Roostre's 1967 C20

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

One small move at a time, Man.

Yep, all of the big exciting stuff is done, now I'm onto the small things that make it a reliable driver.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Roostre

Yep, all of the big exciting stuff is done, now I'm onto the small things that make it a reliable driver.

I gotta replace and repair the Speedo in my '68 C/10 Stepside. Won't go above 35 MPH indicated, regardless of actual speed. Using GPS now, but the small numbers are hard to see in afternoon glare. My Magellen is sitting on top of the pulled-out ashtray, top taped to the Radio Delete Plate, so it's an off-center sight picture too.
I thought I had an extra Dash w/gauges, but I only found the Bezel and no gauges. So, I will have to pull the Speedo out of my dormant '67 K/10 Suburban project, install that temporarily in the Stepside -- so I still have a running back-up rig -- and send on the '68's Speedo to PJ Moreland, who kindly offered to recalibrate it for me.
Also the Battery went flat. Two years old, not enough regular use.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

I gotta replace and repair the Speedo in my '68 C/10 Stepside. Won't go above 35 MPH indicated, regardless of actual speed. Using GPS now, but the small numbers are hard to see in afternoon glare. My Magellen is sitting on top of the pulled-out ashtray, top taped to the Radio Delete Plate, so it's an off-center sight picture too.
I thought I had an extra Dash w/gauges, but I only found the Bezel and no gauges. So, I will have to pull the Speedo out of my dormant '67 K/10 Suburban project, install that temporarily in the Stepside -- so I still have a running back-up rig -- and send on the '68's Speedo to PJ Moreland, who kindly offered to recalibrate it for me.
Also the Battery went flat. Two years old, not enough regular use.

Fun. When I saw my bearings were toast, I actually thought about pulling the hub and bearings out of my trailer that happens to have a spare rear end under it to get the truck going again. I came to my senses when I realized that I would likely have to wait for a new seal anyway, and the weather was supposed to turn cold again. I've waited 5 years, what's another week? And likely the trailer bearings aren't any better than the truck ones.
My speedometer is also off. It reads about 10mph fast. Small rear tires, but at least I can use it to estimate how fast I'm going. It would get annoying using GPS all the time.

['68OrangeSunshine]

When the 3.73 12-Bolt Eaton Posi Rear Diff on my '71 Jimmy blew out in 2010, I was broke, so my cheapest option was to cannibalize the Read end off my '67 K/10 Suburban -- which had a rebuilt 3.73 12-Bolt Rear with Auburn Posi.
We were able to shoehorn the '67 Rear under the '71 Jimmy K/1500, but the wider 1971 rear end would not fit on the '67 K/10.
But I learned a lot about differentials during that mid '90s rebuild. PO has already used Bearing Savers. OEM axles were worn past spec. At that time, the UAW was on strike at te GM Eaton plant, and the local Chevy dealers were hoarding axles. I was able to get six lug GM Spec axles custom made by Moser for cheaper than the GM parts. When they came, the base plate that the wheel lugs are bored into had a smaller diameter. I phoned Moser about that. Their Tech guy said their axles were lifetime warrantied and the smaller diameter didn't matter.
So that rear diff has been under the '71 GMC for 15 years with no problem.

[Roostre]

My new bearings and seal showed up, so I finished my rear wheel seal job today. This Eaton rear was a little different than other floating rears that I've done. It uses regular tapered roller bearings like I expected, but the outer race is installed from the inboard side of the hub. So this means that instead of installing the race and then dropping the bearing in, the bearing needs to be in the hub and the race is installed behind it. To remove this bearing and race, a punch can be used to punch it out through the axle mounting holes. You can see the new race shining in one of my pictures. There is also a large snap ring in the center of the hub to keep the race from walking inboard. It actually went pretty smooth. I put the race and bearing in the freezer while I cleaned everything up. Then I made a race driver with some 3.5 inch OD tube with 3/16 inch wall. I welded a plate on the back of it and drilled a hole for my race installer handle. Worked great to get the race seated. I seated the inner race just like any taper bearing race. Then I installed the seal. I lubed everything up with some 80w90 gear lube, and reinstalled everything. I didn't have a socket to remove the wheel nuts, but a chisel and hammer works well. I replaced the rear differential lube with fresh 80w90 while I was there. There are some pictures of the installation below along with a picture of my race driver.

After that, I decided to do a test drive with my son. We got about a mile down the road and I started smelling coolant and my temp gauge pegged. We turned around and limped home. Once there, I found out I'm an idiot. I checked the coolant level and forgot to put the radiator cap back on. It blew all of it's coolant on the side of the road. Hopefully it wasn't hot long enough to do any lasting damage. I'll get more antifreeze tomorrow and see. I also took this opportunity to cut my fan shroud so the fan actually sticks out of the back of it about an inch like it's supposed to. It is not an original fan shroud, I suspect it's from a square body. It is also pretty cracked up and patched back together with aluminum and pop rivets, so for those two reasons I do not feel bad about cutting it up to make it work better. Unfortunately no pictures of that, I'm falling back into my old habit of working and not taking pictures.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Dude, you possess mad skills. I'm in awe.
I know what you mean about just doing it, and forgetting the pix.
I usually listen to old time radio shows on earplugs when I'm working on a truck.
Radio ''Gunsmoke'' and ''Dragnet'' are faves. But if I have the 'Radio' on youtube on my cellphone,
then I have to pause the show to shoot a pic.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Dude, you possess mad skills. I'm in awe.
I know what you mean about just doing it, and forgetting the pix.
I usually listen to old time radio shows on earplugs when I'm working on a truck.
Radio ''Gunsmoke'' and ''Dragnet'' are faves. But if I have the 'Radio' on youtube on my cellphone,
then I have to pause the show to shoot a pic.

Thank you, I'm much more comfortable with the mechanical work rather than the body and paint work. The spring after I turned 16, I ran out of gas money. My dad said it was time for me to get a job, so I wandered into a small family owned trucking company. They hired me to wash trucks, but quickly realized that wasn't enough to keep me occupied, so I moved on to changing tires. No tire machine, doing it with 2 spoons and an inflation cage. I ended up working there through high school and putting myself through college in that shop. I became very good friends with the mechanic there (which continues to this day) and he taught me everything about keeping their trucks on the road, along with a fleet of local farmer's trucks. He taught me that if something is put together, it can be taken apart, and if I can take it apart, I can fix it and put it back together.

I've also started using earbuds in my shop. It's a lot easier than putting earplugs in when things get loud, I can still hear the radio over the air compressor or furnace, and I can decide if I want to take a call if someone calls me while I'm working.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the wheel bearings because it's a really greasy process and I didn't want to get the old phone greasy. I like to take what I can to share on here because it helps me remember what I've done to my truck. Also, I hope that I can help others and give back to this community that has helped me out a lot.