Another truck has risen from the cobwebs....
To give all the story on this truck, it is a local truck here in the Burg that has the 235 engine that originally came out of my truck. (rebuilt by JASPER of course). The original owner Steve drove the truck until it developed a knock in the driveline. It sat in his garage for many years since and he lost intrest or needed the extra garage space. He sold it to his old buddy Henry. Once Henry got the truck, Steve referred him to me.
This truck is a 1940 Canadian one-ton GMC. At some point of the truck's life, the original rear must have expired and someone welded two AD 1/2 ton torque tubes together to make one LONG prop shaft. This setup worked for a while until Steve started reving that new 235.
Since it was already a 1/2 ton rear with 4:11 gears and 19 or 20" tires, I figured we could just use a 1/2 ton longbed setup under it and off we go! Henry and I took a Saturday to Brother Van Orden's hot spot, Frankies where we got all the parts we needed.
We rebuilt the rearend using Patrick's bearing kit, and gave all the parts to the shop where the truck had the transmission re-built. Once it was all together, Henry drove it about 20 miles until BOOM. The ujoint failed. This failure was for several reasons. First the TT was about 1 inch too long and did not allow the trunion to flex properly. Second, the garage used grease instead of oil in all the u joint housings.
After several months of research on Henry's part, shortening the TT to the stock length, locating all the proper u joints, reassembling the third member a few times, we put the truck back together Thursday evening. Today we did the final items and it was time to turn the key.
She ran like a dream. What a blast to drive! After all that work, it was great to see it run on its own. We drove around town a bit, escorted by the GreenMachine in the event of an issue, then it was my turn. Both grinning ear to ear.
Here is the parting
Victory Video Brothers, we have a new member in the ODSS....
