Working Man's Burbon

[LockDoc]

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You can loosen all of the brackets that hold the column in place and slide it up enough to release the pressure on it probably. There is about 3/4 - 1" adjustment on it up and down. If it is an auto you might have to re-adjust the shifter rod at the top. Another option would be to heat the intermediate shaft until the plastic melts and collapse it a little.

I am betting that the column slid down before it was tightened down originally.

LockDoc

[HO455]

Thanks Doc. That's good to know. In a good news, bad news news kind of way.

The first thing I did when I started working on the WMB was to replace the 90's vintage Cadillac steering column that had been installed with a factory column. The lingering issue from the PO's installation of the Cadillac column is that he bolted the column in with metric bolts.

When I swapped columns I ended up having to reuse those same bolts. The captive nuts are damaged enough that the correct bolts will no longer thread into them. So every time I have to put a wrench to them I'm afraid the threads are going to strip.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by crakarjax

til that you can reverse a clamp like that! Only took 40 years...

til???

[CG]

TIL=Today I Learned

[HO455]

Originally Posted by CG

TIL=Today I Learned

And today I have learned something!

[HO455]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

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You can loosen all of the brackets that hold the column in place and slide it up enough to release the pressure on it probably. There is about 3/4 - 1" adjustment on it up and down. If it is an auto you might have to re-adjust the shifter rod at the top. Another option would be to heat the intermediate shaft until the plastic melts and collapse it a little.

I am betting that the column slid down before it was tightened down originally.

LockDoc

Hats off to Doc! I loosened the bolts and like magic everything came into alignment.

Well maybe not quite that easy. But moving the column up 1/8" was all that was needed followed by readjusting the spring tension to get the upper bearing to stay on the race and balance that with the shift lever detent tension.

The PO's metric bolt conversion didnt fail and it was mostly just a matter of dealing with the damaged emergency brake mounting. Which I'm sure I have mentioned in the past. I have to put nuts on the Ebrake mounting bolts as the captive nuts are all stripped. Basically the PO took a Sawzall to the dash when the Cadillac column was installed. The result is several parts of the dash are deformed, some of the spot welds are broken, and the nuts are stripped.

Once all that was reassembled I need to replace the ignition coil. The old one was damaged by a veg move on my part. DHOO!

As part of the bleeding of air from the new steering components the directions said to disable the ignition and crank the engine while turning the wheel. My failure was I didn't disconnect the power to the coil I merely removed the coil wire. Then to compound that error twice I forgot to turn the ignition switch to off while I checked the pump reservoir fluid level. The end result of this was the engine didn't want to idle correctly when I stepped into the four barrels the engine began shooting ducks.

After carefully checking for vacuum leaks and throwing a timng light on it to confirm it hadn't moved. I through an old coil I had on to see if the problem went away. That fixed the duck shooting! Some interweb research backed up this conclusion. The high output 12v coils are not very robust compared to a standard coil. This makes sense to me as they are putting a larger amount of winding in the same size package which means less area for cooling.

No photos this time around. The camera was dead and most of all of this is rework.

[LockDoc]

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Good deal glad that took care of the problem. Now on to other things.

I took my camera out to the shop just a while ago and the battery was dead in it too. That's why I'm sitting in front of the computer...

LockDoc

[pwdcougar]

Glad you got it sorted!

[HO455]

Thanks guys.
Now other things. I just got my new wheels installed and I'm quite happy. As the the tire shop guy said "Out with the 90's and in with the 70's". Did I mention I'm quite happy with them. Never again will I be held hostage by a wheel repair shop.

And continuing with this thread's continuing minor theme (Things the PO did) the right rear wheel would not go on the axle hub. After checking the wheel and the hub with a micrometer it was apparent that the hub had been hit with a hammer some time in the past. The outer edge of the axle hub was just distorted enough the wheel wouldn't go on. Once we dressed the hub with a file and a flapper disk the wheel slid right on.
The old wheels used the plastic center cap to align the wheel on the hub. The inside edge of the plastic was broken and distorted on the front wheels and the front hubs are not damaged. Now I understand why both rear center caps disappeared from the wheels while driving.
US Mag wheels 15x8" with the 4 inch backspacing.

[3757chevy]

Nice wheels.

[Ol Blue K20]

I like them, a lot!

[Beach-Burban]

Wow...the entire project looks great! I have reviewed the work you have done many times while doing things to mine (or even just when thinking about doing something)...I really appreciate the help you have given to all of us!

Woody

[richard2717]

Liking the new rims

[HO455]

Thanks everyone. I do appreciate the kind words. Most definitely motivating.
I've still got some more things on the to do list. Especially for the interior. Nothing as top shelf as the Beach Burban but, it should spruce things up some.

[pwdcougar]

The rims look great!

[HO455]

Thank you!

I forgot to mention, just before I decided to pull the trigger on the new rolling stock I discovered that Summit had raised the price on them $13 a wheel. That was a bit of a bummer until I discovered Jegs had not raised their price. Needless to say I jumped.

If your thinking of getting a set of Indy Mag wheels now may be the best time.

[Average Joe]

Originally Posted by Beach-Burban

Wow...the entire project looks great! I have reviewed the work you have done many times while doing things to mine (or even just when thinking about doing something)...I really appreciate the help you have given to all of us!

Woody

100% Agree!

