Author Topic: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton  (Read 4112 times)

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« on: April 11, 2020, 09:54:24 PM »
It’s not gonna be bolt on easy, but I have this stuff:

And this thing:


The calipers are from a former project, but they’re the right size. At a glance the knuckles will need material removed...
I’ve got A LOT of free time these days and you know what they say about idle hands...

Hopefully I can provide positive updates.




Jeremy

Offline Shifty

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2020, 10:45:52 AM »
You had my interest before, but now you have my ATTENTION!  8)
87 V20 Standard Cab Longbed (current)

87 R30 3+3 Longbed (days of yore)

98 C2500 ext cab longbed

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2020, 12:51:02 PM »
This aspect of the project has taken a bit of a backseat. I’ve had too many other things going on... decided not to dig in on this until I had some of the other stuff checked off.
Whelp... my primary electrics are to a good spot. The interior is mostly where it should be and I’m still waiting on engine parts.

So I started taking a closer look today. The knuckles and hub assembly are gonna have to come off. I’m going out on a limb and guessing the entire front end is from the factory. So the first thing was to make an order with rock auto. Basically I’ve got a brand new front end on the way. I’ll be replacing upper and lower control arms, ball joints and inner and outer tie rod ends. Doing all this will let me get the knuckle and hub assembly off the truck and on the bench where I can make a more definitive game plan.
I pulled off the factory caliper today and it doesn’t look like I’ll have to even come close to anything structural on the knuckle. Basically I’ll have to cut off the mounts for the factory caliper and fab a mount for the Wilwood calipers.
Easier said than done, as usual... but definitely not insurmountable.

I do have a question for those more versed than I. Anyone out there know for SURE what the knuckles are? Cast iron, steel? If steel any idea of the flavor?

Ideally I can do this without welding to the knuckles... metal HATES being welded and I’m worried about creating stress with the weld and HAZ.

Unfortunately I’m also out of picture uploads for this month, so you’ll all have to wait for visual updates.



Be safe and stay healthy!



Jeremy

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2020, 01:40:24 PM »
Finally!!! Paint on the elevator for my buddy is drying and I’m back to the suburban.

As I stated earlier, there’s a lot of meat on the factory steering knuckles. Plenty... I had to go a little bit deeper than I really wanted to, but I’m still confident that I’m well away from the structural webbing, etc.

Here’s the caliper bracket for the right side:


Hoping that having it “key” in will help my cause.

I started trimming away at the knuckles. This is just getting rid of factory caliper mounts:


And closer to final:


Mock-up:



I’m using a 1/4” ball valve to keep the brake pads compressed and square to the disc. It’s a trick a friend showed me that works great in these situations. Put air to the caliper and shut the valve... caliper becomes its own clamp.



I’m planning on brazing the brackets instead of welding to what is essentially “mystery metal” to me. It’s ferrous... but that’s about all I know...


Wish me luck...

Hope everyone is still safe and healthy out there.




Jeremy

Offline Shifty

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2020, 02:02:19 PM »
So cool.... 8)
87 V20 Standard Cab Longbed (current)

87 R30 3+3 Longbed (days of yore)

98 C2500 ext cab longbed

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2020, 03:02:34 PM »
One down...:




Now... one more just like it.



Jeremy

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #6 on: April 30, 2020, 04:58:41 PM »
Numero Two:


Aaaaannnnnnnnndddddd since I’m STILL waiting on cylinder heads... I’ll let you know (HOPEFULLY) how bitchin the new brake setup is in a month or so...


Stay safe, stay healthy.



Jeremy

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2020, 05:29:12 PM »
I got the afternoon at the shop to work on the suburban. As I mentioned earlier, I got new A-arms, upper and lower as well as inner and outer tie-rod ends. I didn’t get the whole front end back together, but the drivers side is done, minus grease...:


I took a shot in the dark on brake line length... close, but too long. Fortunately I’ve got a guy... I’ll stick these in a drawer for later and get some new ones made up.

I do a good bit of hydraulic work for my studio job. I had the 90 degree 1/8” NPT to -4 AN/JIC fittings as well as two -4 bulkhead fittings in my fittings cabinet... At this point I’m leaving the rear brakes alone, but I’m planning on redoing the entire front from master cylinder to caliper. I’m gonna fit the most egregious error GM made... on my truck at least... It’s nit-picky, but GM biased the “T” for the front brakes to the drivers side. When I run new hard lines to the master I plan on making sure the branches to each caliper from the “T” are equal length. Lastly I’ll be replacing all the double flared fittings with JIC... because that’s what I have. AN is sexy and all, but the weight savings of aluminum versus steel aren’t worth the cost increase.

Hope to get the passenger side together on Monday and then it looks like I’m gonna have to start finding new stuff to work on until all the engine pieces are in.

Also, going horse-riding with the missus tomorrow so please!!! keep me in your prayers. It makes her happy, but I FAR prefer my motorcycles when they don’t have their own brain...


