The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Early 'Bolts (1916-1936 1st Half) Lurch is squealing - gotta fix him

In May 2022, Lurch and I spent a WONDERFUL week at the VCCA's 30th Four Cylinder Tour, in Porterville, CA. This event is only open to 1911 - 1928 Chevys, so we hob knobed with around 40 other vehicles of this era and enjoyed being amongst other similarly diseased owners and families. Here's a link to Lurch's take on the event: Lurch Goes On Tour

We drove over 300 miles in 4 days! ;-) Unfortunately, Lurch developed a noticeable 'squeal' towards the end of the week. The sound seemed to be coming from the clutch or transmission area. I did notice that it only squealed right after shifting gears and stepping on the gas pedal. This leads me to think the problem is a worn clutch. Another possibility is weak pressure plate springs.

To help confirm that the clutch is worn, I put Lurch in first (granny) gear, put wheel chocks in front of the rear wheels, and tried to turn the engine over with the hand crank. Sure enough, I was able to give the engine a 1/2 half turn WITHOUT the rear wheels turning. This little test seems to confirm that the clutch is slipping. I'll learn more when everything is opened up.

Well, it's time to put Lurch under the knife, figure out what the problem is, and fix it. I'll be posting my progress and findings as I go through this project.

Lurch sleeps under his blankie (tarp) in the driveway. I don't have a garage (that became our bedroom 45 years ago) and the carport is taken up by Justin. See Lurch blissfully sleeping in photo number one. That is also where I work on him.

In photo number two, you'll see how I normally jack up his rear axle. This setup won't do for the surgery. The jacks need to be under the rear chassis, which in turn allows his rear axle to hang lower and provide more space in the u-joint area. Photo number three shows the jack moved to be holding up the chassis.

Pic number four shows the transmission area (from underneath) before any disassembly takes place. Ahead of the tranny, you'll see Lurch's depends (a cake pan that catches his engine drippings). Hey, when you're over 95 years old, you're gonna drip!

The next pic shows the floor space in what's left of the cab. Photo number six shows the floor boards taken off and the transmission area exposed from the top. You'll also see in this photo the main battery disconnect, which is mounted to the side of the transmission.

Before I started taking anything apart, I drained the oil out of the transmission.

In pic number seven, the u-joint ball housing retainer is unbolted and slid back. In pic number eight, I'm starting to take the u-joint itself apart. Photo number nine shows the u-joint starting to come apart.

At this point, I have the opportunity to inspect the u-joint bearings (trunnions) and the yoke shafts. I was wondering if Lurch had a '27 u-joint (which was the same one used in cars) or if he had a '28 u-joint, which was more heavy duty. It turns out that he has the '27 parts and they are within spec (.004 inch difference between the trunnion ID and the yoke shaft OD). Good news!

To be continued...

Cheers, Dean

Dean,

I was fearful when you described your photos in your post, but relieved when I saw CAPTIONS on your photos themselves.

Nicely done. A gold star for you.

Hope the clutch work goes well and Lurch quits squealing soon.

On pins and needles ...

The next steps were more disassembly.

With the u-joint uncoupled (first photo below), I dropped the torque tube out of the way. I had a jack stand waiting to support it (second photo below).

I slid the rear u-joint yoke off of the drive shaft and removed the u-joint ball housing off the torque tube (see the third photo below).

Now I can do a little more inspection and I found more clues from the scene of the crime.

In the fourth photo below, you can see that there is some MAJOR scraping going on inside the u-joint ball housing. Not good at all!

I wiggled the drive shaft (called the propeller shaft in the parts book) and found that it could move around 1/16 of an inch is all directions. This could contribute to the u-joint moving around inside its housing.

Next I wiggled the u-joint half still attached to the transmission and found it to be loose! Yes, the cotter pin is in the nut holding the yoke on, but that nut is not tightened down so the yoke can move around another 1/16 of an inch. Hmmmmm.

After that little test, I put the rear u-joint yoke back on the drive shaft splines and found that the yoke was very sloppy on the splines (another 1/16 of an inch of wiggle room). See the last photo.

I will investigate this further after the transmission comes out. At the very least, I need to replace the front drive shaft bushing to take up the slack for the drive shaft sidways movement.

I might need to replace the u-joint yokes. Time will tell. This might be an opportunity to put a 1928 u-joint in Lurch, which has larger bearings. I will explore this down the road.

