Like I said, I was on a roll, or so I thought. Next up was to connect the clutch linkage. I expected this to be as simple as to pop the linkage in and stick in a cotter pin and move to the next item on the list. When I went to connect it, the rod was a full two inches too far forward and three inches too short. I fooled around with it for several minutes but it just wasn't going to happen. I spent a lot of time trying to measure locations on one frame and then walk a couple of hundred steps to the other one to compare and finally decided that the part of the linkage bolted onto the frame must be different so I went about removing it. Pulling the z bar and mount from the 68 frame wasn't fun but I got it all out in under a half hour. With the big block, full exhaust and a cab in the way it did not go nearly so well on the project truck. One of many frustrations was that the bolts holding it on were 18mm instead of 3/4 inch. That meant a trip across the road and down the way to my brother's shop to borrow an 18mm combination wrench (I had a 17 and a 19 in my box, but no 18!) It's an absolute crap shoot on the 89 what will be standard and what will be metric. Anyway after fighting it for what seemed like forever I finally dropped the exhaust on the driver side and got it loose pretty quickly after that. I then compared the two and although different the difference was negligible. Time wasted, a lot of time wasted.
Because of other commitments my available time Saturday was done. What a bummer of a day. Sunday morning before church I had some cows to feed and a missing bull to hunt for. Cows fed, bull not found; I can only hope he shows up soon. Anyway by now I had determined that I needed the clutch rod from the 89. Simple, one cotter pin holding it at the top, five minutes, right? WRONG! An hour and a half later and I finally had it out. Impossible to convey how frustrated I was. I went ahead and pulled the steering column while I was there. It was literally two bolts, 3 screws and unplug the harness and it was loose. I was running so late that I didn't even have time for a shower before church, I just washed my face threw on clean clothes and showed up as they finished the first hymn.
After church and back in dirty clothes I made another pass at finding the missing bull, still no sign of him.
Back to the truck I was able to get the clutch rod out of the 68 cab pretty quickly as it had the proper spring clip instead of a bent up cotter-pin. When I laid the two rods out side by side it looked promising, however when I tried to hook it up it was off side to side and too long. A trip to the vice to put a bend in and the side to side was good (the thin part in the second photo was originally straight), next onto the length. I made marks as to how much needed to be cut out as well as a reference line so I could get it clocked properly (3rd photo). A chop saw made quick work of the cuts, then I ground a 45 degree bevel in both pieces and welded them together. This was at my brother's shop and I didn't have the camera, so no photos. Once back I ground the weld down smooth. Pics 4 and 5 show the finished product comparison and the altered rod (sans the paint)
-Richard