Project: Big NASTY

haha thats the plan clayton, to take it easy i am gonna weld the u joint caps in, so that hopefully the journal on the u joint will break before it takes out the shaft, i dont plan on pushing my truck very hard at all prolly jsut aggie alley and waterfall and other eaisier areas, one because i have the 44 and two because i need to re-learn how to drive my truck again cause i went from stock with an worn out ass motor, to a fresh motor, lifted, locked rear end, hydro steer, it is gonna wheel totally different than what i am use to..

austin has a beefy 302, really low gears and a heavy truck.
Now that ryan has a motor with some power he's blowing stuff up too.
By the sound of it, your truck has a lot more power than either and will eat your ujoints no matter what.

So you've welded the caps so the ears don't stretch or break, maybe you can get away with stock shafts, why not put a couple aftermarket ujoints in there and see what happens? Hell, pass the cost down to clayton (I assume he's claimed the axle when you go 60)?
10 hours is a lot of towing to break quick and spend the rest of the weekend in 4x2

i have spare shafts for the 44 so that is not such a big deal, if anything i was gonna replace the ujoints with new ones in the shafts that are in there right now since i am sure they have never been replaced.

and nothing has been welded yet so i am trying to figure out what is gonna be best, and from what i hear from people on the fullsize board, if you put fanct u joints in stock shafts the shaft will break before the joint, basically i am jsut trying to save the shafts, and could give a rats ass about the joints since that is the cheap and easy part, if most of you all say that you believe weldin them is gonna hurt from the shafts breakage point then i wont do it i am gonna post my questions on fullsize since there is more people running my setup and destroying this type of setup and get a better prognosis.

I got no stinkin u-joints (except in my driveshaft) so I'm talkin out my arse, but it seems to me that once these guys toast a u-joint, it usually takes out the shaft as well; if the ears don't rip off when the joint breaks, they're stretched out and won't hold the new joint in very well anyway. If you get to the point where you have a welded-in fancy ujoint and start breaking the actual shafts (not the ears) then it's chromo or 60 time, right?

Can we start a pool for where the Nasty breaks it's first ujoint? I'll put $5 on the rocky flat area at the start of Aggie Highway :flipoff2:

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Originally Posted by stx4wheeler

oh yeah its cage, and exhaust time...

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What the....did I read that right. BigNasty with real exhaust, whats the world coming to :flipoff2:

got some work done this weekend, i got the headers off, and the new flanges welded to them, sanded primered and painted, then i got the new exhaust system almost all the way done jsut need to adjsut one of the pipes with the torch and hammer, and do a few more welds. also got the new bling bling aluminum radiator installed and my fan and tranny cooler mounted up. today i am gonna finish the exhaust, and replace the tranny pan gasket, and filter, along with plumbing the tranny lines, new belts, and install the power steering cooler.

alriught today im gonna get her running again, replacing all the belts and finish the ranny cooler crap, then start on the cage will prolly start working in about an hour or so.

NEED HELP one or two hands finishing the cage if anyone can helpo give me a call 979-574-5870 ill be heading to brandons withing the hour once i pick up a u joint and get a few tools from coops.

alright i got the cage in and all tacked today with a bunch of help from brandon,Garret, and Andy thanks i couldnt have gotten it done without you guys, and another huge thanks to coop and cj for helping me bend all the tube and work on it till early in the morning hours on saturday. picks soon to come.

I will be working on my truck at brandons tonight starting at around 9 or 9 3- till late most likely if anyone wants to help. And garret i have the ratchet strap from your buddys truck still. lastnight i welded up the cage since i couldnt find anyone to help me, and tonight i got a friend from highschool coming to weld the part of the cage that attaches to the frame. then i am welding on my sliders(or steps whatever they are ***), and maybe redoing the back bumper so that tomorrow i can just work on the brakes and little **** at my house or something

its cool today pollock came and welded some key points on the cage and i quickly bastardized a new rear bumper so that i could get ride of like 8 inches of over hang in the back- and it may even rival the robert's(zj) front bumper in quality, it looks decent from afar, and not so bueno up close but it wil do the job, tomorrow i jsut have to shim the starter some, and take a gander at the front, passenger side banjo bolt cause it seems to be leaking, thanks for the help from everyone.