'Til next time, Dean

Since the drive shaft wiggles around too much, it is obvious that the front drive shaft bushing needs to be replaced.

Photo number 16 shows the front end of the torque tube with the drive shaft sticking out the end, the bushing access hole (the slot) and the locating pin that prevents the bushing from rotating.

The red arrow is pointing to the pin. It is 5/16" in diameter and really short (I didn't know this until I pulled it out). The blue arrow is pointing to one of the four places where the previous guy who worked on this peened the pin in place.

I'm going to use my dremel tool to grind the peened pin anchors away, so I first slipped a sandwich bag over the end of the drive shaft and taped it to the torque tube in order to protect these areas from the grinding and drilling that I'm going to do. See photo 17.

In photo 18, I've ground away some material at the peening points and have drilled a 1/8" hole in the middle of the pin.

Begin little saga within a saga.

My first attempt to get the pin out was to use an easy out in the little hole I drilled. No go. The tip of the easy out broke off. ;-(

Luckily, the easy out was a cheap one and was not hardened, so I could drill down through it and get back to square one. I then opened up the hole to 3/16" and tried a better easy out. The pin stayed put and the easy out just twisted out.

Next, I opened up the hole in the pin again to 19/64" (just under 5/16") and the pin now spins around, but won't lift out.

Enter Rube Goldberg. I took a hardened concrete nail and ground it a little to make the point into a tiny chisel. I then drove the chisel in between the outside of the pin (which is now a tube) and the outer edge of the hole in the torque tube. I hoped that creating a crimp in the pin/tube would stop it from spinning in the hole.

The crimp did the trick. Yay! I went in again with the 19/64" drill and now the drill bit dug into the pin/tube and yanked it out of the hole. Whew!! See photo 19, which shows the concrete 'chisel' and the pin at the end of the drill bit. That's a REALLY short pin!!! Like, only 3/16" long.

End little saga.

In photo 20, I cleaned out the crud that was in the slot and now you can clearly see the front edge of the bushing, along with its ridge for knocking it out. The hole in the middle of the pin hole is where my 1/8" drill bit went through the pin and into the bushing.

Using a short length of 1/8" square key stock, I knocked the bushing mostly out (photos 21 and 22). At one point, the square stock got stuck in the slot, so I used a bent nail to push the bushing out the rest of the way.

It turns out that there is an old cork seal and a steel washer that was behind the bushing. You can see the seal through the slot in photo 23. Using a skinny screwdriver, I cajoled the washer and seal out of the torque tube. See photo 24.

That's the end of this episode of squealgate.

Later, Dean

Continuing to prepare for the transmission removal, I took off most of the bell housing bolts, but left the top two. I also put in long bolts on the two sides of the bell housing. When I finally pull the transmission away from the flywheel housing, these long bolts will support the tranny and allow me to pull it straight back to disengage the input shaft from the clutch. See photo number 25 below.

Next is to loosened (not take off) the tranny cross member support bolts. In photo 26 below, you'll see an arrow pointing to one of the shims that keep the tranny centered and tight between the chassis rails. These shims are driven in from the top with the bolts in place, but loose. To take the shims out, I have to drive them up and out. See photos 27 and 28.

Looking around my stash piles, I found a couple of brackets that I'll use to attach a lifting chain to the sides of the transmission. See photos 29 and 30.

I don't have a cherry-picker style engine hoist, but I do have a Hoyer lift that can lift 450 pounds, so it'll do the trick. See photo 31. I made a boom attachment for it from a steel bar that used to be part of the original 1947 garage door mechanism in our house. Repurpose!!

Photo 32 was taken a moment before I tried to back the transmission away from the engine block. In photo 33, the tranny has disengaged from the block and is dangling from the lift and the long bolts. Safety first!

In pic 34, the transmission has been lowered to the ground and you can see the pressure plate still attached to the flywheel.

Story continued in the next post.

Dean

In photo number 35, you can see the throw out bearing assembly still on the transmission input shaft. When I slid it off, I noticed that the bearing itself seemed to get very hot, as indicated by the blue discoloring in pic number 36. I will replace this bearing.

Pic number 37 shows the pressure plate assembly. I took out a couple of the mounting bolts (top and bottom) and replaced them with bolts that are a little longer so that when I take all the other mounting bolts off, the pressure plate would not pop off and drop to the ground.

