Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Howdy Richard,
I thought that 68 frames came dimpled for power steering from the factory. My understanding is 67's came with power assist cylinders and not a true power steering box which 68 and up did. Nonetheless whether or not I am correct about that it wasn't a big job to add the required clearance to the frame.

It took me 15 minues to clean the frame before heating it with a small Rosebud on my torch. Then another 15 minutes to massage it into shape. Add another 10 minutes to paint and spread anti-sieze and check the fit. There was one spot near the top of the frame that needed a bit more massaging to be clear. I then hit it with a 80 grit 1 1/2" Rollock pad to remove the peen marks from the hammer. Once again with the Rollock disk 150 grit this time to remove the 80 grit scuffs and then paint. About 1 3/4 hour in total to do it.

My comments about the wrong hammer had to do with the ball end of the hammer I was using. I would have liked to have a hammer with a face with the same radius of the dimple I wanted to make. The ball on the hammer I used was too small. The other hammers I have that had a close match to the radius were too small and had no weight to assist in the tender massaging of the frame, requiring much more heat to get the dimple I desired. The rest of the collection of hammers had too much B in BFH for the space involved. :lol:
Okay that's enough hammer talk.

During the fit up tests I noticed the box hit the corner of core support so I added some clearance there.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

on mine I reused the box that came with the truck, just cleaned it up and repainted it. I had to notch my core support mount out a little too but nothing to the frame...and it's a 67. wonder if someone before me messaged that same area of the frame...because I don't remember anything protruding from.the gear box that attaches to the frame

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

The only thing I can figure is my 68 may be an early frame. Apparently Capt Fab has a bracket that can be welded on but I may end up doing what you did. I have the bump outs where the bolts go but the frame is not dimpled for the bump out on the actual box. Not wanting to get in to it at the time I just put the manual box back on when I saw it would not go on. I still have the body off the frame so it is still an easy fix. I have not been able to work on any of it over the last 2 years since I am the only one working at my shop now. Things had piled up 3 deep around it so I could not even tinker. I have spent the last month getting everything straight around the shop so I can get back on it in the next couple of weeks.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

My '68 CST C20 had the power assist power steering with no dimple in the frame. I think it was a pretty early manufacture date. The assist steering worked really good and leaked very little. Not the norm for them I don't think.

LockDoc
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Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I wonder if that system is similar to the system Ford used on the Mustangs and Cougars. Ford used a control valve that was set on the pitman arm with hoses that ran to a power ram that moved the linkage. Four hoses with two places to leak each! Got a picture of the system by any chance?

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Nothing is ever cut and dried. While waiting at NAPA today the counterman was talking someone through how to locate the build date of their vehicle. Whatever the part needed was there were 4 different versions for that model year depending on what month of the year the vehicle was manufactured.

Today was a lot of back and forth with the pump mount and the pump. My new pump was too wide to fit in the mount by about 3/32". I ended up milling the rear tab on the mount to move the pump slightly back to make the pulleys alignment. (Photo #1)

I decided on the pump because of orientation of the return tube. See photo 2 for the differences. The 3rd photo shows how old pump forces the hose to kink against the bracket.

Unfortunately the new pump has an issue too. (Photo #4) The mounting stud hits the hose. Fortunately it was an easy fix I just cut a 1/4" off the stud. I'm really hoping I don't have any warranty issues with the pump.

After test mounting the pump on the truck I found I had to file one the machined pads on the pump in order to get the full range of adjustability the mount was capable of. I forgot to get a photo today but, I still have to pull the pump and mount back off tomorrow to paint them.
Got a new pressure and return hose a NAPA so that will be tomorrow's adventure along with bolting the rest back together.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Here is a thread on them. With a particularly greasy example shown.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=327334

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I don't, and I sold the truck a while back.

I wish I had taken a picture of mine. There wasn't any grease build up on it at all.

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I wish I had a dollar for every time I wished I had a picture of something I worked on! :lol:

First off the photo I didn't post earlier. The green line approximates the material I removed to get the full range of adjustment.

As expected the pressure hose was a pain. Having read all the posts about how none of the current replacement hoses fit I wasn't disappointed when the hose couldn't be installed on the box. It appears to me that GM had special tubing die made to make the first bend that allowed a very short installed height. The replacement hose sold likely is being manufactured with standard tubing bending dies which don't allow the short installed height required.

I decided to straighten and rebend the new hose I had. If I failed and ruined the tubing my back up plan was to take the new hose and have a local hydraulic hose shop make a new hose out of parts from the old one and the new one.

After about two hours of messing about I had reworked the tubing enough to install it. It's not very pretty but it isn't kinked or twisted which was my real concern. Not having the proper bending die when bending tubing kinking the tube is extremely easy. I'm not an expert tubing bender so I am quite pleased I managed to pull this off.

I ended up using 2 different 3/8 benders, an old Ford wrench and my torch to coax the tubing into a usable piece. I didn't get a photo of the before height of the tube but the red lines approximate the height of tubing as purchased.