Healthy and safe, hope that’s true for everyone out there and me at this time tomorrow. 



Jeremy

Offline JohnnyPopper

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #8 on: May 03, 2020, 06:50:34 PM »
Women and horses, something about it...

Truck looks good, thought you were going with aftermarket control arms when you mentioned it earlier.

I did the same with my '80, just cleaned them up with diluted molasses and sprayed them with a rust encapsulate.

Will be posting pics soon...
1957 Apache 3100 235 Inline 6, 3 on the tree
1973 C-20, 3+3 454 4BBL TH400  Water Injection
1978 K-10, 350 4BBL TH350 NP203 M.M. Part time Kit/Hubs
1980 C-10 under construction

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #9 on: May 03, 2020, 11:02:51 PM »
I’ll be at the shop tomorrow and take the “one of these things is not like the others...” I will give previous owner his due... It wasn’t lack of lubrication that led my decision to rework the front end. Quite the opposite... Every piece was CAKED in a heavy layer of squoze out, dried-up, gnarly old grease. And A-arms and tie rods from MOOG were ultimately cheaper than my time degreasing and then servicing the factory stuff. New arms, ball joints installed, etc... to the shop for under $500?!? Yes please. Totally necessary?!? Probably not... but cheap insurance given how far things were already apart.
I’m square between anticipation and trepidation with the brakes. As cheap as the control arms, bushings and joints were, factory replacement knuckles aren’t offered on rock auto. So IF all this doesn’t work I’m stuck replacing the modified parts... redoing hours of work AND fixing any resulting damage from any failure.

Anyhow, honest injun, those are replacement control arms in the photos. And tomorrow I’ll make WHY even clearer.




Jeremy

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #10 on: May 04, 2020, 12:46:51 PM »
Here’s the lower control arms that came with the truck:


Wait, WHAT!!?! Somethings seems to be missing from the drivers side...

Droop snubbers on the old upper arms were in good shape... no telling why or what happened to cause the drivers bump stop to fall off... or if previous owners removed it for some reason? I am very confused.




Jeremy

Offline JohnnyPopper

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #11 on: May 04, 2020, 02:15:31 PM »
Bizarre  :o
1957 Apache 3100 235 Inline 6, 3 on the tree
1973 C-20, 3+3 454 4BBL TH400  Water Injection
1978 K-10, 350 4BBL TH350 NP203 M.M. Part time Kit/Hubs
1980 C-10 under construction

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2020, 12:53:28 PM »
I finally got around to bending new brake lines up. I also committed a cardinal sin... likely in more than just my dads eyes...

“Jeremy! You don’t f*ck around with brakes!!!”

Yeah, well... I did. I pulled the master cylinder off and re-ported it. I don’t really care for double flared fittings. Especially not those of the metric flavor. I didn’t have the room to do what I really wanted to: rework the ports for O-Ring Boss fittings. The master cylinder didn’t have enough meat for the -4 ORB o-ring to seat properly. So I grabbed the master in my mill, indicated the two ports and bored them for 3/8” NPT. In industrial hydraulic applications tapered threads are total hackery, as they NEVER seem to allow the fitting to “clock” the way you need it to. But, tapered threads work great if you can clock them ONCE and PERMANENTLY... I think I did all right.

As there’s still lots of cable management stuff left the brake lines aren’t mounted yet, I’m hoping to reuse as many of the factory clamps and mounting points as I can. But I still have to run new fuel lines and wire for fuel sender and pump, so I’m not mounting anything hard yet.

Lines:
I ran a bulkhead fitting through the frame in the same spot GM ran theirs:

And then braided stainless to the calipers:

And now the most fun job EVER starts... brake bleeding!!! So much fun. I’m running synthetic DOT 4 brake fluid.




Jeremy

Offline Shifty

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #13 on: May 14, 2020, 09:52:59 AM »
Cool work Jeremy!
87 V20 Standard Cab Longbed (current)

87 R30 3+3 Longbed (days of yore)

98 C2500 ext cab longbed

Offline jeremy.farlow

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Re: Big Wilwoods on a 91 3/4 ton
« Reply #14 on: May 14, 2020, 11:12:42 AM »
Thank you as always.
that it’s all works as advertised. Doesn’t matter much how cool or well-executed if it doesn’t do the job...
So...

Really hate that
A) I’ve been SO un-scientific about this whole thing
And
B) That I can’t even test any of the individual systems.
The stay at home orders have given me plenty of time to dream up projects and time to work on them as well, but ideally I’d have approached this project in a bit more “metered” fashion...

Do brakes... test, verify, THEN move on.

Do primary electrical and battery relocate... test, verify, THEN move on.

Do trans control, lather, repeat

Gauges

Stand-alone engine management

I’m fully aware that I’ve made troubleshooting a daunting task. Here’s hoping I’ve had enough time to NOT miss things and everything functions as designed from go.


That’s typically not my luck though.



Jeremy