New project! The "Red Herring"

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Couple questions. What steering column are you using? Where did you get your Vette gas pedal from?

Cheers!

My steering column is out of a '65 Pontiac Bonneville ... pretty much any fullsize GM is similar. In retrospect, a '66+ column without a key would be a better choice, it's proving difficult to find parts/documentation for this one.

I ordered the pedal on ebay, it's GM PN #25835421, applicable to any '05-'13 Corvette ... I paid $72 shipped.

[FarmerSid]

Cool! I'd like a column that has no key on it and tilt. Not paying close to $1000 for one or a cheap off shore one. Been told to look for one out of a late 70's early 80's Chevy van. I want to keep the key on the dash.

How did you determine that the Vette pedal would work electronically? I'm having a hard time figuring out what I need so it will work programming wise.

Have a good one!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Cool! I'd like a column that has no key on it and tilt. Not paying close to $1000 for one or a cheap off shore one. Been told to look for one out of a late 70's early 80's Chevy van. I want to keep the key on the dash.

How did you determine that the Vette pedal would work electronically? I'm having a hard time figuring out what I need so it will work programming wise.

Have a good one!

It looks like it depends on which ECM you have - the gen III motors require an additional throttle control module box (your '06 would have had one) ... so you have to use the pedal that matches. I think the C5 Vette pedal / TAC module works with the truck, but that is a little outside my knowledge.

[JJorgensen52]

Rear end is back. Got the truck back on all fours, working on the rear cross member.

[JJorgensen52]

New driveshaft made up and got it installed tonight.

The second and third photos show the angles.

I'm down about 2* on the motor (and up 2* on the pinion to match) - the shaft is at 8* at my current height, I'm expecting about 7* at ride height. Which puts me at between 5* and 6* of driveline angle - a little more than ideal, but should work just fine.

I'm hoping to actually start making real progress again tomorrow, I feel like I've been in the garage all week and have nothing to show for it but a lot of tape measurings and sketches on my scratch pad.

[Advanced Design]

JJ, did you have the drive shaft made locally? Yep, have been there with just a lot of tape measuring and sketches completed....and there is always the ever popular sit and stare at it thinking for awhile progress too.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

JJ, did you have the drive shaft made locally? Yep, have been there with just a lot of tape measuring and sketches completed....and there is always the ever popular sit and stare at it thinking for awhile progress too.

I did, yes. I was looking at getting a custom shaft online (Denny's Driveshaft and the like) but I happened upon a Fleet Supply/Spicer Driveline place locally, and they made it up for me at about half the price. Couldn't complain!

As far as actual details on the driveshaft, I'm running 3"x.083" DOM steel, with 1350 series joints. It worked out to 54-1/2" long. I'm not running any big power at the moment, but this would be fine for upgrades to about 600whp if I ever felt like going that route.

For angles, a single 1350 is good to operate up to about 20* of driveline angle, though they wear out much faster at high angles - with my 6*, I'm looking at about 70% of maximum life expectancy according to Spicer's data.

I'm not even remotely concerned about critical speed on the driveline since this is a cruiser, but it would fall around 5,800 RPM ... with my gears and tires that's around 140MPH and I doubt this truck will ever see more than 90MPH

[lower50's]

I hear you on the lots of time in the shop and not much to show for it.
Nice looking drive shaft!!!! I just got my drive shaft fit in that I made from 2, now I can get one made.

[JJorgensen52]

Thanks for the words of encouragement!

Spent some time today monkeying with mechanical shift linkages. Right now, I've got Park, Reverse and Neutral ... thinking I may toss the factory linkage in favor of an adjustable one.

Got the rear cross member made up about 75%


Which set me back a bit, though, because when I tried to test fit the S10 Blazer tank, it became apparent I got my wires crossed when I measured before - the tank is about 32.5" wide and there's only 28" between the rails ... sooo back to the drawing board on that one.

Red saw the sun today!

If only for an hour before it started raining

It's a great feeling to have a roller again.

[Advanced Design]

Always a good feeling of accomplishment to get the back on their own feet again...even if just for a while. Looks good out there JJ.

