Project Larry - 1964 Chevy

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by vortexofpain

You might try a local Chevy dealer, years ago I needed a new governor for my 700r4 and I got one from Gene Harvey in American Fork. Was cheap too, less than $40 if I remember correctly.

Hows that new shifter working out for ya?
-Jake

Shifter will be great when I get some time actually install it! It prolly won't go in the 64 though. I really want to transfer the Lokar from the 64 to the 53 and put your B&M in the 64 but I just don't want to have to pull my seat out and the carpet up and the tunnel off and etc to get the Lokar out! Oh well, the BM will look just fine in the 53 anyway.

We'll see though, I might get ambitious and do all that work anyway!

[panelrodder81]

Also, sold the old engine to a friend who tore it apart to rebuild. Found that it had the wrong sized bearing in it. Had a hole burned through the bottom of the intake and a variety of other problems.... kind of amazing that it ran at all in fact.

[panelrodder81]

Ok, so the day before my governor went out on Larry my transmission started clicking, when I was pulling into my housing development. After the repair to the governor it went away so I was pretty happy. But then about a week/week and a half ago I was going to pickup a 700r4 for my panel truck and while driving up a hill the truck started to jerk forward and backward until I down shifted, manually, and then back into 3rd. It did this two more times over the next week. Then about three days later I started to get the same clicking noise from the truck again. Weird thing is the clicking doesn't happen at first. I pull out to start my commute and it doesn't start until I'm between 10 and 20 min into my drive. Then when I pull off the freeway and stop at the first light it slows down and then stops and doesn't happen again until about 10 to 20 minutes into my drive home at the end of the day. The transmission seems to be shifting fine and if I stomp on the pedal the truck will accelerate fine, though the noise continues. Its almost like the trans is being starved of fluid at cruising speeds but I check my fluid levels and they appear to be fine. Kinda hard to check the fluids when its happening cuz I'm going 55mph down the freeway!

Thoughts?

[Captainfab]

When was the last time the trans was serviced......fluid and filter change? Could be a plugged filter.

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

When was the last time the trans was serviced......fluid and filter change? Could be a plugged filter.

When I replaced the governor just a few weeks back I put in a new filter, pan gasket, and brand new fluid. And I put in a bottle of Lucas trans additive.

[panelrodder81]

Ok, so I decided to to a test. Today when I drove into work I wanted to see what it would take to keep the transmission from making any noise... which I did but I went pretty slow the enitre way in. My speedo isn't hooked up so I'm not completely sure but just using all the cars that passed me I would estimate that I was doing about 50mph the majority of the way. I can't say for sure that speed was a factor but I can tell you that I got NO clicking the entire ride in using this technique. Is it possible that I've been pushing the truck to hard/fast?

[panelrodder81]

Things with Larry went south pretty badly. The trans ended up being rebuilt and after that I had to have a custom converter built, some crap about the flex plate being from a PG so a standard th350 converter wouldn't work. Fortunately since the shop that did the rebuild didn't catch it before giving me the truck back they did if for free minus the cost of having the thing towed to their shop.

After that though the clicking came back, sporadically, and I developed a heat problem. Since I'd blow so much money on the thing already my wife called it quits for me. She demanded that it disappear and when she demands, I have to listen. Plus she said that I could have a bigger budget for the 53 panel truck if I conceded. So, we sold the truck to my dad.

He put in a custom built 383 Stroker with a Bow Tie Overdrives 700R4. Swapped the front end to a 73 C20 front end and the rear end from the same 73. This let him keep the 8lug wheels but get disk brakes up front and a 3.73 rear end. After making some other modifications like adding some new gauges, an aluminum radiator, and a lockup switch he is driving the truck daily/regularly. He seems to enjoy it and can hit 75mph only turning 2k on the tach.

Sorry that it is gone but its better that way cuz the wife is happy and I got the panel truck almost ready to drive daily.

