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Rockwell Taco

46K views 133 replies 34 participants last post by  Supra TT 
#1 ·
I've built a truck that I think is pretty unique, I'm not aware of another one exactly like it. Many thanks go out to all the people who have inspired me with ideas and know how by doing similar things before me and sharing the experience. I have combined a lot of other people's knowledge, and a little of my own vision to make this build possible.

This is more of an overview of the build than an actual build thread. The reason for that is that this build took a long time to accomplish, in fact it's still not finished (not that it ever will be). I faced a lot of issues in bringing this all together, and there are bound to be details that I forget to include, or think would be boring, so if anyone has a question, feel free to ask. It's the least I can do to repay the online community for all the help I have received.

There will be a bit of a lack of pictures, as I didn't really focus on picture taking or want to handle my camera with my grubby hands. I do have a few though.

I guess I should set the story up...

I bought this truck new just after graduating college. It was my first nice truck, and I will always love it. Right away after getting the truck I wanted to start the modding. I didn't have any money, I was paying for a new truck, so the mods were what I could afford. The first thing it got was a body lift and some 33's. I drove it like that for a while, then it got a 3" Revtek lift and some 35's. Along the way it got a locker in the front and 4.88 gears. It also ended up with a supercharger and supporting fuel upgrades from URD. I drove it like that for a few years, my modding itch was being scratched by my motorcycle hobby. Then I had a baby come along so the bike thing needed to take a back seat to something the family could enjoy, I decided that should be my other love, wheeling. I decided to try to stay with the stock drive line, so I put a 6" Fabtech on top of the 6" I already had. I then put a set of 18x39.5 Boggers on it, and that did a couple things, one I could no longer daily drive it and needed another truck to drive, and two made it REALLY hard on CV shafts. I tried to get by with it like that by babying it, but it was just too delicate, I had ruined my baby, so I decided to fix the problem. I believe in fixing a problem permanently, so I went big and sourced all the parts to put a set of Rockwells under it. That's where the story starts.


Here it is sitting beside a stocker, in the configuration it was in at the start of all this.


I went and picked up the new axles.



And went to work tearing them apart to be narrowed.

These are the shafts, the joints are HUGE, just like everything else about these things. In the second pic, that is a milk crate they are laying on.





Pile of "weight savings"



Tool I made to use on the spindle nuts.



The narrowing begins.



The narrowed one compared to a standard one.



Building a mount for the steering ram.



New steering components.




Oil pan off.



Rolling the axle under the truck.



Frame braced up.



There isn't much room for this thing. Even with the truck being pretty tall, it needed to be taller to clear the diff. I wanted the truck to be a short as possible, so a custom pan was in order. I thought about a dry sump, but that was cost prohibitive.



This was my first attempt at a pan design.




I didn't end up liking it, so I made this one. It has a few seeps, so it will be pulled off and fixed up. All the welding here was with a 220 Lincoln stick welder, so nothing fancy here.




It is just now to the point it can move itself around. I took it out and crossed it up to get an idea about how things were going to work.










Here are a few highlights. It has ARB lockers front and rear, pinion brakes, front and rear hydraulic steering, 18x39.5 Boggers on 15x14 steel wheels, and receiver hitches front and rear. The frame was plated front and rear, and the rear springs (All Pro 5" lift springs 230# IIRC) were moved in to a 33" center to center measurement to allow the rear tires to turn. The front springs are 28" center to center, All Pro 6" lift springs with a rate of 220# (I think). There are other things, but that's the general idea. The whole project was done outside with basic tools, a torch, stick welder, drill, grinder, and a big ass piece of plate steel.
 
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#3 ·
Gonna trim those fenders? Looks pretty damn tall, got a roll cage? Looks good for playing in the mud, dont know about the rocks though. What kind of frame height do you have, must be pushing close to 30" to fit those monsters underneath.
 
#5 ·
Obviously the fenders need trimmed, it's not done yet it is just now moving on it's own, it doesn't even have a front brake or shocks yet. I'll probably end up with a cage sometime soon, but there are other things that need attention before the cage/bumper/slider stuff gets tackled. As far as frame height is concerned, I may end up with it sitting a little lower at some point, the restriction is clearance for the axle under the motor. The springs still have some settling in to do, but it is close to 30" ( I think it's sitting about 28-29" at the moment) I need to put it in a better place to measure to get very accurate. The thing is, this truck has a LOT of unsprung weight to help keep it's feet on the ground. All that weight in the axles helps move the center of gravity down considerably.
 
#10 ·
It's 4WD now. It was RWD for a while, but that was taken care of a few days ago.

The rest of the drive train is going to be home made drive shafts, stock transmission and X-fer case, and the supercharged V6. The transmission will get mods to make it shift better and have more fluid pressure.
 
#13 ·
Understood, and agreed, sleving it would have been a good idea, but I didn't. Hopefully that doesn't bite me later on down the road.

