Rawze's Daily blog...

[Rawze]

I got the parts I need on order. Should be here later this week.

[marek4792]

The EX Guard is about 300 pounds if you have 16ply steers and a slight air ride pressure adjustment you should be good to go.

[Hammerhead]

Wish I would have known about your truck issues earlier Rawze.
I was killing time waiting for a load home between Baltimore and Decatur, Il. when all this went down, I would have happily bounced over your way and given you a hand for a week or two. I waited for just over two weeks, I'd have rather been useful...

[Rawze]

(06-28-2017 )Hammerhead Wrote:  Wish I would have known about your truck issues earlier Rawze.
I was killing time waiting for a load home between Baltimore and Decatur, Il. when all this went down, I would have happily bounced over your way and given you a hand for a week or two. I waited for just over two weeks, I'd have rather been useful...

Thanks for the offer.


The back end is all back together with everything new including all new wiring. Made all the harnesses myself, looks really good now.

Truck is still down waiting for a drive-shaft to be made and the lower bumper assembly framework to arrive. Should be here by end of week, though ?I doubt it.
In the mean time, I am doing king pin bushings, a hub bearing replacement, and other things like re-charging the APU a/c system and such.

I have met a lot of people who sit on their arsse and complain about down-time costing them all while doing squat about it themselves. They leave themselves at the mercy of others instead of staying active and grabbing a wrench. Downtime does not cost you money unless you are sitting and doing nothing. I choose to convert the downtime into time spent prolonging up-time. That is what being in buisness is all about. -- i walk outside every day and look at my truck then think to myself ... "What can I take apart today to prolong my up-time next go around?"... And I always find something in need of attention.

[Rawze]

Truck finally left out onto the roads again yesterday headed to salt lake city. It has ...

* New drive shaft
* New yokes
* New u-joints
* New wiring for the tail lights.
* New wiring for the ABS modules.
* All new brake hoses and air lines from the back of the cab to the end of the frame.
* A lot of new air line fittings that had gotten damaged or ripped apart
* Some new/repaired APU lines and wiring.
* New forward differential
* New king pin bushings
* New shocks
* New brakes
* New drums
* 1 New hub bearing
* New leveling valve
* All new air bags in the back
* New Modulator valve for the ABS
* Repaired the cross-members and retaining brackets that got bent/damaged
* New front bumper assembly
* Installed a noise filter for the alternator.

I did a lot of inspecting, checking of things and took my time to ensure everything was up to spec + torqued properly along the way. hopefully nothing got missed, only time will tell. Wife is reporting the truck "feel like new again", so hopefully no other problems will arise. total down-time was 8 weeks. Six weeks of that was repairs and waiting for and finding parts, and simply taking some time off and the other 2 was for medical appointments she had scheduled earlier in th year. There was no sense in going out just to rush back home after 2 weeks so they waited to go out until the appointments were all done.

New forward diff was $2150, new bumper assembly was $1570, drive shaft $850.

All total I have about $6,000 in parts in it. All labor I did myself. it would likely have cost me $15,000 - $20,000 in total if I had taken it somewhere.

[Mr Hagg]

(07-19-2017 )Rawze Wrote:  I did a lot of inspecting, checking of things and took my time to ensure everything was up to spec + torqued properly along the way....

And I will add the work look like a million bucks above professional even the truck maker didn't do as good of job...I was impressed anyway when I saw it from what he started with..

[Mrkentee]

Did you change the diff at the shop or home? Do you have a jack that works with that?

[Rawze]

(07-19-2017 )Mrkentee Wrote:  Did you change the diff at the shop or home? Do you have a jack that works with that?

I did it myself. I rolled the differentials out from under the truck and used the yard crane I made a few years ago.

   

[Mrkentee]

(07-20-2017 )Rawze Wrote:  

(07-19-2017 )Mrkentee Wrote:  Did you change the diff at the shop or home? Do you have a jack that works with that?

I did it myself. I rolled the differentials out from under the truck and used the yard crane I made a few years ago.

I remember the crane. I didn't realize you'd taken them completely out. That must have made it easier.