[junksaver]

In the picture of your driveshaft installed it appears that your yoke is set a long ways into the transmission. I don't know if that is just the camera angle or not. You may want to double check that because it will need to go in farther as you load down the rear of the truck.
Nice progress on the truck. I'm sure your glad to have it rolling again.

[FarmerSid]

Is there a rule of thumb of how much you should leave the yoke out of the trans tail housing?

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Is there a rule of thumb of how much you should leave the yoke out of the trans tail housing?

My driveshaft guy tells me to shove it all the way in the trans and pull it out one inch, measure center to center on the yokes and call him with that number!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by junksaver

In the picture of your driveshaft installed it appears that your yoke is set a long ways into the transmission. I don't know if that is just the camera angle or not. You may want to double check that because it will need to go in farther as you load down the rear of the truck.
Nice progress on the truck. I'm sure your glad to have it rolling again.

Originally Posted by solidaxel

My driveshaft guy tells me to shove it all the way in the trans and pull it out one inch, measure center to center on the yokes and call him with that number!

Thanks for the words guys!

On the driveshaft, solidaxel is right about where I'm at. I pulled it out an inch and maybe an 1/8th ... there's a little rubber dust boot on there which makes it look a lot smaller, but that collapses about 7/8" or so.

That said, there isn't a whole lot of change in the geometry as the rear end goes up - I thought about that, but now you're making me doubt myself

[JJorgensen52]

Rear cross member is finally finished. I must have gone through two dozen iterations of installing and removing this thing!




I'll clean and paint it at some point My Dad wants a trailer hitch on the truck, so that forward most bolt through the lower flange is going to be the rear bolt for the hitch, I will re-drill to accommodate the larger hardware when I get that far.

I spent some time today thinking about how I'm going to go about refitting my front clip - I decided I'm going to use the inner fenders as my starting point (since I'm replacing my originals, which are rusty, anyway) and then install the fenders, so I can "drop in" the core support and see how much trimming I'm going to have to do. There's going to be a little interference on the steering box, but not enough (I don't think) to require tipping the radiator forward. Though for fan clearance I may want to do that anyway.

[JJorgensen52]

Rear bed cross sill is in and bolted down, lets me get everything squared up and check for fit. I need to start working on the tailgate here relatively soon.


View from behind. I'm going to be hanging custom brackets for the rear bumper off this cross member as well.


Today I went parts shopping at the boneyard, to look for a way to connect my steering column to the box. I don't like rag joints, but I also wasn't all that impressed with the last Borgeson/Flaming river combo I used, so I decided to go hunting. I had read somewhere that Jeeps had longer DD type shafts with GM ends on them, so that's where I looked. I pulled three shafts in all, one from a '98 Express Van (a tad short and DD on the column end), one from a '90 Cherokee (DD on the column end) and one from a '98 Cherokee (fits '97-'01 classic style Cherokee):


I had to trim the little pilot nub off the steering box for clearance, and file one tooth off the steering column (the Jeep U-joint is keyed), but for 10 minutes of dremel work it bolted right up like it was meant to be there. (For reference: It's 3/4"-36 spline top and bottom, bottom fits standard GM saginaw box. It is almost too long for my application, I have about 3.5" of compression available. I can measure full extension if anybody is interested.)

This shaft has a vibration dampener built into the upper U-joint, you can see here. I have about 1" of clearance between it and the #7 exhaust runner (I can get my hand in there easily). Should be fine with the ceramic coating. The shift linkage is really in the way, though. That definitely needs to be reworked.

I've also found a Jeep fuel tank that should work, they weren't expensive so I ordered one, will be here Wednesday as long as FedEx doesn't lose it. We shall see.

[steve aleve]

The truck is looking great! Congrats on all the good work. I have looked back in the thread and I cant seem to find what type of steering column you are using. I know you have an S10 steering box, and a 98 cherokee steering shaft. Any help would be appreciated! I love the look of the column and the fact that everything can be found at the junkyard. Thanks in advance

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by steve aleve

The truck is looking great! Congrats on all the good work. I have looked back in the thread and I cant seem to find what type of steering column you are using. I know you have an S10 steering box, and a 98 cherokee steering shaft. Any help would be appreciated! I love the look of the column and the fact that everything can be found at the junkyard. Thanks in advance

Thanks, man! The column I ended up with is a '65 Pontiac fullsize tilt (So Bonneville or Catalina). As far as the splines are concerned, any '60s GM column should work, they all had the same splines. The Pontiac column was attractive because it already had a bearing built into the bottom of it, so I didn't have to do any conversion to run it with the S10 box.