Every time I had to let the tubing cool down after heating and bending I would put another coat of paint on the brackets and fasteners. It was a bit chilly so I used my parts warmer.
A 500 watt quartz lamp and a piece of sheet metal.

I ended up being another unexpected problem. Once the steering column was all bolted back together it pushed the steering wheel up off the upper bearing about 3/16". I don't know exactly where the problem is or if it is a case of tolerance stacking. In order to get the steering wheel to drop back down where it needed to be I had to pull the shaft down hard. This means the rubber in the rag joint is no longer in its natural shape but is distorted.
The last photo shows how I had to use a clamp and a pair of Vice Grips to force the lower bearing spring lock to compress enough to overcome the shaft being forced up by the rag joint.

I loosened the rag joint on the box input shaft splines and it is down as far as the clamping bolt will allow. I ran out of daylight and gumption so that is where it rests at this point. I will try loosening the box and see if I can gain any additional clearance. Then likely I will have to try the same with the column mounting bolts maybe between the two I can get things to fit better.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I did get the system filled with fuild, air bled out, and test driven. No leaks at present and it sure is nice to go from the 4 3/4 turn box to this 3 1/2 turn box.
At present I don't know it the increased resistance when turning the steering wheel is from the new box or from the shaft length issue. Unfortunately I'm back to work tomorrow so the answer will be a week down the road.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

TIL that you can reverse a clamp like that! Only took 40 years...

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

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You can loosen all of the brackets that hold the column in place and slide it up enough to release the pressure on it probably. There is about 3/4 - 1" adjustment on it up and down. If it is an auto you might have to re-adjust the shifter rod at the top. Another option would be to heat the intermediate shaft until the plastic melts and collapse it a little.

I am betting that the column slid down before it was tightened down originally.

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thanks Doc. That's good to know. In a good news, bad news news kind of way. :lol:

The first thing I did when I started working on the WMB was to replace the 90's vintage Cadillac steering column that had been installed with a factory column. The lingering issue from the PO's installation of the Cadillac column is that he bolted the column in with metric bolts.

When I swapped columns I ended up having to reuse those same bolts. The captive nuts are damaged enough that the correct bolts will no longer thread into them. So every time I have to put a wrench to them I'm afraid the threads are going to strip.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

til???

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

TIL=Today I Learned

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

And today I have learned something! :lol:

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Hats off to Doc! I loosened the bolts and like magic everything came into alignment.

Well maybe not quite that easy. But moving the column up 1/8" was all that was needed followed by readjusting the spring tension to get the upper bearing to stay on the race and balance that with the shift lever detent tension.

The PO's metric bolt conversion didnt fail and it was mostly just a matter of dealing with the damaged emergency brake mounting. Which I'm sure I have mentioned in the past. I have to put nuts on the Ebrake mounting bolts as the captive nuts are all stripped. Basically the PO took a Sawzall to the dash when the Cadillac column was installed. The result is several parts of the dash are deformed, some of the spot welds are broken, and the nuts are stripped.

Once all that was reassembled I need to replace the ignition coil. The old one was damaged by a veg move on my part. DHOO!

As part of the bleeding of air from the new steering components the directions said to disable the ignition and crank the engine while turning the wheel. My failure was I didn't disconnect the power to the coil I merely removed the coil wire. Then to compound that error twice I forgot to turn the ignition switch to off while I checked the pump reservoir fluid level. The end result of this was the engine didn't want to idle correctly when I stepped into the four barrels the engine began shooting ducks.

After carefully checking for vacuum leaks and throwing a timng light on it to confirm it hadn't moved. I through an old coil I had on to see if the problem went away. That fixed the duck shooting! :lol: Some interweb research backed up this conclusion. The high output 12v coils are not very robust compared to a standard coil. This makes sense to me as they are putting a larger amount of winding in the same size package which means less area for cooling.

No photos this time around. The camera was dead and most of all of this is rework.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

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Good deal glad that took care of the problem. Now on to other things.

I took my camera out to the shop just a while ago and the battery was dead in it too. That's why I'm sitting in front of the computer... :)

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Glad you got it sorted!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thanks guys.
Now other things. I just got my new wheels installed and I'm quite happy. As the the tire shop guy said "Out with the 90's and in with the 70's". Did I mention I'm quite happy with them. Never again will I be held hostage by a wheel repair shop.

And continuing with this thread's continuing minor theme (Things the PO did) the right rear wheel would not go on the axle hub. After checking the wheel and the hub with a micrometer it was apparent that the hub had been hit with a hammer some time in the past. The outer edge of the axle hub was just distorted enough the wheel wouldn't go on. Once we dressed the hub with a file and a flapper disk the wheel slid right on.
The old wheels used the plastic center cap to align the wheel on the hub. The inside edge of the plastic was broken and distorted on the front wheels and the front hubs are not damaged. Now I understand why both rear center caps disappeared from the wheels while driving.
US Mag wheels 15x8" with the 4 inch backspacing.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Nice wheels.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I like them, a lot!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Wow...the entire project looks great! I have reviewed the work you have done many times while doing things to mine (or even just when thinking about doing something)...I really appreciate the help you have given to all of us!

