Saved From Scrap

Pulled the diff this morning. Looked great. Put it back in and buttoned up the axle shafts. Put new clevis pin bushings in the slack adjusters too. Tomorrow I'll get the brake chambers and slacks installed. May fab up a new rear crossmember if I have the motivation.

 

That'll be it for now. Wanted to get the brake chambers and slacks on too but the shims that were on the donor axle were too big.

Also discovered my driver's side steer axle spring is sagged about an inch lower than the passenger side. Glad it'll be getting new ones. Been debating taking 1 leaf out of each new pack and installing a pair of small airbags on the front end. Smooth out the ride a bit and it'd be easier to get the frame nice and level once its back together.

 

I've only got 3 leaves on the front ones. I figure each leaf has got to be worth around 2k lbs of capacity each so one out from each side should drop me down to about 8k total on the front. A pair of small air bags should easily cover 4k should I ever actually put a load on the truck.

 

New springs and shocks alone would probably make a huge difference. Both springs actually sag down slightly on either side of the spring perches.

 

I actually looked back at some of the earlier posts from when I started this insanity. I forgot how much work and time I've put into this so far. Looking forward to finally getting the cab back on. Fingers crossed it'll happen by the end of the year.

 

A/C. Does anybody know of any manufacturers that make a rooftop unit? Factory system was pretty much gone from the truck apart from a seized compressor and the rooftop condensor. Kind of looking for a unit that just needs 12 volt power and an external compressor.