14 bolt 6 lug rear end rebuild/remodel

[Dneel81]

Just as the title says...

I don't want to wait for my 10 bolt to explode with the 37s so I picked up a 1994 6 lug 14 bolt on the cheap. I have a 79 Dana 44 for the front end but the rear end goes in first.
Opened her up and she looked great. Went ahead and replaced the bearings and seals. Shafts were clean as could be. Magnet had really granular fine material on it, no chunks. all gears and spiders look good. It has a G80 but I'm going to replace it when it blows up if I wheel it hard.

Then the fun began with the angle grinder and wire wheels/flap disks/profanity/beer/sniffing toxic fumes.

This is how she started. Pretty ugly and heavy and a dark shade of corrosion.

Lightened her up a bit and just might have burned up the motor on my cheeeap angle grinder.

Ground down to the bone finally.

Cleaned her up and etched her before putting on the 1st coat of Por15

and POR 15 x 2 coats. Ready to rock and roll.

I'll get the disk brake kit on tomorrow and all bolted up, brake lines run as soon as i learn how to flare them and bend them, and then I should be ready to go. I'll need a proportioning valve I'm aware. Still trying to find which one is best.

 

[Geoff]

Great Job! Por 15 is awesome except when it stays on your forearms for like a week.

 

[Donnie Yukonie]

Let me know how the disc brake kit works, Do you have a link for the one your using? when I rebuilt my SF that was the only thing I didn't do, Good start though!

If you haven't already decided go with the 4.88s. I have 4.56s and kinda wish I would have upstaged just one set higher

 

[Geoff]

• I run 4:56 on 35s and I kinda wish I went higher. I like to speed on the highway though.

 

[Rob Scariano]

Let me know how the disc brake kit works, Do you have a link for the one your using? when I rebuilt my SF that was the only thing I didn't do, Good start though!

If you haven't already decided go with the 4.88s. I have 4.56s and kinda wish I would have upstaged just one set higher

I have 4.88's with 37's and it is barely too low. With 35's it wouldn't do well for highway speeds IMO but having said that, I have a 2 door and it feels dangerous at 70 with the 9" overall lift.

 

[Dneel81]

Great Job! Por 15 is awesome except when it stays on your forearms for like a week.

Agreed. I was stupid and didn't wear gloves. It's fading but slowly

 

[Dneel81]

Let me know how the disc brake kit works, Do you have a link for the one your using? when I rebuilt my SF that was the only thing I didn't do, Good start though!

If you haven't already decided go with the 4.88s. I have 4.56s and kinda wish I would have upstaged just one set higher

I'm a little embarrassed to say I bought the tsm kit out of Colorado (tsmmfg.com) I have exhausted every outlet and could not find the eldorado calipers with the parking brake. Need that since I put the nv4500 in the 2 door. The kit makes it so any idiot (esp me) can put it together. Id tried the 99 up Silverado hardware too but I would have been forced to grind on the stud flange on the axle. I didn't want to narrow that radius anymore.
Either way I think it'll work out well.
I'll keep you posted if it fails and I die in a ball of chevy fire

 

[Dneel81]

Gears are an area I need to do a lot of research before I get in that business. It has the 3.73s now and it gets around fine. I say that not having experienced 4.56 or higher gears. I like cruising at 2000 rpm at 80 on the highway. 15 mpg ain't shabby either. I'm aware it's causing undue stress on the drivetrain. I'll have to switch the 79 Dana 44 up front too so might as well buy.them together.

 

[Dneel81]

Only complaint thus far from the TSM kit is their machining tolerances aren't great. I had to mill out the holes for the spacer and brake brackets to bolt to the axle flanges. Otherwise it's going together nicely.

 

[Rob Scariano]

Gears are an area I need to do a lot of research before I get in that business. It has the 3.73s now and it gets around fine. I say that not having experienced 4.56 or higher gears. I like cruising at 2000 rpm at 80 on the highway. 15 mpg ain't shabby either. I'm aware it's causing undue stress on the drivetrain. I'll have to switch the 79 Dana 44 up front too so might as well buy.them together.

With 37s, I'm running 2000 at 65. I was told by Randy's ring and pinion that it would be 1850. They calculated wrong. With 456s on 37s I would be just fine on the highway. That said, running 35s, I would go higher then 456 if you want good highway speeds. With all of that said, its really your transmission that will go out, especially in overdrive on the hwy. what you could do "as a band aid" and for temporary use is buy a superchips programmer and modify your shift speeds. Keep the thing out if overdrive until you get to a sufficient speed. The overdrive or 4th gear is the biggest problem.

Are you running a 4L60 or 4L80?

 

[Dneel81]

Nv4500. I can keep it out of 5th easy.

 

[Rob Scariano]

Nv4500. I can keep it out of 5th easy.

Ha. I missed that by a mile. I don't really know if the gear issue affects the manual transmission so much as it does the automatic. You would have to calculate the overall gear ratio in 5th to see what gear you could safely run but in terms of strain on the tranny, I don't know if it affects yours as much as the 4L60

 

[Dneel81]

The NV4500 is pretty beefy. I believe 5th gear is .73 (late model NV4500) I've slowly upgraded the running gear in the truck. It has a new CV driveshaft, the 14 bolt rear end is coming together, I'm prepping and painting a Dana 44 solid axle for the front. Once all that is in, I'll start rebuilding the LQ9 that's stirring in the other garage...that's the plan anyway.