THANKS!?!
I've been driving the truck around the shop for about 3 weeks now, hence trying to get the brakes back to stock feeling.

Steering feels like stock. There's a guy who offered me a extra steering box in the auction block. I might get hydro assist also.

Sorry for the belated congrats. I have been trying to follow along. My new work hours are killing me.

update.

Axle swap is complete. I have a few bugs to work out. Interesting fact: I did a 2" drop on the transmission cross member. Haven’t had and drive shaft clearance issues.

I need to manufacture some off set rear shackles. There's quite a difference from nissan springs to half ton Chevy springs.

The stock Nissan master cylinder is not enough to push the bigger dana 44 axle's. All the willwood valves I bought were just a band-aid for a major brake problem. I pretty much wasted my money on the willwood valves.

I have acquired a another 9K milemarker winch. So there will be front and rear recoverability on my rig. I know it's got a warn but I got a deal on a new 9k winch. I paid $250 still in the box(private party sale).

The warn regular hubs are not worth the box they come in. )n my test run I busted my left warn regular hub.

Goodies I just picked up. Pictures coming soon.

76 K5 blazer master cylinder. I got all the required brake fittings from napa. NOTE: brass is expensive. 4 fittings cost $19.00. Almost the cost of the master cylinder.

New warn premium hubs.

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Originally posted by LordBiotree:
update.

quote:

Axle swap is complete. I have a few bugs to work out. Interesting fact: I did a 2" drop on the transmission cross member. Haven’t had and drive shaft clearance issues.

So what did you do about the motor mounts? Or re ya just letting them twist?

quote:

I need to manufacture some off set rear shackles. There's quite a difference from nissan springs to half ton Chevy springs.

Did you try grinding off some of the sleeve?

quote:

The stock Nissan master cylinder is not enough to push the bigger dana 44 axle's. All the willwood valves I bought were just a band-aid for a major brake problem. I pretty much wasted my money on the willwood valves.

Are you sure you have the system bled correctly? You'd be suprised what a little air in the master cylinder or caliper can do. The only time mine brakes were crap was when I messed with them and got air in the system. Bench bleed your master.

quote:

I have acquired a another 9K milemarker winch. So there will be front and rear recoverability on my rig. I know it's got a warn but I got a deal on a new 9k winch. I paid $250 still in the box(private party sale).

I thought you had a Milemarker up front already?

Lator....

IIRC that the superwinch hubs I got had the best repuation for the D44 hubs at the time. The best part is some company had alot of scratch/dent ones on ebay that I got for $20! Seems there was coffee spilled on the box and that was it.

Ive also heard good things about the stock ford hubs.

I like the Warn Premiums. They have a lifetime warranty, so if they ever do blow up you can get them swapped out for free.

quote:

So what did you do about the motor mounts? Or re ya just letting them twist?

I haven't upgraded the motor mounts yet. This is on the to-do list. I haven't had a chance to see how the drooped transmission effects the engine mounts.

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Did you try grinding off some of the sleeve?

I'm using Chevy K5 blazer springs. I've already cut an 1” off the bushings and they still measure around ~3”. Ruff stuff makes shackles to convert from Japanese to American. I'm going to order a set and go from there. If they don't work out I'm going to modify them to work.

quote:

Are you sure you have the system bled correctly? You'd be suprised what a little air in the master cylinder or caliper can do. The only time mine brakes were crap was when I messed with them and got air in the system. Bench bleed your master.

I've put at least 3quts of fluid through the system. I've pulled the calipers off, bled the master cylinder by it's self. The brakes felt find driving around the shop and so on. While at hard rock during the shake down run I had brake failure. I was on the last obstacle for the day. I had the peddle to the floor and rolled back. I stalled so the engine was off when this happened.

I've known since I've hooked up the brakes the stock master cylinder is not up to par. I was kinda hoping with the willwood valves I get away without messing around with a master cylinder swap.

quote:

I thought you had a Milemarker up front already?

