Quote:
Originally Posted by Pont406
My truck had about 91k miles when I bought it. I did a motor swap and fixed a couple other problems. I put 260 miles on it now. They were a hard miles. Taking off hard from the light, downshifting, basicly I was having fun with it. Tonight after some driving I smelled a burning rubber and I heard a whining noise, almost the same as rear end whine. I found a broken center support bearing. Prior to that I started to get a loud rattle from the back. Tailgate support broke.
I never had a vehicle with the center support bearing. If I replace it how long will a new one last? What is a good fix for that, maybe one driveshaft instead of two? Any way to fix a tailgate?
I am getting pissed with this now. All the parts were original but in working order, besides tired small block. Thanks
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OK, first thing dude. The fact that it had 91K on when you bought it doesn't mean a damned thing. It is still a 35+ year old vehicle.
Matter of fact "all original parts" on a 35+ year old vehicle probably shouldn't be hot-rodded without at least going thru the truck and replacing/repairing most of the rubber stuff (brake lines to the wheels/rear end, Carrier bearing, hoses, belts, etc), doing a thorough suspension check/rebuild, and at the VERY least you need to get the brakes looked at.
You said you did a motor swap. Why didn't you replace the carrier bearing and ALL the u-joints then?
That being said, Welcome!
Carrier bearings are fairly easy to replace, they have to be because if you continue to use the AutoZone/Checker/O'Reilly's variety of carrier bearing (which is what that looks like, am I right?) and continue to drive it the way you are, you are going to be looking at replacing it every six months or 5K miles. We've ALL done it at one time or another (hot rodding a basically stock "survivor" or unrestored truck) but I'm just saying that it isn't the best idea in the world. Hell it took me five years of driving a 68 LWB and hot rodding it thru high school and part of college before i figured it out.
Look into getting a one piece driveshaft built (no idea how much that'll cost you), or buy a heavy duty carrier like this one:
http://www.dicksdriveshaft.com/specials.html
(scroll all the way to the bottom of the linked page).
Your problems won't be completely solved, but your trips to the parts store should no longer include having to buy carrier bearings and u-joints with every other oil change.
As far as the tailgate, my thought would be to check the LMC catalog, (
www.lmctruck.com ), the Brothers website (
www.brothertrucks.com , they are having a pretty substantial sale until 30 November) and buy a new gate support. Either that or start checking wrecking yards for tailgates and rob one from one of them.