The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Re: What did you get done on your 'Bolt today?

I've been working on making my '40 more stable when carrying the camper .
I had a 25mm rear sway bar I made fit , it was better than nothing , but left a bit to be desired.
I found a 31mm bar , off a Landcruiser and wasted 2 days making new chassis mount and new links , only to find it made no discernible difference.
I found a formula online and I can now see that my new bar needs shorter arms , that's going to be fun .
See you in another couple of days ..............

What an ordeal. Thursday I decided to check the rear brake shoes on the Suburban. A year or so ago it had a rear seal leak. I replaced the seal and the shoes. Guess what? It had been leaking again. (Still?)

Investigation found the seal area of the axle has a groove worn in it. I have 2 NOS axles in stock so I'll just swap them out. I needed to swap the lug studs though. No problem. I have a hydraulic press. Problem. On the first stud the press blew a seal. No problem. I'll just beat them out. Problem. Beating them out bends them. That shut me down Thursday.

Friday morning I picked up new studs and nuts. I ran errands for a couple of hours then came home to finish the truck. First thing I did was open the box of studs. It was a box of bolts labeled studs. My wife called and explained that I had bought a box of studs and it had bolts in it and asked if they had another box in stock. The guy checked and told her they did have another box in stock and it does have studs in it.

So back to town I go. When I got there I had to explain the situation over and convince some guy that the box marked studs actually came from his store with bolts in it. Then I found out they only had 3 studs in stock. The guy told my wife he had a box of studs. "She didn't ask how many." She said a box, dumb butt.

Anyway, he called the Mineral Wells store and they had some in stock. So I had to drive from Weatherford to Mineral Wells. I got home with the goods about dark. I got the new studs in the axles and got one set of shoes changed before calling it a night.

Today I went out and finished the job. I filled the differential and the cover leaked. I tried this fancy Permatex gasket maker I've been hearing so much about. It leaks. So I had to drain it and fix that. I have a roll of gasket material 10" wide. It was just barely wide enough to make a gasket with 2 flat sides. But it works. No problem.

I now have NOS axles and new shoes and seals. And I rotated the tires while I was at it.

Good grief Cletis, sounds like you had a few good examples of "Murphy's Law" happen to you! Sorry you had to go through all of that, but at least now you've got it all fixed and you can go back to enjoying that Suburban of yours.

I am slowly making progress putting an original bed back on my 54 3100. I purchased it with a home made flat bed on it. The owner had the original fenders but the other bed parts were gone. After finding a box on ebay (original, not after market) I started the quest to restore a bed to this old truck. THIS WEEKEND I INSTALLED THE FENDERS. This make a world of difference in the appearance of this old girl. I am waiting on a friend of mine who is a cabinet maker to mill the bed wood for me. That will be the next task, installing the wood bed.

Here are some photos from the day I came home with her on the trailer through this weekend.

http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/dgrinnan/slideshow/Mobile%20Uploads

After having two of those cheesy aftermarket heater fan switches die in about a years time, I bought a NOS switch off of eBay and installed it today. Works like a champ, and should last decades. Looking at the construction of the 55+ year old switch to the "modern" one, gimme old school any day. Yeah, it costs more, but I'll only buy it once. Rant over...

glued the foam together for the seat on my 58 2-ton and glued it to the plywood base (now to trim and start sewing the cover up!)

Also, said goodbye to the 59 Suburban. My oldest daughter was here, shed a tear or two, and posted a pic on facebook to say goodbye to it! My middle daughter re-shared it, saying, "another piece of my childhood sold on Craigslist"! LOL... my 2 oldest granddaughters were bummed that I sold the "carriage". I need to stop traumatizing them!

You sold the 'burn? What're you gonna drag stuff home with now?

I drove mine about 100' today, over some rocks to its new perch overlooking the highway. Had to get rid of a stump and a rotted bear carving, but now I have a lot more room in the driveway. Those 2-tons take up space!

Paul, once the seat is done in my 58, I can use it to drag stuff home! Torklift Superhitch is rated for 10,000 with the SuperTruss extension I have on it.
http://s1152.photobucket.com/user/6...%2060/Hitch/hitch%20amp%20truss.jpg.html

Does lots of reading, research and planning count as progress? At least I have the truck in my possession...

I checked out my parts truck and wow it has sunk in the dirt pretty good not much left , was checking out the torque tube rear axle as I am waiting for my parts to come in and was thinking of rebuilding the parts tube so I could still use the truck while rebuilding .was also thinking of taking the pedals out as mine have some play in them and need to have the bushings replaced .

