The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1952 Chevrolet 3100 Project

I didn’t ask that question and now I wondering why. Do you mean another brand like a MSD Blaster or the Ford coils he was selling?

MSD or Mallory, Accel, Most aftermarket coils will support enough voltage for an HEI. The coil you have will work but it's not mounted as you would have wanted.

I may consider changing it out in the future as I would like to mimic the factory look.

11/20/22: Today, I sand blasted my twin horns I acquired from a fellow Stovebolter. I love this forum, as l have obtained many needed parts for our truck, thru this forum and I have to thank those who have helped.

A little bit of satin black spray paint and there ready for installation.

Look like new ,what paint did you use and what primer on them .The horns are like a cast pot metal if I remember correct.

Were those optional horns? I thought the ADs all got the single horn mounted on the exhaust manifold.

Where do those mount?

Fire wall above starter
Most of my trucks have two horns in that location
Might be a Canadian thing,
Also some Canadian gmc have one on manifold and the second is alone up on the fire wall
Likely it was a new requirement at about that time and a late factory addition/modification
When the truck has two horns they are hi/low notes just like the modern horns today.
There is a special bracket for the dual fire wall horns
Also when a truck gets two horns it got a factory horn relay installed next to the tiny fuse box on the fire wall
GM did not try grounding out two horns in the steering wheel.
-s

The horn part is pot metal but the dome is pressed steel. I first bead blasted them then used my favorite spray paint, Ace Hardware Premium Satin Black. Covers in two coats, built in primer and drys fast.

12/09/22: I installed my horns today. After much debating, primarily with myself, with the input from our fellow ‘bolters, I decided to hook them up in series. I bought rivet nuts and a new installation tool to install in the firewall, printed a insulating spacer on my 3d printer and bought 1/4”-20 nylon bolts and washers. I had previously wired the two 6v horns wired in series on the bench to see if it would work and they did, so I was all set to do the install.

Unfortunately, my plan fell apart when I tested the install. Only the high toned horn worked. The low didn’t even make a click. I was baffled. I retested each horn separately on 12 volts and both worked, loud but did work. I tried adjusting the low toned horn while in series but to no avail. I tried feeding the low first then the high (opposite to the way it was), again no joy.

At this point, I decided after spending way too much time testing different ways to install these horns, to run them in parallel as was suggested earlier in another thread. After changing the wiring and reinstalling the horns, I retested the horns and they worked! Unfortunately, only for a couple of seconds. My first thought was I burnt them out, but then decided maybe it was just a blown fuse. Turns out when I originally install the horn relay, I installed an in line fuse which was only 10 amps which blew quickly trying to power twin higher amperage horns. I installed a 20 amp fuse and so far it’s good. Both horns work, a bit loud but sure to get attention. After all, isn’t that what horns are for?

Horns should be loud, especially when you are istening to them with the hood open and the engine not running. Imagine being in a different vehicle , several feet away with the windows closed and the engine running and probably radio blasting.

The reason only one horn worked is because that high tone horn's electromagnet pulls its diaphram (the noise maker) and opens its switch before the low tone horn's electromagnet pulls its switch open. This happens because the hi-tone is designed to operate at a faster rate (higher tone). When either switch opens in your series circuit the spring in each horn will be pushing the diaphram back to its "at rest" position to close the switch and start the dance over again.

What baffles me is I did get them to work in series on my bench.

Well, that sort of shoots down my theory.

The diaphragm (finally spelled it right) on the low frequency horn would be moving in your series electrical arrangement, but not far enough to make a LOUD noise before the high frequency horn's switch interrupts the current flow.

The only difference between bench testing and the install, was the horns came with 10 gauge wire attached. I thought that was a bit of overkill since the original horn is wired with 14 gauge so I switched the feeds to 14 gauge.

5/08/23: Today, after a long winter break, it was time to get back to working on our truck. The existing mirror installed on my truck, clearly didn’t belong there. Although period correct, it vibrated so badly, it was nearly useless. So to remediate the issue, I ordered a period correct, day/night mirror, with the correct mount for my truck from eBay and received it today.

