Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

this is the part that hugs the frame rail, no one will ever see this side, awesome, time well spent Greg

[Gregski]

I mean come on guys looks like GM had Ray Charles in charge of the Casting Quality Control (no offense to Charles he probably would have felt the imperfections and had them fixed...)

[Gregski]

I can't find the before pic of this angle / shot, but you get the idea it was wonky too, look like they had Ogur break the metal with his hands rather than use a hack saw, ha ha

no wonder they could crank out half a million of these trucks a year back then, their standards were "Eh Good Enuff'

IT'S A TRUCK!!!

[harley87ta]

Originally Posted by Gregski

"Eh Good Enuff'

IT'S A TRUCK!!!

When I read this it made me think of the door alignment on your truck. I looked at doors on my 73 and they have the same sagging look to them. Our doors may have been hung by the same person. They said Eh Good Enuff It's a Truck

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by harley87ta

When I read this it made me think of the door alignment on your truck. I looked at doors on my 73 and they have the same sagging look to them. Our doors may have been hung by the same person. They said Eh Good Enuff It's a Truck

harley check the bottoms of your doors, when I was a camping my truck was a bit on a hill and I was sitting in a camping chair down low enjoying a luke cold beverage if you know what I mean, and I was like are my eyes lying to me or how stiff is this drink cause my door alignment under the truck is horrible, I mean bad, looks like someone side swiped ie T boned my cab, but they didn't the bottom of the doors just hang way out over the rockers, see if yours is the same

[Gregski]

alright already lets get to the rebuild process

so here I am using my Polish Press to gently slide the new brass? sleeve bushing thingie in the hole (hammer did not contact the bushing that's what the small wood pieces was for)

the hardest part of this precission process is keeping your thumb out of the way

[hatzie]

How is the ball screw itself? That's where a major portion of the wear seems to take place.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by hatzie

How is the ball screw itself? That's where a major portion of the wear seems to take place.

with balls in it ZERO lateral play, I think that = good

[Gregski]

ladies I would be lying to you if I told you I counted and knew exactly how many of these bee bees came out of that ball screw

I may have counted 50 and I may have read somewhere that 54 is required, please chime in if you know

[Gregski]

so she's coming along handsomely, though the supplied new washer for this adjustment bolt (foreground pointed right at you with the flat screw driver tip) did not fit so we went back with the old one as there needs to be a bit of wiggle room play in there I suppose

and we just packed the darn thing with some 30 year old Castrol bearing multipurpose grease we have been trying to get rid of since I was a teenager

[Gregski]

a couple mandatory before and after shots of this Woolly Mammoth

[Gregski]

well if nothing else you sure do clean these parts pretty well bro

top pic: Razor Back

bottom: Smooooooooth

[Chrispbrown36]

Hey Gregski, remember me talking about that old lady that lives up the road that has the squarebody sitting in her garage? Well I got some details on it from another neighbor....he says that it is a 74 or 75, 3/4 ton, with only about 10,000 miles on it. He said his grandpa and the old ladies dad bought similar trucks at the same time and the old ladies dad pretty much parked his....now I might have to say it with flowers!

[Gregski]

I just love these before and after shots [oh sorry, millenials translation] pics, I meant pics

[Gregski]

can we PALEAZE get this box on the truck already

alright alright...

out with the old first

[Gregski]

by my estimation, assuming the power steering fluid was topped off, lets see carry the one, don't forget the belt, ... the old system weighed slightly under 712 lbs, hee hee

and yes the pitman arm is keyed wrong on the manual steering box in this pic (apparantly there are four positions it can be in - who knew, I just keyed it on the first key I saw thinking it was the only one there)

don't worry that arm came off half a dozen times before I got it aligned proper

[Gregski]

ok so that took me the entire afternoon from 1330 (1:30 PM people) until 1815... no not eight o'clock... 6:15 PM oh why do I even bother impressing you with my military time know how, jk

ok, good job, looks good bro, how does it drive?

oh what's with all these questions? let's not split hairs here

Test Drive Time - TDT

[Wide Open]

Nice work on the box.
Why'd you switch to manual?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Wide Open

Nice work on the box.
Why'd you switch to manual?

I'm a minimalist, less is more, cleaner engine bay, one less thing to leak (power steering fluid is nasty and finding an air tight pump is impossible) tired of squeeky belt during tight end to end U turns, maybe 2 more horse power, WANTED BIGGER BICEPTS!!! seriously just wanted to try it, see how it works, I may go back to power steering and just not tell you all, ha ha, I'm a Hot Rodder = mess with things constantly especially specialize in fixing things that are not broken

[Gregski]

LESSONS LEARNED so far

the broom stick ie the steering column do slide up and down so the manual box bolted right up though its not the exact same length as the power box

I did re use the old rag joint but I plan on buying a new one or getting a universal joint setup, if someone has one to recommend I would really appreciate that (I think someone already did way earlier in the thread but I am too lazy to look inside my own thread)

Power Steering box was about 3.5 turns end to end

Manual Steering box is about 4.0 turns end to end

Pitman arms be different, not so much in length or design but in hole for the splines, I think the manual is a bit smaller hole

[Wide Open]

Gotcha

[rusty76]

So how's the darn thing handle/steer now. I'm dying to know. You've answered several questions about swapping to manual now I just need to know your final results youngin.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rusty76

So how's the darn thing handle/steer now. I'm dying to know. You've answered several questions about swapping to manual now I just need to know your final results youngin.

LOL, First of all let me just say it took sum ballz to pull this off, sorry could't resist, hee hee

OK, after the test drive... Houston... We have a problem.

Apparently 2 is not the middle of 4 according to GM, you see [ahem] "pops" jk the passenger side hits the steer stop and the driver side stops short of it by maybe just under an inch

I think its time to blame the P.O.

Looks like the previous owner replaced the outer tie rod on the driver side only but not on the passenger side

So first this Power Nap aint going to take itself no how, so lemme git that out of the way and then git after it

Report at 11

[Hewfil1]

Originally Posted by Gregski

LOL, First of all let me just say it took sum ballz to pull this off, sorry could't resist, hee hee

OK, after the test drive... Houston... We have a problem.

Apparently 2 is not the middle of 4 according to GM, you see [ahem] "pops" jk the passenger side hits the steer stop and the driver side stops short of it by maybe just under an inch

I think its time to blame the P.O.

Looks like the previous owner replaced the outer tie rod on the driver side only but not on the passenger side

So first this Power Nap aint going to take itself no how, so lemme git that out of the way and then git after it

Report at 11

Luck be with you Gregski!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Hewfil1

Luck be with you Gregski!

thank you, Fix This I Must

so Rule #7 clearly states if you don't know what you is a doin' than Stare 'N Compare bro

and so we is going to compare twisty turney thing on the driver side to the twisty turney thing on the passenger side

first after wire wheelin' them a bit we can actually see they are a slotted, cool we can see how much threads are in them and how far apart