JamesT_SS

15". Exact same dimesions as the original 1 piece rotors. And yes I paid 859 for everything not including shipping and tax.

I have easily the best news since rudy made this possible. Baer finally makes a 2 piece rotor to fit this setup. There is bad news...they only have a set for the front. They don't make a 14" 2-piece rotor for the rear (not yet). I ordered these things on a whim after checking out the engineering specs. I honestly had no guarantee, but after i got them on, they cleared perfectly. Some things to note: The pad tension clips will rub if not worked a little. Dont fret if they sit on the rotor though. You need to set the rotor on the hub, grab 2 lug nuts and the 2 washers off the caliper bolts and tighten them slowly back and forth until the rotor seats (don't forget to put the washers back)....or just wire brush any rust off. Then once you torque the wheels on they will seat 100% and the clips will just have enough clearance. 100 ft lbs of torque on the wheels!!!! No more. These are aluminum hats. They are significantly lighter. I dont have a scale but id say close to half the weight. If you have ever put 2 piece rotors on anything you know the difference they make in both cooling and weight loss at the hubs. They can be ordered in slotted, drilled, or both. They are pricey. $895 a pair. Yup. Thats nothing, my 370z's were about 1200 a pair and only 14". This is a bargain. I unfortunately havent gotten to test drive them due to transmission issues but im sure it will be noticeable. Here are the part numbers: Rotor hats - 6140084 (need 2) Friction disc - 6910309 (note these are directional, also i ordered slotted only) Friction disc - 6920309 (note these are directional, also i ordered slotted only) Hat bolts - 6060061 (need 24) Hat lock nuts - 6160010 (need 24) They will come pre-assembled if you order everything. I dont think there is a part number for the entire disc assembly. If you tell them the part numbers for the original 2 front discs in this post then they should be able to get you the 2 piece version. I recommend talking to mark fowler. You have to specify z06 monoblocks on a silverado, but he should understand. His contact is : 602-233-1411 ext:7012 [email protected] Enjoy!

Update: I just got back in town and pulled the mold apart. Looks pretty good except for a few small spots where the gelcoat came off with the part. Probably air bubbles. It happens. I will have to touch up these spots with gelcoat. Unfortunately because I'm leaving again for the holidays, this won't be getting done until after new years. Obviously that goes for everything else as well. Trust me I'm getting about tired of driving around without bumper scoops. the greenish stuff is the clay that i used to fill the gaps, and the grey is where the mold pulled paint off the part. I still need to clean the mold up. ssfast: As stated earlier in the post I won't be doing carbon fiber bowties. Someone else already does those. I can't tell you who, just that I'm not going to try and take his business away.

I can't make what I don't have, so unless you are going to let me borrow your supercharger, you are S-O-L. Also, an update I'm out of town for a little while, but the radiator cover mold is sitting on my work bench ready to be separated. Left so fast I didn't even have time to crack it open. Sorry guys, it's just one delay after another.

At this point its hard to say the cost. I have made a very intricate and detailed excel spreadsheet that computes the exact cost of materials, so as soon as i pump out the first one and am happy with it i will put out the price. I did not get lucky the other night though. Two more times redoing the top coat before i was 100% happy with it. Currently it is here: Basically have the piece completely finished and buffed smooth. It looks matte because I was having trouble with my high gloss top coat, and ended up using the grey instead. Already attached the barriers and am in the process of packing the gaps with plastaline clay. After that tomorrow i can wax it up and cast the mold. If the temperature is as good tomorrow as it was today then i may be able to knock out the first piece tomorrow afternoon.

So first off the best news. My truck is back together. Well minus the brake ducts, since i'm using them to make the carbon fiber versions. Next, I'm almost done with the radiator cover. I've been working the last couple days getting it ready for mold making. Here it is being smoothed out. Getting rid of the texture is priority or it'll print into the epoxy. Also I'm making it completely flat since there won't be any labels. Plus its less for the carbon fiber to conform to. And here is the primer top coat with all the imperfections sanded out. It's sitting in the booth with the high gloss top coat curing now, so with luck by tomorrow i'll be able to make the mold. Also in the picture you can see the brake ducts (the left is pre-finished, the right is ready for mold). Those are so complex I am taking my absolute time on them. The molds will have to be 3 or 4 piece just so i can release the parts from them. Now i can see why no one has ever made them in carbon fiber before. I'd definitely like to get them done sooner than later though so i can stop driving around without brake ducts. Not that it makes a huge difference since i have an 03 grille with an 06 truck (bumper and grille have different pattern).

