I picked the shafts up earlier this week. Anyone working on their halfshafts I would HIGHLY recommend getting them balanced. Even after the new tube was put on, the halfshaft had to be balanced because at least one of the flanges was not cast very well. So both my halfshafts have balance weights welded on them now. The driveshaft turned out to be balanced.
Unfortunately, once I got these home and repainted, I had some issues getting the u-joints on the flange yokes. The first one went on fine, but I had some issues with the second. It turned out that the flange yoke got slightly bent when I took the old u-joint out. Because of this, when I was pressing the new u-joint caps into the flange, they didn't go in very well. The flange ended up bending more, and the u-joint got wrecked. This meant another trip down to the drivetrain shop to have them take the u-joint out and replace the flange yoke. Luckily they had a couple of the flange yokes in stock, so it only took a day (few minutes of labor) to get the halfshaft fixed.
With my driveshaft and halfshafts ready to go, I was finally able to finish putting the differential back on. A while back my dad had helped me start the install and we quit because we realized the driveshaft probably has to be installed first. It turns out we were wrong. You can install the driveshaft after the differential is installed, but I put it in anyway. So here's the general procedure... Put my new transmission yoke into the transmission (some fluid came out), put my driveshaft up, and then finished screwing in the differential bolts on the cross member. I'd recommend putting the bolt and bushing for the front differential mount in before putting the driveshaft and differential up. Also, don't install the front bracket on the differential because it will make putting on the u-joint straps a huge pain. With all that up, I proceeded to put the new straps and bolts onto the transmission yoke and differential. For the differential, the easier way to get at the bolts was with a really long extension with a pivot on the socket. This allowed me to put the wrench in front of the cross member.
Now if you look at the pictures of the driveshaft and yoke, you'll notice that the yoke sticks out of the transmission a little over 1.5". The instructions from BTO says it should be 3/4", but searching forums it seems that this is the normal length people experience. A forum I found was actually the EXACT swap I did and it was very reassuring that this is fine.
Getting back to the trailing arms...
Well, I think I mentioned that I had messed up the outer metal shell on one of the trail arm's bushings. Last weekend I was able to get the trailing arms back together with the exception of the one's new bushing. It took some discussions with Vansteel after I got the wrong part, but they were supposed to be sending me the right part earlier this week. It hasn't shown up yet, so I wasn't able to get the one completed and reinstalled this weekend. Actually I installed neither of them...
Getting the new stainless steel parking brakes installed was a serious pain... It took a couple hours to get it right. After talking with Vansteel again, I found out why I had some issues. The activation lever is supposed to be installed on the rear bearings when they get pressed and VTech hadn't done that. In order to get the levers installed, I had to take them apart. The challenge was that there's no good pictures of the lever installed and I ended up putting the lever back together upside-down (one actually came upside down...) the first time. Then I accidentally put one in the shield reversed and didn't realize it until the brake shoes were installed. It did get done, but that's all I did on the car that day...
Now I'm just waiting for that metal shell and the new strut rods to finish up the rear suspension. VB&P actually got the HD smart struts in stock this week and they'll finally be at my door on Monday. It took a quite a bit longer than they had said when I ordered them... Anyway, this is my last week of school ever, weather is getting warmer, and my over time at work is done. That means more time for the car! My wife is thrilled.... No, seriously she wants it done.