When the pressure plate assembly came off (pic 38), a surprise was waiting for me. The pilot bearing evidently was loose in the end of the crankshaft and it pulled out when the tranny was pulled out. You can see it sitting in the middle of the clutch hole, where the tranny input shaft goes. This bearing will be replaced too!

With the clutch out of the flywheel, I inspected the clutch contact surface of the flywheel (pic 39) and it looks pretty good. Just a little glazing, so I'll scuff it up with some sandpaper before reassembly begins.

That's all for now.

Ever onward, Dean

I've been busy chasing parts and figuring out what to do about the pilot bearing replacement.

I found a NOS front torque tube bushing on ebay, so that's a score!! None of the Chevy four cylinder part vendors carries this part. I will, however, need to get creative about the seal that goes behind this bushing. Nobody carries this seal for the 1927 torque tube. I will check with local seal vendors and report back with what I find.

For the pilot bearing, I bought a new one from Gary Wallace (http://earlychevyparts.com/) and found that it was loose in the crankshaft hole. It is supposed to be an press fit. Hmmmmm. After some measuring, some banter with other Bolters, and other research, I have a plan for its installation. Here is the discussion thread about the pilot bearing: https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...it-for-pilot-bearing-in-a-28-engine.html

The next thing on the agenda is refurbishing the pressure plate. I'll cover that in the next post.

Cheers, Dean

On to refurbishing the pressure plate. I bought a set of new springs from Gary Wallace in preparation for this work.

One of the first things I noticed when inspecting the pressure plate assembly is that one of the pivot pins had lost one of its spring clips and was sticking out the side (see photo 40 below). Not good.

Photos 41 and 42 show the front and back of the pressure plate assembly as taken out of Lurch. The clutch plate looks serviceable and the rest just needs a good cleaning and some paint.

To safely take the pressure plate assembly apart, I set up two large C clamps so I can take out the eight 3/8" bolts and then slowly let the springs push the assembly apart. See photo 43.

Photos 44 and 45 show the inside of the pressure plate assembly. Rusty, crusty, but not too worn.

Photo 46 shows one of the pivot pins that lost one of its spring clips and was rusted in this offset position.

I had to use a gnarly C clamp to move that pin back and forth (with some help of some lubricating oil) before it would come out. Before I put pressure on the pin with the clamp, I measured the gap on the side of the pivot arm and inserted a brass shim in there so the C clamp would not crack the cast iron side supports that hold the pivot arm. See photo 47.

I cleaned up the pivot pins with some used emery cloth (see photo 48) and bought some new 3/8"-16x3/4" bolts, new lock washers, and new spring clips at the local hardware store for the reassembly.

After cleaning off the clutch surface plate with some emery cloth wrapped around a square aluminum block, I cleaned and painted the two plates, the pivot arms, and the new set of springs. I used a rattle can of Rustoleum high temp flat black that was laying around.

Before reassembling the whole shebang, I put a teeny bit of Lubriplate 115 grease (very tacky marine grease) on the pivot pins to help the pivot arms move nicely.

Then came the reassembly itself. I used my big C clamps to compress the springs so that I could use the new bolts and lock washers to hold it all together. See photo 49. Now the pressure plate assembly is ready to go back into Lurch when I'm ready to do it.

Cheers, Dean

Dean, I have really been enjoying your posts. Thanks for taking the time to post on your progress with Lurch!

Glad you are along for the ride, Dragsix! ;-)

Based on the conversation here (Press fit in a '28 engine for a pilot bearing), I can now 'glue' in the pilot bearing. ;-)

In that discussion, Jerry (Hotrod Lincoln) mentioned Loctite green stud and bearing compound. I researched this and found two possible products: Loctite 609 and 680. Based on their specs, either one would work well, but the 680 is a thicker liquid and takes a longer time to set up (1 hour vs. 10 minutes for the 609). They both take 24 hours to fully cure. To give myself more time to get the transmission installed to align the bearing, I went with the 680.

To prevent the Loctite from gripping the transmission input shaft, I smeared a tiny bit of bearing grease on the inside of the bearing and the outside of the tranny input shaft.

To ensure that the Loctite is able to adhere to the hole in the crankshaft and the outside of the pilot bearing, I washed both with a spray electrical connector cleaner.