Well guys, I have to apologize, I haven't been on in a while. I just got back recently from a place that had no internet (hard to believe right) and spent my entire time building a bathroom in a basement so I had zero time to build anything else. Well they say that when it rains it pours...pun intended since we just had a hurricane blow through. Aside from having to deal with my dog attempting suicide out the back of my truck at 40mph (and the subsequent surgeries), my computer crapping out on me conveniently while I'm in the middle of tuning my truck, and well actually working, this happened in WV last week. 70mph + Deer on highway = Decapitation. If anyone has followed any of my posts, then you'll know why this frustrates me so much. I just got done with a complete rebuild of this truck, mainly that front right corner. So yeah, I'll be a little tied up fixing that. Because I no longer have Brake Ducts I have to put the intake on hold, but it just means I'm readjusting a little. Since I'm going to be repairing my front end I decided I might as well knock out some of the parts people have been asking for. Big priorities right now are building the Brake Ducts, since mine did survive enough to be reproduced, as well as doing the radiator cover. I'm also toying with finally trying to make my grill. I have an 06 SS with an 04 hood, so i'm going to try and make an 06 style grill that will fit. That one may be more difficult than I'm willing to mass produce so don't hold your breath. Again I ask for patience as this is not a quick process. I will hopefully have something to show you soon.

Thought I'd give you guys an update. Halfway through building the foam mold for the first intake pipe and my foam cutter crapped out. Waiting on a replacement which should be coming in a couple days. Also I am trying out a new carbon fiber distributor. One that actually weaves the carbon fiber themselves, which means less middlemen and cheaper prices. I receive my initial batch today to try out. I am pretty excited. Also a new epoxy, which is reported to have excellent UV resistance. Still trying to find a better fiberglass distributor, but that is taking time. In the meantime I have been rearranging my shop, getting more equipment in, and ordering more supplies. Now for the bad news. I am leaving in a week to travel to see family for about a month. I will be taking all of my equipment with me though and using my fathers shop, so I will keep working on the plugs and molds. All this means is that you will have to be a little patient and bear with me. An update on my first piece. I'm completely remaking the brake duct intake from scratch. The original had problems. Between the ruining of my fender liner because of the way it pushed it out to the horrible 2 piece design, I was not a fan. I'm redesigning it to route a little more economically so it doesn't interfere with the liner as well as making it one piece. This will cut down on weight and make it a little more ergonomic. Also I'm probably going to incorporate a mounting tab so it bolts to the RH bumper mount, instead of just hanging off the clamp and sitting on the duct. Obviously I'm going to make it economical so it doesn't push more than the $100-$115 that the plastic piece costs (for the fiberglass version). I will post pictures of the plug when i'm finished. Another interesting thing I found. Running the ram air to the lower grille is impossible due to clearance, but i can easily run one to the center grille. It will have a 180 degree bend though, which i'm not especially a fan of, but it will be a vertical inlet on the far right side behind the grille. I want to build and test this before i offer it. With both pieces, once completed, i will actually hook them up to my truck and using my HPTuner I can actually see what the improvements to MAF, MAP, and Air Temp would be at specific speeds/throttle and compare them to my data without. It'll be interesting to see. I will also be working out a prototype test program as well which i will only offer to members of this site. More on that later. I also am not seeing much in the way of things people want. Not enough to merit building molds. The reason vendors do group buys is the reason I explained earlier. Initial production and development of items is not free. Group buys help ease the fear of losing money over producing custom products that no one wants and to cover the development cost. I'm not asking for money up front or that people buy before products are built, only that i have adequate interest in specific parts. Everything I build will be well documented and tested before I ever offer sale. The intakes are something i'm building for myself, which is why i'm doing them first. Also, SS emblems are not a huge priority for me until i get a few other items out, sorry...but I do have a couple ideas for how to make them, i just can't make any promises. Most importantly I ask for your patience. This will all take a little time. I intentionally started this post early so i could feel out the market before I get into production. I look forward to presenting the first prototype. Stick around. Edit: Just got my carbon supplies in. While I unfortunately didn't get everything in, I did at least get some of the samples. So to give you guys an idea of some of what I'll be able to do: I have the standard 2x2 Twill 3K carbon fiber. Top Left: Carbon Fiber and Red Fiberglass Top Right: Carbon Fiber and Blue Fiberglass Bottom: Carbon Fiber and Aramid Fiber (Kevlar) There are more as well, to include silver/carbon fiber. I will post them when I get them.