I can't remember off the top of my head what the width is, I want to say it's 96", I'll have to measure it again but 96 is close.
 
#18 ·
There are guys breaking Rockwells that don't have a second case. I agree completely that a second case would be nice, but I get the impression you are indicating this is just going to be a mall crawler without a second case, that the Rockwells are for "bling". Guys don't build "bling" outside with a stick welder and a torch. This truck already had these tires on it before I tore it apart to start this, I was tired of it breaking. You are making assumptions about the type of wheeling I do, and then commenting on the assumptions.
 
#21 ·
There are guys breaking Rockwells that don't have a second case. I agree completely that a second case would be nice, but I get the impression you are indicating this is just going to be a mall crawler without a second case, that the Rockwells are for "bling". Guys don't build "bling" outside with a stick welder and a torch. This truck already had these tires on it before I tore it apart to start this, I was tired of it breaking. You are making assumptions about the type of wheeling I do, and then commenting on the assumptions.
Get use to it pal. They seem to like doing that around here.

6.72s are PLENTY low enough to wheel. Hell I could wheel my truck with just the 1st case in low, but why do that when I have a second case? Just makes the trip that much more enjoyable and you don't have to beat on your truck as much.

Also to comment on the other questions asked about the rockwells, people need to research more before they "shoot from the hip". Like you said they're top loaders so the drive shaft angle is usually AWESOME!! That plus the huge weight of these axles usually offsets the "OMG that truck is tall" issue.

And you're right, people do break Rockwells, that's why Randy Ouverson's in business. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out http://www.oemaxle.com/. You don't know beef until you check out his products. :D
 
#29 ·
i love trucks on rocks!!!! i found a set locally that are built and mohawked for dirt cheap... just wish i could afford to get them.


bad ass taco btw!!! i love seeing people doing something new to their taco's. keep up the good work :cool:
 
#32 ·
It will be sort of a jack of all trades. We have a lot of mud in this part of the country, so there really is no such thing as a decent off roader that isn't good in the mud. I don't really want it to just be a mudder though, I like to take it to the OHV parks around and do some trail riding and climbing with it as well.
 
#35 ·
Just a little FYI- the pic of you torching the housing during the narrowing process will bring a lot ??????s

You know, altering a housing in the yard with a torch and stick welder what the hell were you thinking? Now it is warped and crooked and needs to be trued by professional machinist at quality shop, bla bla bla

Personally, I dig it! I torched a spindle off a 18 wheeler axel last week and now I know just how hard working with heavy tube is.
 
#36 ·
And rightly so. It was a real pain in the ass to get it welded on straight, in fact it's probably not perfect still (but it's real close). The thing is, this thing will be trailered any time it is taken more than a few miles, so I am not very concerned with how perfect the alignment is. My thought is, just counting the tire wear on those Boggers, it's cheaper to trailer it than drive it, even if the alignment were perfect. Those things are EXPENSIVE! I'm not going to be wearing them out cruising main, showing off to all the towns people, who could care less.

Good on ya for burning some metal!
 
#45 ·
and it only took you a week :p

but, yea...worth it for the braggin' rights alone, LOL
 
#38 ·
Be careful, when you start claiming you stuff is holding up, you'll just get told you're a mall crawler, and parking curbs just aren't enough to break your junk. You'd have to drive halfway across the country to show em what it can do, until then your rocks aren't as hard as their rocks.:rolleyes:

Great job! That sounds interesting, is there a thread on it?
 
#41 ·
Bingo!

They're military junk, that makes them cheep. I got $750 in the axle, another $125 in a short shaft, and another $125 in the parts to rebuild it (they didn't need it, as I found out, due to the way the military maintains them). That's $1000 dollars for a rebuilt, narrowed steering axle with a 6.72 ratio, that is hands down stronger than a D-60. When I say stronger, I mean the whole thing, you should see the knuckles on this thing, the lug studs are 3/4 inch, it takes a 1 1/2" socket to take the wheels off. The U joints in the shafts are like 5" across! It takes high dollar guts in a 60 to come close to Rockwell strength, and that ain't cheap. As far as weight, by the time you shed the drum brakes in favor of pinion brakes and narrow them up, they aren't enough heavier than a 60 to matter. If it does matter to you, you can machine a lot of metal off of some places or order custom lightweight pieces. Besides, it's the good kind of weight, the kind that keeps center of gravity low.

Do you have any pics of your project?
 
#46 ·
You like the oil pan :p. You wouldn't believe what I had to go through to get that thing designed, built and installed. I need to take it back off and get the seeps fixed, I thought it was good... WRONG! :D

I think it will be low geared enough, with an auto and the supercharger it should do fine. If it don't then it will be time to look into a dual setup.

I understand the deal with the weld, on the front axle, the perch I made surrounds three sides of the weld. On the rear it is on it's own. I'll keep an eye on it, and may one day weld some metal around it just for good measure.

In this pic you can see the way the perches surround three sides of the housing. On the front, the weld is in the middle of this.

 
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