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Wow, that looks great.

Thanks. If the rain ever stops I'll start plumbing the rear brakes

Despite it still raining I just could stand being in the house anymore so I bled the rear brakes thanks to my 15 year old daughter lending me a foot to pump the brake pedal. Great success.....until I went to bolt the wheels on. The steel 16.5s dont clear the caliper so looks like I need to order some spacers, which is not what I wanted to have to do. To make it roll, that's the cheapest easiest route until I can find wheels that clear. Good times!

Gave a buddy of mine a call. He has some 70s 8 lug dodge 16.5 steel wheels with roller tires and brought one over to test fit it. It clears the calipers just fine, so he will drop off the other 3 wheels sometime this week. Perfect! The test wheel has a 9.50-16.5LT on it that's about 31" tall and looks perfect in my wheel opening so that's the size I plan on buying. Going to order old bias super tractions and keep it looking period correct. And before I hear someone chime in with the "radials vs bias" argument, I already know what I am getting into and I have driven on bias tires. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses. For my usage, the bias will be fine.

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The cap is only held on with packing tape so I could get a visual, not sure if I want to find a way to mount them after I have all 4 wheels or just get some chrome lug nuts and run without caps.. Once I have them I'll sand blast and powder coat them white and mount 4 of these slicks on them. If I decide I 100% want to run the caps then I will deal with it later. I may try to find the rare J20/dodge caps they used instead. Haven't decided

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On the ground. Before and after pics. Took approximately 6" of lift height off of the truck. Although I am not 100% done I couldn't be happier with the stance of it now!

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I like the fat tires better than the Bias plies your getting. Plus, it looks like your have a 30 bay garage in the back yard!!

Its 3, but one has a 68 vette in it that doesnt see weather, the other has a CJ with no top, both my father in laws. We rent the place from him. Hence why I'm in the process of buying a house. Back bay is mine but it's like 11 feet wide and full of my tools and equipment so its partially storage for me. Truck will fit but you can barely open the doors

Replacement from Tom Woods $300ish
Modified by a shop $150ish
Me aligning and cutting it down, then having the shop down the street weld it where I marked it, $25!
1 hour later I got the call to pick it up. All it has to do is move the truck, if it doesnt vibrate, even better


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Driveshaft now fits and the good news is I have enough travel in either direction so I measured it correctly. Bad news is this Dana 60 has a strap style yoke and I have u-bolts so I had to order them. Should have by friday from rockauto. I'd like to rip this pig down the road and back this weekend to see how everything feels, even if it still needs shocks, stabilizers and an alignment and tires and so forth. I want to feel what a non-welded rearend feels like again.

I really appreciate all the details you've posted. My truck is a lot like yours so it's great to see stuff like those Ranger spring hangers you used.

Thanks. We are all here to help each other. The guys that have chimed in throughout this project and other prior posts have been a huge help for me. Now if anyone knows of a 16 5" RADIAL mud terrain that is between 30-32" I would love to know where I can get it.

I would find a set of 16" wheels and skip the 16.5" wheels you have now. Wheel selection is getting worse and worse, and there is no advantage to them.

Will 16" gm or ford steel wheels clear on a J20 without spacers? I really dont want to run spacers, already did that in my old rear for 35s and have them front and rear on my comanche to run wrangler steelies. I COULD just get a pair for the rear but I'd prefer not to. Problem I'm having is the rear calipers are slightly larger. Eventually I can get smaller calipers in the back to match the front. The 16.5 wheel issue and tire choices has been a major brain overload for me. The part I cant grasp is a J20 16.5 wont clear these rear brakes which is making me not understand how a GM truck could run a 16" wheel with clearance since these are GM calipers. Unless the calipers are for a dually or something?

Did a 2 lugnut per wheel romp around the block and found 2 major things that need addressing and also I'm an idiot. I paid 20 bucks to overnight the yoke straps for the rear and looked at the bench today and saw a pair haha. Not sure how I missed them yesterday, I looked right at them. Oh well extra parts. But here's the 2 things...
1) brakes need to be bled way more, not a huge deal but definitely needs addressing as they are extremely spongy.
2) there is a major clunk/bang in the rear somewhere when the throttle is goosed. Not sure what the cause is yet but I will need to figure it out this weekend.

So, 16" wheels and 16.5" wheels are actually the same diameter. The difference is in the bead, 5 degree vs 15 degree.

If your wheels don't want to clear, then you may need to go to a 17".

Stuka wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 9:37 pm So, 16" wheels and 16.5" wheels are actually the same diameter. The difference is in the bead, 5 degree vs 15 degree.

If your wheels don't want to clear, then you may need to go to a 17".

That's what I'm afraid of. I want old school white steel wheels. I hate the way these trucks look with the bigger wheels they look like bro-trucks to me. I even hated those dodge B van chrome wheels I had on it. What I noticed different from the stock j20 16.5s vs that dodge 16.5 my friend brought over is the inner taper. It steps differently on the inner side

Found my rear end clunk.... maybe I should have taken the old leaf springs out of the bed before i drove it Haha Haha I love easy fixes

Gius I feel like I am overthinking the wheel thing. I bet a later 16" stewie will clear

Phils67 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:22 am Found my rear end clunk.... maybe I should have taken the old leaf springs out of the bed before i drove it Haha Haha I love easy fixes

Haha, that's a phenomenal (and free) fix! Glad it was simple.

Sorry I can't offer any help or suggestions on the wheels.