I installed a new electric fuel pump in the Suburban. The old one was taking spells of not pumping enough. So I have been running the mechanical one off the yard dog for 2 weeks, waiting for the new electric to get here from China.

What should have been a direct swap required some rewiring and longer hardware. But that was nothing compared to what I found while under there. THE DIFFERENTIAL COVER IS STILL LEAKING!. DANG IT! (For the story on that ordeal, see my Saturday post above.)

So after installing the fuel pump and removing the mechanical one and reinstalling the dummy, I pulled the differential cover AGAIN. I went to make another new gasket only to find there is less than 10" of gasket material left on my roll. Well heck. Looking through my stock I find a tube some off brand of silicone gasket maker. I decided to give that a try. I got it reinstalled but I'm going to let it cure at least 12 hours before adding grease.

Cletis,

Make sure it's not leaking past the cover bolt threads.

I didn't do anything to any of my trucks today...lol

Mike B

Finished two of th rims and painted the rear drums found a leaky rear brake cylinder ordered a set from rock auto. Hope they are correct formy canadian gmc

Had an evening free of plans so decided to tinker with the '50 half ton. Began by pulling out the old grease gun and then slid underneath on my Harbor Freight creeper to begin greasing all the zerk fittings I could find. About a quarter of them were plugged or somewhat plugged, so I got 3 out of 4 filled with new grease. While I was underneath thought I'd do an oil change, so I pulled the plug on the oil pan and then took a rag and cleaned up all the old oil and road grime off the pan and tranny. AFTER I had put the plug back in and had put in 5 quarts of new oil I found the nylon washer in the bottom of the catch pan. DARN!! Oh well, I'll reinstall it tomorrow. Took out the dirty filter and went to Auto Zone for a new one, but of course it wasn't in stock. Will be here tomorrow from another store. Finished by installing a new inline fuel filter, complete with new rubber gas lines on each side and new clamps.

Sure felt good to work on the old truck. Just what I needed after a stressful day at work.

finished sewing up the bottom cover for the seat on my 58 and got it installed on the frame! I hate those little clips!

http://s1152.photobucket.com/user/69B-Cuda/media/1958%20Viking%2060/Seat/bottom%20done_01.jpg.html

Installed a three inch drop axle with new king pins, new pitman, modern tie rods, drag link, shocks and new brakes......Good day for sure.

Ran new wire for the tail/stop lights. Stopped by an old high school friends shop. He is a top of the line custom cabinet maker. He made short work of cutting and milling the yellow pine lumber I bought to replace the bed in my 54 3100. I hope to get it primed and painted this weekend and ready for installation.

Not strictly "done to my 'bolt" but will they ultimately find their way onto the engine.
I've been chasing header leaks on the SBC thanks to some cheap generic tube headers.

I traded my services with a friend in exchange for these,cast manifolds from a 289 c.u.

I've modified the RH side by removing the heat riser as it was fubar and also cut off the cast in generator mounting boss on the left as it would foul the alternator on mine and followed that up with a coat or two of POR-20 VHT silver paint.

It's not always what you know,but who you know.

It's Monday now, did you get the priming and painting done?

I finally got the speedometer working.

Had to replace the speedo drive gear in the transmission. Fortunately, I have a few spare transmissions. $0 fix!

Video

Also, may have solved my brake master cylinder over-heating issue.

Drove all over town with the dog (Bonnie) and the truck (Clyde) on Saturday.

today i scraped half a gallon can full of old grease/mud from the bottom,i can now see most of the zerks!

I now see how foolish i was to take the old truck "mud bogging".

I got about half way through cleaning up the frame - removing old fuel lines, brakes lines, shocks. I believe the old knee action shocks can be rebuilt.

finished putting in the carpet in my 58, installed the seat, and went for a ride! (maiden voyage). Whoohoo!!

Spent the evening working to correct the PO's shoddy workmanship faux frenching the headlights on the '48 Burb. All plastic mounting hardware for the headlight bulbs would not allow the adjustment needed to make them safe for night driving. After some shimming and a few choice words for the mfg of the frenching kit, I was able to get them close enough to use. Oil/filter change later this week and I'll be ready for our annual Route 66 cruise Saturday night.

fixed a leak in the tank, went for a drive,(my 58 2-ton). It would not idel so, I took the carb apart.. YIKES!! it was NASTY inside ( I figured it was) cleaned the carb and went for another ride, much better now! then installed a tach.

