The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Been a while

Well, it's been a number of months that I've been on the board. Just been super busy with everything. I was able to get some work done on my bus though this past couple of weeks. I finally got the old axle out of the rear so I can install the new one. I think it will be nice to go from the 6.17s to the 4.63s in the gears. Now I got a nice 1 1/2 ton dually axle almost all rebuilt drum to drum and need to do something with. And I had a big obstacle with my fuel tank being so rusty. So I made a new aluminum fuel tank for it. I did a lot of the cut out work and then have a guy doing the welding so it's done right. Slowly making some progress.

Looks like like a bunch of you guys are doing well with your projects too. Hope we all have a successful 2014 with lots of progress on our rigs.

Hey Fred,
That's great to hear..glad to see you have some progress. Also just waiting hear for warmer weather to move forward.

Hey Fred,

I was wondering how you were doing with your rear end conversion. Did you change out the entire rear, or just the gears and axels?

My fuel tank was really bad also, but I was able to salvage it. Finally got the bus on the road last summer. Still doing some "tweeking", but being able to drive it on the road if very rewarding. Hope you get there soon!

I'm changing out the whole rear end. I have a Dana 80 with disc brakes and the same bolt pattern as the original. It came out of a 2001 Chevy HD3500. It's got 4.63 gears.

I'll bet getting out on the road in your bus was awesome.

Whats the width of that rear end? I'm planning on the same swap for my fire truck as I also have 6.xx 2T rear which is 84" outside dually tire to tire, so axle should be around 70" wide I believe.

I plan on swapping in the newer front suspension also and pulling the current straight axle.

Nate

I'll have to measure the WMS to WMS. I don't know right off. I do know the spring pad alignment pins are off by 3/16" on either side. So I'll modify the hole to make them fit. I'm taking 6 of the 12 leaves out to soften the ride and lower it about 3 inches. I'm also going to leave the front axle in, take a few leaves out there too and do the disc brake conversion Grigg put in the tech section. That makes the most sense to me and seems pretty simple.

It was pretty awesome, Fred. Working on it (off and on) for nearly two years....going down the checklist, checking things off as I finished them....adding things too it as I found them...you know the story. Well, I finally got to the point where everything was checked off....and I couldn't really belive it.

It took a day of convincing myself that everything should be OK to take a test drive..."are you sure", I said to myself. So, I took it out (with a fire extinguisher). Couldn't have asked for a better result!

Of course, it will never be "done", but it's nice to drive while working on it.

Great conversion you are doing! I'll put it on my "list"! Good luck!