E350 pre-build wisdom (and hello)

[SHAFT]

Hello, expo. First off, seriously impressed by the level of technical expertise, tenacity and willingness to help exhibited by everyone on here. I've got a 2005 e350 6.0 which i initially bought to haul race bikes and sleep in at the track. Racing motorcycles can be a fickle exploit at times and life tends to get in the way. Just recently parted with all my bikes, save one, and within the last month i've become serious about converting my girl to 4x4.
Progress so far:
NV 271, dana 60 and sterling 10.5 from an '04 f350 procured
d60 cleaned re-sealed, POR-15'd and ready for complete re-assembly
sterling is ground down, ready for paint on the diff housing but i don't really plan on giving it the same full blown treatment as the dana (since it's not rusty inside like the d60)
tires wheels etc should show up sometime today
UJOR 6" kit here in the next week with the springs (hopefully) on the way soon

My front and rear ends were totally complete, so I've been able to re-use most of the non-mechanical things (brake caliper brackets for example) but I've spent $$ where required (ball joints, tie-rod, every seal yada yada yada).
My van is currently bone stock 2wd drivetrain because I've had to use her to haul all my parts back home.

My point in all of this is to solicit any advice you guys might have regarding tips tricks lessons learned etc. You guys are the best (UJOR, naterry, bknudtsen, MG metalworks to name a few) at this and if anything sticks out as AN ABSOLUTE MUST in your mind i'd love the input.

Really happy to be doing this and more motivated than I've been for anything in a while. I'm not eating right, my house is a mess and my girlfriend has been silently, lovingly skeptical but i'm hooked.

Pics to follow....

 

[89s rule]

Looking forward to pics. Welcome to the sickness.

 

[bknudtsen]

Sub'd

 

[SHAFT]

(expletive)
rad.....accomplished nothing today.
1) Costco evidently flies their tires in from the moon, like in Apollo 13 where the capsule flies around the dark side of the moon: Don't really know where they are and they aren't really sure if they'll arrive.
2) can't legitimize my build by showing pics cuz, uh, my computer refuses. (skynet)
3) Spotted TWO vans on the way back from portland tonight which added to my motivation/frustration cocktail......god they were sweet though
Sorry for the complaining but this is cheaper than therapy

 

[SHAFT]

the beginning

 

[SHAFT]

not really anything good to show here. one good thing to note was the inner seals held up and preserved the integrity of my diff.

 

[SHAFT]

thank you seal

The inner shafts required a wire wheel up to the seal taper, but the splines fine

 

[SHAFT]

saga of the steering knuckle
I've done ball joints before but not on an eleven year old one-ton. Lets just say that the removal was.....interesting. Getting them started with GFH (thats Gnarly-Fookin-Hammer) was a revelation. My harbor freight ball joint kit had to be augmented with a different piece of pipe for removal but worked pretty well for install. It may have spent a bit of time flying through the air in the garage, all part of the process (for me):violent-smiley-031:

 

[SHAFT]

More new stuff: Painted unit bearing, short shaft with new seals (naterry's idea of using old unit bearing on a brake rotor for install of big seal was class:bowdown NV271 and brand new Napa tie rod.

 

[SHAFT]

This is what i came up with for cleaning out the inside of the axle tubes: Wire wheel from Home Depot for $5 mated to a hole saw chuck on the end of two drill extensions. Made a ton of dust and used up two batteries before i switched to the corded.

The aforementioned GFH, with grinder (which I'm surprised has survived) and corded impact driver (top 5 favorite tool)

 

[SHAFT]

Pro comp wheels are in, autoanything was having a sale and they fit the budget but i'm concerned about backspacing. i was told by the guru 4.5" is perfect but these have 4.75". Did being cheap just buy me a quarter inch of wheel rub?

 

[ujoint]

Looking good!

The 4.75 won't hurt you, I've run them on a few rigs.

 

[mgmetalworks]

You're off to a good start! I might just have to drive out to Astoria and see this rig take shape (and fill up my growlers at Ft. George).

 

[FarmerFrederico]

Looking good! Wish I had the tools, time, and space to do more of the conversion myself. I just finished my conversion a couple weeks ago and have already put about 1800 miles on it. Running great and need to update my thread. I got the same wheels as you too. You'll just have to add some material to the steering limiters to keep the wheels from rubbing your leaf pack. If you run an aluminess tire carrier it will need a spacer too. Otherwise - keep showing us the goods! You're going to love this rig.

 

[SHAFT]

Looking good!

The 4.75 won't hurt you, I've run them on a few rigs.

why do i hear THE PRICE IS RIGHT fail music when i read that?