Danny Boy is BAACK! w/ '55 Big Window

[Red Foreman]

Its all a big process... Keep up the good work Dan!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Hi Red! Thanks. How's things in the truck hobby down under?

Yeah, it seems everything I do leads to something else, but that's ok

[Red Foreman]

All good Dan, the GMC's pretty much a driver atm, winter is just around the corner albeit very mild down here in Melbourne.
My next job on it is to try & adapt rear airbag leaf spring helpers, it rides around great empty but soon as you load up the rear with weight its on the bump stops.

[1958Warrior]

Let me know how the eBay gas pedal kit works out for you I was just about to pull the trigger on it ,but now waiting to see how it works for you as the cable was a little short.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Ok, so just catching up my build thread with stuff I posted in the help thread I posted let last week.

6.6.15: Brother in law, Gil did all the prep work for removing the doghouse. Drained radiator & tranny, pulled upper/lower hoses, disconnected wiring, everything but lifting it off. Liked lke this with "Sooner" the wonder dog supervising:


Cut to the chase; after the front suspension came off and I realized I didn't want to wait til today to go find and rent a cherry picker so I dropped the cash at Harbor Freight for one (that'll likely end up on Craigslist eventually).

Everything is in position to just lift out engine and transmission this morning and set aside. Then comes removing the rear suspension so. Can flip it on top of the springs and "while-I'm-in-there" flip the spring hangers on top of the frame! We're tentatively planning on pulling the seat and gas tank out too and laying the cab back to access the frame and cab bottom for cleaning and painting! I had NOT planned on doing a frame off job but once the bed came off with the doghouse and the engine/tranny it seems to be so little more to do. Again, it is a "while-I'm-in-there" decision I hope I don't come to regret.

[Kim57]

Seems like you have a well thought out plan.
I don't think you will regret the little bit of extra work on the cab bottom.
Kim

[ChuckDriver]

Glad to see you back on it Dan!

[oldman3]

Dan, I think you made the right chose....Jim

[Whumbachumba]

Dan, definitely following this! We just got our 55 big window and this will be a great inspiration on what we want to accomplish.

[youngrodder]

Nice progress over the weekend. I hope you feel better soon....ha ha

Marc

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks you guys! Sounds weirded but without someone to "share" the doing of this with it wouldn't be as much fun. I kinda consider you guys on the forum, "friends I haven't met yet". If welived down the block from each other I'm pretty sure we'd stop by, get to know each other, tell each other lies and share a beer here and there.

So today the engine and transmission came out quickly:

[Dan in Pasadena]

So I didn't mention it above but did on the IFS help thread that I can't find my installation instructions! I'm such a friggin bonehead sometimes. I KNOW I put them away for safe keeping and they're so safe even I can't find them now, lol.
I called Fatman Fabrications this morning and they're snail mailing me out a set. Said they're too big to email - that doesn't seem right, but whatever. At least I'll have them.

Plan for this afternoon (gotta go back to work tomorrow, damn!) is to pull the rear ended to pep it for flipping on top of leaf springs and remove the rear crossmember and move it all the way back for a rear mount gas tank. At the same time I'll pull the rear shackle mounts to flip them on top of the frame. "Warrior" on the other thread made a good suggestion. Do the shackle mount flip (supposedly 7" lower) but keep the original holes open in case that's too low and if I leave them in the original position with the axle flipped I'll get 5.5" - works for indecisive me! I'm also gonna TRY to remove the seat and gas tank to lay the cab back onto the rear of the frame for cleaning, repairing and painting the underside of the cab. If I can't get my big air compressor running (pressure switch ordered this am) I'll have to resort to wire wheeling the whole underside and that'll have to be good enough.

[Red Foreman]

Looking good Dan, great that its getting some major surgery, i'll make it a pleasure to drive!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks Red! Nice to hear from you again.

Ok, so the rear suspension same out pretty easily. Apparently my shackle pins had been lubricated over the years. I removed the rear most shackle pins first and they screwed out by hand as the front had. The front side of the rear leafs I had NO idea how to remove. The cast iron shackle "body" was totally-covered-with-rock-hard-grease. But digging around it with a putty knife I found what turned out to be retainer pin bolts (I guess they'd be called). Removing the emergency brake cable was a pain but other than that we just wheeled the rear ended out as you see it.

Gotta go back to work tomorrow but my brother in law said he'd come over and remove the leafs. He didn't want to be responsible for cutting the spring seats off the rear ended so I'll do that. Wish me luck! Hopefully I won't pull a bonehead maneuver and cut through the axle tubes.

