Wampus Cat

[TxCajun]

I found this '66 C10 SWB Fleetside, six cylinder 3-speed manual in August of 2017. From the dealer bumper and the limited information that I have, it appears to have been purchased from a dealer in Itasca, Texas (home of the high school Wampus Cats). It has spent its life in that general area of Texas and appears to have not been on the road since the early 90's.
There is a lot of bondo on various spots of the body; the cab floor has been fiberglass patched; there is rust above the windshield in the cab roof.
The cab and frame VIN numbers match; the bed does not appear to be original to the truck (evidence of side trim mounting holes) and has a steel tread plate floor; the left front fender and some front sheet metal do not appear to be original.
Non-running and no brakes when purchased.
Leaking from all orifices and the bottom is covered with 1 or 2 inches of petrified oil and dirt.
I'm not planning on doing any major restoration. I'd like to just get it roadworthy and enjoy using it while continuing to make upgrades here and there.

[LostMy65]

Enjoy.

[Captainfab]

That looks like not too bad of a truck aside from the issues you mentioned. What engine and trans does it have? What upgrades are you planning?

[TxCajun]

September 2017
Purchased some red Rallye wheels from my nephew. They were take-offs from his '65 that he replaced with steel wheels and baby moons.
Replaced the battery tray (rotten) and installed a new battery.
Cleaned up the fuel system; new points & condenser; a bit of tuning and got the engine running. Reasonable compression and no smoke, but has a helluva knock.
Pulled the engine and determined it appears to be a 230 cu in that has already been bored .060 and is worn out. Found some metal bits in the oil pan that look like camshaft thrust bearing. Started looking for a rebuildable engine.
Removed a bunch of spacers from the coil springs on all four corners; the springs look like they must have been heated for lowering at some point (or maybe just sagged).

[TxCajun]

October 2017
While looking for a rebuildable engine, decided to rebuild the brakes and check through the suspension.
Discovered that only the driver side parking brake was connected; the passenger side parking brake hardware had all been removed. Cheap fix for a broken cable?
Upgraded to dual master cylinder. Installed new wheel cylinders, new shoes and hardware, installed new brake rubber hoses.
Installed new rear axle seals and new rear axle lube. Installed new front wheel seals and re-packed bearings.
Installed new rear parking brake cables and hardware.
Installed new panhard rod bushings and straightened the panhard rod which was bent in an arc.

[TxCajun]

November 2017
Installed new driver side window rollers, window tape, and used window support channel. (The window support channel was missing from the door when I purchased the truck.) Now I can roll that window up and down.
Started rebuilding the brake/clutch pedals and linkages. Installed new brake/clutch pedal bushings and pedal pads and pedal bumpers; weld repaired pedal stops.
The ends of the clutch rods were worn almost to the point of failure so I built these up with weld metal and ground/filed them back to round size. The clutch arm holes were also worn oblong so I built these up with weld metal, drilled them oversize and installed bronze bushings.
Found a rebuildable engine east of Dallas, dragged it home and started tear down.

[TxCajun]

December 2017
The engine that I found to rebuild is a 250 cu in from about '78 (according to the casting numbers and stamping). It had been previously bored .040" over and the bores measured within tolerance after honing.
Had the cylinder head rebuilt with hardened exhaust seats, machined for valve seals and install valve seals, surface head .012”.
Installed new rings, bearings, gaskets, new cam (stock, the old one had flattened cams), lifters, oil pump.
Installed new harmonic balancer.
Installed new water pump.
Big thanks to my brother for assembly assistance while visiting for the holidays!

[TxCajun]

January 2017
Completed assembly of engine ancilliaries. Cleaning and painting parts as I go.
Installing a GM HEI distributor and ignition, and a 2bbl Weber.
Cleaned up the transmission and installed new seals. Found that the shifter arms were worn and cracked where they attach to the transmission so welded and filed these to shape. Found that the main input shaft bearing had a lot of fore/aft play so I fabricated and installed a spacer; the rest of the interior of the transmission looked pretty good and there were no shavings or bits in the oil.

[TxCajun]

February 2017
Painted the doghouse rattle-can semi-gloss black.
Installed rebuilt engine back in the truck.
Installed new front and rear motor mounts (the old ones were spongy from oil leaks and age)
Installed new flywheel and clutch kit, new clutch actuator rod bushings, new clutch actuator arm boots.

The truck is a bit of a Frankenstein of different parts, and I discovered that the standard Chevy starters would not fit the combination of 10.4" clutch, 153T flywheel, and truck bellhousing. Decided to go with a mini gear reduction starter which fits but has not yet been tested. I was hoping to fire up the engine in February (Fenginebruary), but the starter problem delayed ignition.

[Palf70Step]

I think all our truck's are Frankenstiens. Yours is coming together very nicely!

[LostMy65]

Thanks for uploading all the photos.
I like your plan.

[61K10]

looks good---------

[shp4man]

Nice. I like that you stayed with the six. It's a great little motor.

[rvrfoot]

Did you take your hood springs off so the hood will go up higher?

[TxCajun]

Originally Posted by rvrfoot

Did you take your hood springs off so the hood will go up higher?

No, I read a suggestion elsewhere in this board that you can take out the front hinge mounting bolts on each side, loosen the rear mounting bolts, and then pivot the hood up vertical for engine/hoist access. You will need to tie the hood up, perhaps with a rope back to the cab, to hold it in this position.

Since I was working by myself, I did not want to take the hood off, and this pivoting solution worked well.

[rvrfoot]

Cool thanks i am taking my motor out next weekend.