I will try and get my dad to post some pics on here of the truck and any he took of the build up. And maybe he can take over this thread.

[MikeN]

Cool truck...keep us posted.

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by MikeN

Cool truck...keep us posted.

Well, I've sent my dad the link for this thread and he has expressed an interest in picking up and updating it so watch for that!

-Panelrodder

[ronin57]

Alright, Panelrodder (aka my son) has already outlined the changes I made to the truck. Lots of kudo's go to the contributors to this forum as I wouldn't have jumped into this like I did without the information I was able to gather here and the fact that I picked up the donor '73 truck for free. I just had to go drag it out of a barn.

To set the stage, my goal with the truck was (and is) to create a reliable driver that would be fun to drive, comfortable to drive and be a tow vehicle for a 25ft car hauler trailer and a 20 ft flatbed snowmobile trailer. With the exception of the towing, this truck is replacing '55 Ford F100 as my daily driver. I've got over 80K on that truck since rebuilding it (with Panelrodder's help) and it's in need of refurbishing. My wife and I recently traded our tow vehicle, a 2010 Dodge Diesel Crew Cab 3/4 ton, for a more economical gas-powered car (she ended up driving the truck all the time and is much happier with the car on less expensive fuel. Man, I was sad to see that truck go though).

I live 125 miles from my place of work, but only have to be at my place of work one to two days per week. So my commute is ~2.5 to 3 hours of about half country highways (65mph) and half freeway (75mph). Also, my employer pays for my fuel so fuel economy wasn't an overriding concern, although I wanted/expected to be in the high teens in mpg.

That's the introduction to the project, I'll follow up with the pics and all in a bit.

[ronin57]

Here's the first set of pics. Removing the front end.

From my research I expected to be able to just replace the upper/lower control arms rather than the whole cross-member. Unfortunately, the lower control arms attach to the cross-member differently between the '65 3/4 ton and the '73 3/4 ton. It was a small bit of additional work to replace the cross-member as well...not a big deal.

Removing the front end was relatively easy - relatively easy compared with the rear end. My air impact wrench that I'd had for over 20 years gave up the ghost somewhere during this process. I picked up another and have decided that impact wrench technology has greatly improved, my new one is lighter and more powerful.

The assembly went without a hitch. There is the issue of drilling out one bolt hole on each side where the cross-member mounts to the frame. All-in-all it's a sweet bolt-in installation.

The truck had a bit of a rake to it before the swap that I wanted to keep, so I used the springs that came with the truck rather than the '73 springs. I did use the thicker sway bar from the '73 and I'm glad I did. The truck dives into corners with minimal leaning and using the '64 springs kept the rake that I wanted without being too soft.

[Mechanic77]

Just something to look at for the oil leak...check and make sure there is a short bolt in the front of the block on the passenger side right where the fuel pump pushrod goes through the block. There is two bolt holes right above each other right above the oil pan on the passenger side, it will be the top one. That bolt hole goes all the way through and if there is no bolt plugging it, it will pour oil out (I speak from experience). Hopefully I explained it well enough

Oh, and if there isn't a bolt in it, make sure to put a very short (1/2" or less) bolt in it or it will hit the fuel pump pushrod and cause more problems

[ronin57]

Sure enough, a rocker was broken right at the pivot and a rod bent on the #8 cylinder. We're trying to locate a new rocker without having to buy a set. There doesn't appear to be any other damage...we'll see.

I've never seen or heard of this happening. The mechanics at the shop tell me it just happens sometimes, a weakness in the metal or a manufacturing flaw I guess. Let's hope lightening doesn't strike twice.

