The Universal Joint Operation

As Dale and I were removing the drive shafts, we were careful to mark the position of each shaft so we could correctly put them back together. However, one of the U-joint bearing assemblies came off and we had a hundred little “needle” bearings running around on the driveway. These guys are the size of pencil lead, about ¾ of an inch long. Well no use crying over spilt bearings, we can always get a replacement U-joint. Or so I thought. You can see in the picture that 66 years of grime adds up.

With the frame finished, the brakes on, and the suspension installed, it was time to work on the drive shaft.  The first order of business was to replace the U-joints. Well as y’all know, I have a special needs truck, that being one of the ¾ ton persuasion. My internet search for the U-joints turned up some complicated Universal joint sub-system assembly for $150 each, I needed three, and to top it off I wasn’t sure if this was even the correct part.  I had Iooked in all the usual parts stores, tried eBay, and even went to physical stores. Nothing, zero, nada, zilch!

Time to use a lifeline and take it to the SHOP. I loaded the parts into my PT Cruiser and was off to see the Wizard. This was new ground for me, taking my shaft into the shop. After three trips from the parking lot, my parts were all on the counter. This is when Heidi, that’s what I call her, an older German looking blond lady with a long pig-tail. She came out and asked what I needed.  I will make a note that a German looking man in a pristine blue shop apron was five feet away from the counter working on something at the same time. I tell Heidi that I think my U-joints need to be replaced, however I am not sure and wondered if she could look at my parts and advise me on what to do. I am glad her name was not Dr. Ruth.

Well Heidi examines my U-joints and drive shaft and I explain that I made a terrible mistake and spilled my needle bearings all over the place. She said that it happens all the time and then looked at the U-joints. This is where she says that “he” would know what to do. Did I mention that “he” was five feet away! So Heidi and I are having this diagnostic discussion, me who knows nothing, Heidi is trying, and the Wizard is behind some invisible wall.  Finally after about 15 minutes of bumbling discussion with Heidi, “he” walks over, looks at the U-joints and points out to Heidi that they need to be replaced.  Why am I not surprised.

About a week later I received a call to say that the parts were replaced and that I could come pick them up. This time the Wizard was talkative and we were discussing the repair process. Turns out the old U-joints were really rusted together. He spent a week spraying Liquid Wrench on the parts just to loosen them up. When I commented that I would have replaced them myself if I could have found the correct U-joints, he calmly informed me that there was no way a Pilgrim like me could have done it, since – okay here it comes – he had Special Tools that you even had to have a certificate just to be able to purchase them.

Well I have to tell you, the $120 dollars I spent for this work was worth every penny. Just look. I have to tell you that the pretty blue bands on the U-joint surly comefrom the rubber bands they use on Maine lobster claws.

As you can see I have one piece of the drive shaft connected to the transmission and doesn’t it look grand.

Happy Day



Buy America

Okay I know what you are thinking, enough with the patriotic proselytizing. Bear with me. As I was digging into the parking brake subsystem and I mean subsystem, this is not just a couple of parts, it is a big process.

Of all the parts you can only see one and that one holds the parking brake components in the cab – the Parking Brake Support. When we took the cab apart two of the bolts broke because they were rusted in place. No big deal, I naively think. Ha ha, parts 13 cents, labor a thousand dollars!

As I am working on the Parking Brake Support it is time to remove the two snapped off bolts. The standard technique is to drill out the broken bolt and remove the remaining pieces. Well it is hard to hit the center of the bolt with a hand held drill and dull bits.  I did drill two holes, “mostly” in the center, you remember what this means – not in the center. With a little work I was able to extract the remaining metal from the first nut and after I rethreaded the nut it was perfect.

But Mister Mechanic Man, you said there were two broken bolts, what about the other Bad Boy. Well I had to use the advanced technique which was to get a bolt extractor. Sounds easy, but of course I don’t have one, so off to The Home Depot I go to stimulate the economy. The made in China extractor set costs $9 and the made in USA set was $30. Stinginess overcame my better judgment.  I mean aren’t they the same?

