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I converted my 2000 super duty 60 to passenger drop ended up setting it up for Chevy length shafts though after seeing the problems dirt lifestyle had on YouTube so far no issues but I haven’t finished the build yet
 
I converted my 2000 super duty 60 to passenger drop ended up setting it up for Chevy length shafts though after seeing the problems dirt lifestyle had on YouTube so far no issues but I haven’t finished the build yet
Seems like his 'issue' was that he either didn't measure and understand pinion offset vs t-case output when he started, or he was so invested in the idea of factory length shafts, that he didn't care.

When buying aftermarket inner shafts, it's only like $50 more each for custom length, so $100 and better planning and he could have built the same axle and had it work just fine.

In the end he needed custom shafts anyway. :homer:
 
I bought this Friday night. 80's Dodge dana 60 that has quite a bit of custom work done to it....

80's dodge housing, Chevy knuckles, chevy spindles, chevy hubs, solid axle industries forged hubs, torq big brake kit that used newere chevy 2500 calipers, ballistic fab diff cover, artec truss. I also bough his high steer kit as well.

It does not have axle shafts, has warn lock outs, stock carrier and 4.10 gears. It is also setup for 3 link, but that is a pretty easy fix.

My end goal is to have a selectable locker, chromolly axles, and stupid deep gearing (6.17 if possible). If I can get 6.17 gears I can eventually go to a 43" tire and not need to re-gear anything or get a new t-case.

Doing some quick searching- I can get 6.17 gears for either a d60 or d70 rear and that is it. I am going to do some more home work on this.

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Doing some looking and the best price for a selectable locker and gears is on ebay-
Auburn Ected and Motive R&P with master install kit for $1650.


I'm still doing looking for axle shafts, but most everyone is around 1k for chromolly with U-joints.

I have found quite a few Dana 70 axles today, I've got one guy down to 400 for a srw disc brake unit out of a gmc cargo van with roller tires, but he is almost 3 hours away. Hoping to find one a little closer.


Question... The guy I bought the axle from told me that probably about 80% of the axles I look at for the rear, I should be able to get adapters for either the front or the rear so that I have the same lug pattern on both. Is this true, cuz I am not paying any attention to lug patterns right now, cuz I have the mentality that I can buy adapters later.
 
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I know this isn't an axle you will see everywhere but if you do they are usually cheap. The ram airport tugs had D70 with stupid deep gearing iirc like maybe 7.17's and most if not all had a detroit.
Most 8 lug stuff is easy to adapt between like 8x6.5 to 8x170mm ford,8x180mm newer GM etc
Just remember to factor in width also so if you are going to add 1.5" spacers and end up with a 3" wider axle.
 
Thanks for the input. After a lot of looking last night and thinking on it... I think I found what I am going to go with.

Summit has a the Auburn Select-A-Lock for 1,099.
US Powertrain has 7.17 Ring and Pinion for 250
Ebay has the D60 master install kit for 90.
Summit has 4340 shafts for $910.

I'm not going to order the shafts just yet, but I am probably going to order the locker, R&P and install kit today.

I think I locked down a Dana 70. A guy only 45 min from me has one for 450, with disc brakes. We are supposed to meet up this weekend.


Going with the 7.17 gives me the following ratios-

1st gear low- 142:1
2nd gear low- 70:1
1st gear high- 45:1
2nd gear high- 22:1

Pretty good variety of gear ranges, with a tremendous crawl ratio. Hell when I got the jeep my final crawl was 69:1... and right now it's 102:1. So at 142:1, that is over double as low as it was when I got it.
 
Love your build. Love the name SH!T BOX even more!

Do you have a front axle stretch on your SB? Are you running a full hydro steering or do you still have mechanical connections? Sorry if it's in a previous post. I didn't see anything about it. I have a TJ and I'm looking at what others have done to get their front wheel out further.

PIcs if you got any! :)
 
NEED HELP ASAP....

After i installed the new master cylinder. The brakes are squishy, they also have a bug where about every 10th or 15th push of the pedal it goes to the floor. My jeep is at a shop with a pressure pump and they are having the same issue. No air is coming out. The jeep has a brake booster that seems to be working.

The shop just called and said they tested the master cylinder and its good.

The bug of the dead brakes every now and then was there with the old master cylinder. The master cylinder was leaking so i thought that the dead pedal was associated with that.
 
NEED HELP ASAP....

After i installed the new master cylinder. The brakes are squishy, they also have a bug where about every 10th or 15th push of the pedal it goes to the floor. My jeep is at a shop with a pressure pump and they are having the same issue. No air is coming out. The jeep has a brake booster that seems to be working.

The shop just called and said they tested the master cylinder and its good.

The bug of the dead brakes every now and then was there with the old master cylinder. The master cylinder was leaking so i thought that the dead pedal was associated with that.

Any chance you have a sticking caliper or caliper slides? Something like that could cause both issues you are having. Pull all 4 calipers and C clamp the pistons and report back.
 
Its a stock mc. But i wasnt having any issues until a couple months ago.
 
I just called the shop and he said he just checked all the calipers and they seemed fine.
 
