 and it had a twp piece driveshaft.

Here is how I am fixing the rear.. I am taking the yoke of my rear axle on the 92 and swapping it onto the rear axle in the 85 so that way I can run the 1410 u-joints.

I am then cutting off the yokes off both driveshaft the two piece and the one piece from the 92.. I am then welding the 1410 yokes from the 92 drivehaft to the ends of the 85 driveshafts..

once that is done I will take it to a driveshaft shop and have them balance it..and i will put in new 1410 u-joints on

oh and at the sametime I will be shortening the front driveshaft of the two piece driveshaft.. it is about 1" to long for the brace to line up perfect.

I will do my best to take some pics of it when I build it this weekend

I do know that the double carbon joint in the middle of the driveshaft will be my weak link but for now I am gonna try it and see if it works.. if it has issues I will weld in a 1410 double joint..

 

oh I forgot to mention that the front drivshaft that was in my '92 truck bolted right in to the '85 with no modifications

 

Well got some more done

I started ripping apart the engine wiring harness more.. it is juts nasty

 

then Yager offered to help me get the beds off both trucks so I could easily get to fuel tanks and other items..

and Man that worked out AWESOME.. so thank you very much for the redneck crane

here are some pics of us lifting the beds.

 

SO we got the 1st bed off with easy and then went on to the next...

just as easy

 

after that was done JOhn and Yager took off the reciever hitch for me..

so I can put it onto the new truck.

and then the fun started on the fuel tanks

 

what we found out was that yes I screwed up and I broke the fuel return line.. oops

so we took the sending unit apart and we drill out the extra line, and sealed off the original return line and yippee it is all fixed.. ( I did not get any pics of that work being done)

then we modified the fuel tank holding bracket and got the tank mounted..at the same time we also ran the fuel lines and return lines up to front and connect them up..

only thing left to do is one more modification to fuel tank strap.. I need to extend the back strap on the tank to make it work correct.

 

then of course while i was bent down trying to help John I hit my head on the bed bracket and guess what I saw the rear cab mount was broken.. (oh CRAP)..

so we took out the bolt and made a new metal plate and then welded it all up and bolted it back together

 

I also swapped out the steering I made for my '92 so I would have good steering on the '85



and here is a pic of the return line we made using flexable fuel line

 

The crane rules!!!!

 

Looks like your build is coming along pretty nicely.

 

Great project! I love following along...........

If you like that crane, how about this one I built out of my pipe bender to lift sawed concrete slabs out of my garage for my motorcycle lift install.....







More here:
http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/...ycle-lift-ins/

 

Impressive, I didn't think a GM suspension would support that much!!

 

i like that idea also..

a few of the guys around here have also mounted engine hoists in the bed with reciever hitch type setup to lift engines, axles, ect into there beds..

I have been also thinking of doing the same