Triple X'n the D-max

[SmokinDuradog]

Some pics of the rear leaf spring brackets tacked up. Sits a little low in the rear. Going to see if ride height is affected much be the nitrogen charged sway aways.

I know the front coil over shocks before they had coils on them would fully support my 170 pounds and not even start to collapse so Im think I might gain the 2" back in the rear I need. Then drop the front to dial it in.

I am not totally sure if the shackle angles are correct. With them the way they are now they really seem to affect the spring rate by making them very "soft".

Again I want to wait until the sway aways are in to see what it feels like. Heres some pics of the rear leaf spring brackets tacked. Post up your thought on the shackle angles please thanks!

[SmokinDuradog]

Started on the new rear cross member. This new 3/16" square tubing cross member will serve many duties. Not completed but very close.

1. I will be mounting the fuel tank to it.
2. Mounting shocks brackets to it.
3. Possibly locating limiting straps with it.
4. The hitch will be incorporated into it as well.
5. Genrally reinforcing the rear frame section that see's most of it's abuse from tug a truck.

[SmokinDuradog]

More pics of the cross member.

[Coastal Chaos]

Hmm.....weird...all the flames stopped by page 3 when the pics started flowing. So many asshats are so quick to judge on here, thats why I just read 99% of the time. Good Job man, keep it up and keep inspiring the rest of us to get off our asses.

[snopro803]

with that obviously very stout rear crossmember, are you planning on boxing the frame the rest of the way to the rear?

[SmokinDuradog]

Yes the frame will be boxed from where the front 4 link skid plate stops all the way to that new cross member.

Post #269 shows the plating that I have done so far.

[mrtwstr]

Lookn good Cory!!

[SmokinDuradog]

Thanks Toby!

[SmokinDuradog]

[SmokinDuradog]

Finished plating the frame in this weekend. Got the fuel tank bolted up and straps hangers welded in.

Extended the wiring for the sending unit since the tank is location has changed. Welded on the Airdog II lift pump bracket. Added a small piece of plate to mount the factory brake light and trailer harness wirring back in the same location so it all plug and play.

Welded up the sector shaft bearing support gusset setup. Toby makes some nice brackets easy to locate and quality material. Hopefully this save my gearbox.

Working on building a new hitch this week at work hope to mock it up this weekend. Also changing up the tubular cross member located over the axle to allow my fuel fill hose room to run along the inside of the frame and under the bed.

[snopro803]

anymore pictures/info of that sector shaft support? I know its a different application, but i ripped the steering box off my frame this weekend on my blazer, and am trying to come up with some more support for the box than just the 3 mounting bolts

[SmokinDuradog]

Yup give Toby at Triple X Traction a call. He has the bearing and sector shaft nut parts in stock. He may not have a bracket specfic for your truck but im sure with a few measurements he can have it laser cut and shipped to you in no time!

[mackthehack]

Lookin good man!

[tranzfr]

i know this was from maybe one of the pages between 1-4 about the ABS and the light. not sure if there was an answer given, but if you are able to get your hands on a level 2 programmer (dealership has em, socal diesel in valencia) then you should be able to "delete" the abs and then the light will go out.

[tranzfr]

love the duramax build you got going. this is mine so far. rollin on 40s with aam9.25 sas conversion that i built with a radius arm style setup for the suspension.

[cwylie]

Originally Posted by tranzfr

love the duramax build you got going. this is mine so far. rollin on 40s with aam9.25 sas conversion that i built with a radius arm style setup for the suspension.

Any more pictures of your setup?

[SmokinDuradog]

Thanks for the comments!

For me personally I chose to stay away from the dodge axle I have to many friends that drive Cummin's trucks that are constantly replacing parts on those axles. Mostly ball joints and steering parts.

I knew after I seen what came in Toby's kit VS any of the other "kits" out there his was the way for me to go personally. His kit is also designed to use the 79 Ford 60 that I went with. I also like that the old school 60 not only has no ball joints but it also is not a unit bearing hub assembly. IMO nothing stronger than a taper bearing setup and they are cheap to replace.

Also aren't those dodge front axles engaged full time? I know they sell a kit to make the hubs free spin but it costs more than the axle is worth

[tranzfr]

Originally Posted by SmokinDuradog

Thanks for the comments!

For me personally I chose to stay away from the dodge axle I have to many friends that drive Cummin's trucks that are constantly replacing parts on those axles. Mostly ball joints and steering parts.

I knew after I seen what came in Toby's kit VS any of the other "kits" out there his was the way for me to go personally. His kit is also designed to use the 79 Ford 60 that I went with. I also like that the old school 60 not only has no ball joints but it also is not a unit bearing hub assembly. IMO nothing stronger than a taper bearing setup and they are cheap to replace.