Yes I have a mile marker installed in a arb bumper. I just picked up another milemarker 9k winch for $250. Yes I know warn is the way to go. I just could not pass up a new milemarker for $250. I do plan one day to have front and rear warn 9.5XP's. The milemarkers should hole me until I can afford the warns.

quote:

C that the superwinch hubs I got had the best reputation for the D44 hubs at the time. The best part is some company had alot of scratch/dent ones on ebay that I got for $20! Seems there was coffee spilled on the box and that was it.

Ive also heard good things about the stock ford hubs.

Thanks for the info 92se. If I ever see a cheap set on e-bay I'll grab them for a spare. My opinion now is anything less than the warn premiums are paper weights only.

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I like the Warn Premiums. They have a lifetime warranty, so if they ever do blow up you can get them swapped out for free.

I asked what the warranty were on the warn premiums. The parts guy said 1yr free replacement. Maybe that was advance auto's warranty. Does WARN have a factory lifetime warranty on them?

quote:

Originally posted by LordBiotree:
I've known since I've hooked up the brakes the stock master cylinder is not up to par. I was kinda hoping with the willwood valves I get away without messing around with a master cylinder swap.

IIRC the calipers on the dana 44's have a space that causes them to get an air bubble even with huge amounts of bleeding and requires twisting and spinning the caliper while bleeding. I could be wrong and that might just be the d60 but it couldn't hurt to try. Either way the larger volume of fluid from the upgraded MC will definitely help

quote:

I asked what the warranty were on the warn premiums. The parts guy said 1yr free replacement. Maybe that was advance auto's warranty. Does WARN have a factory lifetime warranty on them?

http://www.warn.com/corporate/images/907/hubwarr.pdf

The Desert Rat by my place will swap them out for me, no questions asked.

Thanks reddog. According to the link warn does allow a 1 year store warranty. However I can send a warn hub with receipt for fix/replace. I'll check with my local 4 wheel parts store and see what their warranty is.

I got back this weekend from an off-road park. My truck did extremely well. 3 days of hardcore wheeling and no carnage.

updates-
upgraded to a K-5 Chevy master cylinder. 1-1/8 bore master cylinder. I'm still chasing the brakes. I need to change out all rubber lines and install stainless steel lines. Probably need to adjust the rear brakes. I did take a lot of pictures, I'll write a How-to later.

The front arb got modified and bolted up. Did not have to do any welding. However it's going to be a major pain to remove and install. However I'll only remove the bumper when the winch fails.

for the 5,500+ invested I'm extremely happy how the truck performs. On and off road. There are no abnormal vibrations on the pavement. Driving with heims is quite different. I need to do a drive way alignment.

Only thing I noticed is the front diff cover has some seepage. Nothing big. When the guy did the ring and pinion install he just threw the diff cover gasket on without rtv. easy fix.

Only thing which surprised me was the exhaust cross over pipe. No chafing with the drive shaft. I still plan to cut and re-tube the cross-over pipe so it's closer to the transmission.

I’m sure there are a few more isues/ tweaks I’ll find this weekend during clean up.

quote:

I like the Warn Premiums. They have a lifetime warranty, so if they ever do blow up you can get them swapped out for free.

I just went through this. The bearing in one of my hubs failed due to the sand/water mix on az8. I purchased my hubs in 2002, got the receipt, called warn and got an RMA, then shipped ONE hub into warn since the other was fine.

1 week later they sent me an entire kit including two hubs, gaskets, and all hardware! I was very pleased.

congrats on the SAS, the truck looks AWESOME!

Awesome! Glad to see your getting your money and hard work back.

Now post some pix already. Offroad pix!

Here are some pics. I did not take many pictures with my camera.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/K5sRule/SF7R7I7fK9I/AAAAAAAAB5c/4T...05288.JPG?imgmax=800

http://lh4.ggpht.com/K5sRule/SF7Rr6JOS8I/AAAAAAAAB3Q/oC...05254.JPG?imgmax=800

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2601306805_f3b1fa93b3.jpg?v=0