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11/22/20: I did a little more painting. I painted the radiator satin black and the top of the oil filter and the top of the dipstick, Chevy Orange to give the engine a little pop of color. I also fabricated new vacuum/fuel lines to the carburetor out of Cu-Ni tubing which included a new period correct glass fuel filter at the carb.

I finally received the gasket set for the u-joint ball seal so I set out to get the transmission and u-joint installed. Everything went well with the exception of installing the new rear transmission mount. I needed to loosen the rear engine mounts and jack up the transmission to get enough room to slip the rear transmission mount in. Hindsight being 20-20, I should have removed the rear transmission crossmember as this would have made installation of the transmission, U-joint and ball seal assembly much easier.

While I attempted to install the shift linkage, I noticed that the replacement bell housing did not have the shift linkage bell crank pivot shaft installed. Panic ensued! This was worse than an O-S**T moment but instead an O-FUDGE moment. I should have caught this when inspecting the replacement but I totally missed it. Thoughts of having to remove the transmission and the engine again raced thru my head. Fortunately, I did not get rid of the cracked bell housing and I was able to drive the old shaft out. My first attempt to install the shaft on the replacement bell housing was to drive it in with a short handled 3lb. mallet. Well with only about 6” to swing, that was not going to happen. Then I tried a Porta-Power wedge pressing off of the frame. I couldn’t get it straight enough, nor did it have enough power. I discovered that a 3/4” steel rod about 12” long could be inserted between the frame and the inner fender and I was able to drive the pin in. Huge relief! I finished installing the shift and clutch linkage and adjusted both.

I continued installing the radiator, hoses and filled it with a 50-50 mix of antifreeze. Installed the hood latch panel getting ready to install the hood. I figured I would start the engine first before installing the hood so I put that on the back burner.

Getting the engine ready to start involved installing the push rods, rockers, adjusting the valves, used a drill and a cut off screwdriver to turn the oil pump to get oil flowing to the lifters and rockers, installed the distributor and did an initial timing. I also put a little bit of fuel down the breather tube of the carburetor. Looking over the engine as a final check I noticed a small puddle of oil under the newly installed oil filter. Surely enough one of the new (more than likely, made in China) hoses coupling, was leaking. When I tighten the fittings, they didn’t seem to tighten like I would expect. I tightened the offending fitting and I was ready for her start.

The moment of truth arrived and I although I have done this at least a two dozen times, I still get that funny feeling in my stomach. I pulled out the choke, turned on the ignition and pressed on the foot started and low and behold, after a few cranks it started and sounded good. Yea! It did have a bit of a bog when you hit the throttle which I suspect is timing!

I let it run only a few minutes as I was in my garage and fate has it, it was snowing. Go figure, I have been working on this for months and the day I get it started, it snows. It didn’t matter as I was thrilled that after all of that work, it started! I still needed to install the hood so that was my next task.

The hood took the typical path that Chinese parts seem to take you down. My hood hinges had bolting that came from a hardware store and were really sloppy. Knowing that when I disassembled it, I ordered the proper set of hardware that had shouldered bolts. After hoisting the hood over the engine compartment, I tried to insert the first new shouldered bolt and it started in but stopped shortly after. I tried another bolt location and found it did the same. Getting my 3x cheaters on, I saw that the thread was different. The new bolts were 5/16”-24 and the existing thread was 5/16”-18. Now I wonder which is wrong. The existing thread does not look like it was cross threaded or re-tapped. Regardless the hood needed to go on so fortunately I have a lathe and turned bushings to install bolts that fit the existing hinge holes. The rest of the install went well. I expected to have to realign the hood after installing bolting that took the slop out and new cowl seal and new hood bumpers, but the hood closed solidly. Its not aligned perfectly but as long as it closes and latches, I’m good for now.

Ecstatic, I have a truck that the newly rebuilt engine runs and the hood closes to boot!. All is good!