Ok, first off... I've never done one personally, but helped with a lot on mine. I'm not 'scared' of my welds, I can lay a nice, well penetrating weld in all of your basic (flat, vertical, horizontal, and over head) positions. So don't say don't do it, because of welding...

Any who, my brothers friend just bought a 1999 Silverado ext cab with the 4.8 I think (might be 5.3). They bought the truck from a repo man and only paid $700 for it and it's actually a decent looking truck.

The truck already has a solid axle in the front, but looks as if to be a pretty nasty hack job. My brothers friend wants the front and rear axles redone so that it can be driven with no safety issues. The pictures below are of the axles, but what I REALLY need help on is parts. With what you see below, what needs to be done to correct all of the redneck hack job? They are willing to pay me almost what ever for my labor for it. :)

Look!









A piece of wood in the leafs, how much more redneck can you get?





There's no way to make it 4WD because of that bulky-*** x-member they put under there.





More pics to come in a few min...

Brenton

 

omg.......thats a 99????? looks like its been sitting in a river

 

lets see some of the entire thing.

BTW they find it in a creek?

 

Step one: New rear leafs, flip the Ubolts and get rid of the blocks.


Step 2: extend the radius arms.



This will allow you to have the mounts on the frame itsself instead of that dumb tube dropdown/ crossmember setup.

 

Step 3: make a new panhard bar mount on the axle and make a new panhard bar. (you didnt put up pictures of the frame end so I cant comment on that yet.)

Step 4: ream the knuckles for knuckle over steering. This will help to get your steering angles better with out having to fork over the money for cross over or highsteer. like below.

 

I can one up you on that one. This kid went with us one time. had welded together leafs with a sledge hammer head in the leaf pack.

 

Here are some more pics, I actually didn't take any pics of the truck... Are the coils supposed to have a bow like this? He also has 1 shock mounted in front of the coils on one side and one behind the coil on the other side.











Brenton

 

And a few more...







Brenton

 

Yikes that think looks pretty rough on the underside for a 99. Got any pics of the whole truck?

 

that spring looks like its about to pop out and hurt someone

 

No, but I'll be seeing it a lot since they want me to do it. I'll snap a pic of the truck next time.

On the top of the windshield it said, "Hillbilly Delux." I do have to agree with that. lmao

Brenton

 

i would do what Andrew has mentioned.

 

Is the panhard bar the same thing as a track bar? EDIT, it is.

To extend the radius arms, what would be a good size DOM to use? And are those jonny joints at the end?

Also, what does the axle look like it's out of? They have no idea, nor do I. But it does look like a HP d44, that's about all I know.

Brenton

 

it appears to be out of a 77-79 Bronco or F150

Yes HP

Use 2.5" .25" Wall DOM to extend the radius arms.
Use a Johnny Joint or a Heim, Ballistic sells a 3" JJ that is pretty beefy.

 

that frame side panhard mount has to go.

 

Would you suggest the universal panhard mount from Poly Performance.



Or would you suggest making one?

Brenton

 

Is there a certin reason why the panhard bar mount on the axle is so much higher on top of the axle?

What kind of gemeotry do you have to use to get the correct lenght for the panhard bar?

Like Zach's



Brenton

 

Would you want the top of the johnny joint butted up right against the frame or down a hair or so?

Brenton

 

The panhard bar is the one thats the highest right beside the coil, correct?

 

you want the panhard parallel to the drag link

 

Just run chassis bracket like this from ruffstuff.

 

will those work on a ranger too? i am thinking about putting heims on the back of my radius arms.

 

Yep that is what I am using.

 

Heres a quick drawing of the extended arms

 

thats a ranger radius arm or eb dana 44 style?