crwlaway

Well i have seen some interest in my truck that i have been building for a little while. So i decided to start a thread and show you guys what i have done. The truck started out as a 77 w100 that i had since high school. It started out with 318, np445, np203, 9 1/4 with 44. It was a great truck and got me any where i wanted. I then joined the coast guard and left her to fade at my folks place. 2 years went by and i got stationed up in sacramento and was going to be there for 5 years, so i decided to go to my folks place and pick it up. I started by putting a 96 5.2 in it. The truck ran great with that fuel injected motor but i had always wanted a diesel. I ended up making friends with two brothers that owned a scarp yard. One day they told me they had a 92 5.9 cummins with only 180,000 miles on it, for only 800 bucks. I jumped in on that deal, followed along with a nv4500, and a ford dana 60. Here starts the build.

crwlaway

When i got the truck torn down i noticed that the frame was bent, bent beyond repair. So i picked up a new frame for free from a buddy of mine that owns mopartruckparts.com. I started with a fresh straight frame. I knew that i wanted a 14 bolt rear and of course i had the 60 for the front. I hadnt decided what i wanted to use for suspension but i did know that i wanted it to be cheap, for this entire build was going to cost a lot of money. So four link was out of the question. I was on a time line and money constraint. I say time line because i did not start working on this thing until the last year i was in sacramento, so i knew my time to transfer was coming up. So i opted to go with 63" chevys front and rear. The rear was from a 1/2 ton and the front from a 1 ton chevy pickup. The ford 60 was from an 80's 350. The spring width is pretty wide, i think 36". So i had to make a crossmember that extended out a couple inches to keep the center pin in the stock location ( meaning i did not move the axle fore or aft, just kept it center.) I temporarily mounted the axles with the old dodge springs and started to build the rest of the truck. I will get to more suspension later.

crwlaway

I dropped the motor and tranny in the truck. I decided that i wanted more crawl ration then what the 4500 and the 205 offered while keeping lower gears for highway speed. I opted to go with northwest fabs black box. Which put me at a final ration of 113:1 with 3.73 gears. I put those in with the tranny and set the cab on the truck. I did this to set my height for my cross members. I reinforced the frame where my cross members for the transmission would be with the old frame rails that i had cut out.

crwlaway

Once i got the cross members dealt with i moved on to the front suspension. I made to forward spring mounts and attached the springs to the axle. I brought the springs up towards the back of the frame to see how long of shackles i had to make. With the axle at a 4 degree neg caster i came up with 6 inch shackles. I ended up making a rear mount and some shackles. all the brackets are from 3/16" steel plate. I used 3/8" for the shackles. With the springs hooked up, it gave me the ride height i was looking for. Not to high but tall enough to clear some tires.

crwlaway

Now to the rear. I had used chevy 4x4 rear spring hangers and just modified them a little for the front hangers. The rear were made from scratch. When i mounted the rear hangers i did not take into consideration the weight of a bed. Thats what happens when you got a lot of stuff to think about, you miss things. So while i have the bed on it now, it squats pretty good. I am waiting to get the electrical complete so i can pull it out of my tiny garage to move the hangers back.

crwlaway

Reinforced the steering box mount, made a anti wrap bar. Made a cross member for the anti wrap, fuel tank and rear shocks. Boxed in the frame just as it starts to widen out. I know that the joints on the anti wrap bar should be the other way around. I am probably going to make a new one when i get back down to the lower 48. I will put bushings on the axle and probably a poly joint up front.

crwlaway

After all that, i started prepping the frame for POR15. Tore everything down , sanded, wire wheeled, you name it. I used the acid etch and zinc coating crap that you put on before por15. That stuff works killer, but there is a lot of prep for it.

crwlaway

I then top coated it. The por does not due well in sun, so they advise you to top coat it. After i had got it painted i realized i should of made a new engine cross member to clear all the steering components. Oh well, you live and learn and make better later.

SRobertson

I like your anti wrap bar. I need to put one on the back end of my 6bt ramcharger. I had to turn it down to 325 hp ish otherwise I think i would rip the drive shaft out.

Did you buy the axle mount? I see hiem joints, nut inserts and on the frame side just a left over shackle from something. Used some 1/4 wall DOM?

Looks fairly simple but very effective. any pointers you have I would take.

SR

crwlaway

I made the axle mount. I used 3/4" hiem's with nut tube inserts. I did use DOM but i do not remember what size, probably 1/4". The shackle was left over from the old suspension. It works good as far as keeping the axle from twisting, super bouncy on take off. The only problem is flexing, i could get more out of a poly joint up front and bushings on the axle.

crwlaway

After the frame was complete, i started on the motor and tranny. I went through the engine minus taking the crank, cam and pistons out. The cylinders still had the cross hatch in them and everything looked good. Checked the timing, adjusted the valves. Stripped it down and degreased the hell out of it and painted it. I have not done any adjustments to it and by the looks of it, the pump is brand new. I put a 96 12v power steering pump on for hydro boost. I got an hx35 off of ebay. I rebuilt the turbo and got it balanced up to 200,000 rpm, thats cookin. I then matched ported the exhaust manifold and got the turbo, manifold and the down pipe ceramic coated. I went got everything to rebuild the 4500. There was really nothing wrong with it, when i broke it down some bearing were worn and same with most of the synchros. Rebuilt the 205 and slapped it all together.

crwlaway

I wanted on board air and since i had an extra saden compressor i decided to keep it looking clean and it all on the same serp belt. I built a bracket and made an adapter for another pulley. It worked out pretty good .

jstone44720

Wow, I'm jealous right now. Nice clean work. Beautiful.

crwlaway

Moved on to the fuel tank. I wasnt going to use the stock tank because i didnt like the location. A ramcharger one hangs to low for me. So i decided to build my own. It turned out good except for the filler neck. After i got it all done i realized that the filler neck should of been on top. I can still get a full tank out of it, but that is because i stock the filler hose higher than the tank. So there is always going to be fuel in the filler hose when full.

crwlaway

I ran the fuel line with tube along the frame and used rubber from the tank and to the engine. Used 3/8 for supply and 1/4 for return. I then started on the rear axle. Went through it, it had very low miles on it. It was in very good condition. I wanted to throw an ARB in it but at this point i was running low on funds. SO i decided to keep the limited in it. Threw some disc on it and painted her up. Put some billstien 5100's and called her good and moved on to the front. THe 60 had 4.10's so i had to swap out the gears. I also wanted to put an ARB in the front but like the back, no funds. So i welded it for the time being, put new bearings and gears in it. installed new u-joints and put a u bolt flip on it. I opted to go with the high steer arms and the spring eliminator for the kingpins. The high steer turned out pretty good, but like i said on one of my original post, i think i am going to have problems with hitting the crossmember. Only time will tell.