It seems there is a general conspiracy afoot to keep me away from working on my truck, but I am patiently powering through the distractions. I also seem to be pretty bad at estimating how long the actual work will take.
During the work week, I squeezed time in to cleaning up the backer plate on the left side, and all of the associated parts. I scraped and sprayed and cleaned and wiped and sanded it all down. Then I painted most parts with a high temp black spray paint, because, why not. I am sure it did not hurt anything, and will probably help with future wear and rust, and it looks pretty. Somehow this took me all week in the afternoons. It has been hot, so I waited till the end of the days to start projects.
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/161905955279/shop-with-a-viewSaturday, I put the brake components back on the left side. This is my first time doing brakes of any sort, so it pretty much took all day. Did I mention it was hot? At least 100 degrees, my Crocs melted. I spent a lot of time reading the shop manual to figure out what brakes I had, looking at the pictures I took before taking it apart, and solicited advice from the family. This week it was a younger cousin who grew up working on heavy machinery. The dust covers on the wheel cylinders was tricky, I had to take one off because I originally installed it backwards. This was nothing compared to the agony of re-installing the connecting brake line between the cylinders. I spent an hour trying to get the threads to line up without cross threading. The new cylinders were microscopically different from the originals, but it was enough to thwart the install. I could get either side started on it's own, but the second would never give in. Finally found the correct angle to bend the hose, and wala, on to the shoes. They were actually a lot easier, probably because I had been staring at diagrams and photos all day. The replacement spring kit I ordered was for a different system, so I had to install the old ones. The J-whatever special brake tool I borrowed made it a snap, although it will be harder on the other side with the hub installed. I did not have a feeler gauge for the .010 clearance at the backing plate, but made my best educated guess. When the truck is ready for serious road driving, I will pull the pads off to be replaced, add new springs, and someone can show me the exact spacing then.
https://twoheelers.tumblr.com/post/162017801504/plugging-away-at-the-projectNext was the hub. It was already pressed all together, and hiding under a dust wrap, so it was pretty straightforward. Besides, I am an expert now, after installing the other side. I cleaned up the shaft, added some silicone gasket maker to the inner seal, and slid it on. Pushed in the outer bearing, and pressed it down with my handy special tool and a cheater bar. Cranked as hard as I could, Backed it off, tightened it down roughly to what we did on the other side, and then put the lock washer thing, and exterior nut on. Brushed off my hands, patted myself on the back, and then some foggy part of my brain said "you forgot the interior washer between the nut and the bearing". I looked int eh box everything else was in for safe keeping, nothing. Poked around the work space, no sign. I had a nice panic attack because I had thrown away the old bearings and races at my buddies shop, and wondered if that had been in the mix. Jumped in the truck, sped across town, and started digging through the trash. The good news was that the trash had not been emptied, and still had the bearings. The bad news was that after pulling every piece if trash out one at a time, the washer was not in there. I dug around the parts washer, the buckets we had used, and looked under all the tables. Not to be found. We diced that it had been put in the wrong box of parts, so I drove back across town to the Chevy to look. Not where I thought it could be. I pulled my phone out to look up a place to buy a new one, then saw it sitting in the dirt under my work stool. Crisis averted. I pulled the nuts off, slid the washer down the kerf, pressed it all back on, and called it a day. I had been up early that morning mixing wheel barrow loads of mortar for a friend for four hours, and I had baby ducks coming out of the incubator, so I was tired and distracted, and did I mention it was hot?
Sunday. The good news, the goose that was sitting on a nest of rotten eggs accepted the baby ducks as her own, and they all survived the night. Bad news, I did not get to truck projects until 10:00 or so, and it was already hotter than yesterday. My cousin and I drove back to my buddies shop to get the rear end and a tranny jack. I took a low trailer with a ramp this time, no lifting that monster in and out of my truck. I am learning. Back at the Chevy, we had to clean the housing out first. My cousin did a chimney sweep impression from the outside, while I sopped up the mess on the inside. In hindsight, I should have borrowed one of those round wire brush drill things, but I made do with some gasoline, a scraper, and a toilet brush. I was shoulder deep in both axle housings cleaning 50 years of gunk out. We got it as clean as we could, sopped up the mess with towels, and picked the last bits of crud out. My buddy had made me two studs out of bolts as a starter guides. Basically a long bolt with the same threads as the pumpkin bolts, tapered on the end using a grinder, and he cut a slot in for screwdriver removal later. I did not have a gasket, so we used silicone gasket maker. Just enough, not too much that will squeeze into the chamber when we tighten. The tranny jack must have been for a dump truck, and did not fit under my truck, so we used a normal floor jack instead. I set the rear end on one side of a 2x12, and drug it under the truck. We both somehow squeezed under the truck, rolled the rear end up on the floor jack, and rolled it roughly in place. Some finagling with the jack, some brute force, and we slid it on the starter studs.Even then it bound up, so he pried on the bottom with a bar, whole I laid on the plywood and pushed as hard as I could with my feet. Eventually, it decided to go home, slid down the studs, and cinched up into place. I put all the other bolts in snug, worked the started studs out with pliers and a screw driver, and then tightened them all down as hard as I could with a short ratchet. The book said 55-60 lbs of torque, and it felt about right. I will re-check later, but my arms and legs were starting to cramp from the heat, and I was seeing spots. I decided that was enough work, and we went to find fathers day celebrations.
Monday. It is still hot, and either I sunstroked myself a bit yesterday, or maybe celebrated with Dad too much. Maybe both. Anyway, I am not sure much will happen on the truck today. My first afternoon project this week will be to get the driveshaft and vacuum lines hooked back up to the rear end. Then I will drag my shop floor out, and move it to the right side of the truck, I will move the shade structure as well. I have to jack it back up, pull the tire, clean the backing plate, and install the brakes on that side. Should go faster because I have done one, but the hub is on and in the way, so who knows. Then axles get slid in, the hub covers bolted on, and the rear end filled up with gear oil. I have been told to lift each side with the loader so the oil will travel down into the bearings. Good thing there is a loader laying around. After that, we move to the brakes. I have to adjust them with the brake spoon, and see if the system will pressurize. There are some old wrecked trucks over the hill, I think I will go see if there is an intact master cylinder cap where the threads are not chewed up from cross threading. Not sure how long any of this will take, but I am getting closer to the first test drive.