Whomever installed the existing mirror, drilled two additional holes in the interior windshield trim, so me being me, couldn’t just leave those holes. I removed both sides and welded in the holes. In addition, I removed a few dents, straightened out a few areas them sanded and painted to match my interior. Their now hanging on my drying “Rack” waiting to be installed.

It feels great to get back to work on my truck!

Phil,

Love the stair side drying/storage rack!

Me too!

Looks like it's multi-purpose. Good storage spot for your paint can/beer bottle opener.

Also good to hang my hat and coat. It’s uses haven’t been fully explored!

5/09/23: I finished installing my new day/night mirror. When I installed the inner windshield trim I noticed that the upper trim piece that covered the gap between the two trim pieces at the top of the windshield was missing. It was covered up by the old mirror so I never noticed it. I took a thin piece of aluminum and fabricated a new piece. I also re-bent the bottom trim piece to form it to better fit the contour of the mouldings.

It seems to be solidly mounted so I hoping the vibrating mirror goes away. Overall, I’m happy with the results.

5/10/23: I took our truck out for a spring run to get some gas for my mower and no more vibrating Mirror. A success!

The finished product looks factory fresh, nice job.👍

Thanks!

Hmmm,

Pa has a bunch of old deer racks sitting up in the barn loft᠁

Perhaps I need some more paint racks too?

Looking great, Phil.

I really like the look of that seat material, colour, and pleating.

6/08/23: Today I installed a PCV system on my ‘59 235. I found a genuine GM NOS PCV riser a few years back on eBay, in anticipation of installing it in the future. After obtaining a NOS AC PCV valve (replacement for the original), I proceeded to assembled the rest of the parts needed to do the installation. The only issue I had was the original tubing is 7/16 and finding the tubing and fittings was like finding hens teeth. My solution was to use 3/8” tubing and adapt it to the 7/16” inverted flare needed for the PCV valve.

A test drive proved the installation was a success. Full details on the install can be found here. https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...997/re-nos-gm-pcv-valve.html#Post1503997

7/03/23: Look what arrived today. It’s like Christmas in July. Power Disc brakes! WooHoo, although it will be awhile before I get them installed, I’m excited. I need to work out the position of the master cylinder, interference with the rear tranny mount, access to checking the fluid level and wheel interference with the caliper. Time to get to work!

8/15/23: With predicted rain in the forecast, it offered me a chance to get some work done on my truck. For awhile third gear has been grinding if I don’t wait long enough between shifts to third, especially when the tranny warms up. I been wanting to check the fluid thinking it may be the cause of this issue (hoping it’s not the synchro). I do have a drip at the seal between the torque tube and the tranny, so I suspected it would be low. Today I got a chance to to top it off. It took more than 8 ozs. I do hope it solves the issue.

Additionally, a few years ago, after rebuilding my front suspension (springs, king pins, tie rod ends,etc.), I finished the job by adjusting my steering box. I had bought a digital fish scale (0-60 lbs) hoping it would be accurate enough but never felt that it was adjusted right. Last year, after getting a tip about using a scale to measure the trigger pull on a firearm, I purchased one that measures by the 1/4 lb. up to 8 lbs. The adjustment is fairly easy but getting clear access to some of the adjustment screws on the steering box is another story altogether.

I had previously fabricated a tool that attached to a 3/8” ratchet for loosening the large locking nut when I last did this adjustment, but getting a wrench in that area was complicated by hard tubing I added to my oil filter requiring removal of the inlet tube. Making the worm gear adjustment did not go according to plan. It didn’t want to move at all. I had to get creative by using a hand impact screwdriver tip (large), coupled to a couple of long extensions to a tee handle with access laying on my back under the truck. This gave me the leverage I needed to make this adjustment. A few too many trips laying on my back to testing tension on the steering wheel and the adjustment was finalized. After that everything buttoned up quickly.

