Project: 1995 s10 SAS

[Tim99Zr2]

pssh, PTOS are better.

piss off then i wont help you!

[Baggey22]

I never said PTOs were worse/better. I'm just saying that I'm going the square tube route because I don't feel like spending $100 MORE when all I need is like $20 or $30 in steel.

[Tim99Zr2]

yea, i would think you could use my same lengths thou, they are basically the same concept. get your outside tube 20" and the inside like 18"

[wrekd]

I used 2.5"x.25 wall and 2"x.25 wall to make mine. I just bought 2 foot of each. you'll be doing alot of grinding to get it to fit. I know I had to

[Baggey22]

What grinding is going to be necessary?

[Tim99Zr2]

on the square tube, there is a weld seam on the inside of the tube, you will need to grind a channel into the inside tube so it can slide into the other. (i think thats what he is talking about) or maybe just alot of grinding to get it level on the yokes

[wrekd]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tim99Zr2

on the square tube, there is a weld seam on the inside of the tube, you will need to grind a channel into the inside tube so it can slide into the other. (i think thats what he is talking about) or maybe just alot of grinding to get it level on the yokes

Oh yeah, I forgot about that seam

And there is alot of grinding to do to get them to slide together. But for the price and durability it is 100% worth it.

[Baggey22]

Actually I don't have to do anything to get them to slide together. When I went to the steel place they gave me my sections of steel already slid together. So that part is easy and done. Now what about getting the round pieces of old drive shaft onto the square pieces of new driveshaft? any suggestions?

[wrekd]

Just cut them off flush and then weld them on.

[Donahue]

when i did mine, i cut the yoke off about 1.5" from flush with the yoke. i then ground 4 flat sides in the remaining 1.5" and gave it a press fit in the sq tube. i also made sure and tried to get the yokes as in phase as possible, to keep the vibes to a minimum (kind of a moot point with a sq shaft but oh well...).

[Baggey22]

Donahue do you have more pictures of the shaft all welded up? Thanks

[Donahue]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baggey22

Donahue do you have more pictures of the shaft all welded up? Thanks

this is everything i have.

[wrekd]

These are the only ones I have of mine

[Baggey22]

Thanks guys, I'm taking everything to my buddy's house and he's gonna help me weld it up. Then once I install the tranny Xmember Chris and I made it'll go in.

[ChrisInVT]

Yeah, satellite internet sucks. Pics don't do that thing justice, it was much cooler IRL

[coloRADo_S10]

Baggey your truck looks sick! Looks good now that you got tires on it

[Baggey22]

Update: Today I got out of work early and got my square tube drive shaft all welded up, it came out great and wasn't terribly difficult to make.
Then when I got home I took on the task of installing my new tranny Xmember. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, mostly because I was working alone. But it's in, for the most part. I need to add a few more bolts (drill and tap them into the frame)
I WAS going to install my drive shaft but I've run into ANOTHER problem. I got a Jeep front output yoke a while ago and come to find out it doesn't work with the drive shaft I have and the original one on the s10 doesn't either. So I'm kinda stuck until I find an output yoke that fits my drive shaft. I'm guessing that the yoke is from some Wrangler but my drive shaft is from an XJ. So anyone have one or know someone that has one? I'm going to keep on the prowl myself.
I'll take pictures soon, it's dark out and they wouldn't look good right now anyways.

[Donahue]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baggey22

Update: Today I got out of work early and got my square tube drive shaft all welded up, it came out great and wasn't terribly difficult to make.
Then when I got home I took on the task of installing my new tranny Xmember. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, mostly because I was working alone. But it's in, for the most part. I need to add a few more bolts (drill and tap them into the frame)
I WAS going to install my drive shaft but I've run into ANOTHER problem. I got a Jeep front output yoke a while ago and come to find out it doesn't work with the drive shaft I have and the original one on the s10 doesn't either. So I'm kinda stuck until I find an output yoke that fits my drive shaft. I'm guessing that the yoke is from some Wrangler but my drive shaft is from an XJ. So anyone have one or know someone that has one? I'm going to keep on the prowl myself.
I'll take pictures soon, it's dark out and they wouldn't look good right now anyways.

231's and d44's have swappable yokes, you may look there. i know this works because my front axle has my original 231 yoke on it for the driveline.

i also would not trust anything "tapped" into the frame. the frame is only like .125" thick, and i would not trust any load bearing bolt like a trans crossmember.

[Baggey22]

The plan with the tapping into the frame is I'm doing it temporarily to check for clearance. Then once I know it works (which it does) I'm going to ream the holes bigger and weld nuts onto plates, then weld the plates into the frame.

[Donahue]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baggey22

The plan with the tapping into the frame is I'm doing it temporarily to check for clearance. Then once I know it works (which it does) I'm going to ream the holes bigger and weld nuts onto plates, then weld the plates into the frame.

sound good. i would say use at least 4 3/8" bolts.

[ChrisInVT]

You installed that x-member by yourself? You're a brave man.

Weld the nuts to the x-member, IMO that would be your better (and easier) bet.

[Baggey22]

Well right now it's being held on by six 1/2" bolts
How do you propose I weld them to the Xmember?

[Donahue]

1/2" bolts are plenty.

[wrekd]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baggey22

Update: Today I got out of work early and got my square tube drive shaft all welded up, it came out great and wasn't terribly difficult to make.
Then when I got home I took on the task of installing my new tranny Xmember. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, mostly because I was working alone. But it's in, for the most part. I need to add a few more bolts (drill and tap them into the frame)
I WAS going to install my drive shaft but I've run into ANOTHER problem. I got a Jeep front output yoke a while ago and come to find out it doesn't work with the drive shaft I have and the original one on the s10 doesn't either. So I'm kinda stuck until I find an output yoke that fits my drive shaft. I'm guessing that the yoke is from some Wrangler but my drive shaft is from an XJ. So anyone have one or know someone that has one? I'm going to keep on the prowl myself.
I'll take pictures soon, it's dark out and they wouldn't look good right now anyways.

