1971 K10 Stepside - Getting a Roller Roadworthy

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Yes, it will be. I've been driving Blue for a week, it feels great.

I'll bet!

[pjmoreland]

Since I'm waiting for the transmission main shaft shim kit, I spent the evening doing some smaller tasks. I disassembled, cleaned and painted the clutch bellcrank.

[pjmoreland]

I also wire wheeled the exhaust manifolds and then painted them.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by pjmoreland

Since I'm waiting for the transmission main shaft shim kit, I spent the evening doing some smaller tasks. I disassembled, cleaned and painted the clutch bellcrank.

I would have suggested you closely inspect the welds on the Z-Bar Ears before painting. Those welds have broken on me about three times. Twice on the GMC Jimmy and once on the Stepside. Not a good feeling when you're stuck in gear, stalled, in traffic, in the city...

The Jimmy's Z-Bar had some exotic S-style joggling done to it -- weakening the Factory welds. The Stepside was closing in on 400,000 at the time. Daily Driver, urban application.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

I would have suggested you closely inspect the welds on the Z-Bar Ears before painting. Those welds have broken on me about three times. Twice on the GMC Jimmy and once on the Stepside. Not a good feeling when you're stuck in gear, stalled, in traffic, in the city...

The Jimmy's Z-Bar had some exotic S-style joggling done to it -- weakening the Factory welds. The Stepside was closing in on 400,000 at the time. Daily Driver, urban application.

Good advice. I didn't inspect the welds super closely, but I didn't see anything obvious under casual inspection. I won't be venturing far from home for the first few months of driving.

[pjmoreland]

Received the main shaft shim kit today, so I set the end play this evening. Took a couple tries. Got it set to .003", and the spec is .002-.006.

While reassembling the overdrive gears, it became apparent that I am missing a component due to the distance between the small gear and the threads for the nut that holds it in place. After a little online searching, I learned that I'm missing a spacer. It's on order now.