My C-30 w/Holmes wrecker adventure

[KevinK7]

Cool story on the old wrecker, and love your hands on approach to tackling things.

[jhe.1973]

Originally Posted by KevinK7

Cool story on the old wrecker, and love your hands on approach to tackling things.

Thanks for responding Kevin and I'm glad you are getting some enjoyment from this thread !!

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Since my posting about the jib crane I have made it out to our other place and dropped it off --- almost ready to go:



Snuggled in at its new home:



You may have noticed that I have the dolly wheels/tires, tow bar and sling and two of the hazard lights on the wrecker frame installed.

I'm preparing to soon do a photo shoot at a great place here in town. I think it looks cooler with all the bells and whistles.

I also got the flood lights back on today:



I left the lights on until we moved to our current home but pulled all the rest off pretty soon after getting this truck. For my use it was just in the way and the truck was more versatile w/o the clutter.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

The day after my last post, when I went to start the truck, this happened to the power steering dipstick:



I started a new thread about it to get more exposure and maybe suggestions as to why it got so hot:

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...90#post9368990

My planned photo shoot is out for the foreseeable future as I just can't keep pouring time into this truck.

I still have over 400 photos of my work this last year so I'll keep posting as long as they last.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

I am pretty sure that I have figured out what happened to the steering pump and I explain it in the forum I linked to above (post9368990).

It dawned on me that I can hook a temporary line between both holes in the steering box and drive the truck w/o power steering until I have a bit more time to fix the problem.

Soooo maybe my hoped for photo shoot can happen fairly soon.

[Steeveedee]

^ That'll work, but it's gonna steer like a...truck.

[jhe.1973]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

^ That'll work, but it's gonna steer like a...truck.

Well that will fit right in cuz it already rides like one ... especially with the urethane cab insulators!

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by jhe.1973

Well that will fit right in cuz it already rides like one ... especially with the urethane cab insulators!

I had a '66 Le Mans that the power steering had no belt and did what you did. That's how I know. I was 23 at the time, and power steering without the belt wasn't that hard to use. I bought it that way, but fixed it. One finger steering after that.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Lots have happened since I've posted. We had an unplanned trip to help with our granddaughter so I sneaked away to my favorite junkyard w/old vehicles.

Found this proof of my theory that these PS pumps didn't use both belts to run them:



While I was there I also picked up these to make something to use for flushing the PS system:



I found out that the larger fitting for the pressure hose is not readily available. I tried NAPA and the two fast food auto parts stores in town. That's why I got these hose ends with the larger flare nut.

In case any of you have not done this, if you grind through the clamping sleeve on a hydraulic hose like these you can get an expanded end that will not pull off when clamped with a standard hose clamp:



I was surprised to find that the steel line was not expanded but was reduced in the two areas that the steel sleeve was crimped. It also looks like the small grooves are there to help with gripping the hose.

Anyway, here is how the line is finished:



Here is the steering box ready to hook up hoses for flushing:



The next post will start with showing an electrically driven gear pump I've had for ages (for a different project) out of storage.

[jhe.1973]

I hope to get back here right away, but I've had a bunch of trouble this AM being kicked off, even in the middle of uploading photos!

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Here is the pump/motor combo I mentioned that I intend to use for flushing the PS box:



I've only had it for 40 years or so nut my curiosity got the best of me when I was cleaning off all the dust. I finally looked critically at the motor and figured it must be rather old so I looked up the company online and I only found was this:



YIKES! This thing could be (or is) 100 years old!

Still works though.



The day is warming up so I need to get outside and take advantage of temperature. I'll try to get back this evening and let y'all know how this has worked out.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

I tried a few times to get back last night and just got messages that the server was too busy.

To be sure that the pump was internally clean I setup the flushing pump in the shop with a fuel filter that I had on hand:



I found that I needed more fluid in the clear container to keep from picking up air. This created a bunch of foam but the pump seemed to work well.

Here is the setup hooked up to the steering box:




This shot is while the pump is flushing the box with the filter now in the return line:



I was able to turn the steering box lock to lock from underneath allowing me to keep an eye on the return flow. After a few minutes it looked like it does above with no bubbles and lots of liquid.

Best of all there was no steering on it's own from the direction valve sticking!

[jhe.1973]

Soooo, now to what I came up with for the PS pump.

Last Monday I started to mount the extra pump to the adapter I had made from the same hole that the later style dual pulley pump used. This required me to trim this bracket to clear the water pump:



This pump with the two piece mounting bracket was what originally came with the steering box. I had already put a new shaft seal and O rings for the reservoir in it when I first converted to PS.

Now I found out that the later style pump was machined differently for the one-piece bracket.

Looking at my photos in the evening I realized that the pump was going to be way higher than the later pump I had changed to:



So the next day I was able to work on this I noticed that this boss on the water pump looked to be in about the right spot for the pump:



By threading the hole all the way through and making a small spacer the pump lined up perfectly and was lower as the later style one:



Now I just had to come up with a simpler bracket for the belt tension slot:



This leaves me with an extra bracket and later style pump should I have any need for it in the future.

[jhe.1973]

To be sure I had enough travel for belt adjustment I had to countersink the lower bolt for the bracket and had to also relieve the hole in the exhaust manifold:



In case any of you might get into this, here's a quick tip concerning countersunk screws.

To strengthen the transmission access door for the Harley KR/XRs a fifth bolt was added to keep it from flexing towards the crankshaft. Back in my drag racing days, to apply this modification to kickstart Sportsters this fifth bolt had to be countersunk for clearance.

I learned that once the engine had gone through a few heat and cool cycles this flathead bolt could not be removed by loosening. The head had to be drilled out and then the rest of the bolt would just spin out with your fingers!

Because of this lesson and because these mounting screws are in the manifold I liberally coated the holes and bolts with anti-sieze paste:



Here's how the bracket looks from the rear:



So now I just have my fingers crossed that the anti-sieze will do its job.

It looks like I have my PS issues fixed cuz the truck is back on the ground and working as it should. Curiously, the belt doesn't squeal anything like it did with the dual belts. It makes me suspect that the pump from a El Camino was not happy with this PS box that I robbed off of a Squarebody C20.

Oh yeah, one more thing.

Here is the adjusting bracket that I got with the setup:



Correct me if I am wrong but it doesn't quite look like its a GM factory issue.

I thought I made a mistake once but I was wrong!