Clutch Rod Hole Plug

[shifty]

I have both a rubber piece that I picked up from GMC Paul's, and I recently acquired a section of firewall that indeed has the metal bolt-on affair. The metal bolt-on is simply a lemon-shaped piece of metal with holes in either end and some kind of foam stuff on the side that faces inside of the cab.

[shifty]

That'd be it

Exact same lemon-shaped piece I have.

[Shane]

that's the only type I have ever seen too ...

[basketcase]

That would be easy to make. I didn't give it much thought this weekend. I got to doing other things on the front of the truck. As you can see in post #1 there are no screw holes in my truck so the earlier ones must have been a plastic plug of some sort.

Tom

[chris71]

when i coverted from 3 speed to th350 i nabbed one of those plates off of a suburban, when i went to install it on my 71 there were no holes but there were small indentations in the firewall where the screw holes should be drilled, all i did was put one of the original self tapping screws on the end of my drill and put the tip of the screw in the indentation and drill away, the plate fit great, good as stock. check for those small indentations, they look like someone just took a punch and made them for you, maybe they did this when they stamped the firewalls so the assembly guys couldnt screw up i'm not sure if this was an isolated case or 71' specific. good luck on the custom plate.

[basketcase]

You guys aren't going to believe this. I can hardly believe it myself. Tonight I was at a liquid nitrogen customer of ours filling a 9300 gallon bulk tank. The place is a rubber recycler. They recycle new rubber from companies that mold various items and have lots of scrap. The process is to freeze it then put it through big grinders that turn the rubber into powder. Then it goes back to the rubber company to be used again.

As you can imagine there is always lots of rubber scrap of all kinds laying on the ground. Tonight I was kicking some pieces out of the way when I spotted a rubber plug. It is a soft rubber plug made for a hole in thin sheet metal. Well I put it in my pocket and when I got home I washed it and went out to the shop. It fit the clutch hole like it was made for it! Being soft it conformed to the slightly irregular shape of the hole and fits in tight.

I'll definately be on the lookout for more of these when I get over there again.

Tom

[Shane]

Looks great and fills in the hole perfectly!

[incoma]

That's the exact look I'm in search of. Can you find out what manufacturer sent that scrap in to the vendor? It may be OE for a newer vehicle.

[basketcase]

This is a high use customer and we are in there every day with 1-3 loads but that doesn't mean I'll be going there. In the past I have had periods where I go there 3 or 4 times a week but lately it hasn't hit me. The other night was the first time in a couple of months. I'll look around but there are acres of rubber in tubs waiting to be processed. There is no way that I can look in all of those tubs. They just have numbers on them for the most part anyway.

If they spilled some of these while taking them inside I can probably find some more. They don't do a very good job of cleaning up and once it's dirty it doesn't go through the grinders. If I can pick up a bag of these I'll ask if I can take them and if they know where they came from. The night time guys probably won't care but they also probably won't have any idea who the suplier is.

Tom

[basketcase]

I was back down there again last night twice and I could not find any more of these plugs. The plug fairy must have left that one there just for me. I'll continue to keep an eye out just in case though.

Tom

[BLACK AND BLUE 67-72]

Yeah mine in my 72 is metal bolt on and the ones in my 70's are plastic also. I like the rubber plug idea alot better than the plastic ones!!!