My '63 C10 "I'd rather be driving" Project

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I replaced the 5th gear circlip, and everything looked good and seemed to function well. The next thing was to relocate the speedometer gear on the Camaro tailshaft. I turned an aluminum bushing to fit the shaft diameter, and be snug in the I.D. od the gear. I cut thru one side to allow the bushing to be slid over the splined end, and drilled a hole to allow both the bushing and the gear to be retained by the spring clip.

I set up on our shop drill press and started the new hole using a carbide drill bit, then finished with a ballnose endmill to smooth out the bottom of the hole.

The bushing was pretty snug in the gear, so I tightened a hose clamp around the shaft to stop the bushing from sliding back and breaking the tab on the clip. It was an easy mod, and I can't see there being any issues with it.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I re-assembled the trans with new seals and proceeded to check the endplay in the input shaft.

I believe I found a typo in the T5 manual that I downloaded. The bearing preload stated .0003" or .07mm. Converting .07mm to inches is actually .0028", so I wasn't sure whether I was trying for .003" or .0003".

I didn't want to wait for shims so I made one for .003" preload because to me it seemed to make more sense than .0003". I put the shim in and it was too tight and didn't turn freely. We have a surface grinder where I work, so I ground .002" off the shim, then made another .002" thinner than the first. I ended up choosing the shim that allowed the shafts to turn freely, with no end play. I hope that's right.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I wanted to trial fit the T5 in the truck to mark and cut the shifter hole. With the truck up on jackstands, I tried jacking the tranny up and wrestle it into position. I struggled for a long time trying to get the input shaft into the pilot bushing. Pretty tough balancing the tranny on a jack, then the jack is in the way so you can't see what you're doing. Unsuccessful, I gave up... figuring that I'd get the truck up on the hoist so I could stand up and see what was going on.

I cleaned up the tranny case, then sprayed it with aluminum paint to even things out. While it was drying, I rolled under the truck to take some measurements. I figured out that there isn't any clearance to lift the tranny high enough to engage the tranny spigot into the bellhousing. My truck has a removable low hump (that the PO decided to install with sheet metal screws!). I removed it, but there still doesn't appear to be enough room to clear the T5 top cover. I guess I'll need to find a high hump, or mod the floor ahead of the removable panel.

To remove the floor hump panel, I had to first scrape of the rubber underpad glued to the floor underneath the carpet. Is this stuff an automotive product?

Anyway, this is where I am now...

[CRGRS 66]

John
Good to see you Saturday morning, swap meet was a bit of a bust though.

Look at the pictures on page 1 of this thread, some shows clearance to the floor from below, and some show from above with the hole cut.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=482069

This one shows the clearance using the Camaro tail shaft.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=313954

Let me know if you need an extra set of hands.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by CRGRS 66

John
Good to see you Saturday morning,

I was a little hung over... but I'm pretty sure that was Sunday!

I took a look through the threads you posted, but again there isn't much mention of clearance issues under the floor. I'll be out at the shop tomorrow night if you want to come and have a looksee.

I'm going to have a good look at the motor mounts to see if anything looks odd... like whether or not the fan is centered in the shroud. I figure that if the front of the engine is low, it'll cause the tranny to sit higher, like a teeter-totter effect.

I'm thinking about heading out to McLean's wrecking yard to see if I can find a high hump, among other things.

[CRGRS 66]

Sent you a PM

[CRGRS 66]

John
I poached this picture from a post by LVphotos. Couple things I see... the humps are two pieces, and the high hump will also solve your clearance issue. Let's go high hump hunting at McLeans tomorrow. Failing that Bills has a lot OE parts he may have one.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Craig, I'm always up for a trip to the wrecking yard!

If I find a high hump I'll grab it for future use, but as you pointed out, my cab mounts looked to be pretty compressed. I'm hoping that just changing out the cab mounts will solve my clearance issue. If it doesn't, there's always the option of stacking up hockey pucks and do a body lift like the 4x4 guys.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I have a bit of catching up to do...

On CRGRS 66's suggestion, I replaced the cab mounts with new polyurethane mounts. Thanks Craig, for "lending" me your new set of cab mounts. A replacement set is on it's way.

The new cab mounts helped, but the T5 was still touching the floor in one spot. A little trimming of the lip was all it needed to allow the tranny to slip in. Once it was in, I cut the shifter hole.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I could see there was a crude pop-riveted patch on the hump panel, so I wanted to remove it and do a proper repair. The PO used paper-thin metal, then bondo to hide the repair. The pic shows what it looked like after peeling off the old patch. There's the new shifter hole that I cut, plus a crude old floorshifter opening. The area around the bottom of the gas pedal is also rusted away.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

It gets worse...

I started to clean up the residue from the carpet underpad, warming things up with a torch so I could scrape off the glue & undercoating. Around the base of the gas pedal I found another ****ty PO repair. Same kinda deal as before, paper-thin metal and bondo. This time there was some fibreglass too.

