Wynona the wagon's resurrection!

[Laecaon]

Looks like a Yukon Clutch LSD. Let me know how that works out, thats the one I am leaning towards.

Ive installed a Yukon clutch LSD in a 04 step side chevy, Didnt need to do anything, everything lined up perfectly.

[HRH]

Yep, this is the heavier duty version clutches, should be laying dual stripes after I'm done!

[HRH]

So I took the axle shafts by Joe's today. They go through the lathe backwards but aren't long enough to come out the other side. Which means I can't have Joe turn off the .022" on the lathe. Next thought is to mount the axle in the channel iron and clamp the grinder in the vise, or similar, and carefully grind off a little material while keeping it perpendicular. Haven't decided how I'm going to do it yet, but there's a way, especially with how little material needs to come off. The other thought is clearancing the cross pin, but I think that's a worse idea.

[Laecaon]

Have a drill press? You can probably figure out a way to strap the axle shafts to it, and at minimum with some calipers you can at least reference off the table or something how much material you have ground off.

[HRH]

Good news! I called Dad. He has a smaller diameter chuck on his lathe, but a longer bed. It's 30", so it'll fit the 27-28ish long axleshaft if we grab it with the 4 jaw outside chuck and put a steady rest on it. Woot woot! Going over there this weekend, then I'll be able to start putting the axle together!

[HRH]

Weasel was helping the other day, that's his "I'm helping!" face.










So we started off with the high-speed steel cutter which promptly got dulled by the hard ass axle shaft. Ended up switching to a carbide cutter which worked quite a bit better. Axle button started off at .300 approximately. Trimmed both down to about .278" Super stoked, going to test fit them here in a bit.

[HRH]

Well boy do I have a mess in here. But I got the wheel bearings and seals out without much effort. I actually rented a bearing puller set and slide Hammer at O'Reilly's because I only have a crappy slide hammer and no bearing attachments. And as much as I'd like to buy both of those right now I just spent about 300 bucks on all the hardware for the brakes. Parking brake shoes, rotors, hardware kit, wheel bearings and seals, calipers. So the rental option is actually quite nice.

And if I have to go about estimating costs I'm probably between $1,300 and $1,400 when you count for all the parts. Oh wait except I forgot about the LSD I bought and the bearing kit. I'm calculating this up in my head right now. About 500 shipped for two custom axle shafts. But the LSD off Amazon for 370 I think. Axle bearing kit was another 100 bucks or so c clips weren't too much let's call that 20. I just added up all the wheel bearings and brake parts that came to 360 bucks. Then there's the actual cost which I can't remember I think it was 200 bucks or 250 bucks after tax. I'm going to go inside and do this on the big computer instead of the phone.

Ok, here we go:

Brake Parts and Wheel Bearings at NAPA (with my shop discount): 359.91
Differential Bearing Kit off Amazon: $97.78
Two Ford 8.8 c-clips off Amazon: $20
Yukon Gear & Axle (YDGF8.8-31-1) Duragrip Differential for Ford 8.8 with 31 Spline Axle off Amazon: $410.77
Axle assembly at Pull and Save: $203.11
Ford 8.8 narrowing and transfer of 4 link pickup points: Trade deal with the Datsun guru for tires/wheels for his truck. Approx: $450
My special buddy, Buddy, helping me set up the diff: FREE! But I owe him a favor.
Sonofa, I forgot the axle shafts. Moser engineering, two custom axleshafts (could have just done one, but I wanted new.): $486.13

And the grand total comes to: $2027.70. Daaaaammmnnn son!! So not exactly cheap. And this is why you never add up that car part receipt file. Interestingly, if you want a drum brake rear and only 28 splines, there was a year of Ford Ranger with an 8.8 that is near perfect at about 58". That would have been much cheaper. But then I would have a smaller axle with drum brakes. The nice part about this is I can use all the Ford parts with the internal drum brake setup and just re-drill the rotors, and I have a 4 wheel disc conversion with lots of braking ability. And it's 31 splines, which I'm never going to brake unless I get a much larger turbo. It should also be relatively easy to hook up the emergency brake and still have it functional.