Were changing the front rubber lines. Im hoping maybe one of them has a bad spot or something. If not im not sure what to do!
 
What the fuck does "seemed fine" mean? They are either good or bad.... :shaking:

Tell them to clamp all four calipers with C clamps and pump the brakes a bunch of times. If the pedal still sinks to the floor randomly or feels mushy then they will know 100% for sure it's not the calipers. If it stays good, have them reinstall one caliper at a time while leaving the others clamped, pump the brakes and see if/when the problem comes back. Those tests will 100% weed out the problem.
 
I'm picking up the jeep today during my lunch break. I will find out what kind of test the did to determine if the calipers were good. I have a stupid long night ahead of me, cuz I still have some little shit I have to do before we go (fasten my tool box down, build a hold down for the new cooler, check all bolts). The wife and I are supposed to be hitting the road early tomorrow to head towards Clayton OK for the NYE run...

The shop built 2 new brake lines for the front per my request. I told them to do it as an elimination. The rear flex lines are brand spanking new, cuz I had to extend them during the summer after I stretched the jeep wheel base. This eliminates if any of the rubber lines are shot. However they didn't get the new lines on and bled yet, so hopefully early this morning I get some good news from that. If not, I'm pulling the plug on this shop and going to keep diagnosing myself....
 
To conclude the brake issue from last week- I had a bad soft line on the front (not sure which side, replaced both) and then a caliper started leaking while on our trip this past weekend (luckily I had a spare so I swapped it, bled it and keept trucking).


NYE run was this jeeps first true test for hard core rock crawling and it did awesome (I posted pics in the Gen4x4 trip pics thread)! The jeep was doing level 4 trails at RMR with ease and with some work was doing some 5's as well. However, I realized that the D44 were too light and I dont have faith in them. I didn't break any axles, but I did shear all the studs on a wheel spacer, and I burned up my winch. After shearing the studs off the spacer I had paranoia the rest of the trip. I also noticed that my cheap high steer had a ton of play in it and the single ended ram with stock pump were struggling to push the tires into the rocks... Basically, I realized that the jeep is great for medium level rock crawling and would probably do someone really good if that was as hard as they want to do... But... I was only able to do about half of Tackett creek and I want to do the second half and know I can do it without breaking!

Last night I ordered a Warn Zeon 12s so I will never have to worry about winch problems again!
Today I am going to pickup my Dana 70 disc brake axle.

Tomorrow I am ordering a shit ton of parts-
Yukon 4340 axles for the front, 35 spline axles
Yukon Dana 70 7.17 gears
Dana 70 Detroit locker 35 spline
Ruff Stuff D70 diff cover
PSC 2.5x8 ram w/ rod ends, clamp and tie rod kit,
PSC CJ high flow pump,
Trail gear double ended ram D60 mount,
35 spline drive flanges for D60,
Barnes 4wd D70 truss,

The only thing I will need after this is the new wheels, but I am not going to order them until I get all the guts built in my axles.

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holly buckets 7.17 and not a toyota guy. i like it...

and its a fucked up feeling getting back in tackett creek and worrying about shit. even though there is trail just out side the way up there could be a challenge....
 
Picked up my Dana 70 yesterday, was kind of bummed to find it was the 32 spline... Which means I will be upgrading the shafts to 35 spline.

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whats the diameter of the shaft at 32 spline. is it a goofy deal like the 14 bolt where it is huge axle but 30 spline or what ever.
 
whats the diameter of the shaft at 32 spline. is it a goofy deal like the 14 bolt where it is huge axle but 30 spline or what ever.
I'm not sure.... I will check, I have to pull a shaft again, because I didn't write down how long the shaft was and now I'm not 100% sure if it was 32.75" or 34.75"....:shaking:. Either way I'm going to upgrade to 35 spline, because there is more options for aftermarket shafts in 35 spline and a 35 spline locker is $200 cheaper than a 32 spline locker.
 
that makes since, when i upgraded my axle to 35 i remember it was for dana 60, 70 the axles i got were cut to fit.
From what I am seeing on the Yukon website a lot of them are cut to fit... The ones I am looking at right now come as 35" long and you can cut them down to as short as 32". But... at $260 each I want to be 100% sure on length.
 
From what I am seeing on the Yukon website a lot of them are cut to fit... The ones I am looking at right now come as 35" long and you can cut them down to as short as 32". But... at $260 each I want to be 100% sure on length.
for sure. and from what i recall there is also a long and short cut to fit. i cant remember though
 
Ok... So I re-measured the axle last night and good thing I did.... Not sure what I was smoking or drinking the other day when I measured it, but it's 36.75" long...

However, this presents a problem. All axles that I have found so far are 34-36.5" or they are 37-39".... So, do I run an axle that would be a 1/4" short or do I run an axle that I will be cutting down more than it's suggested to do so? My gut tells me to go with the 34-36.5, what would y'all do?
 
so i kinda did not do anything special, i got the same one and still had to cut off an inch or so. and all i did was put both alxes in and centered each up and measured how much the flanges on each side stuck out past the hub face and took a cut off wheel to it. so i think this is my pics of mine when i ordered. mine fit with in the options though.

did you measurement include the flange?





up and
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here
 
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