my camera is kinda messed up and i havent had time to charge it, but maybe today, but lately i have been doing school stuff till8-9pm then working on thuis thing til two or three am so i have been kinda busy,maybe pics today...

here are some pics of the beginings of the 60 swap, i got all of the leaf spring setup crap grinded off today except for the cast in spring perch on the driverside, i got it about half cut off today, and will cut the rest off tomorrow. i also started to dismantle the kingpins so i could rebuild them. anybody know exactly what the name of the tool is that you use to unscrew the kingpin out of the axle housing? i asked all around for a male socket prolly about 7/8 to take out kingpins in a dana 60 front any all the people at autozone and ho'rieleys stared at me like i was god, jesus or possibly even the virgin mary!!! then scratched there head and said well and i quote, i gast the thingy to take the nuts of the spindle. so i promptly walked out i will go to napa tomorrow on the lunch break and give them a try.

You need a 7/8" hex key. I doubt any parts store will have it, you'll probably have to take it to a machine shop like David Oliver did. I think Sear's might have them, but they're pricey if I remember correctly.

Been doing some work on it every night after work, and i finally finished the pain in the ass part of grinding off the cast in spring perch, and the axle is now totally free of its leaf sprung gayness, though i know i will be cursing myself for not going leafs when i try to get all my angles and **** for the coils right but oh well. Also got the replacement(cause mine is gay and only has 4 lo, cause hi is fawked and only the front spins in high) np205 brought inside and i got it all torn apart for the twinstick, just got to do the grinding of the shift rail. Now i am basically waiting on parts for the 60 to come in, tomorrow since my hours got cut back at work. i am gonna finish the twin stick, and prolly weld the carrier on the 4.10s for the rear.

more

edit and yes before someone mentions it i am gonna preheat, then weld all of the little cutting wheel and grinder gouges :flipoff2:

That is a LOT of grinding. My hat is off to you and your patience. :eek:

:gigem:

You're not concerned with all the metal you removed from the short side of the hosuing weakening it? It looks like you got a little grinder happy.

well after i finally got the spring perch ground and cut down i was able to make four horizontal cuts and one large vertical one, and then just used a hammer and screwdriver, and was able to get most of it off like that, yet me and my harbor freight grinder have formed a man to hand bond.

as for the housing being weak i am not worried, it is common and the only was to do a coil suspension on the 88-later model ford 60's cause, after 79 ford made the frames a couple inches wider and moved the pumpkin out, so therefore the issues i had, but people have ran 60's like this and beat the poo out of them under fullsizes so i am not worried, i plan on laying a bead around the housing-to tube joint.

you just cut off almost all of the non-heat affected cast metal around the plug weld, I think i'd be worried. Also, that is probably the only way to do it with the stock radius arms , but it doesn't seem to me like it would have been very hard to just make some new arms.(longer ones even)


ryan

yeah i hear what you are saying, about taking some strength away. i wouldnt have done it if i didnt think it was going to fail. i have talked with quite a few people that have done the swap a couple years ago and have had no problems. one of the guys i spoke with uses his bronco for lots of jumps and hill climbs and the other for crawling. Would it have been stronger to leave it yes. If i had the money i would have found a 78-79 60 that i wouldnt have had to cut up but they go for to much damn money and i got this one dirt cheap.
As for making new longer arms i am extending mine, then sleeving the extension,while using a johhny joint, instead of a solid stud. But as for making totally new arms that was a little out of the question for time restaints as i have to have my truck functional in about another two-three weeks to go back to collegestation for school. I believe that a totally new custom arm setup would have prolly been over my level of fabrication cause of the lack of clearance maybe 3 inches between housing and knuckle, and i would have had to outboard my radius arm mounts.
Along with the valley has got to be the worst place in the world to try and find supplies like D.O.M seems to be greek to these people at the local steel shops.

if it breaks ryan you and jimmy and a few others, can point and laugh, and yes flem i am working on getting that bolt in :flipoff2: .


also got a 18 inch e-fan from a lincoln mark vIII, that supossedly flows 4,000 cfm, so i believe my over heating will be solved soon.

