Working Man's Burbon

[Hart_Rod]

Gauges look good. Make sure you get a rubber hose that is rated for fuel. Radiator hoses should not be used as they will deteriorate over time and cause a build up residue in your fuel system.

[HO455]

For sure on that! And thanks for noticing the guages Hart_Rod. Nobody I talked to had the 1 3/8" fuel hose in stock so I had to order it. I even tried some 1 1/2" from another C10, but it was a no go. I had to leave the Burban with a jack stand under the drivers side overnight to keep the fuel in the tank. I got the hose about 10:30 this morning and all is well now. Back on level ground and no leaks. Spent most of the rest of the day cleaning up the grille surrounds I got at the swap meet. They are a little rough and I had to do some tappity tap work on them to straighten things out, but they were only $20 bucks and are well worth it at this point. I got new clips from the Truck Parts vendor. They came with 10-24 nuts with a captured star washer on the nut. I didn't like the fact the star washer was going to cut through the paint and rust. I ran to the hardware store and got some Nyloc nuts to replace them. Looking at the clips and trim i realized they won't take a lot of torque without deforming. So I ran all the nuts down a long screw to cut some threads in the nylon part of the nuts. Not really the proper way, but I'm pretty sure I didn't over torque any of the clips. I did have one spot on the end on one of the surrounds that had the metal torn off exactly where the clip needed to be. I carefully bent the edges up and made a 1" long insert out of some shim stock. Drilled a hole for the clip's bolt to stick through. When the clip and shim stock were in place I tapped the edges down to secure it all together. I have to apologize for not getting any pictures of this repair. I was so wrapped up in getting it done today I forgot about pictures. At closing time the rain quit and the sun came out. So here are a few gratuitous photos. It's back to work tomorrow. Vacation is over!

[LockDoc]

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Looks great. The paint scheme makes it look really low & mean from the front view.

LockDoc

[HO455]

Thanks Doc. It may look the part but that 305 just isn't up to the task.

[Average Joe]

Looks great! It sure has come a long way. Whats the plan for the motor? SB, BB, LS?

[3drburb]

Looks great outside. Congrats on making it there.

[Advanced Design]

Burb looks really good!

[HO455]

Thank you everyone. It feels good seeing the end in sight. The engine upgrade is going to have to wait awhile. I would like to change the tranny at the same time. However the suspension rebuild needs to happen fairly soon. The noises from underneath are pretty disconcerting. Not as interesting as horsepower, still necessary. Photo of the starting point I found on the interweb. I'm glad I didn't pay the asking price.

[HO455]

The WMB didn't come with dome lights and this is a decadent luxury I have in the Blazer I don't want to live without in the Burban. So gathered up some new door switches and since I was doing this from scratch I wanted to add a warning buzzer that would sound if the door was open and the lights were on. I stopped at my nearest Radio Shack for one of their warning chimes. These are an electronic bell sound like on a new car. When I got inside the store I found out they are going out of business and everything was 90% off. I bought all three chimes they had, two rolls of white and orange wire, and some tips for my soldering iron. I will miss having them around.
After some searches here on the forum as to where to drill the holes for the switches as 67's don't have a a formed spot on the jam for the switch to sit like later years do. The drilling and tapping went fine, but apparently there are more than one lenght of switch as when I shut the door I found out that the switch was too long and it put a dent in the door and scratched the paint. I was surprised as to the amount of damage that happened as I was very careful to shut the door slow and did my best to watch for a problem. I should have put a piece of clay in the switch location and tested the height first. To solve the problem I took the switch apart and cut the outer tube off about 1/8". Then I cut the inner spring off about 3/16" and stretched it slightly. This solved the issue and the other door didn't get damaged. I ran the wire for the switch and one for door speakers at the same time. Earlier on in the project I had drilled a one inch holes in the kick panels as part of the rust proofing. I put a small hole in the 1" plug to run the wires through. Then ran the wire across to the drivers side and repeated the process on that side.

[HO455]

More to come on the dome light project. I installed the last of the swap meet finds today. Since the WMB has no jack and I am not lucky enough to drive around without one I picked up this jack with a bolt on mount and the handle up for eight bucks. The jack was pretty stiff at first but I sprayed some white grease inside, clamped it in a vice and ran it up and down a bunch of times and it now works as it should. It didn't fit in the stock location without a bunch of modification so I went under the hood with it, where it fit like a glove against the fender well. Maybe sometday I can locate a factory one and replace this one. Until then I'm ready.

[Hart_Rod]

Nice job on the insulation! Here's a couple poor pictures of the new rear quarter window seals.

