Been burning the candle at both ends with work, helping friends fix their junk, and trying to make progress myself..
I managed to successfully narrow the Lightning axle. Turns out the brake bracket flange is the same on the 150 and Explorer axles so I just had to remove tubes, shorten, and reinstall. I originally planned on putting the Explorer tubes in the Lightning housing, but they had more brackets to cut off and were a little crustier.lol
Expo brakes on 150 flange
I have been keeping my eyes out for one these for some time now to make this project go a little smoother...
My patience paid off. Scored it cheap and put it to work.
I tack welded some 1/2" plate to the tube where I wanted to mag down at and just cut and moved it after each weld was drilled.
To find the welds I ground them flush and could then see the outline.
Drilled the centers by hand since the rotobroach bits leave a slug like a hole saw
Once the welds were drilled I welded the ends of the tubes closed to give myself something press off of.
Had to get creative and put the press on blocks to clear the axle when pressing the first tube (no picture.lol got excited I guess)
Word to the wise....one tiny bit of missed weld requires 10x the force to break free...first tube was down right scary...second tube I drilled the holes all a touch deeper and it slid out like butter.
Beveled the fins on the bottom to make a nice ramp for glancing/sliding over things....bye-bye 1" boat anchor!
Lopped off 2.75" on one side and 3.5" on the other. Ran across the 6" chunk of the D44HP tube I chopped last year and thought Id use it for the photo op
Pressing back together. I welded cleats to my work bench and just used a bottle jack to push back together...had to add gussets after almost taking out a ceiling light when one cleat popped off and the jack went flying
Welded the tubes up. and removed perches/tabs
cut the original bearing/seal ends off.
Installed the c-clip eliminator bearing seats. Which FYI require use of the backing plates or something to make up the thickness of them...otherwise you will bend the retainers trying to get the brake brackets tight.
Under the truck to set pinion angle.
This is where I left it. The goal was to get the axle housing under it and supporting the truck so I could get the 8 lug axle out from under it and ready for the 150 swap....see my other build for continued progress
Found one of my old rotors was a bit sketchy...
Apparently the wheel making surface was contacting outside of the axle flange and the unsupported rotor cracked arounf the diameter...
Ill be sure to bevel the holes next time and double check how the new wheels mate up...
I still need to buy a locker before I can setup gears. Plan to tack spring perches and pull it back out, then truss it, and install gears once everything cools down and I know the axle is done shrinking/expanding etc.
I also burned in the hydro mount tabs now that my misalignments have been here for a month...
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