Yes, yes i get it. :flipoff2:

and one a second note i got some revenge on the truck it came out of when i went to the junkyard yesterday, I promptly gave it many kicks in the door upon seeing its gastly apperance.

Also i noticed that junkyards down here have a ginourmous abundance of toyota rears of all kinds, and sterlings.

got the new electric fan in there and let me tell you does it ever make a huge difference, i went from the pos 11 in flexalite, to an 18in lincoln mark 8. i think the lincoln fan should have a hada warning on it, cause i am sure it could suck a small child through with the amount of air it moves.

also first pic is the parts thati have recieved which are as follows:
adjustable trac bar, 4 degree c-wedge bushings, 2 inch shackles, brake vaccum canister, assorted steering parts and heims, twinstick shifter boot, new c-wedges to be welded onto the 60.

im still waiting on my wheels, two more steering inserts, 1 inch heims for radius arms, radius arm extensions, and gears.

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Originally Posted by stx4wheeler

i think the lincoln fan should have a hada warning on it, cause i am sure it could suck a small child through with the amount of air it moves.

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Better watch out then, huh?
:flipoff2:

Alright guys there are a few questions, well really opinions i would ike to get from you all.

Below are two pictures of the bracket i want to build, that pertains to the trac bar,frame,coil tower(upper), and shock mount.
There are a few reasons i want to build this bracket, and they are; ford tracbar mounts(in stock position) are know to break. usually this is because of them getting loose from the extra stress of lifts, big tires, heavier axles. so what i want to do is move/unite the tracbar mount, coil upper, and new shock mount into a single piece ( so that it will spread the excess force of the trac bar, out more than the stock 2 inch piece) that will stretch a large section of the frame prolly 15 inches or so on the outside of the frame, and 10or 12 on the inside. older ford frames like mine are already boxed in the area of the tracbar mount and coil tower on the inside.

this bracket will use 8 holes on the outside of the frame, and 6 on the inside boxed portion, along with two under on the bottom of the frame. i am going to mount the tracbar underneath the coil tower basically so that i can run a centered(stronger lower(axle mounted side) trac bar mount.

on the inside of the frame i am thinking about making a brace that would run from my new frame bracket to the stock crossmember that is forward of the boxed section by about 10 inches, and also slopes down gradually- meaning that i would have to make a mount on the stock cross that is raised slightly to make a level or almost level brace-this brace would be removable by using heims on each end so it would be removable( and i have some extra 5/8 heims laying around. But my question is since this new brace would be at like a 35-45 degree angle depending on fitment- will it remove enough stress to be justified in the fabrication of the bracket and removable link(brace).

Alright you people that are engineers and what not take a look at the drawings and tell my what you think, or what i could do to make it work, i am pretty sure it would be more than strong enough with just the outside to inside bracket( U shaped basically) to surfice. also btw the plate used for the bracket will be 3/8in.

Kevin, I'm not trying to be rude, but I used to own the same damn truck and I have no idea what you are talking about and the drawing confuses me even more.

alright jerry, yes i know you had the same truck, but no offense not that i have wheeled a lot but you didnt wheel yours at all, but i have seen quite a few people running jsut about the same setup as i plan to run, and pushing the truck to the limits i would like to as well, and they are having problems with the stock trac bar mount not cutting the cake, it is getting bent or broken. so what i am gonna do is relocate the tracbar mount underneath the coil, and you know how the coil bucket, and tracbar mount were attached seperatly like you could take one off and not the other, well i am going to change that. i am going to take a piece of plate and weld it to the coil tower on both side and this piece of plate will go from the stock tracbar holes all the way past the coil tower, about another 6 7 inches and stop right after the last two motor bolts, and my new shock tower will be intergrated on the right side of the coil tower on the outside of the frame(since i didnt have quad shocks). this plate will help displace the force put on the frame from the trac bar. Im moving the trac bar back about 2 inches, because can make a stronger mount on the axle by doing this. does this explaination help Jerry? or do i still have you lost

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Originally Posted by stx4wheeler

alright jerry, yes i know you had the same truck, but no offense not that i have wheeled a lot but you didnt wheel yours at all,

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Wheeling or not wheeling has nothing to with your inability to convey information for other people to understand and comment on.

Try breaking it up into smaller paragraphs or even some sort of outline.

