Behold! Finally got some work done to the Polar Bear that is post worthy.
Removing the rear spring shackle brackets. I find it easier to cut the rivet head in half then use an air hammer to knock off the rivet halves then beat the rivet on through the frame. Unfortunately, my air compressor was dying so removing these rivets still turned out to be an all-day event.
ORD shackle flip brackets mounted and the old 9.5” semi-floating axle pitched in the iron pile.
As the 10.5" 14 bolt full-floater was going in.
All buckled up and ready for some tires
One thing I need to redo is replace the drop pitman arm in exchange for a raised steering arm. I had a 2” drop pitman arm lying around that I thought would suffice, but no dice. It steers horrible……In fact, it barely turns left before the draglink smacks the leaf spring.
Nice butt!
To my surprise, it actually sits level. Coloradobill and I need to fabricate some rear bumper brackets next weekend to mount the rear step bumper. Even with a step up in tire size the change in gear ratio to 4:10 (from 3:42) did give the big bear a noticeable amount of oomph at the bottom end. The step up to 13 x 3.5 rear brake shoes/drums gave it a noticeable bump in brake power as well.
That’s all for now. Next up is hanging the rear bumper then I need to get some tunes in this thing. Been driving it for a year without a radio.