So, today I 'glued' in the pilot bearing. Photo 50 below shows the pilot bearing in place with the Loctite 680 surrounding it.

Photo 51 shows the transmission getting ready to mate up with the flywheel housing. After hoisting the tranny up, I put in three long 3/8-16 bolts in the flywheel housing to guide the transmission into place.

Photo 52 shows the transmission slid into place and with a few short bolts holding it in place.

This is how it will sit for the next 24+ hours to allow the Loctite to cure.

Cheers, Dean

A couple of days after I 'glued' the pilot bearing into the egg-shaped and tapered hole in the crankshaft, I backed the transmission away from the engine and lowered it to the ground. The pilot bearing is centered and snugly glued in place. Jerry's suggestion of using the tranny to align the bearing was spot on! ;-) See photo number 53.

Before I can re-install the transmission for the last time, I need to replace the throw out bearing. A number of years ago, I replaced Lurch's carbon disk throw out bearing with a newer style ball bearing assembly. Rather than buy a whole new throw out bearing assembly, I can just replace the ball bearing and move on.

The ball bearing is press fitted onto the throw out bearing assembly body, so I machined a spacer so I can press the bearing off of the body. This was made from a pipe connector/reducer (see photo 54).

To heat up the old throw out bearing assembly, I put it in the sun for a couple of hours (see photo 55). Then I put it in my giant C-clamp press (see photo 56) and was able to separate the bearing from the housing. ;-) See photo 57 with the bearing and body circled in green.

I took the old bearing to a local bearing house and they hooked me up with a new 613001 BCA ball bearing replacement for $57. This is way cheaper than buying a new whole throw out bearing assembly for $125.

I noticed that there was some green bearing cement on the old body, so I scraped it off with a razor blade to get ready for the new bearing.

I measured the inside diameter of the new bearing (1.376 inches) and the outside diameter of where it is going to go on the body, which was 1.375 inches. So it is a .001" interference fit.

To put the new bearing onto the old body, I put the body in our freezer for a couple of days (don't tell the Wife - She who must be obeyed) and put the bearing in the sun for a couple of hours. I put a small amount of the Loctite 680 on the body to make sure the bearing would stay put. The sun's heat expanded the bearing and the freezer contracted the body so that they just slipped together without any force. ;-)

I wiped the extra Loctite away and let the temperature of the assembly normalize. Viola! The throw out bearing assembly is now ready for re-installation.

The next post will cover the re-installation of the transmission.

Ever onward! Dean

On to installing the transmission, hopefully for the last time (fingers and toes crossed).

Before I begin installing stuff, I need to mark the orientation of the pressure plate assembly. It only fits into the back of the flywheel one way. I played with this orientation and marked the top of the flywheel (with a red grease pencil) and the corresponding place on the pressure plate assembly so I wouldn't have to fuss with this during the install. See photo 58.

Here's the steps I followed for the transmission install:

1. Put the new clutch in place. See photo 59. The clutch must be placed with the concave space of the disk facing the flywheel in order to provide clearance for the flywheel attachment bolts. See photo 59.

2. Hung the pressure plate assembly from a long bolt. See photo 60. This positions the pressure plate assembly without tightening it down, thus not yet clamping on the clutch.

3. Put the throw out bearing assembly in place. See photos 61 and 62.

4. Center the clutch in the flywheel with a clutch pilot alignment tool. Many years ago, I took apart two 4-speed transmissions and made one good one for Lurch from the best parts. As a result of that effort, I have a transmission input shaft laying around. ;-) The spines are VERY worn, but it serves the purpose of centering the new clutch. See photo 63.

5. With everything lined up, I can now tighten down the bolts that hold the pressure plate assembly to the flywheel. I gave each bolt a 1/4 turn and did this in a cross-disk manner so as to not pull the pressure plate assembly into the flywheel crookedly. See photo 64.

6. Now that the pressure plate assembly is tightened down and it is holding the clutch in the correct place, I took out the pilot tool, raised up the transmission with the hoist, slid it into position, and bolted it to the flywheel housing. I had the tranny in fourth gear so I could rotate the rear shaft and get the front shaft to engage properly in the clutch. See photo 65.

;-) Dean

Pedal time!

The next things to put back into Lurch are the pedals.

