Los_Control

OK my 2 cents .... I think the dude is a hero! Joking of course, but I do think his style of making the engine a usable commodity was spot on. When that car/engine was 10 years old, needed repairs .... it was sitting at the local gas station. Today the average mechanic has better tools in a home garage then a professional mechanic in the early 60's-70's ... maybe even the 80's I appreciate the dude showed a video that showed how it was done years ago ... Harmonic ballancer? Get the hammer out and get er did. Today I think you & I may do things different. I think we are spoiled with having better tools available to us. Often we forget what was available in 1960. I honestly do not think the film creator was trying to reproduce what happened in 1960, Just he did what was needed to be done. And with the old mechanics, is why we still have old cars today ... I enjoyed watching the video and appreciated how he got to the finish line ... I never judged him.

I was born in 1962 .... never did understand the x y or z crowd ... just considered myself an American.

I talked with a repair shop yesterday. Was very helpful. All pro clutch and drive line repair. In Abilene. His opinion was it was not common but happens, needs to look at it to see if repairable. Prices seemed reasonable, roughly $160 labor to replace yoke and re-ballance + cost of new yoke. I will be using them in the future at some point. Imho, I probably bent it removing the old original u-joint ... bend it back and it works fine. I drove it yesterday and while only in town, Am sure the problem is solved.

Thanks for the info, I am repeating the story as told to me from my late Uncle. Seems Cadillac did use it for a bit, I am sure he was a Ford guy and never owned a Cadillac back then. At 16 years old.

Dang gm never had a positive ground. Even though positive ground was used by others and seemed to be better then negative ground. Was in the 50's they wanted to make some uniformity so all car manufacturers matched. Chebby came out with the sbc, it was a big hit and all others went with negative ground because chebby was the leader at the time. We all know positive ground is better, just the way the cards were dealt.

10 years old? Heck that thing is barely broke in by my standards I was thinking about buying a air compressor from a estate sale. Was pretty old, kid swore his father was still using it. I could probably still get it for $50 or less. Just to move it would need to hire a tow truck and have it lifted and then delivered. Compression on the pump seemed pretty low I felt would make a fun project to rebuild. It was well over a 100 gallon Horizontal tank, 220 motor. It lived outside the garage under a dog house, would have to be same here. Still happy I walked away from it.

What you do is cut the window & surrounding window frame from a donor car. Then you modify and add the new metal frame with window to your car. You do not take the glass and make a new frame for it. I suppose you could ... those that have done it probably would not do it twice. No I have never done it before. Watching a few vids with chopping tops on cars, lots easier to cut the metal + glass out of another car and then graft it into your project.

Yeah only option I know for used ... if available can drive to Abilene and pick it up. If they allow me back in the store. Last year bought something off car-part and drove to Abilene to pick it up ... They jacked me around on time, I showed up and they went to lunch. I explained I was retired ... I did not have time to sit here and wait on them. Other day I went to the local truck stop, asked for 3 of the daily dinner specials. Sometimes would be wise if I had a mouth filter ... life would be easier. Yeah will search carpart.com tomorrow and call yards to see if can give dimensions and find a match.

Weeeel, a thrown rod you know how to proceed. In this case it may be this ... or it may be that or we could try this ... or we may need all 3. Then you have to wonder how much effort & time to put in it ... before it does throw a Rod. I am a cheap bastard and fix everything. Sometimes is not wise.

I wish you luck with it. In my past life I just wanted portable air compressors to deal with carpenters air tools. Whole different animal.

Yeah I agree with others ... my first thought was, if they cant remove a cotter key, how will they remove the drums? Here in Hicksville TX, I went to a buddy who is same age as me and owns a automotive repair shop .... Wanted to rent his hub puller ... he had no clue what I was talking about and never used one before. Just saying, your mechanic is in for a real treat if not familiar with the old tapered axles.

I dunno, maybe ocd is kicking in ... I got it back together. I had to show love to both ears .... just when I thought all was good it seemed to move again. 1, maybe they should be pressed out, not beaten to a pulp with a 3 pound sledge .... never had issues in the past changing u-joints. 2, I suspect this truck was ordered when new to haul a trailer. It has overloads and a class 3 hitch & 420k miles on it. While many parts have been changed, I suspect the drive line is original with 400k+ miles on it. Now am wondering if maybe getting metal fatigue? The front yoke is just as smooth and free as you would want it. I bet if @Plymouthy Adams was my customer, I could hand him this drive line and say all done and he would agree. Just the fact I had to use a sledge hammer to get it that way is wrong. At this point I think will put it back in the truck and try it. I will call a driveline repair shop next week and talk to them ... if one yoke is bad, the other 2 are also.

Was wondering if @Snipergot snow, about 1 hour ago it just stopped. Still only 32 so who knows it may start again. Just not common for this area ... 2nd time this year so far.

Yes sir I just went out and turned the heat on in the shop, going to do exactly what you thought. I do not need to drive it, just get it moved so dodge can be parked under cover. I guess I planned that all along ... real issue I was fighting, can I just call that good and consider fixed? Or do I need to get it replaced .... seems everyone agrees it needs replaced.

It is a common 1991 chebby 1/2 ton ... extended cab short bed,step side. the odd part is it is a manual trans. Most are automatics. Buuuut, it is a 2 piece drive shaft, possibly I can match the front 1/2 with another? Buuuut, it also has the carrier bearing installed on it, is pressed on and brand new. Not sure I can remove it and expect to re-use it. Another $40-$50 I think the turbo 350 automatic and the manual 5spd are different lengths, do not know if they use different yokes. 99% of these trucks are a silvarado, automatic, power windows, power seats, carpets etc... There are 4 of these trucks right here in hicksville TX, all automatics. Mine is a cheyenne. rubber floor mats, manual windows, manual transmission ... more of a working mans truck. More odd is the short bed stepside .... most working trucks are long wide bed. I simply have not seen another like mine. And on the siverado forums, only 1 guy knew what it was, but admits he never seen one. Without looking, I just have slim hopes of finding what I need used.