[ronin57]

Originally Posted by Mechanic77

Just something to look at for the oil leak...check and make sure there is a short bolt in the front of the block on the passenger side right where the fuel pump pushrod goes through the block. There is two bolt holes right above each other right above the oil pan on the passenger side, it will be the top one. That bolt hole goes all the way through and if there is no bolt plugging it, it will pour oil out (I speak from experience). Hopefully I explained it well enough

Oh, and if there isn't a bolt in it, make sure to put a very short (1/2" or less) bolt in it or it will hit the fuel pump pushrod and cause more problems

While at the shop this morning I checked on this bolt hole. Sure enough there's no bolt there. Thanks for the tip, I'll get it plugged.

[Mechanic77]

Originally Posted by ronin57

While at the shop this morning I checked on this bolt hole. Sure enough there's no bolt there. Thanks for the tip, I'll get it plugged.

No problem

Just an FYI...late model fuel injected blocks without provisions for a mechanical fuel pump don't have this issue

[Togart]

Nice build...and cool to see the 3/4t disc brake swap...I'm planning the same thing on my GMC.

Hope you get the motor figured out cheaply...it is disappointing when it is one thing after another.

[ronin57]

Here are some more pics of the truck. This series is of the engine compartment. Again, the engine is a 383 Stroker, Isky 270 cam, RHS cast iron heads, Weiland Action+ intake, Edlbrock 600cfm 4-bbl car, rams head exhaust manifolds, HEI distributor.

The brake master cylinder and booster are from the '73 donor truck.

I had an opportunity to get the truck under tow. My youngest son and I are building a 50 chev sedan. He's using it for his Senior Project so we needed to get it to the school for the administrators to evaluate. We loaded it into my trailer and hauled it to town and back...a ~50 mile round trip.

The truck performed well...plenty of power to haul up hills and enough weight to control the trailer. The only concern was the trany (700R4) heated up a bit. I've got an external oil cooler on it and the day wasn't warm. I'm going to have to keep an eye on it.

[ronin57]

...and here as some pics of the interior/exterior.

I put a new steering wheel and some gauges in it (oil pres, water temp, volt, trans temp). My gauge panel ended up a bit bulky. I'll make another one that's more streamlined when I get some time. I left room at the end of this one for a vacuum gauge. The switch under the key fob is for the torque converter lockup. I put in an idiot light so I can easily tell if it's locked up or not day or night.

One other thing I did was to raise the bench seat ~2 inches. It doesn't sound like much, but that 2 inches makes a world of different to my knees. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my commute to work is 2-2.5 hours each way (barring traffic jams). I get there and back comfortably in this truck setup like it is.

This shifter is a B&M StreetRod shifter. It's my understanding that B&M has discontinued this shifter, which is good because it's hard to keep adjust and rattles at certain engine rpm.

The wheels are dirty in these pics, but I really like the look of the eight lugs.

The body picked up some rust over the winter that I'll take care of this summer. I drove this in some pretty harsh conditions - sub freezing temps, rain, sleet, snow, high winds and blowing snow - all the joys of living in the Intermountain West. On that topic, I've been driving 4-wheel drives for the last decade or so, I was a bit concerned about driving a 2-wheel drive in the types of conditions I have to drive in. This truck handled it all great. I never got sideways and really never had any unexpected slipping or sliding despite driving on unplowed highways. I couldn't be happier.

If I can just get the engine to stay together, I'm going to have a very long and happy relationship with this truck.

[ronin57]

...full disclosure... I did put 350lbs in the bed of the truck for winter driving, that really added a lot to the traction.

Also, for anyone doing this conversion, I reused the clamshell motor mounts that came with the '73 donor truck. The engine ended up ~ 2 inches forward and 2 inches higher in the engine bay than the stock setup. In my case I needed to trim the fan shroud and I'll change to a short lower radiator hose next time I replace it. There's still plenty of space above the air cleaner.

[blackedoutharley]

What brand of rocker arm was that?

[ronin57]

Originally Posted by blackedoutharley

What brand of rocker arm was that?

1.52 Magnum Rocker from COMP Cams

[61_FL_Apache]

Looks great!!! Nice work!!