Finding time to drive out to Winston Salem to drop off and pick up my driveshaft was perhaps one of the trickiest parts of this build! Many people have told me that Oliver's is the best and only place to get quality driveshaft work done anywhere near me, so that's where I went. The NV3500 required 3.5" out of the front shaft compared to the original 3 speed. I also had them install new universals and carrier bearing. I welded the baseplate of the carrier mount since they normally fail there.
To get the angles right (at least based on my original measurements) I had to add a 1/2" spacer to the plate I used to flatten the bottom of the crossmember. I didn't actually remeasure the angles with the driveshaft reinstalled, but I should have (more on this later).
The driveshaft fit perfectly and I had it installed in no time. You'll also notice the exhaust wrap that I added. This did help reduce the rate at which the floor heats up, but if you let it sit and idle long enough the floor will still reach the same temperature once it's heat soaked.
I figured I should add a tach since this truck is manual. I don't want to drop the cash or brain power required to make a stock tach work (which I don't even have), so for the short term I am using an Equus tach. Admittedly, it is quite cheaply made but it does a decent job of displaying RPM. It also matches the interior fairly well. This will be around until I get to redoing the interior (sometime next year).
...And now for the pivotal moment of the first test drive! It was late and I have no tail lights yet, so it was just a quick 1/10 mile loop around the driveway. Everything felt like it should, so I was excited to take it out again in the daylight.
This brings us to today. I was anxious all day at work to get back home and hit the road in the truck.
I started slow with a short 1 mile ride out and back with my wife. Then my kids took turns going for a ride as well, ending with my son and a 15 mile loop.
Overall, the truck performed very well considering how many things I have changed and rebuilt. There was nothing detrimental that would keep me from throwing the bed on and driving it as is while I continue to tweak and improve the truck. Here are a few observations that may or may not need attention:
1. First and second gears in the NV3500 are quite short. It almost feels like I am spinning the rear tires because the RPMs jump up so quick and it doesn't really feel like I am going anywhere. Other than that, the transmission shifts smoothly and functions properly.
2. The intake that I used on this truck makes a noticeable swoosh sound whenever I hit the throttle. I'm not a big fan of intake noise, so I will see how long I'll go before I want to change this. Hopefully once the hood is on and I add sound deadening and carpet I won't hear it as much.
3. There is a driveshaft vibration in 1st and 2nd at low RPM. Once I'm cruising along in 3rd and above the vibration goes away. I will definitely need to look at the driveshaft angles. My last truck had a vibration after flipping my carrier bearing and all I had to do was adjust the angles. I'm hoping it's the same solution here.
4. The manual steering sucks! I don't know if my memory is failing me, or all the suspension changes I made affected steering, but I definitely did not like the steering today like I did the last time I drove the truck before all this work. The wheel was very heavy at low speed and hard to make tight radius turns. At speed it felt pretty good until I had to turn the wheel past 10 and 2 and then it got heavy and less responsive. I will definitely be looking into a power steering swap.
5. Heat is still an issue even with the exhaust wrap. While cruising around the air flow keeps the heat at bay, but as soon as I sit and idle the floor temp starts to spike again. At one point I stopped to take some pictures and left the truck running. When I got back in the floor was quite hot. I believe I will have to add additional heat shielding under the floor.
6. The truck feels very small with it this low. It was a strange feeling driving it. I never felt this way before driving it or my old truck, but it's something I will have to get used to I suppose. I do like the way it sits so I won't be changing the ride height!
7. With the caster mod my springs rub the front edge of the cup in the crossmember. I'm not sure how I will remedy this, but it does need to be resolved. Any time I go over a bump I can hear the spring pop over this edge.
8. At most RPMs the exhaust actually sounds pretty good. It's not even that loud in the cab and I currently don't have any sound deadening or carpet installed. There is only a short RPM band around 2500 where it really drones, actually, its more like a humming. It's kind of a strange sound. I'm hoping once the bed is on and the tail pipes are installed it will be better.
I believe that is it for now. If I've lost you by now that's ok! I was trying to get all this down before I forget it. From here, I plan to address a few of the items above and continue installing the remaining body panels. In addition, I will put more validation miles on the truck to work out any remaining bugs.
