The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 3/4 ton Cork Slip Joint Seal needed

HELP! I’m down to putting the two-piece driveline back together on my ’50, 3604 with a four speed and I’m missing one item. I know I saw it in on of the catalogs but I have been scouring them for a week and can’t find it again.
The bad boy is the 1.25”cork grease seal in the short slip-joint at the rear of the center support. It has a thin washer on either side of it that is compressed with a large hand nut around the spline on the front half of the rear drive shaft.
The supplier listed the seal w/washers or maybe the washers were listed separately but they were both together in the catalog.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I bought one from chevs of the 40's. You can check them out on line. American classics is another good place to check out and they also have used parts like an oil bath filter. I also have ordered parts from a place called Iron Chief but you need to have time because they're in canada. I like their prices.
Good luck.

I recieved Chevs of the 40's latest catalog last week, nothing in there, you sure your thinking of a 3/4 ton? I don't have an Am Classics catalog, I'll look at their site online though.
I'll keep on wishin' and a hopin'.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I just did the 2-piece drive shaft in my 1949 3600 but yours must be different. I ended-up using a regular style shaft seal. Can you post a picture?

Leon, I would love to post a picture, but I haven't a clue as to how to do it here. I don’t have a web page. I belong to an Antique Radio Forum and they have a Photo Gallery, with a group of albums. To upload an image to the forum, all you have to do select “add a picture” and then just browse the files on you confuser, and there it is, very simple. You can either paste a link in your message or use the [img] tag to paste the image into your message. Peggy says there isn’t enough bandwidth or something like that, to do that here.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. There is a picture of it in the Chevrolet Truck Shop Manual on page 4-51, fig.75 & 76. There’s supposed to be a plug, probably a freeze plug at the forward or u-joint end of the spline to retain the grease. On mine, this looks like it has been missing for decades from the grease that totally surrounded the yoke.

I don’t see how you could uses a conventional seal on this because it has to slide over the spline on the rear drive shaft to get to the sealing surface. The spline is larger at, 1.495” than the sealing surface at 1.250”. I had to dig out the cork packing in order slide the yoke off the spline. My guess is that it is a ring with a split, like the compression washers on either side of it. If I could find some cork about ¼” thick I suppose I could fab one.
Really need some help here guys!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, you should be able to find a large O-Ring to replace the cork seal. It would strech enough to pass over the splines and go in between the two metal compression washers. Try the filling station they should have the o-ring you need.

I ditched my 2 piece and just put in a longer single one.

Started out this morning looking for an O-ring 41, that same thought came to me in a dream last night. Hit six auto parts Dorman assortments and eight hardware stores, NG! Finally, this afternoon I ended up in the vacuum lab where I used work, nothing 1 3/4" with a 1/4" dia. I managed to scrounge a six inch length of 1/4" viton O-ring material off the big roll, I'll just have to roll my own. As I drove home into the setting sun, I had to make a stop at Manards. Walking down an isle I spotted a four pack of cork tiles 12"x12" and each one almost 1/4" thick. So tomorrows task, after I make my coffee is to spend a few min. on the lathe and spin down a couple of hole punches, 1.75" and 1.25" and so I have my original cork grease seal. Now,,,, the other thing that I was looking for at the dozen plus stops I made, was a freeze plug, the dished type, all the assortments have in them now days are the cup type. So the task for Thursday is to find a 1 9/16" dish type freeze plug. Almost there!
TL, I’m assuming you mean a one piece drive shaft? Thanks but, that taint really up to the original specs, is it? I’m even going to rebuild my 216 instead of finding a 235 and she’s going to be powered by all of 6 volts also. Restoration for me means bringing her back to the original specs.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Here-here for original.I did the cork thing for my spring hangers. Did I say "original".

I know what ya mean Beav, I was scraping the mud/clay/grease off all the spring mounts with a screw driver and couldn’t figure out why it was so tinatious right next to the eye, then I discovered it was a cork seal. I’m doin a frame up next year and will probably send the springs to a spring shop to have them gone over, so I will be replacing all that. Do the replacement shackles and bolt kits contain a seal of any sort, or is that up to you to figure out a seal?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

I bought all of my spring parts at a major spring shop nearby. The tech working on my springs said his shop can't order the seals. He gave me a long neoprene seal and told me to put a drop of oil on the knife and cut them to fit myself.

I think I have seen the cork ones around though...

By the way, my springs were about $455 to re-work with the shop bending new mains for the front and new bushings on all the ends. The truck sits nice with no sagging on any of the corners.

