Last updated March 27, 2006
My truck is sitting down at
the shop waiting to have the old axles ripped off and the new ones put
under it. I will take pics of the progress and post them on here.
Here are the new axles
Here are the new Michelin XL's. The little tire in the pic is one of my old 31" tires
The work is now progressing quite nicely on the truck.
Here is the truck waiting for surgery to start.
It is now in the shop and the wheels are off.
The new axles are waiting for their final resting place under my truck.
The front axle is now off and the new suspension is on. I think longer shackles are in order when I get it back on the road.
The rear axle is off and the rear suspension is half on.
One of the guys performing the surgery measuring up for the spring mounts that they are fabricating.
Now that the axles have been measured and new spring mounts made.
Test fitting the front axle
Test fitting the rear axle
Now that most of the test fitting is done, I hauled the tires down to the shop so we could see what it is going to look like. It's hard to tell from the pic, but the truck is not sitting on the hoist.
All that needs to be done now to drive it home is to hook up the shocks, install brake lines and a drive shaft.
I still have lots of work to be done once I get it home. I will be installing traction bars somewhat along the lines of
Then I will be installing a new front bumper, and a transfer case. With any luck I will be ready to go do some wheeling by next summer!!
Somewhere down the road it will also be getting a paint job :-)
After seeing it sitting in the shop, I decided to name it "Swamp Thing". After all, any truck this big should be named, and the size, and ugliness of the truck just call out "Swap thing".
It's been a little while since a last updated this page. "Swamp Thing" is now out of the shop and sits at the top of my driveway. The work is still far from done (is it ever done?), but the shop stuff is all finished. It took quite a wile to work out all the bugs and get it working perfectly, but now it drives great. The biggest problem were the brakes on the mog axles. The wheel cylinders on the mog axles are huge (1 5/16" diameter), so naturally the stock dodge master cylinder would not cut it. I took a trip out the 99 truck parts and pick myself up a vacuum assist brake booster from a 5 tonne truck. We bolted it up the the frame of the truck and ran the brake lines down to it from the stock m/c and also ran a vacuum line to it. From there the brake lines went to the wheels and voila I now have brakes that work very well.
This was taken a while ago. The axles had just been installed. It had no drive shaft or brakes yet, but you can see what it looks like and how big "Swamp Thing" is.
Well. I have now had the opportunity to drive "Swamp Thing" for about a week and I am really liking it. The on road handling is great, and feels quite stable considering the 8' height. Unfortunately the windshield wipers have now quit working. Just when you think it is all working just dandy, something else breaks. It turns out it was nothing too serious. the retainer bushing(little plastic thing) on the crank arm rotted out finally after the years, and the crank rod popped off the gear box for the wipers. It turns out that K-cars (and probably many other mopars) use the exact same bushings. These annoying little things come molded into the arms and can't be bought separately, which I found out after going to several parts stores, and talking to several people. I have managed to get two off of a K-car that is sitting at the shop (parts car), and with any luck I will be putting it all back together as soon as the rain stops.
It never fails to amaze me how car companies stinge on the little things to save a penny.
Here are the new axles
Here are the new Michelin XL's. The little tire in the pic is one of my old 31" tires
The work is now progressing quite nicely on the truck.
Here is the truck waiting for surgery to start.
It is now in the shop and the wheels are off.
The new axles are waiting for their final resting place under my truck.
The front axle is now off and the new suspension is on. I think longer shackles are in order when I get it back on the road.
The rear axle is off and the rear suspension is half on.
One of the guys performing the surgery measuring up for the spring mounts that they are fabricating.
Now that the axles have been measured and new spring mounts made.
Test fitting the front axle
Test fitting the rear axle
Now that most of the test fitting is done, I hauled the tires down to the shop so we could see what it is going to look like. It's hard to tell from the pic, but the truck is not sitting on the hoist.
All that needs to be done now to drive it home is to hook up the shocks, install brake lines and a drive shaft.
