Saturday, June 5, 2004  -  I spent some time at the shop last night after work until about 10PM. I got started getting the spindles and front brake dust shields cleaned up and sandblasted. I knew I was planning on coming back in the morning to continue, so I didn't worry about painting them. However, with a rainstorm last night, the humidity in the air was enough to cause some flash rust on the cast-iron spindles (see Fig. 1). Interestingly enough, the steel dust shields had no flash rust at all....hmmm. Regardless, it meant I had to give the spindles another pass under the sandblaster to clean them back up. Each of the pieces was then hung with a clothes hanger off the engine hoist boom for painting. The pieces I was able to clean up, sandblast and paint today include:

• front spindles
• steering box w/Pitman arm and bolts
• coil spring pad w/radius arm bolts/nuts
• disc brake dust shields w/bolts
• all steering linkage

All parts were blown off with compressed air and then wiped down with a tack rag prior to painting.

Fig. 1  -  I sandblasted the front spindles last night, and came back to this in the morning. I should have at least sealed them up in a plastic bag overnight.

Fig. 2 - Got the spindles re-sandblasted and painted. The bad flash makes the finish look glossier than it really is. This is actually close to the factory semi-gloss and closely matches the powdercoated frame.

Fig. 4 - Here's the steering box hanging from my engine hoist right after sandblasting.

Fig. 5 - After getting painted, parts were sent to the drying area...OK, so it's only the stepladder, but it works great.

Fig. 6 - THE MOMENT OF TRUTH!! This is the first step of the re-assembly process. As soon as I get my front suspension bushings, the whole front-end can be reassembled.

The steering box I ended up using is one from the '75 F250. It was part of a 3/4-ton disc brake setup that I saved for somebody, but after tearing the shop apart and not finding the '74 F-100 box I thought I'd set aside to use, I ended up grabbing it instead.

After bolting the steering box on, I decided to trial-fit the frame-mounted '78 tube-type power steering cooler. (I'd decided to use that to clean up the top of the engine, getting away from the small fin-type cooler which the 390 currently uses.) However, it turns out that it won't fit, due to interference with the front crossmember. The steel line which exits the steering box and goes to the cooler isn't long enough to allow the tube-type cooler to sit flat against the inside of the frame like it did on the '74 F-100 that donated it. Looks like I'll have to use the engine-mounted cooler after all. Just to stifle my curiosity, I'll be going back to the truck I removed the cooler from and take some measurements of the steering box placement in relation to the front crossmember, so I can see what the difference between the two frames is. I thought they were identical, but evidently there is a minor difference with the front crossmember between the two frames...it's either a difference in the years ('67 vs. '74) or something to do with the F-100 vs. the F-250 frames.

I haven't ordered the front suspension bushings yet, but that's next on the list. I am going to call PST Suspension first thing Monday morning and see if it's possible to buy their polygraphite bushings, which are included in their front end kit, without actually purchasing the whole kit. Their Ford pickup front-end kits (which aren't shown on their website yet but are listed in their latest catalog) include radius arm bushings, I-beam pivot bushings, kingpin set and all steering linkage. My kingpins are in great shape, so I will have to find just the steel bushings. I AM determined to get the polygraphite bushings, however...so if I have to buy the whole front-end kit to get them, so be it. It'll mean that I wasted several hours today getting the steering linkage cleaned up and painted, but at least I'll know everything is new. Tomorrow I'll be getting started stripping the leaf springs off the Dana 60 and getting them and the rearend cleaned up. Unfortunately, I only have until early afternoon to get things done before I have to come home and watch my son while my wife goes to work, so I don't know how far I'll actually get. I'll be happy if I can just get the rearend completely stripped down and ready to sandblast.

...and I have to apologize for the picture quality this time. I didn't have access to the good digital camera I normally use, so I had to use the backup, which doesn't seem to work as good in low-light situations. I'll probably have to use it again tomorrow, if anything gets done enough to warrant even taking any. However, I'm sure I'll take some of the rearend disassembly, just for future reference.

