1972 F-250 2wd to 4wd build

Decided to weld. $0.
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Made plates to keep splatter out of splines. With LSD can't really weld spider to carrier so reinforce the gears, torque through center pin.
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Blankie and a race to cover bearing.
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Welder to 11. Let it cool. Then clean and remove all gear cruncher boogers. Then more cleaning.
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I removed the ring to not have to clean spatter off of it. So chased the holes and threads and installed with locktite red. No RTV, no cleaning.
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put the gallon of fresh 140 back in.
 
Found the inner belt rubbing on the lower radiator hose. Almost all the way through. The hose it has is a Conti 60829 cut to fit. Local stores didn't have the bump specific hose or this one.
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Cut the hose and put in a length of 2" x 0.120" at the belt area.
Going to try a different hose, or maybe go SS J bend and use a short piece of straight hose on each end.
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Swapped out the too short rear brake line for a longer one. I had used a 3AN hose and separate fittings, so it was easy to just replace the hose itself and not deal with the hard lines. The shocks are now at full extension, the driveshaft is bottomed out but doesn't appear to be bound up. I don't think limit straps are needed or would help anything other than complicating things.
 
Decided to pull trigger on the Yukon Grizzly locker for the rear axle. Welded is more better than it was, cost nothing, but from discussion in another thread my hackery will likely fail at some point. If left long enough could chew up the gears. Not going back in to weld more.

Could have done a used e-lock for $600, but for another $150 I get what I want, new. I'm really hoping to not have to mess with the pinion. In theory a carrier only change should only really effect the side to side fitment. I bought a shim kit so I can do whatever needs to be done. Going to reuse the bearings.

I feel like this is the last piece of the build. I bought the truck 9 1/2 years ago, and started the build in October of '18.
 
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:laughing:
Welding the diff as meticulous as you did will never fail or cause any issues. I’ve never even gone to the trouble of removing the carrier much less removing gear sets. 3/8” plates and crank the welder to 11. Maybe some brakleen on the gears if I’m feeling charitable afterwards.

2 years of wheelin and raced KOH. In this picture, the RF axle joint has 2 broken caps and no needles/grease 🤘 only replaced it because KOH lol
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I also don't believe you'll have an issue with welded, but if the option for an ox is "this is the last thing, then I can feel it's all done and well", I support the ox
 
Parts came in to swap out the welded diff for mechanical locker. Plan is to harvest the carrier bearings and hopefully not touch the pinion. If I have to go into the pinion then a new seal, nut and probably make a crush sleeve eliminator based off the old crushed sleeve.
The motive gear install kit is 1/3 the price of the Yukon and comes with new bolts.
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Got started on the carrier swap. Drained fluid and pulled carrier out. Put the axles back in so they don't leak oil on the wheels. Removed ring gear. My bearing separators are too small so ordered a larger one. The bearings do have some wear, not enough to be concerning. Will see if I can get them off without damage.

The welded diff has no cracks or signs of stress. Didn't get many miles.
 
Haven't used that style before. But $100...
I had to modify the separator set I have for an 8.8. Will see how it goes with the new larger one. Should be able to use the extensions and whatnot from the kit I already have.
 
The larger bearing splitter didn't fit as-is. Started to grind on it, but decided to try another. Have a 2 jaw puller already modified with jaws slimmed down to fit the notches in the carrier. My cordless impact isn't that powerful but was able to get the bearings off.
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Kind of a pain to keep straight, so I made a center drilled puck to keep things aligned. Had some 2.25 round which is also bearing ID, so I turned it down slightly on the lathe so it wouldn't get stuck in the bearing.
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Bearings ready to go onto the new carrier.
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Used a 2.5" puck to press the bearing on.
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One side needed the bearing pressed on past the ID so used a piece of 2.5 thick wall drill pipe to seat all the way.
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Bearings transferred without damage to the cages.
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Chased and cleaned the ring gear threads and pulled the ring gear on with the bolts. Then removed bolts, added lock-***e, and torqued to 100.
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1st time having to do gears on the vehicle instead of on the bench. Important to have a plan and be organized. Cannot get the driveshaft off when the suspension is at full droop. Shaft too long, doesn't bind but cannot get it out of yolk. Wanting to use the truck Saturday so didn't take it off and apart to shorten. Janky need to fix at some point.....
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10.25 carrier is big and heavy compared to 1/2 ton stuff. Set up tool cart to play swap-a-shim game. I didn't bother to check BL or pattern on old carrier, because it doesn't matter. To start I used the original left shim to check basic gear distance, backlash. Right side I made up a new shim stack that fit. BL was .012, good start. Tried a few more right side stacks to find zero preload. BL was still about .012. Skipped checking pattern and added about 0.005 to both sides for carrier bearing preload. Ended up 6 left 5 right, and BL came in a 0.008 which is min spec.
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Last step is pattern. Cost is nicely centered.
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Drive is on the toe side which is OK and expected for used gears. So no need to move pinion, not going to touch it or the seal which doesn't leak.
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Truck got a lot of attention, wife was pretty surprised. Everything worked correctly just put key in and go. Took a long time to get there.

Happy with the Grizzly locker. Unlocks the outer tire when it should and minimizes the tire barking, making dust. Drove it today on semi-wet roads. Can hammer down and it hooks and goes instead of inner tire fryer.
 
Makes the truck more fun to drive.

I feel a bit lost in that the truck is 'done'.

but there is always something to fix. Power door locks aren't working the best. Should put in a new remote battery and lube the linkage.

I left the EFI learning on for too long after doing timing control and should clear the memory and redo the learn period. Can also remove the adjustable timing gadget off the dizzy.
 
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