Also aren't those dodge front axles engaged full time? I know they sell a kit to make the hubs free spin but it costs more than the axle is worth

all of this is so true.....crappy ball joints, unit bearings, and yes full time axle. the stupid kit for free spin hubs is over 2k. not worth the investment at all(if your serious about wheelin). however, at the time of building the original kit i was able to afford the aam. at $400 i couldn't pass it up to get me rollin on the road. it has served its purpose for the last 2 years and since then i have acquired the same 79 hp60 and im in the process of getting it built so i can do the swap in the next month or so.

keep up the great work and no doubt the kit looks really sick. love the integration of the link mounts, tranny/t-case skid plate beefyness

[tranzfr]

Originally Posted by cwylie

Any more pictures of your setup?

anything in particular you are looking for? trail pics, the suspension......?

here is some snow bombin action from winter
http://www.duramaxforum.com/forum/me...mbin-1653.html

[SmokinDuradog]

Started the fabing up the new hitch that will tie into the rear portion of the new rear cross member that bolts the fuel tank and shocks up to.

The receiver is actually going to be 2 1/2" tube but I didn't have that yet so I just mocked it up in the pictures with a piece of 2". The receiver will stick in all the way to the vertical uprights that I have just standing there. I will actually be welding those to the rear cross member on the truck then bolting to the rear of the receiver.

Hopefully this will make it much stronger than the stock hitch I have inserted a picture of it for comparison. I plan to use 6- 5/8" All thread rod and bolt through the 4"x4" and all the way through the 7 1/2" frame so I will need about a 6- 14" long pieces to bolt up along the frame rails. Then I will also need a 9" piece to bolt through the back of the receiver to tie into the cross member.

Here's some pics of what I have so far. All 3/16" wall tube

[SmokinDuradog]

Welded out the leaf spring mounts. Waiting on shocks for the rear been about 6 weeks now SO I decided while I had extra time I would pull the turbo and swap in a Bullseye BAtmo wheel for my stock VVT charger.

Finished up the egr delete and got the silcone hose to route my pcv to the ground instead of it being plumbed back into the atmosphere side of the turbo.

You can see in the pics how oiling and gunked up the stock compressor wheel was. This was also the case for the entire intake system inter cooler piping, inter cooler, intake bridge and intake manifolds black tar inside all of it from the use of the pcv system and later on in the intake system the EGR that is recycled into the engine.

My oil is always black as midnight this should change now that all this has been deleted.

[SmokinDuradog]

Pictures of the LB7 intake horn I used in place of my LLY horn to delete the EGR piping.

There is a coolant line that runs through the EGR cooler then to the fir wall for the heater core. Just connect the 2 points now that the egr cool er is gone.

There are alot of options for plugging the outlet on the up pipe to the turbo that used to go to the EGR. I opted for just cutting the riser off that goes to the egr and welding it shut. You could use an up pipe from an LB7 buy and after market up pipe without the riser or just cap the riser off but you will need to secure it to the engine so that it doesn't break at the billow do to vibrations.

[SmokinDuradog]

Rear shock brackets. They are homemade and they are not nearly as nice as the laser cut parts that Toby made me.I made them by hand and they should do what I need them to do.

2 of the brackets are finished accept I need to drill 5/8" holes in them to bolt through to hold the bottom of the shock. I made this bracket to "C" shape around the back half of the axle and allow the bolt to be perpendicular to the axle for less articulation in the shock eye. Also had to make them long enough to come off the back of the axle to clear the truss.

Top tabs I really wanted to just get from Ballistic Fab but they do not offer them as long as I needed so I just copied their 45* setup and just going to use 1 of ea of the 4 flat plates to box them in. So those 8 pieces will become to brackets.

Another thought I had was since my shocks are 34.5" long full extension I would just bolt a limiting strap that is 34" in with the same bolts holding the shocks on but it will twist the strap 90*. Wondering if that affects the straps ability to hold the weight?

Im sure ideal would be flat but is slightly turned/twisted a big deal? Let me know thanks!

[badassblaze]

How hard was the Bat mo wheel swap?

[jolane]

Originally Posted by SmokinDuradog

Hopefully this will make it much stronger than the stock hitch I have inserted a picture of it for comparison. I plan to use 6- 5/8" All thread rod and bolt through the 4"x4" and all the way through the 7 1/2" frame so I will need about a 6- 14" long pieces to bolt up along the frame rails. Then I will also need a 9" piece to bolt through the back of the receiver to tie into the cross member.
Here's some pics of what I have so far. All 3/16" wall tube

Just a few thoughts on bolting it up.
1. Are you going to sleeve the tubes and frame so it doesn't compress when you torque the bolts/all thread?

2. All thread? I know they make it in Gr. 8. Why not some long Gr. 8 bolts that will better handle shear (think about the side loading on the threads). Sleeves would help this, but it still makes me nervous.

I'd look at bolts two flat plates together myself, with shorter bolts (less stretch). Maybe do something similar to the stock hitch in how it mounts, and reinforce the frame where you think it's weak (backer plates/box the frame sort of thing).

I'm not trying to come off as critical, just some ideas. I went though this on my van when I built my hitch bumper.