My company was nice enough to dismiss us at noon on Friday to turn the 3-day weekend into a 3 1/2-day weekend, so I ran home to work on a couple of issues in prep for a show on Saturday that ended up being rescheduled due to the horrible weather we've been having all over Texas.
Shift linkage was binding up going from 1st to 2nd gear (3 on the tree), and I found one of the bushings was kinda shot, so I ordered some from The Filling Station. They arrived mid-week and I had Friday afternoon to work on it- a quick repair, and the shift linkage is good again. I also replaced the little rubber bellows at the top of the shift linkage underhood parts. Due to the weather, I was joking with a friend that I should install my electric wiper motor to make it to Saturday's show. Got word that it was postponed, but decided to install the kit anyway. It's the $150 unit from LMC, which was recommended as being about the only decent one by a builder on one of the Facebook groups. It went in pretty easily, and after following the installation instructions to make a few tweaks and adjustments, I have smoothly functioning wipers! Of course about that time, it stopped raining for the entire weekend, so I have not actually used them yet.
Jamco Suspension sent a sale ad with a coupon code, and I discovered they have more than just suspension parts, and I ended up ordering a master cylinder, proportioning valve, and bracket needed to go with the disc brake conversion that came on the spare axle I bought in January.

Further to my earlier post on sway bar mods.

I decided to change the rear bar mount . It has taken a while to get into this as winter is intruding and I am over laying under the truck in the frost (too old) .

This weekend I have moved the sway bar mounts on my cross member aft by 40mm , then made new links to suit. Effectively shortening the sway bar arms by 50mm.

The difference is noticeable , I think I like it , I have only been for a short run down the road , so proper testing during the week is going to happen , but it is looking promising .

Still have to make proper link joints (firm yet flexible) still grinding the gears in my head

Installed "Percys seal-4-good" dead soft aluminum gaskets on the drivers side Hooker header. Took about 2 hours. Will tackle the passenger side tomorrow. Now that it is warm in WI.and my shop is empty of other projects (Leblond 5F and Continental W-670 radial airplane engines) I will go full bore on the Suburban.


Weeds

Started installing the Astro van cable spare tire carrier in my 37.

got my wiring harness installed and everything but the dash wiring hooked up and working, sOOOoooo nice to be able to turn the key and step on the starter and go on to the interior and glass in prep for the local show on the 18th of this month (June)

Removed the generator from the '51 project and installed it in the '50. The one in the '50 was shot. Had to take off the fan in order to get the new belt around the engine, fan, and generator pulleys, then reinstalled the fan. Tightened up the slack in the belt and everything looks good. Ran out of day light, so I'll start it up tomorrow after church and see if everything works as it should.

got the bed painted on my 58 and got all the lights back on and new reflectors on the sides.

The float stuck on the '48 Burb( Edlebrock 4bbl ) on the 1st lap of the cruise last night. Limped it home at a high idle just to keep it running. Pulled that POS off this morning and replaced it with a Holley. My track record with Edlebrock carbs is well documented here. Should have pulled it off the day I got the Burb home after purchase. All is good now.

Change out the (cracked) rear brake line .

Sure pays to have a lie down under the truck occasionally

Changed rear wheel cylinder ,bleed all the brakes greased all the nipples,changed the oil,checked Trans, diff and steering box fluids and took her for a spin. Priceless

Drove the truck to the brush collection site to unload all the limbs that I've had in the bed since Memorial Day weekend. Gas had been leaking badly from the two short rubber gas lines on either side of the inline fuel filter, so I bought 1 foot of gas line and 4 small hose clamps at the FLAPS and installed longer pieces of fuel line and tightened the clamps well. No leaks! The truck made the round trip without a problem and ran beautifully. Still need to install a permanent replacement generator once I find one.

1953 3100. Cleaning/sealing the original bottom feed fuel tank (POR15), and replacing the rest of the fuel delivery system up to the carb. Rebuilding the carb with a new kit too if I get the time.....

got the heater in, installed a new temp sender, aftermarket temp gauge (want to know exactly what temp my engine is, original gauge was spiking but engine was not overheating) fixed worn clutch linkage and adjusted clutch, installed the wiper arms. Lots of stuff done for a Friday night!

Rear end and leaf springs back on the truck! Now need to connect the torque tube ball and fill with oil. Still waiting on some brake hoses, and need to swap out brake lines with new ones. Getting closer to being back on the road!

Installed the 3rd new Speedometer in the '56 3100 today. The past two "new" speedometers have had the odometer fail. The speedometer still worked it was the odometer that quit. We'll test it this week driving to Macungie and see if this unit is better than the last two.

Mike B