Project Reno - 72 cheyenne rebuild

[cmabolt]

Been chippin away at the front suspension. The goal was to try and get her back on all four wheels by friday. Mission Accomlished.

Bolted the seats in to test the drivers adjuster forward and backward. It was jamming so I reamed out the mounting holes a little and she slides easy now.
They look good sitting in the cab I think.

Waiting on a few parts and I'll get back into it next week. Gonna rebuild the transfer case and paint it and the trans next.
I also finished welding and grinding the vent filler plates. Just a little touch up on the drivers cab corner and metal work will be done on the cab.

[cmabolt]

New and correct shocks arrived and they fit pretty well. They have an extra 2 inches of travel so are slightly compressed when on truck.


Then turned my attention to getting the drivetrain cleaned and painted. I first rebuilt the transfer case with all new seals gaskets. Then cleaned the trans and prepped it for POR engine enamel.

after that started painting the trans and transfer case.


If your thinking that red looks muted you would be correct. The red is chevy red and it is indeed not a deep red. I'm pretty disappointed. it looked good going on and when done and in natural light, not happy with the color. Should have gone with Chevy orange. Oh well. At least it's protected well.

I then turned my attention to mocking up the hydraulic clutch. I am waiting for the slave and master cylinder, but wanted to get started lining stuff up.
I also made a stop for the clutch pedal so it will sit even with the brake pedal. I will write a detailed explanation of the hydraulic clutch setup.


More to come.

[cmabolt]

progress has been slow with many fitment issues, but still chugging away. I finished up the cab metal work.

Got trans and transfer case mated back together and ready to go back in truck.

So now to the master cylinder side of the hydraulic clutch. I purchased a willwood part# 260-1304 with integrated reservoir of the 3/4 bore variety that matches my novak slave retrofit kit. So first, with the clutch pedal in it's full released position, I used a straight edge to mark a drilling point in the pedal and firewall. I used a level to make sure it was a straight throw from pedal to firewall. Then I mounted the brake booster to check for interference before drilling.

Then I drilled from the inside of cab with pedal assembly out of the way using a hole saw a tad larger then the circumference of the master cylinder inlet.

So far, so good. The firewall is actually reinforced in this area so it didn't seem necessary to add any reinforcement. I had to use a die grinder to clean up and open the hole slightly to accommodate the rubber around the master cylinder pushrod boot. After I mounted the master cylinder I began looking at how to connect the clutch pedal to the master cylinder pushrod. I ended up finding a post someone had done for a similar install using round bar stock they tapped and a ball joint rod end they found on Mcmaster-carr. I ended up
using a clevis rod end that was female 5/16 24 thread, some threaded rod and a tapped rod with corresponding 5/16 24 thread.


I measured from clevis rod end to master cylinder pushrod. Cut the tapped rod to length plus an inch. I then cut 1 piece of threaded rod and mated it all together adjusting rod length till pedal had no play.


It seems to be working well. We'll see how it goes when it's hooked to real clutch. I have a total of a little ore than an inch of throw at the moment. i can probably squeak another .5, but will leave as is for now. I think the throw on the master cylinder is 1.40 or something. Next I am moving onto some rear brake issues I have to deal with.

[Crash_OK]

Great progress. The trans and transfer case mated back together looks awesome..