Well, the little voices in my head were at a consistent drone – you blew it Bubba! The way these tools work is that you insert them into the hole that is mostly centered and since they are opposite threaded, they catch on the bolt part and then you simply unscrew the part. What could be better, well that is the demo anyway.

In the reality show, I started twisting and had some good turns going especially since I was using a three foot cheater bar, I felt like Conan the Barbarian. In the mean time the voices in my head are screaming – STOP!!!  But my testosterone fueled mind set was unstoppable.

You guessed it. The extractor broke. Look I work out at the gym and I moved up from the pink dumbbells to the light blue dumbbells just last week. Still I shouldn’t be able to break the extractor, after all it is made from super hardened steal. Remember your early Greek lessons, with a lever you can move the world, or at least break any tool or bolt.

Now back to the hardest metal in the universe. How do I now get the fragment out of the nut? Well I try to drill it out, however no drill bit I have can even scratch it after all it is made from Kryptonite.

Well when I took in my kingpins to R&R Speed Shop, I also brought in this problem. They said, sure we will have ol’ Hal look into it.  Great, they have real tools so they should be able to do the deed.

Well mister frugal notices that the Parking Brake Support can be purchased for $40 dollars from the internet parts stores. I call R&R to ask how they are doing and mention this fact, they quickly abdicate and say I should buy it since it will take $80 for ol’ Hal to just look at it and he will probably just get it mostly fixed. Aggghh!

I am now on to plan D, Brian asks to play with it, what did I have to lose, he had to be better than ol’ Hal. Remember Brian has more Man tools than God, he takes his WWII flame thrower to the bolt and burns through everything. Turns out he uses a secret Ninja trick to only blow out the bad parts and leave the nut intact, sweet - you should see him toast marshmallows. He brings in the part the next day and it is perfect.

Next time I am buying USA tools from a Ninja. I promise.

It Is About Time

It has been three weeks since the last post and it is about time for an update. I made major progress this Saturday. With business trips, swim meets, parties, and the real reason – waiting for parts to be shipped, time marched on. But the planets aligned, the chicken bones fell in place, and the 13 year cicadas hatched - big time progress.

I cleaned the bell housing and transmission of all the greese; I just can’t kick my chemical dependency and my favorite tool, the wire brush. The engine mounts were delivered and I was surprised to see that they were made in India. They worked but clearly were just adequate. Makes me wonder if these were made in Slumdog Millionaire.

The piece de resistance was the drive shaft fitted out with new u-joints.

Just look at it now!!!!!

The front end is mostly done: steering, brakes, suspension, drive shaft. What a beautiful sight.  I do expect the rear springs next week so the frame components could be done in a few weeks.

Happy Day

You Got to Have Fun

Well any excuse is a good reason to party. This truck project is going to be measured in parties instead of years, I mean months - Dear. Our company recently won a big order and we are going to have a much deserved celebration dinner.  My gracious wife volunteered our Party House for the venue. You got to love her.

We had dinner in the back yard, everyone got to see the truck, we toasted our big win and smashed our champagne glasses in the carport.

 

The highlight of the night was loading up the truck with Girls Gone Wild. I love my pickup truck.

A quick update on the project is that I ordered parking brake parts from Bill’s Truck Shop. Posie’s said that the rear leaf springs are in their shop for the final touches. Both items should get delivered next week. With these parts we might get this baby on the ground before the first freeze.

My turn in the truck, I have that far away look in my eyes; “someday it will be finished”.

Now which way did the girls go?

Pinion Nut Chapter Two

When the work in Chapter One is only – mostly done, you need a Chapter Two to get it –really done. Let me quickly summarize Chapter One, the Pinion Nut Episode.

While I was out riding my bicycle with Lance Armstrong, juiced up with synthetic testosterone, I decided I had to remove my pinion nut in order to fix a leaky rear end. The pinion nut could not be removed in the regular way, so I split the nut, found a replacement nut, installed the pinion oil seal, put the nut back on. Voila, done, finished, happy ending.

Not so fast Alice! A couple of days after this alleged happy ending, the rear end spun on the stand that was holding it and ended up pointing straight down.  No big deal, the new oil seal would work. However two days later, Dale came by and casually asked what that dark stuff coming out of my rear end was. After I checked that my Depends were not leaking, I too saw that a pool of oil had leaked out of my truck’s rear end. This was not good. Obviously my earlier work was not done correctly.

My first thought was that I had purchased the wrong oil seal. Remember my 1954 ¾ ton truck is special and if I don’t put “pretty please with a cherry on top” on my order, the parts companies send the ½ ton part – which doesn’t work. I carefully looked at the part description and sure enough it was not the ¾ ton version.  I call the store and they confirmed it was only for the ½ ton truck and they did not have one for my special needs vehicle.

After spending the next few days searching the internet parts stores, I could only fine one store that had the correct part, or so they stated - Bill’s Truck Store in Canada. When I called I actually got Bill, this had to be a sign.  He was very helpful, gave me some tricks to try, and said to send in pictures of the old part so he could double check to make sure the new part was correct. After many calls and emails it turns out that the new part I had was what he sold and should work. Now what??

I decided to test the oil seal and see where it was leaking. I would put the parts together, put oil in the seal, and then observe the results. Perfect, I just had to get some type of oil for the leak test as I didn’t have any transmission oil, and isn’t oil, oil.

This reminds me of another time where I used a substitute oil instead of the correct ingredient. I was making dinner for my 13 year old daughter at the time. She loves macaroni and cheese, the kind in the box. I, coming from the ‘any ingredient’ will work culinary school, wanted to substitute something for the two tablespoons of BUTTER called for in the instructions.  Cooking oil is like butter, right? And Olive oil is the best oil, right? Nothing but the best for my little girl.

Well it turns out not all oils are created equal.  Brooke had her brand new FDA/USDA 100% pure taste buds set for real Mac and Cheese. As soon as the first solitary macaroni touched her tongue, it was like someone with a gun going through airport security – alarms, sirens, flashing lights. No way Jose! She ended up eating frozen waffles that night for dinner. Even I had to admit that olive oil did have a distinctive flavor that infused the Mac and Cheese with a taste you could not forget. I called Rachel Ray and told her to cancel this recipe.

Well for my oil seal leak test I opted for vegetable cooking oil, the seal didn’t leak. My conclusion was that I didn’t know what was going on and that unless my truck was pointed straight down, in which case I would be worried about a whole host of other things than a leaky rear end. I was putting it back together and living with mostly fixed.

Everything went back together just as expected, but now I had to tighten the pinion nut with 160 to 220 foot pounds of torque. Next time I make Mac and Cheese I think I might add a little Torque, it has to be better than olive oil. If you remember from chapter one, I needed a 1-5/8 inch Huge Ass socket to do the deed. Tightening the pinion nut was a two person task and required some create use of bars and other parts to keep things from spinning while you are torquing down the nut. I concocted a U-bolt, angle iron device to attach to the pinion flange and then had my lovely wife hang on for dear life while I was busy torquing the nut. With both of us about to bust a chitlin, we got to 160 fps of torque. Hallelujah!

The first thing I noticed was my nice U-bolts now looked like L-bolts, fixing this will be Chapter Three. My wife is one strong Mamacita. The second problem was the slots in the pinon nut where the cotter pin slides through did not match the hole in the shaft.  What this means is that I had to tighten the nut more in order get all the slots and holes into perfect celestial alignment.

My previous technique was not going to work; another way to tighten the nut had to be used. I resorted to the time tested solution – Manly Power Tools.  The first thing I did was grind a 16^th of an inch off the Huge Ass socket so it would fit all the way down on the pinion nut, then I plugged in the air compressor and put on the air impact wrench. It was like magic, the air tool neatly moved the nut so everything lined up. It took 5 seconds.  In retrospect I think it would have even taken the nut off in the first place instead of having to split it. Live and learn, testosterone is the best way.

If anyone wants some Mac and Cheese, I do have leftovers.



The Kingpin Exercise

As you can see the front suspension was rough. After 57 years, parts wear out, I can attest to that. The before picture shows the front brake drum, shock absorber, leaf spring, axle, and engine. Besides the normal wear and tear there was some trauma to the right side of the truck as the leaf spring was broken at the rear spring eye. The job was to take it all apart and replace the worn components, without breaking the bank.