I have the Z06 brake setup on mine and even with good pads i had noticeable brake fade. After I lost my ram air adapter i have had a lot less instances of brake fade, more specifically uneven braking. I live in NC, so it's typically around 100 degrees during the summer so I'm constantly fighting heat with all of my vehicles. I do tow a lot so good braking has been a big thing for me, hence why i did the Z06 retrofit. Best mod for these trucks in my opinion (factory brakes are utter crap). Ideally I'd like to get the intake up off the ground a bit, just to avoid sudden surprise water injection. With the badges, that's definitely an idea. Anyone try to buy these before? About 100$ a piece. I painstakingly removed and reapplied adhesive to mine when i repainted my truck, hence why there are no badges in my after pictures. I just put them on a couple days ago. I'd have to play around with making these though, because they are so small. Unless you specifically wanted the CF look, it would be more economical to make these out of plastic, or maybe a urethane. CF and FRP takes time to prep and overnight to cure so trying to make these in any quantity would be a massive pain and probably not worth it. As for the guy doing the CF bowties, I thought he still does them, so if that's the case I'll leave that up to him. I'd rather not take away his business. I'm not looking to compete with anyone, just provide where I can.

Wondering if anyone on this site would be interested in FRP (fiberglass) or Carbon Fiber parts. I have been working with composites while building my car, and realized since I have the time I could easily produce stuff for the SSS. I am not a business or a vendor, I just do this as a hobby for personal reasons, but i have very high standards so I would not sell something unless it was near perfect. With that being said there are some conditions that have to be met: There must be sufficient interest in specific parts before I build a mold. Mold materials are not cheap and can be very time consuming to build, therefore i would need enough interest that i could expect a return for the cost. Basic economics, sorry. Complexity. Some things are incredibly simple, some are impossible. I can't make everything, I don't build Koenigseggs for a living. Reproduction vs Custom. Reproduction is simple, but I'm still trying to work out the legalities of selling such things. If anyone has any actual input on this please let me know. Also I have to have the part. I have an 06 SSS so if its anything else I'd need a donor part. Custom can be done but it's very time consuming since I'd have to build the plug first possibly from scratch. Material choices. There are a few different methods/materials. Everything will be vacuum bagged if possible for strength and quality. If you don't know, this results in less excess resin resulting in lighter parts with a much stronger construction. Ever seen those shoddy carbon fiber plates you order online that are super brittle, have super thick resin coats, and are backed with fiberglass? Yeah I'm not doing that. This is what I'll do: Fiberglass & Resin with Gel coat Carbon Fiber & Epoxy Resin either polished or clear coated I don't have the means to bake yet, but if i can make enough money I'll purchase an oven so i can do Pre-preg Carbon fiber parts (aka dry carbon). This is the lightest and strongest method of Carbon Fiber production available. I have a set of intake ducts on my CBR 1000RR made of this. Seriously weighs like a sheet of paper. Also if you want something painted, I can do that for extra. I'd only need your color code. Just be aware I can't color match your paint, only paint what it looked like from the factory minus years of uv damage. I do a standard base coat / clear coat that you'd get from any paint shop. If you want to see my paint job, look at my truck. I completely repainted it Victory Red. I realize not many people are interested in the weight savings when we have 5000+ lb trucks, but I can think of a few places I'd like to improve on my truck with this stuff. Basically what I'd like to hear from you all is what you'd be interested in if I were to start doing this. Some examples I can think of off the top of my head: SS Cladding - I'd do this in fiberglass, just because lets be honest, it'd probably look stupid with carbon fiber cladding. This stuff is expensive and impossible to find from the factory. Something to understand though, if you have ever pulled your cladding off you'd see the wear that the factory plastic cladding does to your paint. Fiberglass would be worse. I'm trying to think of a solution for this. Intake Piping - I'm currently working on a ram air for the volant airbox. Trying to build one redirected to the center lower grill instead of the brake duct so as to maintain airflow to the passenger brake disc. Haven't quite worked out how to run it in front of the radiator yet. I could probably build one for the actual intake pipe, because carbon fiber has a much lower heat conductivity than say aluminum and possibly plastic, but i'd want to test it to make sure the epoxy would resist fade/degradation before i put my name on something like that. As for pricing, I will make it as economical as possible, but it is almost entirely dependent on the materials used and such. If I make a mold I can use it for pretty much any materials. Plus of course I would need to make some money to cover overheads, like obviously the labor, or equipment replacement and such. Let me know what you guys think, or want, and we'll go from there.