Yes sir, kinda what am thinking. ... might try to see if can source a good used one. Truck is odd enough that it probably be cheaper to take to drive line shop and have replaced. If the ear did break off while on highway, is connected to trans and would destroy the tail housing of the nv4500 manual trans which would not be cheap. 25 years ago, was only $100 to have a drive line modified repaired ... sure it not changed much ?

Guys/gals ... have a dilemma I need to take care of. Need to fix my chebby so this girl can get her parking space back Problem with the chebby is a u-joint, problem with u-joint is a bent yoke. Last spring I rebuilt the driveline, I found this one yoke had taken a hit and some metal scaring. Like out 4 wheeling and hit a rock. I dressed it up with a dremel and installed new u-joint ... ujoint was tight and figured would loosen up. It did not so doing it again. The left side is what right should look like, right side is bent slightly in and again the u-joint is to tight to freely move. I can easily remove the joint and caress it with a bfh .... but should I? Any advise to bend it back? I think it will be ok, yet I know some metal you should not bend .... my 16 gauge will break when I bend it. But the yoke is thick enough it will not matter?

Yeah and we walked uphill to school both ways ?

I was going to point this out, seems like I missed it. I specifically wanted a 1949 B1B with a flat 6/3 on the floor. I am a dummy that paid to much for a truck sight unseen ... I just asked they deliver it and pay for delivery. I love my truck, but not what I expected. Turns out my truck serial # ends with a X. This means it is a 1949, but it was sitting on the show room floor advertising all the 1950 upgrades. This means I got the 3 on the tree, low side bed, the motor/trans is a 1950 .... Just saying in 1949 they used a X, maybe in 51 they did something different?

https://www.t137.com/registry/help/otherengines/tengines.html According to this, is a 218 from 51-53 ... sounds right. I had a 1952 parts truck I saw it had a motor started with a P, it was a 1952 motor. I was told sometimes at end of year they would use other engines to clear out old inventory before new year. So just because the engine started with a P, was told could not rule out it was not original. Is this true? I read it on the internets. Again just pointing out how they did so many screwy things back then.

Good looking truck .... seems doubtful is a low mileage survivor in that condition. More likely a older restoration. What if it had a frame swap or a motor swap, in 70 years much can happen. Does it really matter? Proper paperwork would be important to me. Back in these years, they used the engine # for the title. If engine got swapped it no longer matched. Unless one ground off the original # on new block and stamped in old # ... A lot of people did this. I met a old timer that did the exact same thing on stolen harleys ....Just saying, what does it mean? My Uncle sold a 1946 chevy truck, new owner found out it was actually a 1942 Navy truck. Was 46 when the Navy sold it and issued it it's 1rst title. Some states never bothered to title vehicles back in those days. My whole point, you got a nice looking truck, it has clean title, registered, insured ... you going to kick it out of bed cause frame or engine # not match? My opinion could be wrong. My truck has original title, engine, frame ... while my first 49 came from a farmer, had a 1937 motor, a 1/2 front ton axle on a 3/4 ton truck & a clean title.

I assume my truck was parked because of overheating issues. First start it was obvious a cooling issue and one T-stat bolt was broke, meaning po attempted and gave up. First issue I found was water distribution tube was clogged. I took a flat bar and rodded it out ... hokey repair but expect to pull the motor at some point and will change then. As @keithb7suggested ... the block was filled with sand or sediment, pulled the soft plugs and washed it out. I have heard it may be casting sand leftover from when block was born. If your engine was rebuilt at some time and hot tanked, probably cleaned out. If not there is a good chance your engine would benefit from cleaning it out. Then I filled the radiator/engine with straight vinegar. Ran it through a few heat cycles. Flushed it all out and repeated, left it sit for a few weeks and a few more heat cycles. Think maybe did this 3 times. maybe over 2 months let it sit with vinegar. Will be more mild and less aggressive then caustic chemical ... AND CHEAP! As it turned out, my radiator was shot and had about 6 holes in it, leaked from very beginning, not because of vinegar. Now with no T-stat installed, will idle for a hour or more at 160 degree, then slowly creep up to 190 and a fast idle drops it right back to 160. Will do a vinegar flush on it one more time when I actually start driving it, take it for a good drive and warm it up.

I use the permatex Indian head shellac gasket sealer on T-stats. I do not know what is best, just what worked for me 40 years ago while others failed. I glued my t-stat in place and also the gasket, let it setup for a few min before installing. Use fingers to support weight of t-stat while setting it down. Seems like it slipped once on me, you could tell because housing would not sit flush. Picked it back up and mooshed everything back together, more careful 2nd try and no issues. Probably something that would glue things better .... just what I use.

Yeah am embarrassed to repeat some of them ... but if someone does learn? I had a 1965 2door impala, Needed to change front tire. It was on a bumper jack and was yanking on tire to get it off the hub ... It came off the jack and landed on my arms while trying to loosen the front wheel. Turns out it landed on the tire because I never broke it loose, but both arms received road rash as it fell off jack and had my arms on tire under fender. Yeah sometime I do wonder how we ever survived youth.

For some reason your vids make you look older But enjoy, trial and error is the facts of life ... videos give clues but actually doing it gives experience. I am a few weeks ahead of you, bet you surpass me quick as you learn.