An old airhead tank came into the shop that had a bit of a leak. If was hard not to notice the massive amount of bondo being used on the repair. Once the area was stripped it was evident that someone thought that a wood screw was a good means of plugging a hole....
The entire area looked as if it had been dented in at one time, so the best means of repair was to cut it all out.
Once everything was apart, cleaned and the flywheel was resurfaced, the next step was to put it all back together. First piece to install was the pilot bearing. It should just lightly tap in the back of the crank. Press it in until it is flush. Next is the flywheel. With a 235, you can only install the flywheel on one way. Torque the bolts down to the proper specs.
The clutch and pressure plate go on together. Make sure you have the correct alignment tool for the clutch disc. Slide both pieces up in and install the six pressure plate bolts making sure that you can still slide the install tool back and forth just a little bit. Torque the pressure plate bolts down per the specs as well as in an even pattern. Remove the install tool.
Place just a little bit of grease on the id of the throwout bearing and slide over the clutch fork.
Install the adapter plate and now you are ready to install the trans. Below is a picture of everything except the trans installed. Sorry about the pic, but the light was shinning right at the camera.
Before the transmission can go in place, the four bolt holes on the transmission itself need to be drilled out to 1/2". They originally used a metric bolt just smaller that the 1/2" diameter. Once this is done, install the transmission. The short 2" long bolts go in the top two holes and the longer 3" bolts go in the bottom two holes. The bottom two holes on the bell housing are not tapped, so it is necessary to use lock washer and nuts on these bolts on the inside of the bell housing.
Everything should slip together, do not force anything.
Now what is left is to hook up the speedometer, adjust the clutch and install a drive shaft. I had to have a drive shaft made for this particular install due to the original truck having a two piece shaft. Most of the time, if the truck is a 1/2 ton, the original drive shaft can be shorten. Usually this is 2" to 3" depending on the vehicle. A conversion joint from NAPA can be uses to convert the original drive shaft to the S-10 standard GM 27 spline yoke that you hopefully got with you transmission. If not, these are extremely plentiful.
The shifter will probably require some bending to clear the seat. In an S10, the shifter leans back at roughly a 60 degree angle. In a 50's Chevy truck, it needs to be pointing straight up and down. Also, the floor pan might need to be clearanced for the revised shifter location. In this particular install, the original floor pan was to far gone, so a new one was made. I'll cover that in the next post.
Once everything is hooked up, take it out for a test drive. It should shift easily into all gears. Reverse on every T5 I ever had slightly grinds going into gear. If it will not go into reverse or has excessive grinding, adjust the clutch linkage.
Here is a time lapse video of the complete instal. It includes a modification of the shifter to add a spacer plate to reduce the throw. In the above picture, you can see the spacer on top of the shifter riser.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me. dfarwell09@gmail.com
Recently, I had a customer complain to me that he never wanted to drive his 50 Chevy truck on account that he couldn't go over 45mph because of the gearing. Not to mention, the transmission wouldn't stay in gear. So, I suggested that he needed a 5 speed.
The truck is a mostly bone stock 1950 Chevy 3600 series 3/4 ton long bed. Someone over the years had replaced the original engine with a 1960 vintage 235. They also did some custom wiring too...
Btw, he is a big Ohio State Fan...
The first step was to get it up in the air and remove the old transmission. It was a 3 speed with creeper gear and was extremely worn out. The 3600 series trucks had a 2 piece drive shaft with a carrier bearing located at the back of the cab. The front part was similar to a torque tube set up in that an outer housing was bolted to the rear of the trans via a large ball and socket joint.
Once the trans was out of the way, The throw out bearing, pressure plate, clutch disc and finally the flywheel were removed. Since the flywheel had some abuse in it's life, it was sent out to the local NAPA to get resurface. The way I look at it, if you have it apart this far, why not just go ahead and do it right?
What is really nice about these old Chevy trucks is that the rear cross member is mounted on the bell housing. There is no need to jack the back of the motor up or even to take the factory truck bell housing off. It can all stay in place. I didn't even disconnect the clutch linkage.
The next step was to remove the pilot bearing. The easier way to do this, is to fill the bearing ID full of grease then place either a socket, piece of rod or an old input shaft in the bearing and tap on the end of it with a hammer. What this does is compress the grease and hydraulically forces the bearing out. You might have to do this a couple of times, but it'll come out.
Once everything is apart, it's time to gather all of the necessary components. You will need the following:
S-10 T5 transmission (83-88 for mechanical speedometer, 89-93 have the electronic speedo)
Clutch disc for the S-10 T-5 (Napa part # ND4201, it's 9 11/16" diameter)
Stock 235 Chevy truck pressure plate
Vintage Metalworks T-5 Adapter
Resurfaced stock 235 Chevy Flywheel
Flywheel Bolts (ARP100-2801)
Pressure Plate Bolts (ARP 130-2201)
Pilot bushing (Advanced Auto or Napa)
Throwout Bearing (American Classic Truck, GM Long) 1/2" bolts, (2) 3" long and (2) 2" long with lock washers and (2) nuts
It definitely pays to know the right people. Before I flew home from the NHRA Finals in Pomona, I had the once in a life time opportunity to ride in the Goodyear Blimp. I know, the video isn't to terribly good.
I haven't been spending much time in the shop lately. Things have been quite hectic to say the least. I am in the process of changing my day job. This has been a very difficult decision to make. The contacts and knowledge that I have gained has been paramount to my career and surely am going to miss some of the people I worked with. I probably could have stayed where I was until I was ready to retire but I would have been miserable. The job really didn't let me enjoy what I love to do as much as I wanted. That is, Vintage Metalworks would never grow to the point that I envision.
If you have had any exposure to vehicle dynamics, then you have to know this blog. If not, you should. I mean, come on....any self respecting vehicle dynamicist would have it at the top of their favorites list....except for maybe those Nascar so called experts.
The Suffield, Ohio Historical Society recently held a silent movie night. My wife and I were lucky enough to receive an invitation as we do not live in Suffield nor to we contribute to their historical society. The event was held in the shop of a local pipe organ repairman. I was absolutely blown away with the craftsmanship and intricacy of true pipe organ. I had no idea...this this was huge!
Here are some pics. They are terrible, I know, but it was hard to get the entire organ into one picture.
The organ was built in 1942 and came out of a local church.
It's not everyday that you get to see the Green Monster and then follow that up with being in a parade.
Here is the link to the Akron Beacon Journel on www.ohio.com.
Car parade Monday
AKRON:The last racer driven by the legendary Art Arfons will lead a parade through the city on Monday.
Many of the cars will come from the personal collection of Bob Jones, owner of Jones Group Interiors.
The parade will form at Akron Square, Arlington Street and Waterloo Road, at 11:30 a.m. It will travel north on Arlington, turn left on East Market Street, proceed to Main Street downtown and turn south to Thornton Street.
Arfons, an Akron native, held the world speed record three times and was inducted in the Motor Sports Hall of Fame of America, International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, International Motor Sports Hall of Fame, National Tractor Puller Association Hall of Fame and the Summit County Sports Hall of Fame. He also raced in the 1939 Soap Box Derby.
Arfons died in 2007.
His son, Tim, is providing his father’s last racer, which will be carried on a flat-bed truck.
