^That's going back about 6 months when he was not sleeping well and I was better off doing nothing than trying to work quietly* in the garage lol.
Got back on the front bumper and finishing it up, this took a lot of work. Made some frame mounts so the winch chassis is bolted in with 10 - 1/2" bolts directly to the frame. A lot of messing around but it's serviceable and turned out great. Also made up some lower tabs to retain the plastic lower cowl. Also fabbed up some upper mounts that tie into the stock location for the 1/2 ton truck bumper.
Happy to button this one up and call it good.
Next up, revisiting this t-case and clocking ring leak...
some evidence on the gasket
and that's a smoking gun, a few of the studs were proud of the mating surface for the gasket... Spun them all out and took an 1/16" off them
Cross member and trans mount prepped and ready to go up. This little motorcycle lift is the best tool ever.
Everything all back together
Fluids going back in, picked up a brand new pail to save over $300 in transynd that I just put in it a few weeks ago.
Pit stop to get some more pieces sandblasted
Finished up with some painting but I ran out.
Today's effort was righting this wrong. When I put this together with my setup bearings, it was spot on. As soon as I dropped in the new bearings, the pinion preload went from 30 in-lbs to 75 in-lbs. I was over it at the time and opted to revisit when I felt more energized.
I added .002" of shim to the pinion, and it was still super tight. I tried again, bumping it up to .005" total, and this time it was spot on, 35 in-lbs, the spec is 25-40in-lbs. I didn't take many photos as I was keenly focused on not messing up. This was just just before the cover was going back on.
Bench testing the locker, all good, no leaks. Went through and torqued everything and set the hub pre-load as well.
I stopped by the local driveshaft shop yesterday and ordered the front and rear shafts. I've got a plan for my rear driveshaft, and it involves modifying this cross member.
I swear this truck was in the sand dunes at some point in time.
Running around in the am to collect some supplies and then hopefully getting a couple of hours in the afternoon in. It's so stinking hot out here now I'm cooking in the garage.