We also ground off rivet heads on the rear crossmember to move it back to the end of the frame for mounting a larger gas tank. We had to beat the hell out of them (and ourselves!) to get them out. Especially hard was the rivets that hold BOTH the rear shackle body and the cross member. We had to grind/pound from below which was TOUGH on the arms with a single jack and the red hot sparks were falling on us so we had to cover up like terrorists! They also started a small fire in a nearby planter but luckily we noticed it quickly and it didn't catch our trellis/fence!


Last was removing EVERYTHING necessary to pull the cab. Seat, gas tank, straps, hold down bolts were nearly frozen, scraping out a ton of crap under the seat and vacuuming it. Then we found out we couldn't lift it even enough to lay it back on the bed portion of the frame like planned. I'll ask my son in law and a simple minded friend (ha ha ) to come over and help us lift it off. I'm very tempted to search for a local sandblasted to completely blast the cab, front clip and the bed and epoxy prime it. Anyone local know someone I can trust not to warp the crap out of my bodywork?

[blue57]

looking good. Definitely got it tore down quickly

[1958Warrior]

Before you remove the spring seats, I would suggest that you get a angle finder and set it on top of the spring seat at 0*, then place the angle finder on the end of the pinion yoke to see what your pinion angle actually is and record it . That way you can install the new seats at the same angle.
also record measurements from the axle backing plates , and center seat to center seat.
Just don't put the measurements with the IFS instructions

There are some you tube videos on how to cut /weld new seats and set the pinion angle.

[1958Warrior]

Or even better leave them on until you get your new seats installed as in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqIbm2UwGck


another video cutting and grinding off seat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgu1QgLnci8

[Dan in Pasadena]

Warrior, thanks for the advice. On my build thread I posted that when we dropped the driveshaft it barely dropped at all! I think that means it was installed incorrectly as the universals should have let it drop significantly. For that reason there's probably no reason to copy the existing spring perch angle.

What is the rule of thumb for pinion angle and engine tilt? Anyone know a good link that explains this? I DONT own a magnetic base angle finder but it looks like o need to get one soon. Any recommendations! Amazon? Summit? Other?

[1958Warrior]

Every ones got different opinions on pinion angle, some say 0* others say3*
I went with -5* according to
http://www.quickperformance.com/Pini...ent_ep_45.html

I got my angle finder years ago at Home depot $12 if I remember rite

Would be interested in what your pinion was set at since it did seem like it was functioning ok for you, or did it have any issues with vibrating ect.?

[Kim57]

Looks like you're making good progress.
Kim

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by 1958Warrior

Every ones got different opinions on pinion angle, some say 0* others say3*
I went with -5* according to
http://www.quickperformance.com/Pini...ent_ep_45.html

I got my angle finder years ago at Home depot $12 if I remember rite

Would be interested in what your pinion was set at since it did seem like it was functioning ok for you, or did it have any issues with vibrating ect.?

I need to read through that thread, Thanks.

I don't think there's any way to accurately tell you how the pinion angle was setup now that the engine, trans and rearend has been pulled. I'm no automotive engineer but it SEEMS like the downward tilt of the rear of the engine/trans combo ought to align with the upward tilt of the rearend so the driveshaft universals spend most of the time NOT coping with angle changes while driving. Wouldn't that give the longest life to the universal joints? Maybe there are other considerations your link will explain(?)

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Looks like you're making good progress.
Kim

Thanks Kim. I've got an errand to run after work today and my brother in law will be out of town after today but we're going to TRY to get together at 5 with some help to lift the cab off and set it aside on four furniture dollies (for now). I've got a vacation coming up soon so there will be a week's downtime but when I get back I'm thinking of taking a couple additional days to clean and paint the frame and flip the rear end - well, at least set it up somewhen the welder comes he can knock it all out in a day.

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

SEEMS like the downward tilt of the rear of the engine/trans combo ought to align with the upward tilt of the rearend so the driveshaft universals spend most of the time NOT coping with angle changes while driving. (?)

Dan, that's the way I've always done mine, and it works out good...Jim

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by oldman3

Dan, that's the way I've always done mine, and it works out good...Jim

Me too. You want the angle of the center line of the pinion shaft to drive shaft and the angle of the centerline of the transmission output shaft to drive shaft to be within 1/2 degree of each other.

[Dan in Pasadena]

I agree with you guys. It seems most logical. But if you read the link in post #1046 it says the pinion gear tries to "climb" the ring gear and you set the pinion negative to offset that. My brother in law removed the leaf springs yesterday and there were wedges under them pointing the pinion down, aka that recommendation. I guess I kinda see the value of that if you were racing regularly, launching hard is what I mean. But for ordinary cruising it SEEMS like matching angles on both ends of the driveshaft is less wear and tear long term.

More opinions appreciated on this subject!