Funny story, that's what i thought as well. Check yours though. Because the 05 was offered in both trims, the 05 RWD may actually have the mounts. I would assume not though since there are 06 4WD 1500's. Did the 05 RWD come with an 8.6 or 9.5 rear end?

I also have one last thing to add. It isn't necessary but now that you have all these new drivetrain parts you may want to consider protecting them. GM will tell you otherwise, but you can install the factory Front IFS and Transfer case shields on a RWD Frame. Remember those holes in the transmission brace? Yeah. You'll need GM Part #23423831. This will consist of both shields, #15259217 and #20922755 and i believe 4 of the 8 bolts needed (2 in the front shield, 2 loose). You'll need to order 4 more bolts #11518341. Its incredibly simple to install these. You'll simply use a 10mm x 1.50 tap to add threads to the following holes: Front Frame Engine Brace Transmission Brace Use the bolts and install. Use an anti sieze agent here since you just cut threads, Otherwise they will rust. Transfer Case Shield Sorry, i don't have any pictures of the front shield at the moment. I painted the front one black though to match the Transfer Case Shield.

Break In Period: This is important. You have a lot of new bearings and drivetrain parts. You need to properly break them in. Keep it under 55mph (-ish) with no sudden acceleration or manuevers for 500 miles. Once you hit 500 miles change out your fluids. (Front axle, Transfer Case, and Rear axle if you were in there. Transmission is not necessary since you didn't change any parts that need a break in) You will see the metal shavings from the break in. I know, such a waste of brand new fluid. You can skimp a little by using conventional oils in the axles and dexron vi in the transfer case, but make sure to put the good stuff in before you start stressing it. Don't forget the alignment. Go ahead and check your torque specs again too. Once you do that, go to town. Try to do some burnouts. Try and get stuck. I haven't yet.

The Little Things: (Pre drive prep) Before you go crazy with your truck you still have some things to sort. You can do this while you wait for your driveshaft. Fill all the fluids. Chances are you drained every fluid in your truck. Here are the specs again. Engine Oil: 6 qts 5w30 (I realize this is an easy one) Transmission: 11.2 quarts Dexron VI (this is full tear down fill. Add 10, start, let warm up, fill to capacity) Front IFS: 1.5 qts 75w90 or 75w140 (extreme duty) – Use a synthetic Transfer Case: 2.22 qts AutoTrac II or Dexron VI 9.5” Rear Axle: This one is a little relative. Factory cover: fill to fill hole (2 qts I believe). 75w90/75w140 synthetic is recommended TA Girdle: 3 quarts (DON’T fill to fill plug) Detroit Tru-Trac: Conventional oil only, no additives Coolant: 16.7 qts Dex Cool GM Freon: Check specs, its dependent on temp and humidity. Bleed your coolant Bleed your brakes if you were disconnecting any lines Check torque on everything just to be safe Tune your PCM Don’t worry you aren’t doing a full tune here, but you just changed your gear ratio. You need to adjust this in your PCM before you drive it or it’ll throw off your transmission…and speedometer. Thats not good for the trans. I hear zippy is good, or take your pcm to a local shop, whatever. If you are feeling really brave do it yourself with a tuning software like HP Tuner. I’m a big fan. That’s it though. No other tuning necessary. Everything is mechanical here. Your Traction Control is still there, but you likely will never see it engage, so there is no issue there. With that said though, now that you have a VLSD in your center, your traction control will inhibit this from operating correctly. Google this if you want to know more, its actually pretty interesting, but in a nutshell a VLSD uses a viscous fluid like silicon and when a sudden change in rotation of one side occurs it gradually “locks” the two sides together with fluid dynamics. If your pcm interrupts this it won’t operate efficiently. It needs a loss of traction to apply. If you are stuck or losing traction a lot, turn your TC off so your new Full Time AWD can function properly. I have yet to lose traction, even in snow or mud (with dedicated snow/mud tires though)