You need the yoke from an XJ since your running a CV driveshaft.

[ChrisInVT]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baggey22

Well right now it's being held on by six 1/2" bolts
How do you propose I weld them to the Xmember?

With my welder

[Donahue]

for that to work he would have to drop the bolts in from the inside of the frame, which i'm guessing is fully boxed at that point.

[ChrisInVT]

That's how the stock x-member is held into place. The nuts aren't welded on, but you have to place the bolts through the frame. It would be easier to drill the hole to insert the bolts, than to hack up the frame to get a torch head in there to weld the nuts on.

Might actually be better off not welding the nuts at all, that IMO would be the easiest/quickest/less troublesome way to go.

[Baggey22]

I don't think you 100% understand what I'm saying Chris. I'm saying take the nuts and weld them to a small square of flat stock. Then take the holes that I've already tapped out and ream them BIGGER than the nut. stick the nut inside the hole and then weld the plate to the frame. Then attach cross member.

[Outlawz24]

so basicly the plate that the nut is welded to is sandwiched between the chassis and the cross member...adding more material to the mount areas in the process...

[ChrisInVT]

AHHHH I understand what you're saying now.

That's probably not going to work too well for you, the x-member doesn't have enough clearance since we designed it to touch both frame rails.

I might be misunderstanding you again though.

[Baggey22]

Either that or I could just weld it right to the frame.

[Donahue]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baggey22

Either that or I could just weld it right to the frame.

that sounds like a great idea...

[wrekd]

Why didnt you just modify the stock crossmember? Thats what I did and havent had a problem with it yet. I think you could buy a weld in loop from Summit for like $35 that would work very well. Just cut your crossmember and weld the loop in

[wrekd]

Quote: Originally Posted by Baggey22

Either that or I could just weld it right to the frame.

Yeah, thats not a good idea at all.

[Donahue]

i just ran a straight crossmember out of 1.5"x3" tube behind and under the original location. i also cut the mounting bracket for the stock crossmember and welded it 180* onto the new one.

[Tim99Zr2]

Quote: Originally Posted by wrekd

Why didnt you just modify the stock crossmember? Thats what I did and havent had a problem with it yet. I think you could buy a weld in loop from Summit for like $35 that would work very well. Just cut your crossmember and weld the loop in

no, weld the loop on, then cut your cross member out. that way you know its still going to line up. at least thats how i did mine.

[Baggey22]

That was also a joke Donahue. I didn't like the whole customize the original cross member. This cross member wasn't hard to make or design, I just need to weld those nuts into the frame and it's done.

[ChrisInVT]

Donahue, we made his x-member *similar* to yours, but it mounts different. Couldn't really modify the stock one because we had to work with what we had there at the time, and we couldn't pull the x-member because he needed the truck mobile.

[Baggey22]

Yea, I live with three other people and they don't like having my truck in front of the garage overnight. So basically I needed to have the truck mobile by the end of the day. So we made the cross member, then I put it in the next afternoon.
It's stupid because as soon as I moved my s10 I put my Blazer in the SAME parking spot and everyone thanked me for not putting my s10 there. EVEN THOUGH they are the same size (width wise)

[ChrisInVT]

That's because your blazer is "prettier" than your S10

[Tim99Zr2]

now thats fvcking gay.

[Baggey22]

Yea it's a little stupid. But w/e it keeps them from nagging me all the time.

[wrekd]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tim99Zr2

no, weld the loop on, then cut your cross member out. that way you know its still going to line up. at least thats how i did mine.

How would you weld the loop in with the crossmember still in one piece??

All he would have to do is leave the crossmember bolted on, put a jack underneath the mount, measure the loop across and cut that much out of the crossmember, then just weld it in.

[Tim99Zr2]

Quote: Originally Posted by wrekd

How would you weld the loop in with the crossmember still in one piece??

All he would have to do is leave the crossmember bolted on, put a jack underneath the mount, measure the loop across and cut that much out of the crossmember, then just weld it in.

i did it? pulled the xmember out, welded it to the top, cut the center out, capped it, put it back in

[wrekd]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tim99Zr2

i did it? pulled the xmember out, welded it to the top, cut the center out, capped it, put it back in

You only did a half loop then. Im talking about a full loop.

[Tim99Zr2]

yea half loop.

[Baggey22]

UPDATE! finally. . . . so Chris came over last night and we got the ZR2 leafs under the truck. Complications (and time) made us leave the truck overnight with the D30 still on jack stands about 7 feet away from the truck. So I got up this morning and got the axle under, centered it, bolted it on, and plumbed the brakes. ALL BY MYSELF! It sucked. But it's done, the only thing that I need to do is set the pinion angle and weld the perches in place. When I did the pinion angle the first time we just made it so that the pinion was level with the ground. How should I do it this time?
Also as you'll see in this first picture I put the axle centered on the leaf spring pin, should I keep it there or move it forward?

I think it looks okay where it is, but I'm new at this.
I'll get more pictures later once I have the perches welded on. I just need some more info on pinion angles with a CV front drive shaft first.

[Baggey22]

Heres two pictures:

[DieselS10]

Baggey, if your asking about the pinion angle on the front axle, it doesn't matter. You want to set the Caster correctly then weld the perches on. caster is far more important on the front that the pinion angle.

[Baggey22]

Alright, how do I make sure the caster is correct?