Fig. 8 - It actually took me several hours cleaning the shop and rearranging stuff to allow me to get back to the Dana 60. Here's the 'before' shot.

Fig. 9 - The passenger side has three steel shims between the axle tube and the brake backing plate. I took this shot to remind me when it's time to do the re-assembly.

Fig. 10 - Ain't digital cameras the greatest? Remember the last time you did a brake job and couldn't quite remember how the darn thing is supposed to go back together? Well, that's a thing of the past. Now we can just print out a copy of the pic and stick it in our shop manual.

Fig. 11 - I whipped up these axle tube caps out of scrap lumber in about 10 minutes.

Fig. 12 - The Dana 60 is now stripped down and ready to be sandblasted.

Sunday, June 6, 2004  -  I finally made it to the shop about 10AM this morning with a goal in mind...to dig out the Dana 60 buried at the back of the shop and get it up to the front and stripped down, ready for sandblasting. I ended up spending several hours doing some cleaning and rearranging parts to allow me to get to it, and to create a small work area right in front of the main overhead door. That way I'd have more light, and it would be ready to roll outside to sandblast.

I started off by removing the leaf springs. My 1/2" impact wrench wouldn't even budge the U-bolt nuts, so out comes the breaker bar and a long pipe. After I got them broke loose, the impact was able to finish up the job. These appear to be in pretty good shape, so they'll also be sandblasted and painted. Then I removed the rear brake line from the axle housing and brake cylinders. I think this was the VERY first time ever that the tubing wrench actually worked like it was supposed to...by loosening the line nut without rounding it off. In fact, I believe this whole assembly (line, line nuts and clips) is very serviceable, so these will also get cleaned up and re-used. I just might have to polish the steel line and hit it with a coat of clear, just to give the rearend a nice detail.

Next were the brake shoe assemblies and axles. Since this was my first time disassembling a Dana rearend, I had no idea how the axles came out, and after loosening the brake shoes and popping the drums off, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the axles are retained just like a Ford 9" rearend, with a bearing flange. I was also hoping the axles didn't have some kind of retainer up by the pumpkin, and again was pleased that when I attached the slide-hammer to the axles and gave it a light tap, they both just slid right out. I then took off the brake shoe assembly and backing plate off and set them aside. When taking off the passenger-side backing plate I noticed three steel shims between it and the axle tube. I took a shot of this (Fig. 9) in case I forget where they go when it comes time to re-assemble. I'm going to have to do a little research in their purpose, just for general knowledge.

Since obviously I didn't want any silica sand from the blaster getting into the rearend assembly, I had to find some way of blocking off the axle tube ends. I was just going to stuff a rag into each side, but noticed that the bearing race which is pressed into the end of the axle tube would still be exposed, and since the bearing looks to be in great shape, I didn't want to ruin the race. I dug out a piece of particle board and cut some end caps, using the steel shims as a template. I still stuffed a rag into the end of each axle tube before putting the caps on, just to keep residual 90-weight from seeping out while I'm trying to paint this.

The last thing that needed done was to reattach the rearend assembly to the engine hoist (Fig. 12). By hanging it from the rear shock mounts with an engine sling, the sandblaster will have excellent access to all areas.

By this time it was about time to head home, so I went ahead and just squirted some WD-40 around the shackle bolts and the taper-pin for the spring leaves to let it soak it. I want to completely disassemble the rear spring packs, to allow me to sandblast and paint each leaf individually. It will also allow me to replace the factory's anti-squeak strips placed between the leaves. In Fig. 13 you can see some of that poking out between the bottom overload spring and the leaf immediately above it. I'm seriously thinking about breaking out the semi-gloss POR-15 for the springs, since I think that will be much more durable than paint and should match the finish of the powdercoating and Krylon. However, I'll probably mist a light coat of Krylon on the tacky POR-15, just before it dries. Otherwise there will be no way of future touchups, since paint will not stick to cured POR-15.

So this is where things are sitting, and probably will be for another week till I can get back to work.  Stay tuned!