I am hoping that by spring, I can have her back on the road for a test..

That's what I thought about the seals. My springs, 3/4 ton, are in good shape the truck sits nice and straight, I was just going to have them check them out and see if they were balanced side to side.
Looked at your profile and it looks like ya got a good clean one there. Did you put the mezzanine in or have it done when they built your pole building? I have a 42x40 with 14 ft ceilings and was thinking of building a mezzanine. Looks like you have 4x4 uprights to hold her up, they spaced on 8’ Centers?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

Sorry, the pole shed with the mezzanine is the previous owners. That pic is the one that caused me to drive 140 miles to pick it up. He did have a nice shop though...not sure why he wanted to kick out the nice old Chevrolet!

By the lack of response from the mechanics out there, I have to assume that your all sick of hearing about this ¾ ton slip joint by now. But, I am, after all, a purist and they are the worst kind! Apparently this area is often times ignored when changing the center u-joint, on the ’50, 3604, since there aren’t replacement parts available and no one seems to have run into a similar problem.

In the Shop Manual on pg. 4-51 the text calls for a “Cork Packing” and refers you to fig.76. Figure 76, has a pointer to the packing and calls for a “Felt Packing.” I’m sure either one would work just fine, and since I have a punch to cut the washer out with now, I think I’m going to settle on the felt, as it will compress easier than the cork and probably cause less ware on the sealing surface in the long run. It was difficult to tell what the old material was because it was so impacted with grease and mud that it just sort of crumbled when I dug it out, and there was no texture to it what so ever.

Well I hope all of my agonizing over this seal and discussion helps the next guy who wants to redo the center slip joint on his ’50, ¾ ton Stovebolt.

The other end of this slip joint has been overly discussed in another thread. It’s the plug that is supposed to be staked in to keep the water out, and the grease in the spline. And that story sooths the other cheek, of this pain in the ARSS!

I also noticed in the Factory Assembly Manual that sec. 4, sheet 2.00 through 3.03, that my particular configuration is similar to, but not the same as the 3800-3942 in sheet 3.00, which has the front propeller shaft open. The 3600 shown on sheet 2.01 is an open, one piece drive shaft, not the same as mine. I suspect this may be a pictorial of a 3speed?
Mon, am I picking up a lot of trivial, little details in this venture!

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Lack of response? There are 13 posts on the cork topic...you could have grown a cork tree and made your own gasket by now!


Stuart

That be eight, with yours Stu and seven ‘O’ me blowin’ wind. And I opted for the fuzzy tree, and grew a felt seal after all that.
Denny G

I looked all over for parts the look just like on page 4-51. Mine came with an oil seal in the slip joint. The seal was just left of the steel washer in Fig. 76. My local parts store matched it up for me so I replaced the seal and it seems to be working well. I probably can find the part number for the seal if you are interested.

Thanks Leon, that’s the kind of info I’ve been fishin’ for here. I’ve got mine all fixed up to my satisfaction, with a new felt packing and plug in the other end of the spline.
I don’t have the years of experience with these trucks like some of the guys here, and the manuals are very vague, so I’m trying to squeeze in 40 years of knowledge into a couple of weeks. I guess you could say that I’m building a data base, so I’m interested in all the design variations and different opinions. Sometimes because of this quest for detail I put people off , I know that’s how I affect my wife most of the time.

The seal in yours strikes me kind of odd, what I’m having trouble understanding is how you get the seal over the spline? There is a ½” difference in diameter between the spline and the sealing surface, that’s is why the felt or cork works well, you can make an angled split to install it, just like the washers are installed.
Well it took a weeks worth of learning but here is my first attempt at Webshots, hope it works;
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2496776410098611668vePRzQ
You can plainly see the large step in the diameters in this photo.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, You might try joining the Vintage Chevrolet Club Of America (VCCA) Most of the folks there are of the same mind, it it isn't orignal it just isn't right. Lot's good info and helpful people there.

www.vcca.org
www.vccachat.org
www.fillingstation.com

Yes, I'm already looking into that, learned about VCCA a week ago.
Not that it’s not right, it’s just not right for me. I have no problem with the next guy doing what he wants with is stuff. In the end if the other guy turns his ride into a hot rod, it just makes mine worth that much more tomorrow.
If I had an old rag, I would probably customize it also, there are enough repro parts out there to build one from scratch. In fact I think it would be cool to build a tube frame with independent suspension, disc brakes and all then buy the repro sheet metal or glass to finish her off. I just feel when you find a complete vintage car/truck in very good shape it is kind of a crime to not restore it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL