Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

got the fixed (not shortened) drive shaft back today, if you look closely at the before and after pictures you can see that once all the whatever was cleaned out of it it actually goes in about an inch more now, see how much closer to the center bearing it is now, it used to be about 1 1/2 away now its like 3/8 away

also had the center bearing replaced which included the new rubber doughnut - out the door for just shy of $80 bucks

plan on installing it either tomorrow after work or on Saturday, will update you all if it is the right length then

[rgunlock]

Sounds like $80 well spent. I'm sure it will fit fine now.

[y5mgisi]

Good enough!

[enaberif]

Wow looks good!

[Gregski]

so we had a good day today, the drive shaft fits, I mounted it back up and with wheels on the ground we have 3/8th or 1/2 inch of additional going inability that should do for now

I wanted to share pics but my stupid battery died in my phone, so I will share some tomorrow

I went around and tightened everything back up since the entire rear end was dangling finger tight as we were trying to get that driveshaft to fit, so now its all tightened and good

[Gregski]

naturally you lower the truck, and if you get past the driveshaft problems then something else creeps up, in our case it was the rear brake rubber line that attaches to the differential and feeds the two wheels

well I'm glad I saw it, or there would be no rear brakes soon

note how we fixed it, RoadKill would be proud (who watches that show on YouTube?)

Safety Police, this is a temporary fix to drive the truck to the side of the garage, we will get a longer rubber line soon enuff and route it proper like, or maybe go turn downs on the exhaust right after the mufflers and loose the bendy pipes over the diff, hmm - what say you?

[Gregski]

the fun continued...

as you recall we had to remove the fuel tank to grind off the rivets on the passenger side leaf spring hanger, so today we had to put the tank back on, but first, we had to drain it of gas, yes it did have TEN GALLONS of fuel in it, that's 5 trips to the wifes thirsty Honda Pilot with a 2 gallon red bucket

FUN LEVEL = 2

[Gregski]

we tapped the old fuel sending unit out with a punch wrapped in electric tape and a hammer, and a few Hail Marys

I am glad the new single outlet sending unit came with a new rubber O ring and a new round metal retainer ring loop thingie, since in a bit of irony the old rubber O ring became hard, and the old metal retainer loop became soft, go figure

so here they are the old style sending unit and it's modern day replacement

[Gregski]

wanted to show you the new unit in the tank and how a one man tank mounting operation goes, picture a dude under the truck working the jack handle with his foot, ha ha

but again the phone / camera battery died

so the tank is on the truck finger tight, I will button her up tomorrow as it got dark and a visitor came by, so it was time to stop wrenchin

tomorrow progress continues, hopefully we'll get a test drive in, and a pic of the truck on the ground

[rusty76]

Glad too see things back in shape. I watch Roadkill religiously. Been watching it since day uno.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Glad too see things back in shape. I watch Roadkill religiously. Been watching it since day uno.

That's my boy, they do have a square body in their [ahem] fleet:

The Muscle Truck

[Gregski]

so since I went to a single line fuel sending unit I decided to get a brand new vented gas cap, they had the fancy locking one, but it was made of plastic so I went for the stock looking metal one

here are the old and new caps compared, I wonder if my old one was even vented, as it looks different

[Gregski]

and here's the new one

[Gregski]

and here they are side by side for comparison

[Gregski]

then I decided to go back and shim the hangers as the new ones are 1/4 wider than the stock ones, (in the pick it looks like maybe an 1/8th but that's because the bracket was bent in from bolting it in too much), so a quick trip to Home Depot to get some 1/2 grade 8 washers, bought 9 but 3 on either side seemed to do the trick

the distance from the frame to the inside of the hanger appeared to be the same between the old and new hangers, so I only shimmed the outside

[Gregski]

ok, and here is the Money Shot, man I think it turned out great, I luv it

[flashed]

Looks good .

[enaberif]

If you look at your old cap you can see the hole in the middle which allows the venting.

[Gregski]

so before we look at the Before and After shots, we all want to know how long did this take, how many hours did it take to lower this truck

lets see, we started on THURSDAY (October 8th) and finished on SATRUDAY (December 12th)

so what was that 3 days [ahem] weeks, what? over 2 MONTHS?!

[Jake Wade]

It looks much better.

[rusty76]

Sweet

[68Timber]

Looks really good. What's next? Swapping the trans?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

Looks really good. What's next? Swapping the trans?

Thanks, I appreciate the positive feedback. That's a big job as I plan on pulling the enjin out to do it this time, so it will have to wait till Spring. I think I will button it up for the Winter (December 22nd being the official First Day) and work on things that don't require too much grease or painting.

Hope to Dyno Test it again in January (funds required)

Possibly install some shoulder belts.

Install one of the heavy duty truck floor mats (from LMC Truck)

Install some black mirrors that actually fit the truck.

Fix my new (used) 1978 speedometer.

We still got that Dash Pad to sand and paint.

pesky stuff like that while actually driving the truck till March 20th aka The First Day of Spring.

[LeesTruk]

Hey Gregski. When you see the working results of all your labors, it makes all those cuts , bashed fingernails, and colorful language seem worthwhile, don't it? Enjoy your truck this winter. Lookin' good

Lee

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by LeesTruk

Hey Gregski. When you see the working results of all your labors, it makes all those cuts , bashed fingernails, and colorful language seem worthwhile, don't it? Enjoy your truck this winter. Lookin' good

Lee

"colorful language" that's it, where did you hide the microphone in my garage? ha ha