I haven’t test drove her yet because it was still raining when I finished, but I’m sure I did it right this time. Looking forward to seeing if my work improved things.

9/18/23: A long overdue update. The steering box adjustment was successful as it steers better, but topping off the tranny with oil didn’t make any difference with grinding going into third gear, so I suspect the syncro is bad?

Today I finally started with my Power Disc upgrade. I got the truck jacked up on stands, removed both wheels and stripped the drum brake setup from the spindle. I didn’t get too far before I hit my first snag. The caliper mounting brackets have an offset built into them and the instructions don’t specify which direction the offset goes. It appears from the diagram that’s way too small, the offset went in toward the engine but I wasn’t positive. The CPP kit comes with new grade 8 hardware with a locking nuts that are really hard going on. Fortunately I stopped to clarify.

I knew that I watched a YouTube video on the install by Dave Welch from Brothers Truck, so I rewatched that video. I installed the wrong bracket as the offset needs to go toward the outside of the truck. I didn’t get the nuts on too far so it is an easy fix.

EDIT: the video was wrong. Apparently CPP made a engineering change along the way and didn’t document it very well which I found in the next post

9/19/23: Today I continued my battle installing my new Disk Brake kit from CPP. After watching the video last night on YouTube, I swapped the brackets, torqued the bolts and went ahead with the installation. I removed the drum from the hub, installed the hub and spacer on the rotor, pressed in the new studs, then installed the hub assembly on the spindle. When I tried to install the caliper I discovered I had installed the the wrong caliper mounting bracket. One step forward, two steps back. Did I say the instructions were lacking detail. I watched the YouTube video by Dave Welch from Brothers Truck and he stated that the offset went towards the outside of the truck. In my case that was totally wrong. I suspect CPP may have reengineered the kit and my installation was different. I wish CPP labeled the brackets or clearly showed which way the offset went in the instructions.

At this point, I am a self proclaimed expert on this part of the installation so it didn’t take much time to reverse my mistake.

A couple of installation tips I can pass along:

The drums are riveted to the hubs with no instructions on how to remove them. The Brothers YouTube video suggested grinding off the heads then knocking them out with a drift and hammer. If you ever tried this you know that it doesn’t work really well. An alternative method that works is to first drill the center of the rivet out with a 1/4” drill leaving about 1/8” at the very bottom. Don’t drill all the way thru as you’ll have nothing for the punch to rest on when you drive it out. just enough to get thru the hub to weaken the rivet. Try to get the drill centered as best as you can. Now use a 3/8” drill and drill down until you just reach the drum. At this point grind the remainder of the rivet flush with the drum. Take a punch/drift slightly smaller than the hole and drive it out. It will come out much easier as the 1/4” drill weakened the sidewalls of the rivet.

Once the drum is removed from the hub you’ll need to enlarge the holes for the new screws holding the spacer plate. The instructions say to drill the holes out to 3/8”. I did, and it wasn’t enough to get the flathead allen screws in. I opened it up to 13/64” and solved that problem but the taper on the screws bottomed out on the hub before it was pulled tight to the hub. I used a countersink on the holes I just enlarged which gave me the extra room the screws needed to get the spacer tight to the hub.

In the box with the calipers, I found what looks like a 1/4” thick 1-1/2” round gasket. I wondered why until I went to install the calipers. After struggling trying to get the caliper assembly on the rotor, it dawned in me that they used it to keep the pads apart against the piston and the caliper frame. Once inserted, the caliper went on easily.

One more suggestion. The kit comes with a replacement cap for the hub. I spent about 15 minutes trying to get it installed. Filing the edge trying to get it to fit. I gave up and used my old ones. They fit perfect and are easy to remove. I suspect the new difficult to install ones may be just as difficult to remove.

Hopefully the drivers side will go easy!

9/22/23: Today I continued my installation of my Power Disk Brake Kit. The drivers side went on so much easier now that I’m a “self proclaimed expert”.

Next on the list is to remove the rear tranny mount for clearance for the new power booster/master cylinder, which doesn’t look like it has been removed since it was installed over 70 years ago, so I soaked all the fasteners in PB Blaster. My initial plan is to install the booster assembly in the original position then modify the support to fit around the assembly. I might just end up buying a new tubular support, but won’t make that decision until I see how much the original support would need to be modified.

9/24/23: Today, I removed the rear tranny support. It took me quite a bit of time as I was working on my back on a creeper and there are total of ten 3/8” bolts, five on each side holding that support in, plus four holding the tranny support. with so many ‘bolters questioning whether it was really needed, I wonder why it was so over engineered. I used a 1/2 impact to remove the nuts. I needed to remove the battery to get access the heads of the bolts on that side. I needed to get out from under the truck a few times to give my arms a rest, but I persevered.

I continued to remove the master cylinder and all of the brake lines, getting ready to install the new booster. I installed the booster mount and temporarily bolted in the booster and master cylinder. The push rod is definitely too long and will need to be shortened. How much is yet to be determined.

9/28/23: Continued on installing the power booster. With the power booster/MC in place, I placed the rear crossmember in the frame and slid it up to the booster assembly to visually see the interference. It’s apparent the proportional valve will need to be relocated as it hangs down too far. By relocating the proportional valve, it would allow a minimal notch on crossmember for MC clearance. After looking around for possible locations it looked like the existing bracket mounted in front of the booster would work. The only issue I saw was the bracket had slotted 3/8” holes and the front of the booster uses 5/16” studs that mount it to the included mounting bracket. I opted to fabricate a new bracket so the holes were tighter giving the included lock nuts something to bite into. I pulled the booster assembly out to make it easier to fabricate the new bracket and run new brake lines from the booster to the proportional valve assembly.

I used 1-1/2” x 1/8” angle welded to a small piece of scrap plate to make the bracket. After cleaning up the bracket and sandblasting, I gave it a coat of my favor satin black spray paInt ready for installation.

9/29/23: Continuing on installing the booster, I bent and flared new lines from the MC to the proportional valve, then remounted the booster assembly with the push rod so I could measure the amount the rod needs to be shortened. I estimated, if I shortened it by an inch, it would leave plenty of room to adjust it.

Having a lathe made shorting the rod easy. I cut the bulk off with a wafer wheel then cleaned it up on my lathe. I ran a tap to clean up the threads and screwed it on the booster. It lined up perfectly with plenty of adjustment.

9/30/23: I finished the adjustment on the rod and tightened it up. The instructions say that there should be about a 1/4” of movement before you feel any resistance. I couldn’t really determine what resistance they were talking about, so I left it as is for now.

I want a new access hole over the new MC for ease of maintenance so I removed the carpet and the felt padding to access the floor. Not such an easy job because I didn’t slit the mat at all when I installed it, preferring to remove pedals and cut the holes to fit. I ended up removing the parking brake, accelerator pedal. When it came down to the clutch a brake pedals, I decided to slit the mat as I wasn’t going to remove them.

My floor needs to be replaced so a previous owner installed some crude patches on both sides. I needed to remove the drivers side to get to the original floor. I never removed the patch before and it confirmed that the floor really needed to be replaced. I am not going to get into that can of worms right now so I cut my access hole, fabricated a temporary cover then reinstall the patch.

10/3/23: Today I bench bled the MC then finished assembling the proportional valve to the booster and new lines to the MC, hopefully for the last time. I started running new brake lines. I ran the rear line first as it was the most challenging. I opted to split the run in two as it would have been really difficult to form it all in one piece especially since I was laying on the ground. If I only had a lift!

10/05/23: I hit a bit of a milestone today as all brake lines are run and the system is now bled with no leaks. I had a few issues but managed to work thru them.