[HO455]

Thanks Hart_Rod. It's good to see you will finally be able to close all your windows. That should help keep things cleaner inside.
I had a little time today so I knocked out a couple of quick things. First was new vent flapper seals. The old ones were pretty much nonexistent. I went all out and got the $4.00 repops. Pretty simple job. Just open the vent half way then lift the flapper in the duct and the bottom pin will come up enough to allow the flapper to go into the duct and drop downwards so the upper pin will come out of its hole. At this point I removed the clip that holds the control lever and pulled the lever free. The flapper consists of two plates with a foam rubber gasket sandwiched between the two plates. The plates are fastened to each other with 9 rivets. Drill the rivets out and use a putty knife to separate the plates without bending them. I ran the plates through the blaster and painted them prior to reassembly. Then center the gasket on the inner plate. I pushed a straight pick through the plate and the gasket in the hole closest to the center, then lined up the outer plate on the pick. ( I used pop rivets to reassemble the plates.) I clamped the two halves together and removed the pick. Inserting a pop rivet in that hole to make sure nothing slipped, I used the pick to punch a second hole and then installed a pop rivet there. Going back to the first rivet I installed it. Then I punched the gasket and installed the other seven rivets. The only problem I had was that twice when the rivet snapped free the tool jumped and the broken off end of the rivet scratched the new paint. (Once on each side of course) I recommend using something to cover the flapper when doing this. Maybe some cardboard with a 1/2" hole in it for the tool to pass through. That way you won't have to repaint yours like I did.
The second project for the day was to paint and install the emblem on the grille. And looking at the photo it seems I need to wash the WMB.

[HO455]

A month or so ago I noticed that my headlight and compressor relays were getting wet when it rained. I had thought I could find some sort of rubber or weather stripping to sheild them. Then I found an old tail gate cap in the scrap bin that was almost perfect. After a trip through the blaster to remove the rust and cheap chrome. I driiled a couple of holes to mount it and a slot to clear the factory positive post and then some paint. I used a clear sealant between it and the inner fender to make it water tight. It looks as if it will do the trick. Only time and rain will tell.
Plus it guards that positive post from accidental grounding.

[Average Joe]

Yet another good mod.

Just wanted to say thanks again for all the info you have posted and pics detailing your reserection of the WMB! Good stuff especially for an average joe like myself.

[HO455]

Thank you Joe! I do appreciate your replys. I'm sure I could do a better job of documentation as I start off okay but forget to stop and get photos along the way then suddenly I'm done. Like today's posting.

I got some used upper control arms to rebuild and then replace the existing ones. (Lots of thanks to Chevy Metal in Vancouver WA as he gave me them for free!) The idea being the truck wouldn't be up on jacks in the shop immobile for the two days it would take to clean up, rebuild, and reinstall them. The new ones were pretty clean and already had the ball joints replaced, so no drilling the old rivets out. After stripping the ball joints and bushings off the arms I blasted and painted them.
As a side note. I did not know what spindles the WMB had on it other than they were 1 1/4" discs. After much searching of the forum and other places on the interweb trying to look up the casting numbers to no avail, I ended up recognizing one of the numbers as a casting date. Using that it appeared that they were 1972 spindles although one side was a late year 72. So I got a pair of 72 spindles hoping that both sides were the same. (Not a lot of faith in the PO at this point). So after I removed the old uppers. I cleaned the spindle tapers and test fitted each ball joint in its spindle. I did this by putting a light coat of anti-seize on the ball joint taper and inserting into the spindle taper. Then twist the joint back and forth making sure it is fully seated. Pull the ball joint out carefully so as not to touch the sides of the spindles taper. Then I examined the ball joint and the taper in the spindle looking for evenly distributed anti-seize. A shiny spot would show a high spot and an area with a build up of anti-seize would be a low area. If the joints were the wrong ones I would of had only been touching on one end or the other of the taper not a smooth even layer of anti-seize the full depth of the ball joints taper. Which fortunately for me is what I saw. Sorry no photos but I did have anti-seize all over my hands and I am sure I don't need it all over my tablet. (Anti-seize the gift that keeps on giving! If any of you have worked with pranksters you know what I'm talking about)
After that it was just clean the alignment shims, reinstall them the way they came out and tighten the nuts up to torque. 70 ft lbs if memory serves me for the shafts and the bushing caps to 90 ft lbs. Although I didn't find a spec on the bolts that hold the ball joint on I went with the general spec for a 3/8" NF grade eight bolt of 45 ft lbs. After that i greased them up. Just enough grease until you see the boot start to move. I greased the bushings as I installed them on the bench. Then after torqued the bushings I clamped the shaft in a vice and rotated the arm around the shaft as I greased it to ensure grease got everywhere inside. Then one last shot after installation. After the first hundred miles I will go back and check the torque of everything and put another shot of grease in everything.
I forgot a add a big thank you to lolife99 for his Drum to disc thread. It is most informative on suspension parts and the break down for what years cross over.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=444823

[notchbackgta]

Originally Posted by HO455

First was new vent flapper seals. The old ones were pretty much nonexistent. I went all out and got the $4.00 repops. Pretty simple job.

Since you just did this, I have been wondering, what size are the rivets?

[HO455]

I'm pretty sure I used 1/8" by 1/4" long. I didn't actually measure them I just picked the size that fit from the big box of rivets. I do remember it took 9 per side.

