_stucky’s FunK20

M92PV4U said:
I have these on a 5.7, they seem to be holding up well. If I replaced the wires I'm going with ceramic ends.
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Hinson Motorsports, Inc. 8030 Hinson Motorsports Spark Plug Wire/Boot Protectors | Summit Racing

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Ceramic ends are nice, but they only protect the boot. The boots also protect the wire some. Just my take. :beer:
 
So I don’t have the metal sleeves that I believe would have been stock on the wires. I found 3 of them laying on the floor at my buddy’s shop, but they wouldn’t fit with the manifolds (hooker blackheart). So I don’t think the protectors will fit either. I had some cheap ones on my s10 (vortec 5.7) and was not impressed.

I made it to the city museum in St. Louis and back without any issues. The steering could be a little tighter, but it really does ride and drive pretty good.

If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend taking at least a couple hours to go see that place. It’s crazy.

The guy working the gate for the parking lot, as I was pulling up, he goes “ OH ****! You got the coolest truck on the lot!” Naturally, I parked next a Tesla, where people had to walk around it.
 
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Well my link didn’t work. Philips H6054LED. I had done exactly nothing at all to the headlights that were in this, and they were terrible.
 
I need to make this truck’s steering a little less loosey goosey. I have a plan, but my question is, what is the magic number I need to be shooting for on caster with my setup? Diy4x b52 setup, 6 inch shackles, k5 52s
 
I know nothing of king pins, but that is a crazy high torque spec for anything on these trucks.
 
I didn’t have to break out the torch to get them out though. And the multiplier doodad made it pretty easy to go back together. We used to have a 800 ft lb torque wrench, but it has disappeared.

I haven’t driven it far enough yet to know if I made any improvement.

Hopefully different wheels are next. With the dodge wheels, I have to use a 1/4 inch spacer to clear the tie rod, a normal wheel weight will not clear. So I have balance beads in the tires. I have an occasional death wobble that is getting old. Plan is redo kingpins (check), wheels I can fit with real wheel weights, get a real alignment so I can get an accurate number on caster, then get a shim to dial it in. If it still drives all loosely goosey, I’m gonna try to get a sway bar weaseled in there somehow. I’m thinking steering box after that if I’m not happy yet.

I did get about 8000 miles on it in a year though, mostly trouble free.
 
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Found these wheels about an hour away for 69 a piece. Test fit them before I bought them, fit great, clears everything including the tierods, even without the spacers. So had them mount and balance them. I hauled the truck there so I don’t really have many miles on them yet. What little I drove it today, it does feel better. Time will tell if it still gets the death wobbles.
 
Here’s some pics from the kingpin rebuild. I do it twice to make it nice.

So I used Barnes bushings. There was a roll pin sent with it. Of course I just put them in and bolted everything together.

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This is the high steer arm upside down with the bushing, roll pin too long.

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And trimmed down

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And here is the bushing in the knuckle. The roll pin needs to be lower than the top of the knuckle for the high steer arm to set down all the way.

Something else I didn’t get a pic of, on the passenger side, the roll pin diameter was too small. Couldn’t find one around our shop that fit better, but did find an Allen wrench that fit nicely, so I cut a piece off and stuck it in there. The truck is driving much much better than before. I had only driven it maybe like 10 miles after the first attempt to do this, and it was not better. Probably a good thing I hauled it to get the wheels.

When I did the headlights, I had bought a relay harness for an xj, but didn’t put it in. With leds I’m not sure it’s necessary, but I had it, and had time to do it recently. So I think this harness could fit a squarebody as is, but I didn’t want the power wire feeding it hooked to the battery. I took that wire out and put a little longer one in so it is tucked behind the battery on a distribution block. I haven’t driven in the dark yet, so I don’t know if any improvement was made.

Here’s the harness:
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H4 Upgraded Headlight Harness

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I ordered the quick ratio borgeson box from ord. I noticed that the sector shaft had a wobble to it, I suspect the box is egged out where the bearing is. I also thought the draglink end was bad, but after getting it apart, I think I have had the wrong taper in the pitman arm this whole time. To make things better, a little while back I noticed the pitman arm was loose on the splines, I didn’t want to wait a week if the splines were wollered out, so ordered another pitman arm with the box. I had the 8.5 inch zerk to end of threads draglink end, but ordered the 6.5 draglink end, and the draglink was too short. So I found a chunk of junk that fit the dom, chopped it in half and extended it 2 inches. My old man used the stick welder and booger welded it up. That was my best way to make it drivable tonight with what I had ordered.

Initial thoughts after a 4ish mile drive home, it seems better. However! There is a bump by my house that will give this truck the death wobbles on occasion. Naturally, I hit it. It did not death wobble, but did feel like it was about to.

So wtf do I do next if it still death wobbles? Caster is about 10.3 if I remember right. I did get some shims and u bolts, but I really don’t want to use them if I don’t have to. So I got some 7 inch shackles, drilled another hole at 5.5 (it has 6 inch shackles now). I’m going to try to get them on tomorrow and see where caster ends up. I’m running out of ideas to fix the death wobble.
 
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Here’s the other thing I’ve been working on. Ictbillet r4 bracket. I was hoping to use factory hoses, but that didn’t work out. Had to trim the shock mount. I used a fuel pump relay to change the positive to turn on the clutch to a negative to turn on the fan. It’s just outside of the picture next to the factory relays. I got the fittings on Coldhose.com. And if the guy at napa didn’t fawk up the crimp on the one fitting, I might have working ac now.
 
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Can see the relay here. I’m waiting on some wire loom but did get almost everything I added tucked into loom that was already there. I have the cover trimmed to fit too but it’s not on yet because of the wire loom.
 
www.offroaddesign.com

Borgeson '68-91 Steering Gear, 2wd, 12.7:1 Ratio

These boxes are a great solution for someone looking for a brand new steering box with a good price. These are built as a direct fit for the 80's trucks and use adapter fittings and the input shaft connector listed below to bolt into the '79 and older trucks. They are not ported for hydro...
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I have been in several Saginaw boxes, mixing and matching various things, and I just don’t have a good way to fix one if the spot where the bearing is is egged out. My yj was like that and I chased my tail until I just swapped to a different box. So I didn’t want to do that here. I know there are places that can fix that, they bore and sleeve it, but you still end up with a box that essentially has a seal kit slapped in it, which I can do. Anyways, for the money I thought I’ll try this one, and have a new box with a warranty. I don’t think I need hydro assist, but honestly would not be afraid to dissect and drill and tap this one. I’m pretty sure I have a borgeson box off a ford I could experiment on. I am a little curious how much of my trouble was the taper in the pitman arm probably not being correct, I could feel some wiggle in both pitman arms with the old 8.5 inch long draglink end just pushed together that the new 6.5 one did not have. I got the Partsmike draglink end this time instead of a ruffstuff one.

Edit: so for the box it says it comes with adapters to use the older style lines. That junk looks janky. If putting one on an older truck, I think I would swap the fitting on the back of the pump to the newer style and just get the newer hoses. No adapters.
 
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Big improvement right here! I kept snagging my sleeves on a burr on the passenger side hood hinge. I tore a hoody multiple times, tore a long sleeve ruffstuff shirt the first time wearing it, and got a new hoody and tore it the first time wearing it too. Used the die grinder with a flap disk and got every sharp edge I could find under the hood.
 
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I tried to kinda copy the factory gm mount. I did cut the mount down a little bit more. I didn’t really notice too much of a difference, but it’s on.
 
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