I have a vacuum bleeder from HF that hooks up to a air hose. I’ve used it several times with mixed results. I kept seeing air bubbles in the line and wasn’t sure if the vacuum on the bleed valve wasn’t introducing air from the threads. After bleeding the two back brakes, the passenger side and starting on the drivers, I ran out of brake fluid. I had previously bought a quart bottle thinking that would be enough but one of the lines had a small leak introducing a tiny bit of air causing me to keep bleeding.

So a trip to my not so local FLAPS, about twenty five minutes away and I was back in business. I decided to do it the old fashioned way with my wife manning the brake pedal and me the bleeders. At least that way I took the possible bleeder thread leak out of the equation. With my wife pumping the brakes, I spotted the leak causing all of the issues. A little snugging up on the fitting and the bleeding proceeded without a hitch. With the vacuum bleeder it never developed pressure so I never saw the leak.

Next up is to supply the vacuum to the booster. I still haven’t decided on where I’m getting vacuum from. I have a vacuum wiper and a PCV attached to the manifold. I don’t really want to remove the manifolds to drill and tap another hole for a fitting (not enough room for a regular drill and I don’t own a 90° drill) so I decided, just to test it out I would use the existing connection for the wipers. If it works, I may just add a vacuum pump solely for the wipers. That would eliminate allot issues.

None of my FLAPS seem to have vacuum hose. Plenty of gas hose, which is what the suggest I use. Seems strange to me. I would really prefer to run the majority with 3/8” CuNi tubing and use the hose as a coupling between the engine and the firewall and at the booster. They didn’t have any 3/8” tubing either. Unfortunately, other commitments will make me table this project for a few weeks. At least I feel good about where I’m at with this project.

I have seen where a lot of guys are using the manifold vacuum port as you suggested. You may want to consider adding a vacuum canister as well, it would really help with your wiper motor. I think your better off using a metal line like your thinking, the rubber line is subject to collapse or get pinched. This thing should stop on a dime.

That is the plan! I know allot of ‘bolters are advocates for the original drum brakes. I installed new wheel cylinders, new shoes with new hardware, new master cylinder, new flex hoses, arched the shoes into the drums, made sure the shoes were on correctly (primary/secondary) and could lock up the wheels, but still did not feel like I could stop quick enough in a emergency.

I used rubber gas line for the booster vacuum hose; it works just fine. I replaced the vacuum wiper motor with an electric one. The booster hose plumbs into the old wiper port.

Thanks for that info. I do want to keep the vacuum wiper's just for the cool/nostalgic factor. It was rebuilt by Fricken a few years ago and works great. Coilover recommends a electric vacuum pump for infinite speeds and not stopping on hills. Sounds to me like it’s the way to go.

I know that modern vacuum boosters use a large hose to the manifold, probably to be sure that the booster gets recharged with vacuum quickly, but I'm thinking that the smaller vacuum wiper connection would work OK. If you were to put a vacuum canister in the system with it on the booster side of the check valve, that would give the booster more volume to work with, but unless you're planning on entering road races with multiple full throttle - full brake events, it should work fine. Another canister on the wiper motor side of another check valve should keep the wipers going for short WOT events. Don't know if you saw my vacuum canister install, but I used an empty propane cylinder.

The check valve is on the booster itself with a big red warning tag stating, If removed it will void your warranty. I would have to add another. I didn’t see your vacuum canister install. Can you provide a link?

Here's some pix of my vacuum canister. It's only for the vacuum wiper motor.

Sending you a PM.

Concerning vacuum tanks, if you’re climbing a hill and depleting your vacuum it may take a unacceptably long time to replenish vacuum needed for wipers or a brake booster. The bigger the tank, the longer the replenishment time, ie, setting on side of the road (?).

The above concern is why my big truck tank is still under the work bench.

I’m with coilover, a vacuum pump is the answer.

Now to source a 6v vacuum pump.

Klhanson, your repurposed propane tank is the nicest vacuum tank I’ve seen. Great work!!

RonR

Hopefully, if I’m climbing a hill I won’t need to hit the brakes for an extended period of time. I’m convinced on adding a vacuum pump for my wipers.