[notchbackgta]

OK, thanks. I don't have them and will have to buy them. I guess I'll take it out and double check before I order

[HO455]

The saga continues. I pulled the passenger side lower control arm off this morning planning on having it swapped out by the end of the day. Oh such are the plans of mice and men. The lower ball joint had more than 3/8 of vertical slop in it so the pickle fork method failed. I ended up using a Port-a-Power with a socket to protect the upper ball joint nut pushing the end of the ball joint down and then beating on two pickle forks before the joint popped apart. If the Mapp gas torch hadn't jumped off the work bench last week that would have been part of the solution too. When removing the front U-bolt from the shaft I was concerned that it was not tight. After removing the shaft it was apparent that the shaft had been moving around, as the shaft was not indexed correctly. The shaft's index rivet on the cross member was halfway out of the pilot hole. (See photo 1) The rivet was deformed (see photo 2) and as a result when I put my new shaft in position it was able to slide back and forth a 1/4". I knew how to fix this problem thanks to Chevyrestoguy's "My Caster Mod" thread. I ran to the hardware store and purchased two 1 inch long 1/2" socket head cap screws I had to drill the rivet out as well as the shaft saddle to accommodate the new 1/2" index bolt. I went with the 1/2" size as the head of the fastener matched the 3/4" index hole I machined in the shaft. Photo 3.
As part of the steering rebuild I decided that more caster was a good thing. After trolling lots of threads I decided to machine new index holes in the lower shafts as described in this thread by Chevyrestoguy. There will be more on that later.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=501241
I ended up with 3/4" index's instead of the stock 11/16" as only had a 3/4" end mill and a 6/19" drill bit to chose from. (It is hard form me to justify the cost of an odd size end mill for two holes.). The long run it worked out well as the cap screws fit perfectly in the indexes. If someone one else needs to do this they will have to grind the head smaller or try to locate a different style of fastener.
The lower control arm showed damage from hitting something (last photo) which may have been the reason the shaft was out of position. Several people on the forum have talked about changing the shaft U-bolts from the stock 67-72 size to the larger 9/16" 73 and later U-bolts. I had already purchased new ones from Napa and after seeing this I hope they will help prevent this problem in the future. The new bolts do require you to drill the holes in the saddles and cross member larger.

[04ls1gto]

Nice fix, why not tack weld the bolt to cross shaft then just install and you won't have to worry about locating properly.

[Average Joe]

Nice work!

Im curious about your driving impressions after performing the castor mod. Keep us posted.

[HO455]

Thank you gentlemen. I will post a review of the driving experience.

04ls1gto
Re: Working Man's Burbon
"Nice fix, why not tack weld the bolt to cross shaft then just install and you won't have to worry about locating properly."

At the time it just didn't cross my mind. I am sure that it would work. The only down side to that would be if I decide the new index hole is too far and I need to go back more towards the stock location. From all I have read about this modification it isn't an exact science.

Thanks again everyone. I cannot believe that this thread has had over 15,000 views.

[HO455]

The idea behind the caster modification is to take the factory caster setting of 0* and change it to a more appropriate setting of 5-7 degree. The new setting will work better with modern radial tires and make freeway driving nicer. The basic idea is to move the lower ball joint forward in relationship to the upper ball joint. I measured some old shafts an determined the index was 3" from the end of the shaft originally. (Photo 1) Replacement shafts seem to have differences in index location. My new shafts had the index hole about 1/16" closer to the end of the shaft which is the opposite direction I wanted to go. I put the new index holes at 3 3/4" from the end of the shaft with the new hole 180* from the hole the shafts came with. (Photo 2) This moves the lower ball joint 3/4" closer to the front of the truck. I used a 3/4" end mill to make the initial cut about 1/4" deep and then used a 9/16 drill bit to finish the hole. I had never actually seen the indexing rivet and didn't know how tall it was. The index holes I made were actually too large for the factory rivets and would have been too loose and I would have had to replace the rivets anyway. I had measured the old and new holes (Photo 3&4) and went with the closest size I had. I will get the proper size from the drivers side when I get it apart and post it. I think that there is a fair difference in the size of the index rivet and the hole in the shaft in a factory set up.

[HO455]

The follow up to the previous post. The factory index holes measured 11/16" (photo 1) and the Moogs were 23/32" (photo 2). The index rivets were 19/32" in diameter (photo 3). That means with the replacement shafts there is 1/8" of slop forward and back. After I had it assembled I had to remove the passenger side shaft in order to grind the cap screw down a 1/16" as it was holding the shaft away from the saddle. I did the same to the other side before assembling.
A couple of things I noticed when doing this. One is as the lower control arm moves forward it changes how the brake hoses flex and I had to tweek the brackets on the cross member to keep the hoses from rubbing when the wheels are hard over. In addition I had to move my sway bar frame mounts forward 3/4" to keep the ends of the factory sway bar from rubbing on the airbags.

[crakarjax]

Looks good! I am using SS7 bags as well and also noticed some separation at the top plate -- I'm hoping this is by design because my bags were sitting on the shelf for a couple of years.