Overlandtowater’s solid axle suburban

[Overlandtowater]

So since I was dead in the water for a little while I decided to inspect the bearings and replace all the seals in the axle. It appears the bearings were replaced one already and the look new still. So replace the seals and start replacing u-joints.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Repairs to the axle from the previous owner plus weld in cam bolt block off and weld washers.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Looking good in black.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Steering arms on the knuckles are a little too thick for the one ton tie rod ends, I had to shave a little bit off. 7/8” hole, tapered insert and Chevy one ton TREs. Under Knuckle so the TREs don’t contact the 16” wheels.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Worked on the tie rod and drag link. 1” pvc with 1.25” slid over it to mock up the tie rod it’s just about perfect for 1.5” tubing. 1st try I was going for a 10 degree bend and ended up with a 20, the pipe bender bends in two directions so you need to cut the degree you want in half. Second try was closer to 10 degrees but still stuck away from the axle too far. At that point I am out of pvc and made 6 degree bends in the DOM. About as good as I expected I think 4 degrees would have just kissed the cover at full lock but I’m happy with it. Hard to tell on the table and not under the truck but a slightly higher bend than the tie rod should make the drag link fit just fine and I may even be able to leave the sway bar link tabs in case I ever need to put a sway bar back on it. We will see when I get it under the truck.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Mock-up done it’s tight. But it all clears so far.

 

[Mekcanix]

I like the pvc tube for mock up

 

[Overlandtowater]

I like the pvc tube for mock up

its perfect and not 20 dollars a foot for DOM.... but the way everyone talks OEM steering components are the same strength as pvc so I might as well just use it right... speaking of that I do think I'm going to try and get my local sticker guy to print and cut up some white vinyl with blue letters running down the center to wrap my arms and my tie rod in just to make people take a second look..LOL

 

[Overlandtowater]

Flexed everything out and cycled the steering nothing rubs anywhere it’s all close though. The picture of the pitman arm and diff cover look super close but there’s 3/16” gap and the pitman arm isn’t tightened all the way up either it will more than likely go up another 3/8” and increase the clearance with the diff.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Weight on all 4 tires now. The track bar bracket is till only tacked and I have to paint everything so it all has to come back out but I couldn’t resist. The sliders sit dead level with the frame so with only a 0.8 degree difference with the front sitting higher and the fact that the rear tires have 20lbs and the fronts have 40lbs I very happy with the stance.

 

[Overlandtowater]

So the separation isn’t as good as I hoped it would be. I know radius arms bind it’s just the nature of the beast but I can only get 10” of separation between the driver and passenger side at the hub. Granted that is easily twice as much as the IFS and it’s enough to allow the springs to drop out if not strapped. But I don’t like the fact that there is binding that shouldn’t be there. The only thing I can figure is with it having heim joints at every connection it’s allowing the radius arms to spin and bind. I was told that axle ends should have a more solid joint. So I’m going to order bushings to replace the hiems on the axle end and if it does nothing else it’ll keep the arms from spinning.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Pulled the axle back out to paint and undercoat every where I knocked it off the frame and covered the new parts too. Re routed the brake lines and welded a couple of brake line tabs on. Got the 4x4 posilok cable put in to engage the the axle disconnect for the dodge axle. Painted the drag link and tierod. And got a few shipments for parts so it may possibly be out of the shop this week.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Swapped the axle end heims for bushings after getting the axle under it every thing bolted up now my axle sits back an inch guess I get to drop the frame end and spin out the heims an inch. Also this d44 turns way sharp and in fortunately the steering stops are non adjustable. Small details now.

 

[Overlandtowater]

So I’m going to weld a 5/8” nut to the end of the steering stops that should be just enough to keep it from making contact. But in other news the diff is filled brakes bled I just need to zip tie some stuff up and it’s go time.

 

[Overlandtowater]

It’s out of the shop. The rear sits about 2” lower than the front unfortunately. The alignment is terrible (I’ll work on it). The front output on the tcase is leaking appears the center part of the seal spins on the shaft. Still have some time to put in.