Driveshaft: Alright, almost done. At this point you need to assemble your truck to the point that all you need to do is put on your driveshaft. Drop it on the ground (with the wheels on of course) so it sits proper. If you didn’t do it earlier, zero out your suspension. It needs to be level. You are going to be measuring for either your custom driveshaft or modification to the old driveshaft. Choose your own adventure. But first we have to address something else. Your rear axle. If you swapped your front gear, then you are pretty much good. At this point either get a custom shaft with a slip joint front, and a “ insert your universal joint here “ on the rear. You may have one of a couple. Measure it and check. Don’t trust what you find online. The AWD and RWD use different yokes and joints. The 9.5” should have a 1350 though. If you are lucky the 8.6 has a 1350 as well…but don’t count on it. Check out HERE for measurements. If you didn’t swap your front gear or want to change both gears, you need to get in your rear axle first. I completely rebuilt my rear axle just because, so I took the liberty of putting in a 4.10 gear and pinion, new bearings, a Detroit tru-trac, new axle seals, a girdle, and just because I want extra piece of mind, upgraded to a 1415 yoke. FYI, just because this is an AAM piece doesn’t mean its popular. I found the yoke straps in a weird tucked away shop. No mainstream local shop had it and I couldn’t find them online. I know, why did I even do this…This is why Here is my rear end now. If you’ve never done backlash and preload, this one is difficult. Get a torque multiplier for the pinion nut. If you are all done with your rear axle and happy, then let’s get those driveshaft measurements. Again it has to be sitting on its wheels and level with the suspension set to where you want it. Jounce your suspension a few times (jump up and down in the bed or something). Grab a tape measure and measure from these two points The end of the transfer case. This is BEHIND the output shaft seal. You can hook your tape measure on the seal. To the strap surface of the yoke. 72 and 1/8” for me. Measure it a few times just to be sure. Don’t take my measurements as rule. Do your own. Minor changes in your suspension geometry can change this measurement….like a lift or drop. The shop will likely need some other measurements as well. Here they are: Length of Transmission Output Shaft: 1” Boot Seal on Transmission: 1” Pinion Yoke type and measurements: check yours For me about a week later I received my custom 5” aluminum 72.125” Driveshaft. Very nice. And a perfect fit. While you are waiting for your driveshaft, take this time to finish up the little things.

Intermediate Shaft: Pretty standard. Just bolt to Front IFS and Transfer case. Check your wiring for clearance. Use heavy duty zip ties if you aren’t comfortable with how little clearance there is. You may want to change out your Universal Joints at this time. Saginaw 3R’s. Just beware, removing the old ones is a huge pain. Get a torch and a press. They explode apart. They are held on with injected nylon that you have to melt out. Way to go chevy…real smart. Also if you are so inclined you can paint your shaft to make it look nice. Doesn’t hurt. The Transfer case side uses a boot that has dog ear clamps to hold it on. You’ll need new ones and pliers to clamp them down. DO NOT get the cheap pliers from your local parts store. I broke two sets before I special ordered a heavy duty set. If it has 3/8” drive holes in the handles for ratchets to be used for extra leverage then they are sufficient.