I noticed when taking them off that the bronze bearings have worn quite a bit and the steel pedal shaft is somewhat worn too (see photo number 66). I suspect that the moving parts here don't get the love (lubrication) that they need or deserve. I'll put some sticky marine grease on the moving parts for now and try to remember to lubricate this area more often. Since it is under the floor boards, it's out of sight, out of mind!

I cannot replace the steel pedal shaft (the clutch pedal area of the shaft is worn more than the brake pedal area - duh!), but looking into my stash o' stuff, I do have another pair of pedals that have more meat in the bearings, so I'm going to use these pedals in Lurch.

When I put the pedals and stop plate on, I noticed that there is still side-to-side movement possible with the holding clip at the end in place (see photo 67). So, I made a spacer washer that is .030" thick to take up most of that slack. See photos 68 and 69.

With the new (?) pedals and the spacer washer in place, the pedals wiggle a lot less and this assembly is done for now. I might have to adjust the stop plate and the clutch pull bolt later. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Dean

The next mini-project is to install the new old stock (NOS) torque tube bushing (ebay!!) and the seal that goes behind it.

Photo number 71 shows the old bearing and broken seal on the left and the NOS bearing with a new seal on the right. The kind folks at Bearing Engineering helped me choose a new neoprene seal (11730 CR) to replace the old, cracked cork seal and it's backup washer. The new seal assembly is .040" thicker than the cork/washer setup, but I don't think that will be a problem.

Before starting the install of the new bushing and seal, I cleaned up the outside of the torque tube so that the rear of the ball housing can move smoothly back and forth along the total torque tube sleeve. See photo 72.

Side note: When I was playing with different used parts to replace the u-joint, I noticed that the rear yoke that I'm going to use did not fully slide onto the splines of the propeller shaft. The problem was that some of the propeller shaft splines had very small ridges sticking up (from wear) that prevented the 'new' yoke with good splines from sliding back the full length of the splines. I took a small flat file and filed those ridges down thus enabling the yoke to slide all the way back. End of side note.

The inside diameter (ID) of the 'new' torque tube bushing is .002" larger than the propeller shaft. The old bushing's clearance was .040"!! When I test fitted the new bushing onto the end of the propeller shaft, it slid nicely over the splines that were sticking out of the torque tube, but would not slide back into the torque tube. Hmmm. It turns out that the little ridge that I found on the splines when testing the u-joint yoke was sticking up inside the torque tube. I had not filed them down further back on the splines completely. This was remedied with a little bit of flat filing and a thorough cleaning of the splines. See photo 73.

Now that the splines no longer have wear ridges on them, I went through the following the assembly process:

1. The first item to go into the tube was the new neoprene seal. This is to keep the oil in the u-joint area from leaking out the back to run into the differential. I smeared some assembly grease on it and gently tapped it over the drive shaft and into the torque tube until it stopped at a ledge that kept the original metal washer in place. The neoprene seal replaces the old cork seal and the metal washer. See photo 74. Note that the 'open' side of the seal faces the front of the truck.

2. After the seal was in place, I lubed the new bushing and gently tapped it into place with a long, thin screwdriver and small hammer. The bushing goes in with the extraction groove facing u-joint. See photo 75.

3. Now it was time to secure the bushing in place with a 5/16" pin, like the one I extracted out of the old bushing. See the pin hole in the torque tube in photo 76.

The new bushing did not have a hole in it for a pin, so I had to drill one. The torque tube wall at this point is 1/8" thick and the steel outer part of the bushing is 1/4" thick (making 3/8" steel total), so I decided on a pin length of 1/4". Therefore, I needed to drill a 5/16 diameter hole that would go 1/8 inch into the steel bushing surround. Before drilling the hole, I slid a couple of washers and a length of copper tubing around the drill bit so the tip of the drill bit was sticking 1/4" out from the end. This way, the drill will stop drilling at the correct depth. ;-)

Using the original pin hole in the torque tube as a guide, I drilled into the bushing. Since the drill bit has a peaked end, so did the bottom of the hole I just drilled. To get a 'square' bottom of the pin hole, I ground the tip off of another 5/16" drill bit so in essence, I made a 5/16" end mill bit and drilled the bottom of the pin hole so a 1/4" length of 5/16" rod will fit down into the hole. Using the same washers and copper tube 'drill stop setup', I cleaned out the bottom of the hole. See photo 77.

