New Old Truck

Old and new together. Hard to believe that little thing weighs almost 200lbs. 

Sorry for the starbursts there.... messy fingers smudged the camera lens. So she's down. With 5 forward gears and one reverse. No longer going to catch on fire because the fuel line was sitting on top of the flowmaster. Cab isn't going to fall off because of the rotted mounts. Bed is actually held down by all 8 bolts, not the 4-1/2 it had before. Bed floor can actually hold things without them falling through. Can't drive it yet because the front tires rub so bad I thought hte 1/4 mile each way would pop them. 1" spacers coming in Weds. Brakes are non-existent because my dumbass mechanic forgot to bleed the fronts after popping the lines loose to move the calipers. Also forgot to actually bolt in the seat I was so excited. 

But it's there. It works. and awesome. A friend came over Saturday evening to bend my shifter he welded up. 

Had  to reuse my knob.  

That is a good looking truck.     

There's a nice body line on the fenders that looks like it would be a good place to cut and weld to add a little more space for wide wheels, but that may be more work than you have planned.

Looking good man!!

I can't wait until Weds. 

Very nice! The aesthetic  combination of color, wheels, and ride height is just about perfect to my eyes.

stuart in mn said:

That is a good looking truck.     

There's a nice body line on the fenders that looks like it would be a good place to cut and weld to add a little more space for wide wheels, but that may be more work than you have planned.

There's really no need. These fenders will hold 10.5" wheels and 295 tires. That's more'n enough for the planned 3400lbs and 400hp.

Looking good indeed.  Loving the bench seat, particularly.  It's good for your grip strength (trying to hold yourself in the truck with the steering wheel ;)).  

In reply to ClemCougarSparks :

harnesses will be installed properly this winter.  

So.... truck made it to work. 13 whole miles. Lots of new noises. Suspension is strangely quiet. Rear end clunks, transmission growls in the 35-45 range, shifter is noisey....but 60mph now is 1800rpms now! 

Ok so the trans rattles on decel  above 40 mph. Like rocks in a box. The light whine in 5th at speed is fine. The rear end feeling like it’s not bolted in is not. Overall not a bad first outing. Front suspension feels perfect. I am loving all these gears with this engine though. Feels like it is never struggling ever. 

Got to figure out the rocks in a box on decel though.  Sounds terrible 

What fluid? Redline mtl really quieted mine down.

Is it a new trans with a warranty? Cause I'd call sooner rather than later....

So new I haven’t even registered he warranty with tremec yet. Fluid they spec either synchromesh or Mobil 1 ATF. I went with the M1. This weekend I’ll check fluid levels and see hook up the speedo. 

Call tremec. New trans shouldn't be noisy on decel if you ask me.

Bobcougarzillameister said:

In reply to ClemCougarSparks :

harnesses will be installed properly this winter.  

Slam dunk!

Awesome progress!  How much of a pain was that trans swap?  My 77 could sure use it.

In reply to Cottoun :

Honestly pretty easy. Slid the crossmember back and drilled new holes in it and cut a hole in the floor for the shifter. You need a 26 spline clutch and a bellhousing ring adapter. 

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Just sent them an email. Need to get back under it to get the tag numbers to register the warranty. 

Good folks at Tremec already responded and I have a couple of things to check. I have a suspicion the driveshaft may have shifted forward shoving hte yoke in too far. I'll check that first when I get home. 

Yay! Rattle noises fixed. Looks like I hadn’t checked the driveshaft at the transmission. It was shoved all the way in. Moved it back 1/4” and boom. Fixerated. 

OK, so longer drive yesterday. 3 things pop out at me. One, the axle is not 100% square. With the locker, letting out the clutch under power pushes the rear sideways. To be expected honestly.... I'm not perfect and the entire rear end was ut of the truck. Second issue, we didn't shorten the driveshaft enough. It's about an inch too long. as the diff moves through the suspension travel it bottoms out at the carrier bearing forcing the front section forward back into hte trans. The last thing is the rear springs. They're weak.... super weak. I'm hitting the bumpstop on hte c-notch all the time. With just a flip it shouldn't be this weak.

Otherwise it's awesome. The gear ratios in the trans and the 4.10's are a wonderful match. Truck is quick. Not fast but definitely quick. Fix the three above issues and we should be golden. 

Did you run shorter shocks or shock extenders?  Without either of those, the shocks will bottom before the axle does.

73-87 4WD front shocks work quite well in the back, but are valved a bit stiff.