Reassemble Front Suspension: This is obviously common sense but there are a couple steps to be taken here. If you were smart you stripped your front end for welding clearance, so now you have to completely rebuild your front end. Fun times let me tell you. Now would be a great time to make some improvements. I mean lets be honest you just blew thousands of dollars up to this point, what’s a couple hundred more for a little more performance and another 10 years of reliability... Also you are adding like 300 lbs of equipment to your truck, it wouldn’t hurt to replace some old worn out stuff. Replace those old worn out rubber bushings with some nice firm Poly bushings from energy suspension. FYI, for you 05/06 RWD guys, you will use the same kit as the 2004 AWD. Don’t order the 05/06 SS or RWD kits, they won’t fit. Part number 3-3190G is the correct kit. And I know the red ones are pretty, but they are annoying and loud. Black poly’s are graphite impregnated so they are quieter. No one’s gonna see them, don’t worry. Replace old worn out ball joints. My suspension had some slop. I scrapped every ball joint for moogs. Some swear by them. So far I have no complaints. Tie rod ends are nice too. You can simultaneously clean out and re-grease your center shaft as well. Maybe do that Z06 brake upgrade you’ve been wanting to do for a while? I actually did this in 2010 but I cleaned everything up and painted the dead spots in the rotors. Eh I’m a perfectionist. Sway bar bushings. Energy suspension also has these. Definitely stiffens things up a bit. Alignment Cams. Mine were…pretty worn out from rust and corrosion. Did I mention you are going to need an alignment anyway? Oh you are going to need an alignment after this. Anyway, enough with the fun stuff. The necessities: You need new hubs/bearings. Your old ones are sealed. You are about to have front CV Axles. I went with Timken. They bolt right up to your steering knuckle. You can use the donor’s, but you know what I’m going to say about that. They aren’t that expensive. They even come with new abs sensors. Don’t forget your splash shields too. You’ll notice the AWD’s are smaller, but you can keep your bigger RWD shields no problem. Torque your hubs to 133 lb/ft. you can press the hubs into the knuckle or just use a wrench and the bolts to draw it in. Just clean mating surface well with a wire wheel and lightly lube it with a lithium grease or equivalent. And don’t forget your new CV axles. Slide them into the hub, then bolt to IFS shaft flanges. Hub axle nut: 177 lb/ft CV axle to flange bolts: 58 lb/ft Reassemble the rest of your suspension. Don’t forget to zero your torsion bar ride height and if you still have them, insert the plastic cam guides into your upper control arm cams, which will get you close to factory alignment to get you to the shop. It wouldn't hurt to take your truck's alignment specs, as in my case, my shop almost aligned it to a standard 1500. You may have been also wondering about the Front IFS breather hose. It will locate on the driver frame rail so you can attach it while you are at this stage. There are a couple holes above the upper control arm that you can use, just make sure its oriented upward and not in the way of any moving parts.

Modify the Carrier Bearing Mount: As I said before this is going to be in the way of your single piece driveshaft. With all of the other modifications you’ve done, you can easily reverse them and go back to RWD. Once you do this next part you are kind of committed unless you want to fab up a new one. For those of you going to RWD, you will need to either cut one of these off of a current truck or just fab up a plate to weld. I imagine it wouldn’t be that hard to do. Here’s the factory plate. Just grab a sawsall or rotory cutting tool and carefully cut it off without mauling your brace. And don’t forget to re-primer, and undercoat afterwards. Easy peezy.

Extend VSS Wire: Pretty simple operation. If you scrapped a donor then you’ll probably have some extra wiring lying around. Probably even the right colors if you want it to stay factory-ish. If you aren’t so lucky then really any wire will do. I want to say 18 gauge, multi strand. You’ll need about 12 inches of wiring but go 18 at first. Here’s the harness you want. Basically take this wire, go to about the middle of it and cut it. Basic wiring stuff here. Strip the ends connect your wire to the harness side, personally I recommend you use uninsulated wire crimps, then solder them, then heat shrink them (remember they are under your truck). Make it look kind of like this. Plug it into the T-case, run the wires to the cut wire, check your length, leave extra space for routing to the wire holders along the frame. Cut your makeshift wire to length, crimp, solder, insulate. Tape it all up for good measure, cover with some extra wire loom if you have it, tape that up, and you are done. Remember, under the truck. Water, salt, corrosion, etc. Don’t halfway this. End result will be like this. Routing is a little tricky. The original wire actually was clamped to the Transmission brace but your new brace doesn’t have those provisions. There is however a metal bracket bolted to the case halves, if you put it back together properly. That’s where your wire will go, as well as the breather hose. Most important thing is make sure it won’t interfere with the intermediate shaft. They will be occupying very close to the same space. If you’d like to see what it’ll look like routed, I can take a picture. Don’t forget to hook up all the other transmission connectors at this point. Again don’t fill the transfer case yet. You need the driveshaft and be on level ground first. If anyone is wondering about the VSS signal, don’t worry. Both the old output shaft (which had the teeth for the VSS on it) and the Transfer case’s reluctor ring have 40 teeth which both sensors will read the same. Just make sure you are using the AWD sensor here for mounting purposes. You’ll see the slight difference. I went ahead and installed a new one just to be on the safe side.