4. I cut off a 1/4" length off the shank of an old 5/16" bolt to be used to keep the bushing from rotating. So I could easily handle this short pin, I used a small blob of JB Weld (see photo 78) to glue a tooth pick onto one end of the pin. This will be cut off later.

5. After the JB Weld cured (24 hours), I test fitted the pin in the hole (see photo 79). It slid right in. ;-)

6. I gathered that since the old pin was held in place by peening the torque tube hole around it, the new pin needs to be held into place somehow. Rather than re-peening it, I used my new favorite glue; Loctite 680. See photo 80. I only used a tiny amount of the Loctite and applied it to the outside diameter of the pin as it was lowered into its hole. After the Locktite cured (24 hours), I just cut off the toothpick and lightly sanded the excess Loctite off and ended up with a smooth surface for the back of the u-joint housing to slide over. ;-)

That's the end of the new bushing installation.

Cheers, Dean

Dean, Looks like Lurch has a very competent and detail oriented doctor. Thanks for sharing.

Good job, it gives the rest of us hope and insight on our next one.

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I want to take my time and get this job right because I don't want to do it again! ;-)

The next item to be addressed is the u-joint ball housing. There are two problems to be take care of:

1. The inside of the ball part of the housing is scored due to the loosey goosey u-joint that was rattling around in it.

2. The rear end of the housing, where a seal gets installed, has some damage. I suspect at one point the housing was dropped and landed on something hard (concrete?) so that the metal washers that hold the cork seal in place were a little smashed in a couple of places.

To smooth out the inside of the ball part of the housing, I went to Harbor Freight and bought a new tool. ;-) A pneumatic high speed grinder with a three inch extension on the end.

Before the smoothing operation, I gently clamped the ball housing in my vice using plywood protectors so as not to marr the 'patina'. ;-) With the housing thusly clamped, I was able to use a strip of emery cloth to clean up the outside of the ball. See photos 81 and 82.

Since the inside of the ball is four inches in diameter, a three-inch cutoff wheel on the end of the grinder reached inside the ball well and with this setup I was able to smooth out the score marks. I first stuffed a shop rag into the hole of the housing to keep flying metal particles contained in the ball end. See photo 83.

Then, I used the die grinder to smooth out the score marks inside the ball part of the housing. It ain't pretty, but it is a lot smoother in there than it was before. See photos 84 and 85.

To address the smashed rear end of the ball housing, I dug out the old cork seal and 'pounded out' the smashed housing end as best I could using a concrete nail with the point ground off. The o ring that came with the housing gasket kit that I bought is too small for my truck housing (I suspect the kit was really for a car which has a smaller diameter drive shaft), so I went to the local hardware store and was able to buy a generic o ring that fit into that space. See photos 85a and 85b.

Now the u-joint ball housing is ready for re-installing.

Ever onward, Dean

Dean, you should have seen the lumps on the outside of my u-joint ball housing. I filed most of them off on the outside, filled some of the gouges on the inside with weld and ground them off. I was only worried about spots where it might be too thin.
I would have hit the outside of yours with emery cloth like you did and left the inside alone. It was almost pristine before you ground on it. You're too much of a perfectionist.
I've been thinking about chucking mine in a lathe to make the ball spherical again.

The last item to be refurbished is the u-joint.

The current u-joint was last taken apart in 2017 when I rebuilt Lurch's engine. At that time, I swapped out the worn out three speed transmission with a psudo-rebuilt four speed tranny. I took the best parts from three 4-speed trannies and made one 'better' tranny for Lurch.

When putting this 'newer' tranny back in Lurch, the 1928 front yoke of the u-joint mated well with the rear yoke that was on Lurch's driveshaft. At least statically, they bolted together nicely (or so I thought).

BTW, before I took the front u-joint yoke off the back of the transmission, I pulled out the little speedometer driving gear and shaft that is driven by the spiral gear that is pressed onto front u-joint yoke. With the speedo gear out of the housing, the u-joint yoke can come out without damaging the speedo gear.

Now that I have those parts out and in the open again, I learned that the 1927 rear yoke (and its trunnions) were smaller than the 1928 front yoke and its trunnions.

In photo number 86, you can see the '28 trunnion clamped nicely in the u-joint. However, rotating the u-joint 90 degrees (photo 87) and you'll see the 1927 trunnion with a big gap around it in the clamp.

THE SMOKING GUN OF THE SQUEAL!