[TxCajun]

Decided to install the front sway bar that I purchased from Performance Online when it was on sale a few months ago, part number FSBK6372. It's a 1 1/8 inch diameter bar, and the front pivots bolt directly to the underside of the frame so the bar is positioned relatively high with respect to the chassis. The parts appear to be good quality and the supplied hardware is Grade 5 bolts and nylok nuts.

One pair of bolts for the front pivots needed to go where the rivets holding the lower radiator brace to the main frame rails were located. I had not removed any of these chassis rivets before and was concerned about how hard that might be. However, I read a suggestion about using a cutoff wheel to cut an "X" in the rivet head and then knock the head off with a hammer and chisel. Tried it, and worked like a charm. A half dozen whacks with a five pound hammer and chisel, and the head was gone. The rivet can then be driven out with a punch.

After that, I just had to drill two more 3/8 holes in the frame and one in the front of each a-arm, then bolt everything up.

[TJ's Chevy]

Nice to see another truck with a 6 cyl in it. Becoming a rare breed. The sway bar will be a nice touch.

[TxCajun]

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

Nice to see another truck with a 6 cyl in it. Becoming a rare breed. The sway bar will be a nice touch.

Thanks! Rare breed indeed.
I'm planning on keeping it simple with the straight six and three speed on the column; just make upgrades to brakes, suspension, and cosmetics.

[TxCajun]

The springs on the truck appeared to have perhaps been "lowered" by heating, or perhaps just sagged over the years.

I purchased 2" lowering springs for the front and 3" lowering springs for the rear.

While installing the front springs, I also replaced the upper ball joints and adjusted the manual steering box. The rest of the front suspension seems to be in good shape.

On the rear, I had to cut out the trailing arm pivot bolts, the spring capture hardware, and the one of the axle U-bolts, but I had planned to use new hardware anyway.

For the trailing arm pivot bolts, instead of using 4" long Grade 8 replacement bolts, I decided to use 5" long Grade 8 replacement bolts so that there are no threads inside the pivot bushing. I shortened the 5" bolts by about 5/8" so that about only 2 to 3 threads extend past the nut. I also replaced the bushings with poly bushings.

[TxCajun]

The old rear shocks were leaking, so I still need to determine the length of rear shock that I need with the lower springs, and also fabricate new upper shock mounts so that the shocks are more vertical.

With the new springs installed the distance from the center of the wheel to the bottom of the fender lip is about 17" at the front and 12" at the rear. These measurements and the pictures were taken just after taking it off the jack-stands and bouncing the truck a few times, so it may settle in a bit after sitting for a while.

[TxCajun]

April 2018

I started up the rebuilt engine for the first time with help from my brother who was visiting. After fashioning a tool for my drill, we spun the oil pump to lubricate the engine, then inserted the distributor, and cranked it up. A little tweaking of the timing and idle mixture got it running smoothly, and we then let it run for about 20 minutes for cam break-in. Oil pressure and water temperature are good; sounds great.

The engine temp started getting a little warm just sitting there in the driveway at high idle on a 84 degree day, but putting a fan in front of the truck blowing on the radiator resolved that. The stock fan sits back 2 or 3 inches from the radiator, and there is no fan shroud; might be a good candidate for an electric cooling fan this summer.

There was a minor oil leak at the front of the oil pan, but re-torquing the oil pan bolts resolved the leak.

I fabricated some new rear upper shock mounts following the design suggested on this forum by Lakeroadster; this mount relocates the upper shock mount a little higher and further back so that the shock is more upright and will operate correctly ( http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=451200 ) .
I don't have access to a mill, so I made these mounts using my side grinder with a cutoff wheel for the cutout area and my drill press for the holes.

After a little research, I chose to use Monroe Gas-Magnum 34904 shocks instead of the Monroe 32207 that are often suggested on this forum. The 34904 are very close in length dimensions to the 32207, but are a little beefier in that they have a larger diameter rod and cylinder. My truck has a tread plate rear bed floor that I estimate adds 250 to 300 pounds to the bed, so I think the additional damping may be helpful.
I haven't driven this setup yet, but it has very good damping when I put my weight on the rear bumper and try to bounce the truck.

[jimmythompson1964]

Nice work so far you will be rolling in no time

[aggie91]

Nice work. I enjoy your methods and the way you are documenting the changes.

[TxCajun]

When I was putting the engine & transmission back in the truck, I greased and adjusted the lower column shift arms along with installing new bushings at all of the shift arm pivot points. However, the top of the column had a lot of side-to-side steering wheel play and the column shift arm was very loose.

I disassembled the top of the column and cleaned, inspected all of the parts. The shift lever holes on the "Shift Lever Housing" were worn out oblong and cracked, so the shift lever roll pin which should be pressed in was just a wobbly fit. I thought about trying to repair these holes with aluminum brazing rod and then re-drill, but upon investigation it appears that the commonly available brazing rods have a melting point of about 720 to 750 degrees F which is very close to the temperature at which the die casting would melt or distort. Also, since there are hairline cracks between the hole and the end of the casting boss, I don't think a bushing would work or, at best, would only be a temporary solution. After cleaning up the casting, I found a part number cast on the inside: 3873134. In doing a web search, I found an NOS part for a reasonable price from AutoPartsObsolete, and bought it.

The steering wheel also had 1/8” cracks/gaps next to the center hub and a few other places. Using a Dremel tool, I cleaned out the cracks and made them wider at the base than at the top, then I filled these with JB Weld, sanded, and painted the wheel satin black. I'm in the process of installing an “old school” lace-on steering wheel cover, but the last picture shows close to final results.

After greasing the column parts with white lithium grease and reassembling everything, the shifter feels more precise and the steering wheel play is gone.