Install Transmission and Transfer Case: This part is pretty standard. Install the Transmission to spec. The only real difference here is that you will be using the AWD Transmission Brace so make sure your Transfer Case adapter is bolted up and torqued to 37 lb/ft on the Transmission. This is important because this adapter has the mounting location for the Trans Brace in place of the old extension housing. Once you get the transmission bolted to the engine, you’ll install the brace, but just slip the bolts into it for now as I found it was easier to install the transfer case later with it removed. If you are wondering, that’s a cast aluminum B&M deep transmission pan. I’m not a fan by the way, but my factory pan didn’t have a drain plug and I wanted the fins for added cooling. The B&M requires you shorten the filter neck of your transmission gasket for the pan to fit. Yeah that makes no sense. For now I’m using it until I build my 2nd transmission and can find another pan solution. And it’s also so big that without a lift it won’t slide under the truck on a transmission jack, so you’ll slide it under the truck, then put it on the jack….easier said than done. (edit: the ARH header mid pipes won't fit around the pan either. I had to grind off a corner of the fins for it to barely clear) Heres the Transmission Brace. Obviously the depression will be on the driver side since it is for the intermediate shaft to clear. Another side note take a look at the bottom of the brace, you’ll see 4 punched holes just under the Transfer case. I’ll touch on this more later, but that’s for the transfer case shield. Also after you put your transmission in, don’t hook all of the wiring up yet. You will be routing your wiring slightly differently now, but you also will have to extend your VSS wire once the transfer case is in. Go ahead and grab your newly rebuilt transfer case and go ahead and install that. Again, pretty standard. Take note that it will not sit flat. It’ll be canted about 30 degrees. It’ll seem unnatural but I assure you this is normal. Getting it to clear your Torsion Bar brace is a pain, but hopefully you unbolted it and slid it back a little. Also bolting the Transfer case to the adapter is such a PITA getting to the upper bolts. You’ll need some wobble or swivel extensions to do this. Torque these to 37 lb/ft as well. Don’t forget the gasket between the two. Some things to note below. See the cant? Also you’ll see the VSS to the left of the rear output shaft. Your RWD VSS harness will hook right up to it, but you’ll need to extend it to reach. More below. At this point just torque down everything related to the above. Transmission Brace (Crossmember) Bolts: 70 lb/ft Transmission Mount Bolts (to adapter): 35 lb/ft Transmission Mount Nuts (to brace): 30 lb/ft

