godzirra

you're not smoking any on start-up are you?

Basically we have 2 yokes, both 1310, one from an old chevy 1/2 ton and the other from a cherokee, pressed into a piece of DOM tubing with the same I.D. as the yoke pieces O.D. Then I went and had it MIG-P welded to fill any gaps between the two so it ain't moving. *yes I know the yokes are rotated exactly opposite, I took the front one off and turned it later*

Okay, long time no update due to classes and work, but I finally got the front driveshaft figured out (I will make a specific post about that with pictures) and I have only gotten to mildly test/have fun with it so far. However I have been daily driving the thing about 30min one-way for quite a while now and it handles well, no sports car but good enough for my taste. Anyway I am now sick of that loud ass ratcheting sound when ever I take it out of gear and cruise. It is doing it EVERY time no matter what now and needs to be seen to. So we narrowed it down to probably a throwout bearing issue, I am just wondering if this is a "pull-the-motor-and-transmission-then-go-have-the-tranny-rebuilt" issue, or if I can just take the T-case loose and slide the thing back... here is a pic of the rear hanger holding the leaf springs, right in front of the drop-out transmission mount member... I don't really see any way to get the tranny out of there without either lifting the cab or pulling the motor aswell...

After a couple hours of careful grinding I found out the Saginaw simply wasn't going to work with any degree of safety or stability. Sure I could have slapped it underthere with a VERY unbalanced CV "H" link, and virtually no centering ball, but I knew that was only likely to break something or hurt someone. So I set about researching "high angle Saginaw CV joints".....$849.00 for JUST a CV joint (actually the lowest I found was $595.00) or $879.00 for a custom built driveshaft. The answer isn't "no" but "HELL no." I also found the Tom Woods "Superfle" 1310, 1350, 1410 U-joints. They are supposed to allow up to 40 degrees of flexability with a single u-joint. (these are more popular for front DS applications as they will vibrate somewhat no matter how balanced). My internal debate is this: I really don't need any more than a 1310 u-joint to handle my little 100 horses, but for some reason all the driveshaft places keep teling me I should go with a 1350 or bigger... I know these are 'Merican parts, and this topic might be better suited for some place like pirate4x4, but I figured I would check here for anyone with some further experience.

also, just sayin, if I could go back and do it again with mine, I would spend the money and time to make it a 4-link suspension with coil-overs up front, if not in back too...leaf springs are strong and reliable, but not very forgiving.....just sayin.

mine is a dana 44 from an IH scout, passenger side differential, my t-case is in the center (yours should be too if it's stock, like mike said) it WILL work so long as you aren't expecting to drive highway speeds (50mph and up) in 4wd, that will cause your u-joints to not last very long. BUT if you plan on jacking it to jesus, plan on a CV-joint in that front driveshaft. other wise you are good. toyota axles are very popular to swap.

as for wheeling, no pitchers yet :( as soon as I have my front DS made/installed (it needs a CV still) you bet your sweet ass there will be plenty... but there was one instance that we had like 18" of rain in a day and the whole town flooded (half the town is basically in a giant ditch). I was coming down "the hill" when I saw a river where a road use to be, we are talking a 100ft wide, 1/4 mile long, 3ft deep, decently fast moving body of water. With about .02 seconds of hesitation (and no front driveshaft) I decided, balls in. I eased into the water (came almost to the top of the 37s) and once I found the road underneath I hit about 3,000 rpm and let it out into 1st. It ripped through it all pretty well, until I hit a shipping pallet and sank the back left tire in the underwater ditch next to the road. A little bumping/jumping and we were out though. I made it through just in time to get to the other side and tell a stock-height 2wd Ranger "good luck" Lakec423, you ARE going to have a compound angle with a 720 t-case no matter what because (to my knowledge) all 720 t-cases are "center drop" t-cases, meaning the flange for the front DS is centered. This is okay though, because unless you plan on driving the thing at 65mph in 4wd you won't wear out the U-joints too bad. Mine is a compound angle, and very steep. However with the application of a CV joint you can decrease the load on one specific U-joint. And really the only problem I had was the vertical angle (t-case is so much higher than the diff.) It is probably a 30degree angle which is pretty freakin huge for a SINGLE u-joint to handle. The horizontal angle you are asking about isn't going to be a really big issue since your t-case should be in the center. Now if you had a driver's side drop t-case, like from a Jeep or something, you would have to try a different approach.

