Drove the truck up on the new ramps I bought at the Fredericksburg swap meet last year intending to replace some heavy gauge wire that has been wrapped around one of the shifter pivot points since I’ve owned the truck. I was planning on replacing it with a shiny new hitch pin clip I bought, but turns out the PO put the wire there to act as a shim. The wire takes out most of the slop that’s in that joint, so I left it alone. My shifter problems are bad enough without me making ‘em worse!

While I was under the truck I replaced 9 old zerk fittings with the new stainless steel zerks I bought at Tractor Supply. Grabbed the grease gun and went to work greasing all the joints. All but one fitting took the grease. That one must be plugged up behind the zerk.

Two stainless bolts had worn through the original side rails in the bed, so I put some large stainless washers behind them and with my neighbor putting his thumb on their heads I tightened them back down. Spent another couple of hours tightening all the other bed bolts and wiping down the underside. Lots of oil dripping out of that old, loose 216 with 101K miles on it!

It was a good day spent working on the old truck. Cheaper than a therapist, and much more effective.

Chuck
1950 Chevy 1/2 ton (all original)
1951 Chevy 1/2 ton (future streetrod)
1941 Chevy coupe
1938 Chevy coupe streetrod