Those are some thick bars Rex. How much thicker are they than the Ford one?

 

1.5" x .250 wall I don't think strength is going to be an issue lol!

I also found time to pull my drive shaft and get a lesson in stupid a** GM engineering! I'll never understand why they would think using adhesive to hold a ujoint in place was a smart idea?? But luckily for me like most things have gone I read through a bunch of horror stories of people losing their mind trying to get them out and figured I'd be in the same boat then a bit of propane torch (which most say won't work) a hammer and a socket (also which most say won't work) and 10 minutes later it was out and layin on the bench. I ran out of time and had to leave to pick of the kid but I'll get it back together and installed tommorow.

 

I recall doing u-joints on my '94 K1500 several years back - the nylon injected retaining rings were a bitch! As a rookie at the time, I tried pressing them out without heat. Bent my ball joint press! Had to heat the press up and sledgehammer it back into a C again, and then had to rig up a threaded rod with 2 nuts & washers to bend the yoke back into place, after cutting the trunnion out. What a friggin horror show that was!!

Even with a 20 ton press, u-joints are my least favorite job ...

Lookin' great so far BTW - gonna have one hell of a rig there!

 

Yeah I figured if have to get some mapp but I was lucky and it didn't give me much trouble at all. The only other thing I did was to drill the adhesive out of the holes before I started heating in an effort to make it easier I get the rest out of there.

I got the shaft back together this am and in the truck and like I figured I will have to move my axle forward. I've only got about an 1 1/2" of spline into the trans which certainly isn't enough. I'll look around for an extended cab shaft for a few days and see of I can come up with one or just move the axle.

 

Got my winch mounted and wired today and got the front end put on. Sadly I'll have to take it all back off to build my fairlead mount but I wanted to see what the truck looked like so owell. I'm happy with it since I thought I was going to have to cut my factory bumper but with the BL the winch sits perfectly below the bumper and is up out of the way and well protected.

 

The winch looks good mounted under there, has a little of a stealth look to it.

 

Yep looks good, add the truck is a bit more level!

 

Thanks guys! Yeah I'm really happy with how it's turning out so far. I still can't believe that I managed to not have to cut my bumper to make the winch work in that location.

 

Got started on my fairlead mount today but kept getting interrupted so I didn't get finished yet. It will be removable to ease in R&R of the winch rather than welding it on. I've got all but two pieces cut and ready to weld so I should be able to get it finished up tomorrow. It's all 1/4" plate so it should be plenty sturdy. Here's the cardboard mock up




I also ran into an issue of my scrap not being quite wide enough so I made it wide enough lol! I beveled all the edges and welded it up and a few minutes with a sanding disk on the grinder and she's gooder than new!!


Side note: sanding all the powder coat off this steel sucks a** but I guess I shouldn't complain since it was free!

 

That's some nice welding there. Good job.