I have enough knowledge about the truck to understand the logistics of what you are talking about and the second post helped a little. Someone who has little or no experience with the particular set up you are talking about but has "superior wheeling knowledge" will not be able to help you if they cant undertand what you're describing.

Maybe you should take pictures and mark on them.

http://fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15323

here is a thread that talks alot about the trac bar stuff i am tlaking about and trying to fix


burris- i know that this is similiar to a tj bracket- but i am using coils that are different than tj coils, and for the tabs yeah i know i could use a tab, and weld it to the botton of the frame or whatever, but that would be almost no different than what i have now that i want to change. and even if i could get tj buckets to work i would have to go buy them somewhere, but it would be cheaper for me to build the stuff myself since i am getting all the plate for free, and have all other materials i need. i know the time vs money scenario cones into play, but right now i have more time that money since my job hours jsut got whacked in half- (starting a new second job tomorrow), but i still have the time after i get home from work to make stuff like this bracket since there isnt **** to do at home then drink and watch tv.

whats wrong with this setup - simple and effective, the bracket back to the crossmember looks over engineered to me

jerry that is on a 80-96 bronco in which the crossmember is in a totally different place.

theres are behind the coil buckets and mine is way infront of them.

edit: went back out and looked at truck for a few more moments. still gonna keep my plan for the outer frame portion of the bracket. inner frame is prolly not needed except for maybe a couple bolts to help deal with force of full outer mount. also jerry i am moving my tracbar underneath my coil so basically moving it 2 or 3 inches toward the back of the truck so i can move the axle mounted one back the same amount.

keep coming with ideas

this is the only pic i could find of a 78 bronco trac bar set up on the driver's side, there was a site with a dozen pics of the passenger side but none of the driver's side.

If you move it 3 inches back will it not interfere with the coil bucket?

this guy has the dual shock setup right....so yours wont have a shock right there?

ok i finally figured out your drawing....

the only thing that sucks about the way you wanna do it is that you lose the ability to gusset the back side since the coil is right there.

I think that your plan sounds good you just want to make sure that you spread the force out over the largest possible area of frame so that you put as little stress as possible on the frame.

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Originally Posted by Snatch Adams

ok i finally figured out your drawing....

the only thing that sucks about the way you wanna do it is that you lose the ability to gusset the back side since the coil is right there.

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yes i thought about that as well jerry, but that is partially why i wanted to have plate on both sides, and that brace from the indside of the frame, and on the bottom of the frame where the tracbar mount will be. i might try and put a bolt on each side of the trac bar mount. also, with the new plate being bolted through the existing/old trac bar mount holes, i figured this will add enough support and will be better than stock jsut about any way i do it, i guess i will build the damn thing this weekend then we will see if i am right :gigem: .

haha, that thing sure did look whiskey tango.

frick why not build something like this?

Oh yeah, I saw it on "TRUCKS!" :rainbow: :D

part of the reason is i have all the material to build the arms like i plan already and i got it for free, plus i need to get this done fairly quickly so i really dont wanna deviate from the plan at hand, since i would have to order some dom and i would prolly be looking at another weeks set back waiting for parts.

did some work today, i took the passengerside spring out, so that i could remove my coil bucket, which in my rush to get to tcc i put three welds down on the sides of the bucket to help hold them on instead of going another route so i ground everything off and took the bucket off.

Then i started measuring and planning where and how i needed to make my new upper and lower shock mounts. While doing this i now realized that my heater/A/C blower mounter and heatercore were in the way. Yet this was a good thing because i had previously abandoned heat and a/c so i took all that crap out of there. The tricky part was turns out ford didnt design the engine bay and blower box to work with a big block, so it took some cohersion to get out via a big pipe and hammer.

So tomorrow i will finish making the shocktower/coil upper, and make a block off plate so that the passenger doesnt get all kinds of awesome noise and exhuast gases. This block off plate will be nice and usefull to because it will give me a nice flat surface to mount electronics, and my new vaccum canister.

the bonus pic is what you do when you dont know how to set the timer yet still wanna let your friends know they are number 1 in your book.

looks good, and it cleared up alot of space in the engine bay as well.

and also about 30-40 lbs which is always good.