[sharkkid]

beautiful brake lines, but man with the rocks we wheel, those would be pinched shut first day out.

Thanks, and now im second guessing this brake line routing and how quickly they may get smashed shut. I'm using the top spring plate as the pad for my bump stop which is why I wanted to avoid routing the brake lines up and over that area. I could add a tab to the top plate as a means of securing the line to the front or back of that plate. This would create a path for the lines to be run on the top centerline of the axle. would need to add a 90 degree fitting from the steel braided line to the hard line as I would like to keep that mounting tab in the same relative location.

might be over thinking it but its a hell of a lot easier to redo it on the bench then on the truck or on the trail.

 

[]4RunnerKid[]

looks good, bud. not sure how you strap this turd down on the trailer, but that may be something else to consider with your brake line routing

 

[sharkkid]

Way over budget and way behind schedule (the original plan was to have the rear done by Scooter's wedding) but the rear end rebuild is complete and ready to go into its new home. What started as a maintenance focused rebuild snowballed pretty quickly. There isn't a whole lot that isn't new outside of the housing, pinion carrier, hubs and axles. this was my first real go at an overhaul of this scale and leveraged the shit out of the billa vista 14 bolt bible (BillaVista.com-14-Bolt Bible Tech Article by BillaVista), especially helpful with setting up the gears.
had plenty of hiccups along the way but overall im pretty stoked with how everything came out.

build list includes:
Barnes 13 bolt diff cover
Barnes 14 bolt truss
Barnes pinion guard
Ruff Stuff u bolt eliminator kit
Ruff Stuff disc brake brackets
new calipers, rotors and pads (auto-zone special)
new 5.38 thick cut gear set
new carrier (thick cut gears are not compatible with a 4.56 carrier)
new mini spool
all new bearings, races and seals
Before:

After:

 

[sharkkid]

Started to get the 60 put together so I can mock up the 4wu kit that has finally arrived. I was only able to get one side put together cause the lower king pin rebuild kit was missing the dust seal and wasn't able to find one locally. Trying to document and as much of the rebuild as possible. unlike the 14 bolt bible on pirate, there isn't really a single source for start to finish on rebuilding a 60. I'll say Im going to compile all this into one big post but we all know the reality of that happening.
In talking with some other people who have ran the kit, the plan is to run 16" 2.5 coil overs with 2" 2.0 air bumps. the mounts for the air bumps restrict my options a bit for the style of can I can run. Will need to run a single bolt style can or got with a King 2.0 that has a threaded stud. Its sounds like packaging everything is a bit of chore, especially when running the shock towers that came with the kit. If its too much shit to stuff up front I may opt to build my own hoops and tube work for the front but that will be a problem for a later date.

 

[azdirt3.0]

looking good. Glad to see the build still progressing!

 

[sharkkid]

looking good. Glad to see the build still progressing!

progress is crawling along here.

back in hover craft mode with the the 10 bolt removed. Next step will be to chop off all the existing brackets, tabs, hoops and mounts and clean up the entirety of the frame rails from the body mounts forward. The plan is to pull the motor and trans to make this effort easier, while hopefully tracking down a rebuilt transmission to replace this one with.

 

[sharkkid]

continuing to inch along with this thing. The 60 is pretty much assembled and ready for link brackets to be mocked up. I ran into some fitment issues with the disc brake brackets that came with the kit from Lugnut 4x4. Started the passenger side and couldn't get the caliper to fit between the arms of the caliper mount, nothing a little grinding couldn't fix. Once over that hurdle, the angle of bends in the bracket wasn't letting the caliper sit correctly left to right on the rotor. A little massaging in the press brake and it seemed to do the trick. Wasn't thrilled that I had to do any of this but moved on to the driver side. test fit the caliper, slid in fine but the bolt holes were about 1/4"- 3/8" out of alignment. At this point I reached out to Shawn from Lugnut and had 2 new brackets in the mail this morning. Do despite the frustration of not being able to get too much accomplished I was happy that Shawn took care of it no questions asked.

Used this as an opportunity to get some TIG practice in via the addition of some non-tear dropped weld washers. turns out, TIG welding is still pretty tough when do it about once a year. Looking forward to getting some more hood time with some of the components of this front end. Onto the passenger side link mount. the design intent is to locate the passenger side bracket using the bolt holes for the leaf spring perch. using those to locate the bracket there was about a 1/4" gap at the axle tube. I continued to reposition the bracket until I got a pretty tight fit to the axle tubes well still using the front bolt hole has my locating feature. In chatting with Brian from 4WU and showing him some photos of what I had mocked up, there wasn't going to be any ramifications future down the line with the new position I had the bracket it. Remade the "spacer" that resides under the bracket on the flat of the spring perch to account for the new fitment and placed the panhard bar mount in its home to confirm that everything was still happy. panhard mount actually sits in a better location now than so that was a plus. once it is tac'd into place the bolt is removed and the truss lands on top of that hole location.

 

[sharkkid]

New brake brackets from Lugnut4x4 came in, installed without issue. Making some progress on mocking up the axle side brackets. Passenger side lower link mount and panhard bar mount are in tacked in place, along with the truss. outside of a little material removal primarily around bent components, everything is fitting together well. Need to take some measurements and get the driver side link mount tacked in place.

Packaging the steering is going to be fun. Looking through some other builds that have used 4WU's Dana 60 kit, they seem to all use Artec's double sheer high steer arms. Using an arm with the knuckle bolt for double shear helps free up a fair amount of space. At a minimum, I will need to get a longer driver side high steer arm, which I can order from ballistic to match the length of my passenger arm.
With a longer driver side arm, I can assemble my steering to match this stacked style, but on the high steer arm opposed to the knuckle. Could try to create a modular double shear bracket, similar to what ballistic is offering, using the 5th knuckle bolt hole I am not currently using with the OEM style knuckle and/or the other tie rod/ drag link hole in the high steer arm. Once that is sorted out I can focus on packaging the hydro assist ram in there.

 

[sharkkid]

all of the axle side brackets are in place except for the upper link mount. that will get set once the axle is under the truck. ordered a new long driver arm from Ballistic. Once that arrives I will cut the tie rod down to length and mock up the hydro assist ram and intending to stick with the single shear steering. began tearing the front end apart to clean up the frame rails. Going to end up pulling the AC components to free up some space and combing through the bulk of the existing accessory wiring to tidy things up in that department as well. Will need to start thinking about what new tube work will need to be done up front for shock mounts, bumper and winch.

 

[sharkkid]

new long driver high steer arm arrived. got it installed, tie rod cut to length and hydro assist mocked up.