Wheels look freakin great on there! I dare to say that wacky wheel shop did you a favor! I kid, I kid! Lol

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

100% Agree!

Wheels look freakin great on there! I dare to say that wacky wheel shop did you a favor! I kid, I kid! Lol

Thank you Joe. There had to be a silver lining in that black cloud

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by HO455

Thank you!

I forgot to mention, just before I decided to pull the trigger on the new rolling stock I discovered that Summit had raised the price on them $13 a wheel. That was a bit of a bummer until I discovered Jegs had not raised their price. Needless to say I jumped.

If your thinking of getting a set of Indy Mag wheels now may be the best time.

They look great on there! I have been wanting to get a set for my orange truck but I just have too many other things to buy first.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

They look great on there! I have been wanting to get a set for my orange truck but I just have too many other things to buy first.

Thank you. I have decided they give the WMB more of a truck look. The old wheels had more of a street rod look.

[HO455]

The heater blower is starting to die. Some times on start up or shut down it gives out a mournful wail. Not to mention it seems to be low on air output. So being unable to simply just replace it, I am going to put an A/C blower motor instead of the heater only blower.

The A/C blower turns at a higher RPM and as such draws more amperage than the heater only one. GM added a high speed relay circuit to adequately supply the higher amperage. For my conversion I made a hybrid wiring harness that will plug into my existing blower switch and the low/medium speed resistor. Then the relay will supply power to the blower when the switch is in the high speed position. The relay will supply power through a 20 amp fused separate line the way the factory did.

The low/medium speed will be supplied by the existing 10 fuse and wiring. My interweb research was unable to determine if there is a difference in the resistor values of a heater only resistor block and a A/C resistor block. They are physically different but electrically I don't know. The same goes for the blower speed switch. But leaving them on the original fuse size should protect them. It may not be an issue as I generally have the blower on full or off.

I upsized the blower supply wire to 12AWG to match the factory A/C wiring (See link). Fortunately I was able to remove the firewall grommet from the old harness I used to make the conversion harness and after lubing it and the wire up I got the larger wire through it. I wanted to keep the rubber booted connector at the blower so I cut the old 14AWG one as close as possible and soldered it to the larger wire. The rest was just swapping the wires around and crimping some new Packard connectors on.

I will be using a Bosch style lighting relay instead of the factory style relay. Mostly as I already have 5 of them being used on the truck already.

More to follow.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=731399

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

The heater blower is starting to die. Some times on start up or shut down it gives out a mournful wail. Not to mention it seems to be low on air output. So being unable to simply just replace it, I am going to put an A/C blower motor instead of the heater only blower.

The A/C blower turns at a higher RPM and as such draws more amperage than the heater only one. GM added a high speed relay circuit to adequately supply the higher amperage. For my conversion I made a hybrid wiring harness that will plug into my existing blower switch and the low/medium speed resistor. Then the relay will supply power to the blower when the switch is in the high speed position. The relay will supply power through a 20 amp fused separate line the way the factory did.

The low/medium speed will be supplied by the existing 10 fuse and wiring. My interweb research was unable to determine if there is a difference in the resistor values of a heater only resistor block and a A/C resistor block. They are physically different but electrically I don't know. The same goes for the blower speed switch. But leaving them on the original fuse size should protect them. It may not be an issue as I generally have the blower on full or off.

I upsized the blower supply wire to 12AWG to match the factory A/C wiring (See link). Fortunately I was able to remove the firewall grommet from the old harness I used to make the conversion harness and after lubing it and the wire up I got the larger wire through it. I wanted to keep the rubber booted connector at the blower so I cut the old 14AWG one as close as possible and soldered it to the larger wire. The rest was just swapping the wires around and crimping some new Packard connectors on.

I will be using a Bosch style lighting relay instead of the factory style relay. Mostly as I already have 5 of them being used on the truck already.

More to follow.

That should work good. I have an A/C motor in the Panel Truck on the stock heat only wiring but I very seldom use it, mainly for defrost on cool mornings, and that doesn't take long.

I have relays and sockets so I probably should upgrade it.

LockDoc

[HO455]

I did the A/C blower upgrade in my GTO years ago and several years later the fan switch started acting up and after disassembly I discovered the contacts were burnt. Fortunately I was able to rebuild them with some solder. It could have been the switch was just worn out from over 200k miles or the A/C blower was too much or some combination of both.

Whatever the cause was I haven't had to mess with it since. Its not a daily driver anymore but has over just 300K on it now. It's likely to last forever now since I picked up a spare switch years ago.

Here is a schematic of the hybrid harness I forgot to post.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

I did the A/C blower upgrade in my GTO years ago and several years later the fan switch started acting up and after disassembly I discovered the contacts were burnt. Fortunately I was able to rebuild them with some solder. It could have been the switch was just worn out from over 200k miles or the A/C blower was too much or some combination of both.

Whatever the cause was I haven't had to mess with it since. Its not a daily driver anymore but has over just 300K on it now. It's likely to last forever now since I picked up a spare switch years ago.

Here is a schematic of the hybrid harness I forgot to post.

Saved to PC, Thanks.

LockDoc

[Average Joe]

I’m curious to hear the after results from your blower motor swap. I’ve considered upgrading mine as well. Seams like I read or heard once that the squares (73-87) blower motors were a slight upgrade and a relatively easy swap.