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Glad you came over. I knew there would be a good group of guys that would appreciate this build as much as I have.
Thanks for the recommendation bud, glad I can entertain! Haha
January 1st, I bought a 2002 D60 for $600 off craigslist. Everything was great, just missing steering and a brake caliper. So to work I went...
Got the shafts out.
Driver side seal was leaking, so I had to replace that, that was interesting without the correct tools. Passenger side was nice and rusty, so I ran a scotchbrite all through it and shined it up.
Got the hubs and rotors redrilled for the 8x6.5 pattern and pressed in new studs. Machined the rotors, and greased the unit bearings/lockout hubs.
Re assembled.
Got the steering started, and made a new spring perch that gets rid of the need for u-bolts. It just uses 3" long 5/8" Grade 8 Bolts. Ignore my implemented 3/4" bolts...
And March 2018 I started to finish the bed and send it to powdercoat.
Custom fuel cell mounted inside the frame rail, no low hanging, larger capacity, faster filling etc.
The tank out of the truck, looking at the bottom of it. The storage boxes in the back as well, they hang in between the cab and tire.
Then I pulled the bed off, finished the filler neck mount in the headache rack, sanded down all the showing welds to make for smooth seems and a good looking finished product.
A little filler neck guard, fastened in with 1/4 Turn Dzus Fastners
Next up was the SAS and lift. My 35's were rubbing the swaybar and I wanted to convert to 4x4.
So I ordered the SORD kit, using the SD Springs and my 2002 front axle. I was able to draw in cad the entire front end, where the pitman arm was located, drag link, and panhard mounts, including shock mounts and everything. This allowed me to make sure my drag link and panhard were at the same angle, and same length. It came out sweet!
Drag Link and Panhard Geometry Panhard Frame Mount Panhard lower mount and shock mount Shock Mounts
Then on came the teardown! So I purchased the SORD kit, an needless to say, was pretty disappointed in the quality of craftsmanship, and overall fitment. I couldn't get the front brackets to line up with anything the instructions talked about, so I had to do it manually, and use the axle and leaf spring to locate the front bracket, then just welded it on. The rear was the same way, and I ended up just welding it on as well since there is no way I could drill the holes without pulling the cab mounts. Up on stands Cutting 2wd Beam pivots off Axle Mock up. Welded the frame brackets on instead of bolting together.
Steering kit, which ended up not working due to clocking of the lower heim on the drag link. I fixed it later on. You can see the panhard mount, the u-bolt eliminator kit, and shock mounts Panhard mounts on the frame, shock mounts etc. Rear frame pivot, ended up moving the shackle to the forward hole for better ride quality. Assembled, no bumper yet, didn't fit and had to trim a little bit.
You can see the drag link moved in this last pic, to the position it is at now.
The rear still needed to be addressed, so I set out to make a lift block as well. But, I also had plans to make traction bars later, so I was thinking ahead and made this, all out of 3/8" and 1/4" steel.
3" Fabricated Rear Block with a traction bar mount built in. Also captured the u-bolt for added safety Welded Up Custom 5/8" U-Bolts made Installed Bumper trimmed to fit the Front Spring Hangers Truck didn't have enough caster, so I shimmed it, and added a 3/8" Thick Stainless Block for a little added height, all bolted through the leaf pack, so nothing is loose or dangerous.
My next problem that I had to tackle was steering angle on the truck. Everybody talks about the F350 pitman arm being longer and you need it once you swap, well I found out the 2wd F350 pitman arm is still shorter than the 4wd one. On top of that, the 99-03's use and even LONGER pitman arm than the 4x4 F350's. Because of this, the steering arm on the axle was longer to compensate, but since I had the extra short 2wd pitman arm, this thing was like a freightliner, and could barely make a 4 lane wide u-turn!!! But instead of buying a pitman arm, I decided to MAKE ONE! A very basic design I drew up in Solidworks, allowed me to make it double sheared for the heim, and drop/length that I wanted. I ended up changing it a little bit, and added some reliefs to get more steering angle in it, you can see in the finished product. Then I water-jetted the splined section out of the stock pitman arm (in the same star shaped pattern on the new pitman arm) And welded it all up. MIG welded all the 1/4" plate together, and TIG welded the Splined section in. Doesn't look the greatest, but it is damn strong.
And pitman arm painted and installed.
Fab skills nothing short of amazing.