[Advanced Design]

Really looking like a truck JJ! Maybe need a hood stretcher? Guessing the hole you mentioned is due to a flattened rubber cushion.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Really looking like a truck JJ! Maybe need a hood stretcher? Guessing the hole you mentioned is due to a flattened rubber cushion.

Hood stretcher, I like it Thanks! Here's the hole in question:


Made a junkyard run today, and I acquired the remote reservoir setup from the Express (it was an '04 5.3 van)


And while I was there, I also saw this shift linkage in a '90ish GMC Safari:


It struck me as something I could modify to work.

I will say, after a bunch of tinkering and iterations, I now have full shifter functionality and happily, the TH400 gates in the column have *just* enough room in this setup to grab all four drive gears.


I had to shorten the bellcrank and the pivot mount where it hits the frame, re-clock the lever arm on the bellcrank, and shorten the linkage. But it works! I'm on iteration #3 for most of the parts, and I need to re-clock the bellcrank a few degrees for it to be perfect, but I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. About $12 in parts and a few hours of my time

[JJorgensen52]

Okay I lied
After I adjusted the bellcrank angles, I can't get into 1st anymore. No matter, who needs that anyway

Completed linkage:

All kinds of clearance for the exhaust now



Whacked the bottom off the core support:



I'm going to build a framework to carry the radiator such that the bottom is kicked out enough to clear the steering box.

I'm going to build a stand right where the board is sitting on the spacer block in this photo:


Like this: (don't mind my hen scratch)

I'm using a '67-'72 style mount, turned wrong side up.

Debating if I want to notch the stand, so I can slide the bolt into it from the side pointed up, or if I drill an oversize hole into the frame so that I can just put a nut underneath and have the bolt stick through. Thoughts? My inclination is to not drill holes in the frame, but there's really nothing being supported up at the front there.

[JJorgensen52]

Original chassis is gone!

Headed up to New York to go under a '53 GMC being restored.

Didn't grab my camera today, but I was out of angle iron so I started working on my seat mounts:


That's 304ss 3/4" sch.40 pipe - it's just over an inch in diameter, and my calculation suggests that it can carry 1200 lbs without issue in this configuration.

[JJorgensen52]

Test fitted the radiator today:


It's from RnD Fab here on the board - turns out the core is about an inch narrower than stock, which gave me just enough room to offset to passenger's side and clear the steering box no troubles:


However, since I'm lazy and I didn't feel like swapping my welder back over to mild steel wire, I kept working on the seat mounts


My stainless welding looks a little ropey, but it's plenty strong so I'm pleased with it:

The mount plates are drilled and bolted and both the cross-bars are fully welded down.

Tomorrow, hopefully it won't be 100 degrees out and I'll work on getting the seat bars made for the mount, and the tabs to actually bolt the seats and seatbelts on. Given the way I've been progressing, that will take me until Thursday, when I'm supposed to get a big ol' box from Columbia Mandrel Bending to start working on stainless exhaust

[oldman3]

Nice looking radiator...Jim

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Nice looking radiator...Jim

Thanks Jim! I'm honestly debating if I keep it shiny/polish it, or if I want to paint it matte black ... it looks kind of showy to me right now, but I suspect not a whole lot of it will be visible once it's all put together. We'll see.

Got the cross bars welded into my seat mount tonight. Well, as welded as I can get them without pulling it out of the truck. Lot of bolts to do that I don't have a tubing notcher, so I coped all the tubes using a half round file ... my hands hate me.


And here's a shot with both seats in position. I have another set of nice charcoal seats which will be my final. Also working on an idea for a center console that I think will look super if I can get my idea to be reality

Tomorrow, hopefully I'll get the tabs made to bolt the seats down and then on to the next task!