Woody

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Liking the new rims

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thanks everyone. I do appreciate the kind words. Most definitely motivating.
I've still got some more things on the to do list. Especially for the interior. Nothing as top shelf as the Beach Burban but, it should spruce things up some.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

The rims look great!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thank you!

I forgot to mention, just before I decided to pull the trigger on the new rolling stock I discovered that Summit had raised the price on them $13 a wheel. That was a bit of a bummer until I discovered Jegs had not raised their price. Needless to say I jumped.

If your thinking of getting a set of Indy Mag wheels now may be the best time.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

100% Agree!

Wheels look freakin great on there! I dare to say that wacky wheel shop did you a favor! I kid, I kid! Lol

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thank you Joe. There had to be a silver lining in that black cloud

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

They look great on there! I have been wanting to get a set for my orange truck but I just have too many other things to buy first. :lol:

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thank you. I have decided they give the WMB more of a truck look. The old wheels had more of a street rod look.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

The heater blower is starting to die. Some times on start up or shut down it gives out a mournful wail. Not to mention it seems to be low on air output. So being unable to simply just replace it, I am going to put an A/C blower motor instead of the heater only blower.

The A/C blower turns at a higher RPM and as such draws more amperage than the heater only one. GM added a high speed relay circuit to adequately supply the higher amperage. For my conversion I made a hybrid wiring harness that will plug into my existing blower switch and the low/medium speed resistor. Then the relay will supply power to the blower when the switch is in the high speed position. The relay will supply power through a 20 amp fused separate line the way the factory did.

The low/medium speed will be supplied by the existing 10 fuse and wiring. My interweb research was unable to determine if there is a difference in the resistor values of a heater only resistor block and a A/C resistor block. They are physically different but electrically I don't know. The same goes for the blower speed switch. But leaving them on the original fuse size should protect them. It may not be an issue as I generally have the blower on full or off.

I upsized the blower supply wire to 12AWG to match the factory A/C wiring (See link). Fortunately I was able to remove the firewall grommet from the old harness I used to make the conversion harness and after lubing it and the wire up I got the larger wire through it. I wanted to keep the rubber booted connector at the blower so I cut the old 14AWG one as close as possible and soldered it to the larger wire. The rest was just swapping the wires around and crimping some new Packard connectors on.

I will be using a Bosch style lighting relay instead of the factory style relay. Mostly as I already have 5 of them being used on the truck already.

More to follow.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=731399

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

That should work good. I have an A/C motor in the Panel Truck on the stock heat only wiring but I very seldom use it, mainly for defrost on cool mornings, and that doesn't take long.

I have relays and sockets so I probably should upgrade it.

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I did the A/C blower upgrade in my GTO years ago and several years later the fan switch started acting up and after disassembly I discovered the contacts were burnt. Fortunately I was able to rebuild them with some solder. It could have been the switch was just worn out from over 200k miles or the A/C blower was too much or some combination of both.

Whatever the cause was I haven't had to mess with it since. Its not a daily driver anymore but has over just 300K on it now. It's likely to last forever now since I picked up a spare switch years ago. :lol:

Here is a schematic of the hybrid harness I forgot to post.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Saved to PC, Thanks.

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I’m curious to hear the after results from your blower motor swap. I’ve considered upgrading mine as well. Seams like I read or heard once that the squares (73-87) blower motors were a slight upgrade and a relatively easy swap.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

And the results are in! The A/C blower is a significant increase in air movement. Especially over my old one.

I did the blower swap at my buddies house so he could help remove the hood. I had a pair of hood hinges rebuilt by Wilson Antique Car Parts wating to be installed for months. This was the perfect chance to hit 2 birds with 1 stone. New hinges and new blower motor!

The rebuilt hinges work great. Much smoother than the repops that the truck came with. Additionally we were able to get the hood to fit better.

Before the blower was replaced we used my buddy's hand held anemometer to measure the output on the passenger side defroster vent.
The old motor air output registered 7.2 mph.
The new blower motor motor with the unmodified harness registered 9.4 mph. (The photo only shows 9.1 due to me being unable to hold the anemometer and take the photo at the same time.)
And the new blower with the hybrid harness registered 12.7 mph!
The anemometer confirmed what my ears had told me.

During the testing the 10 amp fuse in the fuse box blew so I replaced it with a 15 amp that seems to be holding. I have yet to get a amperage measurement but as soon as I get a new a battery for my multimeter.

In order to mount the relay in the really convenient tab on the heater box (Photo #2) I had to lengthen the wire from the high speed contact on the blower switch to the relay coil.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

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That certainly made a lot of difference. Let there be heat!!!... :)

LockDoc
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Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Your write ups never cease to amaze me! Thanks for taking the time to post up the results as well. This looks like a great upgrade!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

So, putting in an A/C blower motor, increasing the wire size, and a bigger fuse is all??? Sounds like a great mod!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thanks Joe. It was pretty easy as I had the old heater harness so it was just plug and play.