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If you rely on the worthiness of an old truck, ya' can't abuse it and expect it to answer the call of duty without a little TLC. This time around T II proved it's mettle. I handed out seemingly uncaring abuse. I creased it's sheet metal, I slammed the Bud Built crossmember on solid rock, I even broke both Birfields. Limping and battered, the little gray truck rolled us safely back to camp. It wasn't long after pulling Tuffy into the garage, I placed my order online with Marlin Crawler for the parts necessary to, not only bring him back to former glory, but to increase his ability on the trail to nearly indestructible.
While working on the bodywork, backing the truck in and out of the garage, the steering didn't seem right.
The next day I wanted to install the Longfields.
I broke this side, and repaired it with help from Louis, on Jackhammer at the Jambo. It was a dirty and fast job, so I needed to do this anyway. Only this time I get to put some chromoly super axles in!
I spent a little more time tearing the locking hub assembly apart, cleaning and greasing, and re-assembling. Then I bolted on the locking hub asselmbly, put the tire and wheel back on and battened the hatches for another day. Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I don't think I'll get to the other side. I might play hooky from work Monday and finish the other side .
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After the beating I gave T II on the last run at the
There's nothing better after a rough day at work, than coming up to a
sight like this. New parts. Wrapped in bubble wrap is the new Marlin
Crawler dual transfer-case cross-member. The long box has
Oh
baby!
Getting these bad boys installed will allow me and Tuffy II to
explore new lines and I'll never have to replace another Birfield!
It was an easy swap unbolting the old bent Bud Built for the new
Marlin dual transfer-case crossmember.
I've started on the body work here. Fenders from Evil Rob's truck
after he swapped out to
Hey, old Tuffy isn't looking so bad here!
The passenger side was so banged up, the door wouldn't open.
A little hammering, pulling and heating, some Bondo and viola! Not
bad for a rock-crawler.
Look closely, that tab on the inside of the framerail broke
loose. The force of steering input causes the steering box to tilt
left to right.
Here you get a good view of the broken weld. I want to grind the old
weld off and re-weld the tab. In order to have good access to it, I
need to pull the radiator.
First I pulled the air box,
then the radiator. Now I can get in there and fix the problem. After
grinding and welding the tab back up, I found out the steering box
dented the frame at the mounting point.
There was enough room to fit two flat washers in as spacers. This
booty fab fix is temporary, till I get a new frame brace. 
I
figure one side at a time will keep the gear lube from spilling out.
I
started with the drivers side. 
During
disassembly, I decided to fnally notch the brake line bracket to
make this easier.
With
everything over at the parts cleaner, the first item in, the new 30
splines.
I
planned to do a knuckle rebuild, but instead decided to rob some
parts from the kit and just do the axles this time.
Ready
for the spindle.
The
spindle is in place. The second best thing to new parts, clean
parts.
With
the spindle in place, the next parts are the dustcover, gasket and
dust seal. A couple of bolts line up the whole assembly.
Here the assembly is bolted and torqued into place.
I
cleaned out the hub and greased the wheel bearing. I robbed the
inner seal from the knuckle rebuild kit and tapped it into place.
The
next step is to slide the hub assembly onto the spindle. The outer
bearing, retainer and locknut hold everything in place. I set the
bearing pre-load, installed the new star tab and torqued the lock
nut on. The brake caliper went on next, and I torqued it to specs.
It sure looks a lot better than when I started.