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Shran
Junk Collector
TRS Forum Moderator
⭐Supporting Member
Article Contributor
Truck of Month
Solid Axle Swap
We have a club Halloween run scheduled for Nov. 1st and I volunteered to bring this mess so now I have to get it done! I got it off the trailer and into the shop yesterday. Clutch is done, that was a fairly easy project as usual although I don't care for the weird bellhousing bolt locations and head sizes on 3.0 trucks. It throws off my tool list that I get out by default for these jobs. I also found that the exhaust had been off recently so the Y pipe was very easy to remove. I was very pleased about that, makes it much easier.
The clutch was definitely toast. New clutch and flywheel were only $110 from RockAuto on clearance. I pulled the top cover on the trans while I had it out and glanced over everything, there were no chunks in the fluid and not much for metal shavings or anything bad looking, just dirty fluid, so I'm happy to report that. I was a little worried that the previous owner had grenaded it when it got stuck in gear and then I'd be assembling a transmission in addition to a clutch job.
My original plan was to put a 1350 manual t-case in this so that it is still 4wd and I did do that but I do not have the right shifter parts. I don't know if I ever did - the little arm on the t-case is mainly what I am missing. I think it might be a one or two year part - 88/89 truck with a 4 cylinder and M5OD and I've only had one of those ever. Those would have also come with D28's....... and I also don't have a driveshaft... I have one from an automatic but it's too long by at least an inch. I found one that had "FM-145" written on it that's almost too short but it'll be good enough. Plan for the shifter deal is to just leave the floor plate off and I'm going to leave some vise grips attached to the t-case in case I need 4wd.
After confirming that the clutch and stuff is working and bled, I moved on to exhaust. This truck will never see the road again but I don't want it to be really loud. I'm going to leave it parked in the woods so I also don't want it straight piped with no spark arrestor. I did a lot of digging in my muffler parts stash and came up with some things that fit together: my Y pipe adapter, a piece of chain link fence post, a minty knockoff Flowmaster that I found on the street in front of my house, and a short driveshaft chunk to make it long enough to fit into the rear exhaust hanger. The only other muffler I had is huge and wouldn't fit. Sounds pretty stupid but it's not super loud!
This evening I'm going to test drive it in the yard to make sure it moves forward and backward and then sweep the shop. This thing was not only incredibly rusty (think cab mounts falling off, etc) but it was packed with mud. Once I can work in there again I am going to swap the steering box, and work on cleaning up the interior a bit. Mainly just so that our participants can sit in it without getting filthy - the carpet is junk and the seats are pretty gross. There is a bunch of broken glass and stuff floating in there too that I need to clean up.
To-do list:
- clean interior
- make new floor plate to close up the hole where the t-case shifter was (for storage purposes mainly.)
- swap steering boxes
- straighten rear bumper so it's not pointing straight down
- check fluids
- ignition lock cylinder, need to replace this, the "wings" broke off
- wheel bearings are a bit loose, not sure if I care enough to fix this
- hubs may not be in very good shape... the bit snap rings are gone and the guts are sort of floating. Not sure if I care about this either.
- need to round up a few more traffic cones. I'm thinking 10 may be good, I have 5 so far.
Cost breakdown: sold the tool box for $80, bought clutch parts for $110, so $330 deep into it. Hoping the cats are worth maybe $150. Still need to transfer the title so I will have some expense with that. I'm pretty happy with where I landed cost wise though, $2-300 into a fun toy like this is perfect.
More to come.
The clutch was definitely toast. New clutch and flywheel were only $110 from RockAuto on clearance. I pulled the top cover on the trans while I had it out and glanced over everything, there were no chunks in the fluid and not much for metal shavings or anything bad looking, just dirty fluid, so I'm happy to report that. I was a little worried that the previous owner had grenaded it when it got stuck in gear and then I'd be assembling a transmission in addition to a clutch job.
My original plan was to put a 1350 manual t-case in this so that it is still 4wd and I did do that but I do not have the right shifter parts. I don't know if I ever did - the little arm on the t-case is mainly what I am missing. I think it might be a one or two year part - 88/89 truck with a 4 cylinder and M5OD and I've only had one of those ever. Those would have also come with D28's....... and I also don't have a driveshaft... I have one from an automatic but it's too long by at least an inch. I found one that had "FM-145" written on it that's almost too short but it'll be good enough. Plan for the shifter deal is to just leave the floor plate off and I'm going to leave some vise grips attached to the t-case in case I need 4wd.
After confirming that the clutch and stuff is working and bled, I moved on to exhaust. This truck will never see the road again but I don't want it to be really loud. I'm going to leave it parked in the woods so I also don't want it straight piped with no spark arrestor. I did a lot of digging in my muffler parts stash and came up with some things that fit together: my Y pipe adapter, a piece of chain link fence post, a minty knockoff Flowmaster that I found on the street in front of my house, and a short driveshaft chunk to make it long enough to fit into the rear exhaust hanger. The only other muffler I had is huge and wouldn't fit. Sounds pretty stupid but it's not super loud!
This evening I'm going to test drive it in the yard to make sure it moves forward and backward and then sweep the shop. This thing was not only incredibly rusty (think cab mounts falling off, etc) but it was packed with mud. Once I can work in there again I am going to swap the steering box, and work on cleaning up the interior a bit. Mainly just so that our participants can sit in it without getting filthy - the carpet is junk and the seats are pretty gross. There is a bunch of broken glass and stuff floating in there too that I need to clean up.
To-do list:
- clean interior
- make new floor plate to close up the hole where the t-case shifter was (for storage purposes mainly.)
- swap steering boxes
- straighten rear bumper so it's not pointing straight down
- check fluids
- ignition lock cylinder, need to replace this, the "wings" broke off
- wheel bearings are a bit loose, not sure if I care enough to fix this
- hubs may not be in very good shape... the bit snap rings are gone and the guts are sort of floating. Not sure if I care about this either.
- need to round up a few more traffic cones. I'm thinking 10 may be good, I have 5 so far.
Cost breakdown: sold the tool box for $80, bought clutch parts for $110, so $330 deep into it. Hoping the cats are worth maybe $150. Still need to transfer the title so I will have some expense with that. I'm pretty happy with where I landed cost wise though, $2-300 into a fun toy like this is perfect.
More to come.