Front IFS Rebuild: Again I’m not going to go into major detail about this because you can find a ton of walk-throughs online or in the manual. This is a fairly easy process. Like I already stated, don’t assume this is good. I pulled mine apart and found damaged bearings, a shredded inner shaft housing (which is why you’ll see a nice new aluminum piece in the above pictures), etc. Also if you are taking the easy route you can change out the gear ratio in your front IFS now. Since I was changing my rear instead, I kept the factory 4.10 gear in the front, replaced all the bearings (and that inner shaft housing), checked all the specs, and painted the housing all nice to match everything else I rebuilt. Also make sure you are rechecking your preload and backlash. The front’s is fairly simple to do. On another note, a sad turn of events, you will notice that your front differential is open. Sadly for this 8.25” IFS, there are no other options. This front axle is pretty weak so it can’t survive an LSD. I did see a build where a guy put a 9.25 in his K1500, but that’s a lot of fabricating. The easiest is to just rebuild your 8.25” with quality bearings and use a good fluid. Oh and make sure your IFS has the updated vent hose connector. The right one is white. It’s an important fix, as the older style was deteriorating with synthetic gear oil, which you should be using in this axle. You will need a couple tools here. Obviously a dial indicator with magnetic base for preload. More importantly an OTC-J-36599-A which is a tool used to adjust the side bearing adjuster nuts. There is another style of tool out there that is cheaper, but i got that one too and it sucked. In fact 3rd picture down below this in the very bottom left corner you will see both tools. The crap one is the disc shaped one with the 3 dimples. It impacts the locks so it doesn't work. Regardless of what anyone on the internet tells you, use anaerobic sealant on your case halves as well here. As a general rule, if you are ever putting two metal surfaces together where there is an oil inside and it has a suction style oil pickup or sensitive moving parts, use anaerobic (unless the MANUFACTURER specifically calls for different). Yes it isn't cheap, but rebuilding something because your silicon sealant jammed things up is a lot less cheap. (All you silicon users, just save it. I don't care if you got away with it and your build was fine. The RIGHT answer is to use anaerobic) IFS straight out of the donor. Bearing damage as expected. Everything cleaned up and painted. You’ll notice I even replaced the old mount bushings. I don’t do things half way. Don’t forget to check that preload and backlash. All done. Now go ahead and install that Front IFS onto your truck. Your truck is now halfway done. Torque the Inner Shaft nuts and the Driver IFS mount nut/bolts to 75 lb/ft. Don’t worry about filling the Front Axle with fluid at this point, you’ll want it on level ground to do that. Let me tell you, it’s not fun. More on that later.

For this next mount you will bolt up your empty IFS case to the passenger IFS mount, as well as the hole in the newly welded arm. Don’t worry about the engine support yet. Take your Upper Driver Side IFS mount and attach it to the IFS Case. Tighten all all but the upper driver mount so everything stays still. Now you can align your upper mount. This will take a little work, but should be fairly close if your other mounts are right. As reference make sure the oval hole in the rear of the upper mount lines up with the engine mount bolts and that nothing is touching. The oval hole is there for clearance. It will be close, but as long as there is no physical contact between the bolts/nuts and the mount you will be fine. Having your engine mount on at this point is important. You’ll notice mine shifted a little and I had to widen the hole a bit. Clamp this mount down really well. Hit the mount with a few good tack welds to hold it in place, then remove your IFS so you can do the full weld. Weld all the way around where you can. The side against the engine mount will only allow you to do a couple small welds. That’s fine, that’s how it was from the factory. I mimicked all of the factory welds on this. Primer welds. Throw your IFS case back on for the final mount. Put your engine support on. You can see below the orientation. Lightly tighten the support to frame mounts on the passenger side, but allow it to move a little with effort. Hand tighten the two center bolts holding the separate pieces together. Same with the bolt going through the IFS mount and frame arm. Once these are all mocked up you should be able to get the driver side of the engine support lined up and clamped down fairly easily. Make sure all of your bolts are wrench tight now, and loosen the IFS mount to frame arm bolt. Ensure the IFS can rotate in and out with little resistance. If it can't you will need to slide the driver side of the engine support over just a tad. If your clearance is fine, throw the IFS case back on, tack the mount, re-verify your IFS clearance by removing it, and finish your weld Verify a good weld by reattaching your IFS case, remove it again and primer your weld. Grab a beer and admire your work. That was literally the hardest part of this whole swap. Once you are all ready, strip/clean/ prep your engine compartment where you want (I did the entire thing since I undercoated the whole truck again). Grab some underbody undercoating. I used the 3M stuff that comes in the aerosol can. It goes on very well. Now throw your Passenger IFS mounting bracket on and go ahead and torque it down. 70 lb/ft. Note that the forward fixed bolt goes towards the outside while the rear bolt goes in from the outside. It’s obvious. At this point you can throw your engine back in. Throw your IFS case on one last time to verify clearance between the case and the engine, and you are done. If you did everything correctly then you should have just enough clearance. It'll be close, but again, as long as it isn't touching you will be fine. Just make sure there is a tiny bit of space for bushing shift.