If you zoom in on photo 88, you can see where the 1927 trunnions were spinning in the clamp and thus, make a squealing noise.

So the remedy is to find a good set of 1928 u-joint parts that fit the one ton truck. According to my parts book, the same u-joint part numbers were used for the 1928 1 ton truck through the 1930 1 1/2 ton truck.

The hunt begins! None of the regular vendors carry new parts for this. ;-( One vendor has a used 1928 u-joint (unknown condition) and he wants $350 for it. Ouch!

I reached out to the VCCA Technical Advisors and one of them (Bill Hulbert) had some parts that he sold me for $200. This included a '28 front yoke (with clamp and two trunnions) and a complete '30 u-joint. All used, but beggars can't be choosers. He told me that the '30 (model LR truck) had the speedometer coming out the driver's side of the tranny, which is the reverse side from Lurch's tranny. Evidently, the worm gear is pressed onto the front yoke, so it can be taken off and replaced with the correct speedo gear.

When the parts arrived from Bill, I noticed something beside the reverse speedo gear: the trunnions were not domed, but had a ridge around them. I don't know if these ridged trunnions (and clamp) were aftermarket parts or if Chevy switched to this design at some point in time. Either way, I can't use these ridged trunnions because one of them is really worn.

See photos 89 and 90 for a view of three trunnions ('27 domed on the far left, '28 domed in the middle, and '30 on the right). Notice pronounced bevel showing on the middle trunnion in photo 89. The trunnions must go onto the yoke with the bevel towards the center of the u-joint. The bevel provides some clearance for where the trunnion shaft meets the yoke body.

Luckily, the trunnion shafts on the rear 1930 yoke have the same diameter to fit up with the 1928 domed trunnions and I have a few of those. ;-)

I ended up using some of the parts I got from Bill ('28 front yoke, '28 trunnion clamp, and '30 rear yoke) and the best four domed trunnions from my stash. The trunnion-to-shaft clearance I ended up with was a range of .004" - .008" with the used parts that I'm putting together. At least they all fit in the clamp and are in WAY better shape than the parts I took out of Lurch. ;-)

With the u-joint parts settled, I'm one step closer to the final re-assembly and hopefully get Lurch back on the road without the ominous squeal.

Cheers, Dean

The last step before attempting the final re-assembly is to determine the number of gaskets needed for the u-joint ball housing.

In photo 91, you can see the ball housing clamp with the old broken cork gasket and the new cork gasket. Photos 92 and 93 show the clamp with the new gasket in it.

The gasket kit came with four paper-thin (.015") gaskets for the ball housing. These gaskets space the housing away from the transmission enough so that the cork gasket can slide around the ball.

To determine what 'gasket pack' will work, I smeared some assembly grease on the outside of the ball, and then bolted the housing on (with the torque tube out of the way), using all four of the paper gaskets.

If the spacing is correct, the cork gasket will contact the outside of the ball and you should be able to move the housing up and down, with the cork gasket sliding over the ball.

This initial setup was too tight, even with all four gaskets. I could not make the housing move up and down. See photo 94.

Sooooo, I got some 1/16" (.062") gasket material out and cut a new gasket. See photos 95 and 96.

The next bolt-together was with the new 1/16" gasket along with two of the paper .015" gaskets. Now the ball housing can stiffly move up and down. Good 'nuf!!

Now that I have the correct gasket pack (1 at .062" and 2 at .015"; total = .092"), I can proceed on to the final assembly. That will be in the next posting.

Cheers, Dean

The final re-assembly is now possible. Yay!

Here's the process I followed:

1. Install the front u-joint yoke with its bearings and its half of the bearing clamp onto the output shaft of the transmission. See photo 97. If you recall, when I first opened the u-joint area, the front yoke was loose. Looking at a spare four speed tranny back in the shed, it looks like a washer is supposed to be installed under the yoke nut, thus spacing it out so that the castle nut will hold the yoke tightly and be in the correct position for the cotter pin. A small mystery solved! See the washer pointed out in photo 98.

2. Re-install the speedometer drive shaft and gear. I put some assembly grease on the gear and some Permetex aviation form-a-gasket on the threads that hold up the left side of the speedo drive shaft. This is to help prevent oil leakage from the u-joint area. See photo 99.