I wasn't too happy seeing this rust, since it'll be tough to do a proper repair with the cab bolted down to the frame. I picked away at it until it looked like this...

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

The next morning, (Superbowl) sunday, I did my usual routine. Up early, go for a walk while listening to a podcast like C10 Talk, or Street Rod & Custom radio, then chill for a bit at a coffee shop. I'm sitting at Starbucks going thru all my Ebay and Kijiji searches on my phone... and I come across someone selling a mint low hump. Both pieces. And less than 20 miles from my house.

Long story short, I bought the floor pieces. They were pulled out of a 62 that will be getting the full dropmember treatment.

I wont drop names, but I'd met the seller before. When I went to pick up the parts at his home, we talked for an hour and a half while he showed me some cool stuff in his shop. He's a super-talented metal worker... among many other things, and has built some outstanding show cars. I'm hoping he'll join this forum.

I've posted these last few messages from Daytona. I'm on the 2nd part of my vacation after having spent a few days in Clearwater. It's cool here, but nothing like the record-setting low temps in the north.

Anyway... we'll be at the Sprint Unlimited tonight, then a leisurely drive home. I'll be making a stop at Summit Racing for goodies.

[65sub]

Just love finding hidden surprises

[CRGRS 66]

Johnny boy, you picked a great time to go south, -24C this morning, with a feels like of -38C, for those who speak farenheit that is -11F, feels like -36F

Safe travels see you when you get home.

[cheessee]

U can use cardboard also but x2 on the welding blanket

[cheessee]

Oops a lil late on that post lol

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Originally Posted by 65sub

Just love finding hidden surprises

Ha! I can do without those kind of surprises.

Originally Posted by CRGRS 66

for those who speak farenheit that is -11F, feels like -36F

Yeah, it was about that cool in Wytheville, VA last night. Kind of a crappy drive thru the mountains this morning. It snowed steadily, but no accumulation to speak of. Just greasy enough to cause problems. We saw quite a few bent vehicles. We're holed-up in Erie for the night, after having stopped at Summit to pick up a couple new bumpers. Home tomorrow...yay!

Originally Posted by cheessee

Oops a lil late on that post lol

Better late than never.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

It's been a while...

I finally got around to patching my gas pedal area of the floor. After drilling out all the spot welds, I removed the front hump section, then banged a patch out of 18 gauge. I had to put a couple slits in it to get it to bend.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Once that was done, I welded in the new front section of the hump. I had clearance issues over the T5 with the original hump. Before tacking the new one in place, I assembled both pieces then gently lifted from underneath with a floor jack. I t worked great. After welding in the new hump, I have about 3/8" of clearance without trimming anything.

I'll need to get a 60-63 Gas Pedal now that I have somewhere to mount it.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I took a mini vacation to Niagara Falls NY to pick up the parts I'd ordered from CPP... Grand Slam kit and Sway Bars

I took advantage of their free shipping promo on Presidents Day weekend, then I was lucky to not be charged any taxes crossing the border back into Canada. Saved me a bunch of $$$

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

After many job-related delays, I'm back to working on the C10. I got the 5" drop springs installed in order to figure out my driveshaft length at ride height.

I figured out that a driveshaft out an 80's V8 TH350 Monte Carlo would work. The length was 52-1/2" centre to centre. All it needed was a 3R to 1310 conversion u-joint at the rear axle.

Once that was done, I pulled out the front springs and set the truck down on the bump stops to see what it would look like. So much better...

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Next, I broke down the front suspension for a quick refurb, and to remove the bump stops. After chipping out a bunch of red Oklahoma clay from the spring pockets, I sandblasted everything and repainted, then installed new seals.

While I had the LCA's apart, I decided to do my version of chevyrestoguy's Caster Mod, similar to here: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=501241

I just added a 2nd dimple, 3/4" from the original one. I had to trim the LCA's to clear the rear u-bolt saddles. I also drilled out the u-bolt saddles to upgrade the u-bolts to the 73-up style.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Got the front suspension all buttoned up. Still need to mount the front and rear sway bars and shocks. I never got around to doing the power steering conversion. I'll need to start gathering some parts for that.

The Wilwood calipers look purty... but I'm going to store them until I get some wheels that will show them off. For now, I'll run a new set of stock GM calipers.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

For a cleaner look, I decided to flush-mount the brake booster.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

I picked up a set of pre-bent stainless steel brake lines from CPP. They probably would've fit pretty well, except I deleted their mounting bracket and flush-mounted.

I couldn't find any instructions to tell me how the two lines were supposed to run across the crossmember, so I just did what I thought made the most sense. I ended up twisting the front brake line 90 degrees to clear the exhayst. The line was originally made to enter the tee horizontally. I re-worked it to enter the tee vertically from above. Now, I'll have room to re-attach the left-side headpipe.

I'd upgraded to braided SS hoses, which had 7/16" threaded fittings, so I had to run to Napa to pick up a pair of 3/8 to 7/16" adapters to fit the new hardlines.