As described in detail in the "*hiccup*" topic, the alternator/electrical trouble has been ended, it WAS the alternator, evidently 3 bad ones in a row is a "normal" experience. SO that means, onto the front driveshaft, FINALLY. Well I made one up real quick out of half of my old nissan shaft, and half of a Chevy 1/2 ton (using the transfer case end off the nissan shaft, and the axle end off the chevy). As some of you might have guessed, the truck turnes out to be too god damn tall for just a plain ol' U-joint to work. So I set about looking for a CV joint that had a nissan transfer case flange pattern...they do not exist. So I engineered a solution by creating a Datsun-to-Chevy adapter flange. This is basically a piece of 7/16" thich steel plate with a Chevy 3"x3" bolt pattern, welded to what use to be my pinion flange from the original rear end. The splines match up perfectly with the front of the transfer case and I figured what the hell, let's adapt the whole thing to run a Chevy high-angle driveshaft; parts will be cheaper, heck the whole thing will be cheaper. The thing is probably not balanced, it is eyeballed as far as the density of the welds, and I used an angle finder to check and double check that the "plate" was flush with the old flange, so it's all square, but more than likely not balanced.

It is indeed. personally I don't care if it's rattle-can baby-poop green, I would drive that bitch everywhere... if I had a spare $5500 and trailor big enough to drag it the 3 hour ride home.

http://lakecity.craigslist.org/cto/4274575161.html And then the Lord did smile down upon it and said, "let it be awesome."

I assume you lost JUST your low-beams? my entire electrical system went on the fritz because of a bad alternator. no radio, no high/low-beams, no dash lights. I'd start by breaking out the volt meter and checking continuity with the wires TO the low beams assuming the grounds are good. Also did you replace the whole lamp or just bulb? I know some of the early '80 720s have low-beams that are just very big square bulbs by themselves, where the bulb IS the fixture. Also have you gone through any deep water big puddles or heavy rain? I had tail light after tail light go out just from a rusted out bulb socket and rusted wire connections all from driving through water....however, that water was about 4 ft deep.... It IS possible though unlikely that a switch has gone bad. But just to be sure I would hunt down a wiring diagram for driving lights and check. I sadly do not have such a diagram, but I am sure someone on her will.

Well, I guess the lesson of this thread should be: don't trust remanufactured alternators. I just got my hands on one from Advance (O'Rielly's refunded the p.o.s. the sold me), put it in, hooked it up and behold, no charging light anymore! This one was a little more expensive and took a few days to get here but it did the trick. Voltage reading is well within tolerance from the alternator, the battery is receiving charge, lights and radio function properly, and the cab voltmeter is also reading normal (about 15-16, it wobbles). I appreciate all the input and advice, without it I would have assumed that multiple faulty alternators in a row was just statistically impossible and tore the truck apart chasing a non-existent wire fault.

too god damn true. I am wishing I kept the old one and had it rebuilt. I am not past the point of going full out mad scientist and robbing an alternator off a retired police Crown Vic interceptor and making that 200amp monster fit. Them bitches are bullet proof.

as ratty as it may look nothing seems to be wrong with it, I am getting continuity on everything and there are only 4 places any of those wires are going: the battery, the starter, the alternator, and the wiring harness. I did unplug the alt. except for the ground and started the truck, charging light went out. I checked with the Hayne's book specifically for 1980-85 720s and it said that if you remove the leads to the "L" and "B" terminals on the alternator and check for voltage you should get NO MORE than 0.5V max. If less then the voltage regulator is functioning properly and the alternator is good. If more than 0.5V the regulator is toast and the alternator needs to be replaced. Mine read a whopping 1.8V max on the vertical "L" prong and a 1.6V on the horizontal "L" prong (it's one of those "T" shaped connectors). Either one is past tolerances according to the book. Would this be causing the charging light to stay on? Or the battery to drain?

Yeah it's definitely not the connector you're referring to wayno, I had someone look while I adjusted it and no change. But I did finally get the new alternator from O'Reilly's (after two trips, and evidently a ghost alternator floating somewhere around their store) had it tested by Advance, all good. During installation I disconnected the battery first, and went about bolting on the alternator. When I was plugging in wires (I have done this 3 times now), evidently something hit that shouldn't have (possibly the battery terminal bumped back against the post and connected the battery) and there was this spectacular crackling arc from my pliers to the bottom bolt of the alternator. I fired t up, and sure enough when you disconnect the battery the truck STILL dies. I am thinking this arc toasted an internal relay, or solder joint, or resistor? But I took it back to Advance and it gave the same reading as the FIRST one I got from O'Reilly's. So I am thinking of taking it to the Alternator/Radiator/Starter rebuilders a couple towns over. I am done messing with the circus that is the O'Reilly's store. Would this arc actually toast the alternator? It never actually jumped to any terminal, it just hit the outside shell near one of the bolting points. I didn't think these things were that delicate.