3. Smear some assembly grease on the torque tube front sleeve and slide the u-joint ball housing (with its clamp and gaskets in place) onto the torque tube. See photo 100.

4. The next item to go onto Lurch is the rear u-joint yoke, its bearings, and the back half of the bearing clamp. See photos 101 and 102.

Note that all the bearings go onto their shafts with the beveled hole facing the center of the u-joint. The bevels in the bearing holes give them some clearance at the point where the bearing shaft on the yoke meets the Y of the yoke. If the bearings are not oriented properly, metal will grind and that's not good!

5. I brought the torque tube down so that it aligned with the back of the transmission. Using a small screwdriver, I kept the back half of the u-joint bearing clamp from disappearing into the ball housing. See photo 103.

6. To hold the two halves of the bearing clamp together so that I can get the bolts in, I used some scrap thin wire on two opposite sides of the clamp, thus enabling me to get bolts into the other two bolt holes on the clamp. See photo 104.

7. To start getting bolts into the bearing clamp, I used a slightly longer bolt with a nut on it to start pulling the clamp halves together. See photo 105. Once the halves came close enough to use the regular bolts, I put those in the other two holes and then replaced the longer bolts with the regular bolts and lock washers. I always try to remember to use new lock washers in situations like this. I heard one guy say that there's nothing more useless than used split lock washers. ;-)

Now that all the bolts are started, I tightened one just a little, then rotated the u-joint (tranny in neutral and rear wheels still off the ground) and tightened the next bolt. This way, I could make sure the bearings are positioned correctly as the clamp gets tight around them.

8. With the u-joint clamp bolts tight, I slid the ball housing forward, put some grease on the outside of the ball, and tightened up the housing clamp.

U-joint installation is DONE!

Now all that is left is to hook up the brake rods, re-install the e-brake lever, put in the master electrical cutoff switch, put Mobil 600W oil in the tranny and u-joint, and hook up the speedometer cable. To help prevent oil leaks out of the speedo cable's nut, I put some pipe thread goop on the nut's threads (RectorSeal T plus 2).

The floor boards went in and Lurch is ready for a road test!

Whew, Dean

Keep it coming, Dean! I'm furiously taking notes!

Okay, let's set the stage. I got Lurch put together just two days before the Antique Autos in History Park show in San Jose. This show is 36 miles away from home, so I planned to drive him there.

Fingers (and toes) crossed for the short maiden voyage with all the new or refurbished parts in the tranny area. I drove 3 miles to the local hardware store. Son of a beeswax! The new clutch is chattering and making an awful racket. But, no 'squealing' like before. So, do I go ahead and make the 72 mile drive (round trip) to the show in San Jose? You betcha!!

I roped a cousin (Mike) into being my copilot in Lurch. My son, Josh, drove my other truck (Justin). We headed out Saturday morning a little after 9am going on the back roads to San Jose. Yes, I know the way to San Jose. ;-)

The clutch chatter noise kept up the whole drive down to the show, but no parts were thrown out so we made it okay. It took around 1 1/2 hours to get there. We set up Lurch's cattle cage and had a blast for the day.

The first photo below shows Lurch and Justin parked near the old Fire station that is in History Park. BTW, it's a wonderful venue for a car show. Lots of old growth trees for shade and surrounded by historic buildings. Also, nothing newer than 1946 is allowed into this show.

Photo number two shows Lou MacMillan's 1938 Chevy ambulance. ;-)

Photo three shows a beautiful 1939 Chevy pickup. Photos four, five, six, and seven show some other splendid vehicles there.

Finally, in photo eight, you'll see me (on the right) and cousin Mike with our goggles on and ready for the drive home. We took a different route (a long cut) and it took over two hours to get home.

Here's the thing, though. For the drive home, THE CLUTCH CHATTER DISAPPEARED!!! I guess it had to be broken in. Yay!!

Since then, I've driven Lurch around some and taken him to another show (the Ironstone Concurs d'Elegance) and he has performed magnificently!

Soooooo, this is the end of the squealgate saga. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Happy happy, Dean

And there was much rejoicing! Yay!!

Thanks Dean!!!

Glad to see Lou involved. I would truly love to meet both of you in person some day!

Is Justin's last name "Case"?

No. Justin Tyme.

The photo below is Justin all decked out for the local Cherry Festival Parade. The magnetic sign on the door says "Justin Tyme Produce".


;-) Dean