Reminds me of that old saying: "Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?" And the ever-true "You can have speed, reliability, and cheapness. Pick two." I just blew my own mind with the calculator. I'm going to go watch car shoes with the dogs. They spend more money, right?

[HRH]

We just watched the hemi gremmie episode of roadkill. So much win!

[DRIVEN]

Price isn't bad considering you replaced almost every single part. You could have shaved way more than half by mixing and reusing junkyard parts. Either way, you'd have to try pretty hard to break it.

And I 100% agree. Never add up the receipts.

[HRH]

My Datsun guru finished my adjustable upper links. Only because the factory links are a little too tight with the welds to fit. One is just slightly crooked, but it's a heim joint and the threads go all the way up, so it shouldn't be an issue. I may bang it straight with some careful hammer work. We'll see.

[HRH]

So here's the latest. Apparently, when I ordered from Moser, either I screwed up or they screwed up. Everything is perfect, except the hub diameter. It's 2.75" The rotor circle is 2.8" The original Ford hub has a dual step, first bit is 2.75, other step is 2.8 so the rotor is hub-centric. I told the guy what I was doing, and I think I may have told him 2.75" thinking I wanted more material to cut off, not realizing it's reverse for the hub circle, 2.8 is what I wanted.

Either way it's moot. Even if they did screw up, I'm pretty sure if I call them, they're going to so ok, we'll make you another set, send us another 500 bucks. I have the Datsun guru on it now for fixing.

The solutions thus far are drill the rotor so it's lug-centric. (Not the greatest but doable.)
Other option is to weld four points on the rotor inside circle, then clean them up on the lathe so it's 2.8.
The third option is to cut the rotor hole large enough so we can make a hub-centric ring to use so the rotor centers.

I'll let you guys know which option I choose. Fucking .060" doesn't sound like a lot, but an eccentric rotor can cause a lot of problems. I should have just sent Moser an email with dimensions instead of calling them, that way it would have been written down. Everything else was spot on.

[Taterhead]

At least you’re getting it figured out.

[HRH]

Yep! The Datsun guru called this afternoon and told me he got it figured, it'll work perfectly. I'm picking them up tomorrow! I don't know how he made it work yet, it's a surprise, but I'm stoked!

[HRH]

So the good news is I don't have to hog out the wheels because there's enough clearance between the large spacing and the smaller outside center. however it certainly looks like the caliper may be tight but I'm going to throw that on in a second and see if it has enough clearance.

[HRH]

Super sweet! The caliper will fit.

[HRH]

Even with all the workout I've been doing I found I'm much less flexible than I used to be. Namely with my back bending over stuff. I think I need to start doing yoga. Axle is all together other than putting on the cover and filling with oil. Now it's time to yank the old axle out and clean up the shop because holy crap it's a mess.

[HRH]

Had to go out and get cover bolts. Somehow they disappeared. Got some rust converter for the welds on the axle. After it's all together I may paint it. Has a lot of grungy oil on it though. May not be that motivated. I did grind the Dorman China paint off the diff cover. Just couldn't have that. Debated painting Datsun on it or something. Think it'll probably just get flat black. I would have used the original cover but damn pull and save for pick axing the covers. Bastards.

[HRH]

Have I mentioned what a giant pain is a yank and axle out by yourself? I'm just glad the 910 axle is pretty light. 88 on the other hand is a little bit of an unwieldy bastard but I want to get it in the car. So I'm forging ahead to see if I can at least get it bolted in tonight. Wish me luck!

[HRH]

You know what's funny? The Ford 8.8 was 100 times easier to stick in! literally took me about 10 minutes to get the things stabbed in and located on the lower control arm holes. Just need to hook up the top trailing arms and the brakes and all that but it's looking good! It's almost as if the Ford 8.8 wanted to be in there! Clearance to the top looks okay I think it's going to be able to ride without banging the floor pan but I'll wait until I have it all set up and cycled.

[flatcat19]

Sweet.