I still have lots of work to be done once I get it home. I will be installing traction bars somewhat along the lines of
Then I will be installing a new front bumper, and a transfer case. With any luck I will be ready to go do some wheeling by next summer!!
Somewhere down the road it will also be getting a paint job :-)
After seeing it sitting in the shop, I decided to name it "Swamp Thing". After all, any truck this big should be named, and the size, and ugliness of the truck just call out "Swap thing".
It's been a little while since a last updated this page. "Swamp Thing" is now out of the shop and sits at the top of my driveway. The work is still far from done (is it ever done?), but the shop stuff is all finished. It took quite a wile to work out all the bugs and get it working perfectly, but now it drives great. The biggest problem were the brakes on the mog axles. The wheel cylinders on the mog axles are huge (1 5/16" diameter), so naturally the stock dodge master cylinder would not cut it. I took a trip out the 99 truck parts and pick myself up a vacuum assist brake booster from a 5 tonne truck. We bolted it up the the frame of the truck and ran the brake lines down to it from the stock m/c and also ran a vacuum line to it. From there the brake lines went to the wheels and voila I now have brakes that work very well.
This was taken a while ago. The axles had just been installed. It had no drive shaft or brakes yet, but you can see what it looks like and how big "Swamp Thing" is.
Well. I have now had the opportunity to drive "Swamp Thing" for about a week and I am really liking it. The on road handling is great, and feels quite stable considering the 8' height. Unfortunately the windshield wipers have now quit working. Just when you think it is all working just dandy, something else breaks. It turns out it was nothing too serious. the retainer bushing(little plastic thing) on the crank arm rotted out finally after the years, and the crank rod popped off the gear box for the wipers. It turns out that K-cars (and probably many other mopars) use the exact same bushings. These annoying little things come molded into the arms and can't be bought separately, which I found out after going to several parts stores, and talking to several people. I have managed to get two off of a K-car that is sitting at the shop (parts car), and with any luck I will be putting it all back together as soon as the rain stops.
It never fails to amaze me how car companies stinge on the little things to save a penny.
April 6/03
I started the battle on rust today. I think I
am fighting a very steep uphill battle. Here are the pics so far.
May 15, 2004
Well, I have finally done more work on the truck worth updating this site.
I have finished grinding and painting most of one side of the box. I like the results, but am considering just getting the hole thing sand blasted. Grinding that much is very tedious.
I have also been rebuilding the NP-205 t-case that will be getting put under the truck.
| Just taken it apart | All the insides have been cleaned |
 |
 |
May 16, 2004
Almost back together. I just have to pick up a couple parts for the speedometer hookup.
May 24, 2004
I am now preparing for a fixit day where my club will be helping me do some work to the truck. I have measured up the wood that supprts the box of the truck and will get new cut, and I also cut off the u-bolts that hold the bed on. It's almost ready to come off.
I have also removed the tailgate and done a little more grinding and painting.
I have been running around all week getting the last pieces I need to finish putting the t-case together. I now have everything to hook up an electronic speedo to it, so I can have an accurate speedo with my low gearing.
November 9/04
It's been a while since I put anything up here. I have been working on the truck, but no where near as much as I would like to have been. I had hoped to be driving it by now, but instead it is in more pieces than last time I updated.
The transfer case is now in and is ready to have drive shafts made up.
I decided that it was time to take off the bed of the truck and replace the supports for it.
And also do a shackle flip on the back
After.
I have also put on the new front bumper, headlights, and replaced the radiator, upgrading to a 4 core from a 2 core.
March 27, 2006
I have now cut out the floor of the box and have the new checker plate ready to go back in for the new floor.
The truck has no got a nice new paint job.
The truck has been pretty much just sitting since I painted it. After a lot of thought, I have decided to put this project on hold and start looking for another Dodge to use as a platform. The current one is just going to be way too much work to get going and be safe with the extensive rust on the frame.
Stay tuned.
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