i've had the truck near on 25 or more years and the original repairs i did to the front cab mounts need attention. so for the last couple of days i've taken the boxs and doors off, yesterday took out the steering column and disconnected everything. today we rolled the cab back onto a dolly and left the chassis outside
cut me some slack young feller, ya gotta have at least one old vehicle on the road. the 55 only needed front cab mounts and floor. it will be back on the road on 2 weeks. now the rag i'm figuring it will see the road this summer, the beaumont wagon maybe later much later.
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There are 106 miles to Chicago. We have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Thanxs molten at least some good news after todays crappy weather. good thing i pulled the steering column. i have a spare that i've already pulled down from the attic. the old one had some serious grinding. i ordered a new clutch release bearing and on wednesday i'm off to bills trucks, the mechanical linkage for the clutch is showing some wear after 58 years. i'm putting the t5 back in, i know its not as strong as the super t10 but i do miss the over drive. other things that are happening are new u joints and a pinion seal.
i ended up taking the yoke, driveshaft and pinion yoke in with me for u-joints. nothing stock from the bellhousing back. the t5 tranny is a camaro box with a s15 tailstock, this is so the shifter is forward on the box and i have a mechanical speedo drive. the driveshaft i ended up using is the original out of my 63 acadian wagon (right length 52") and the rear end is out of a 78 jimmy, truck 12 bolt and 6 studs for my rims. the pinion yolk is out of a car 12 bolt but uses the larger ujoint. yes and this is why i took everything in. so the front ujoint uses inside clips for the tranny end and outside clips for the driveshaft end, the rear is small joint or regular gm for the driveshaft and larger for the pinion end. i was going to install all this today but with the beast or most of it in the driveway and its below zero and i'm over 50 and this is a hobby, let say i'm on the computer instead.
That driveshaft yoke looks like it's in awefully far into the tranny for not having the cab and box on the truck yet. That is if the driveshaft was bolted to the pinion at the time you took this pic?
thanxs for the concern. shes tight, i realistically should have a 51" shaft for wiggle factor but i do have many miles on this combo with a different driveshaft that was 52". the space is 1.5".
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There are 106 miles to Chicago. We have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
the t5 output shaft is deep in the tailstock, i find for example the saginaw in my 39 has the yoke much farther out of the trans. looks almost too far out but its not
Neil Candy from Candy's Hot rod Supply did an awesome louver job on a visor for me. good guy to deal with. Hemi powder coated it white for the cost of a chicken wing feed. the way he eats probably would have been cheaper to pay for the powder coating. took me 4 hours to strip it and weld the brace back in, including punching hole in the brace for circulation. i've taken the hood off and replaced with a spare and i am in the process of marking it up for Neil to louver. thinkin 5 rows to match the visor but with less louver in each row to match the sweep of the hood birds wings.
pics added for J12 to show stock motor mounts and the rear transmission mount. the first shot show the 283 with the side mounts but i'm using the original front mounts. i'm in the process of getting a nv4500 (heavy duty gm 5 sp) and i will have to install another crossmember for the tranny but the small trannies hang off the stock bellhousing just fine.
I PM'd you before I saw this. This makes a little more sense now seeing how you set this up. I think I will have to go with a newer 283 and not the 57 in order to use side mounts and the starter on the block if I'm bolting a TH350 to it. Thanks for the pics.
just acquired the elusive 58-59 gmc hood ornament. i was looking for the 55-57 one but since they are both rare, beggars can't be choosers. the previous owner had it on his ford tow truck and didn't know what it was.
just picked up my tranny from an old friend. he machined out the front bearing retainer hole on the bell to match the NV4500 and tapped the front of the tranny to bolt the bell housing to it.
-- Edited by Sacotu on Wednesday 26th of November 2014 08:40:52 PM
made a trip down to the ups store in watertown to pick up a set of velocity stacks i had ordered from summit. also had lunch at the tilted kilt. trip was almost worth it for the scenery at lunch. baby needed to breath better, who am i kidding its all about the look and they are K&N's. frig it cold out side i need to get the convertible off the rotisserie so i can have some room in the shop.
Sweet! 
Make sure you use the much praised "3/4" cam for the ultimate in performance.