Taking the front end apart was not too hard, just dirty. You can see all the parts posed in perfect harmony. The biggest job was removing the bushings from the steering knuckle. Initially Brian offered to press them out. So I dutifully loaded my kingpin parts, steering knuckles, and axle in my car. However, due to work schedule conflicts I had the parts rolling around in the back of the car for three weeks before we could hook up.

Brian has more Big Boy Man Tools than anyone, that is all except for the special K357 Kingpin Bushing Reamer tool. It is critical to ream your bushings after they are inserted. While you might confuse this with polishing your nuts, you could say it is at the other end of the spectrum. Brian wisely suggested that I have a machine shop ream my bushing! Better safe than sorry is my motto.

Using a machine shop was a good idea, although it was hard to find one that would do it. I called regular shops then called automotive shops, they all said no, even the references they suggested did not work on kingpins. Finally I called R & R Speed shop, Yes! They did Kingpin bushings. Whoohoo and only $15 dollars each.

I took the parts down to R&R and dropped off the steering knuckles, the new kingpins, the old kingpins, because you never know what they really do in a speed shop, they might need the old ones for historical purposes. Then I brought in the front axle. This is when the salesperson gave me the look – the you really don’t know what you are doing, look. He says, “what is this for”?  I reply that you press the kingpin in the steering knuckles, through the axle. He replies that everyone knows that, but that is something you can do, Pilgrim.  Okay so I take my axle home and wait for them to press in the bushing. By this time I would be lost without an axle sliding around in the back of my car anyway.

Two days later, I picked up the parts, well I didn’t quite get it correct. It was $15 per bushing, 2 per knuckle, $60.  All in all a bargain, cause they slid in perfectly.

I followed the directions in the Shop Manual, put in a few shims and voila, the steering knuckle is attached to the axle. When I first got the truck, we towed it, from where the transporter dropped it off, to my house. It was steerable, barely. However, once we got the parts apart I could hardly move the spindle, now it is easy as pie - man does it feel smooth.

You can see it installed. Kingpin through the steering knuckle, attached to the axle, front bearings installed, brake backing flange, and steering linkage. Just like a hip replacement.

Happy Day



Progress Update

We did survive the April 27, 2011 outbreak of killer tornados, little or no damage in Huntsville, but we were out of power for four days and with parts of the county out for seven days. I was able to work quite a bit on the truck, but got behind on my updates.

Orders

Custom Wheels in California shipped the chrome rims and they should arrive at the house on Monday or Tuesday. Signature is required. The last order I got that required a signature took three tries to deliver and eventually we had to go to FedEx to pick up the package before it was returned to the sender.

The running boards made it last week and don’t they look grand.  Sturdy, light fiberglass looks great and won’t rust. I also bought the running boards bolt set as well as the gaskets and cab retainer. Well guess what, the bolt set is for the original steel running boards and won’t work for the fiberglass version. Off to Fastenal, I am going to set up a house account. This is starting to put a damper on ordering the parts early, almost half the time I do, it turns out wrong.

Got a call from Posie’s two weeks ago, the front springs were finished and they wanted to know if they should ship them now or wait for the full order and ship it all at once. Heck yeah! Ship those babies. Now I can really make some progress. The springs came midweek and I quickly filled up the living room with leaf springs and spring parts. Sometime before I came home the next day a Leprechaun transported all of the parts to the Man Garage. I was really disappointed since I was going to drink beer and look at them that night.

The new leaf springs mostly fit; this is car terminology for “they did not fit”.  When something mostly fits, that means you can take out all your cherished Big Boy Tools and really get to work. With the one-two combination of the grinder and Huge Ass hammer, the springs “now fit”. I put them on the frame with the front axle – looking good.

I did get a boo-boo while installing the springs. Turns out a small piece of sheet metal sliced my finger. I stopped crying once I got my Hello Kitty band aide to stem the out rush of blood.

Well stay tuned, lots more to come.