What did you do to your truck today? Chapter II

[Hugh Mongus]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

Tacking the upper mast jacket all apart , cleaning then greasing it will make your old shifter work As-New again and also return those loud GM " CLICK - CLICK - CLICK " noises as you work it through the quadrant .

What is the upper mast jacket?

[VWNate1]

Originally Posted by Hugh Mongus

What is the upper mast jacket?

Jason ;

The " Mast Jacket " is the steering column and the upper part is the rotating collar that has the wobbly shift lever hanging on precariously by the roll pin that's prolly 2/3 the way slipped out at any given time .

GM did (IMO) a fabulous job on the design , knowing it had to be cheap yet withstand serious abuse ~ even if the holes in the pot metal collar part are egged out (usually) you can hunt up a small bolt with the part near the head smooth and use that in there , add a nyloc nut and trim off the exposed threads , if you hunt you can find these in button heads or other low profile , I just use the allen headed versions because my truck works , it's not a fashion rig .

Or , get a new roll pin and slip it into place then slide a snug fitting cotter pin through it with a small flat washer on top and deform the cotter pin's head to reduce it's visibility .

Be creative here but mainly you need to remove the steering wheel and turn signal plate and shift lever , then slip off the collar and you'll see some black & gummy old grease and the detents , clean every thing up really well and spread a thin coating of fresh grease before re assembly ~ there are detents at the bottom of the mast jacket too where the shift tube comes through the firewall , I cannot stress how important it is to CLEAN OFF the old grease before adding new grease if you want it all to work *perfectly* no matter how worn out and wobbly everything is ! .

The main thing is to NEVER allow any threads in the holes where the parts move and load .

Once you've played with it to see how lifting the shift lever slides the tube up you'll figure it out quickly .

All clean , greased and re assembled ? good now comes the fun part :

The round shift rod leading from the column to the tranny has bushings in it , these are usually worn out too , easy to make new ones out of cut up PCV or other plastic piping that slips into place , then shim it all using super thin flat washers from the " HELP " section of your local Hardware Store so they're not floppy but twist easily with _zero_ drag - this is vitally important .

I've used both nylon and steel thin washers on the tranny arm to cure the floppy bit .

The rod is attached to the shifter with a simple pinch clamp , loosen it and hand shift both the tranny and shift lever into the " D " position then snug up the clamp , if all is well you'll feel the column lock into the Park position just after the tranny clicks into Park .

Then test to insure the starter lockout works only in Park or Neutral and the reverse lights still come one without you needing to lift the shift lever that last 1/2" or so .

It's funny , this loud " CLICK , CLACK " noise Chevy's made when new , at the time it was often said that's because they were so awful and cheaply made but to me , it is music .

BTW : lifting the shift lever and racing it from Park to Drive as fast as you can , is a very bad practice and is why most of these columns are worn out and wobbly .

I checked a few junked trucks before finding a decent shift lever , they're available new these days .

Remember : PARK BRAKE SET AND WHEELS CHOCKED ! .

My borhter's legal blog had some comment about watching me struggle with the filthy , grimy and un co operative shift linkage across Texas thusly " Nate's struggles to get his old Chevy pickup out of park remind me that truly , White Men Can't Dance " .

I am loving seeing the care and details taken in engine painting here ! . GOOD WORK Men ! .

I see a 402 engine was decked and the heads shaved .020" , what's the final CR going to be ? will this engine run on pump gas ? be able to hit the cruise night or is just for those incredible tire shredding 1/4 mile blasts ? .

[Hugh Mongus]

Thanks Nate. I will add that to my list of things to do.

[BugzC10]

Installed a Transgo 350-1&2 shift kit. I must be getting old...what a pain in the ars! Before I got the kit I looked up the installation on YouTube. It was a Transgo video. Watching YouTube makes you think it is a DYI. Well when I read the instructions that came with the kit it states "not for DYI" kit is or professional installer. I thought Oh crud...i'm in trouble. Dd I buy the wrong kit. The instructions where minimal. If it had not been for the YouTube video I would have need the deep stuff. Ran into a glitche with the valve body changing 2-3 spring, but got it installed. The tranny was pretty dirty on the inside. I was expecting the kit to at least have a new filter in it....NOT. Have to go out and buy one this evening. Once I get the pan back on and topped off and after I put my headers back on I'll take it for a test drive. I'll do a search on what sealant to use on the pan.

[VWNate1]

Originally Posted by Hugh Mongus

Thanks Nate. I will add that to my list of things to do.

Yer welcome Jason ! .

It's just one more fiddly m dirty job that anyone can easily do to make their vintage GM product work ' As-New ' again .

In spite of crappy raw materiels , GM really did make good things back in the day .

BTW : THANK YOU to ALL Veterans ~ America would be a sorry place without you .

[2 Far Gone]

Put the mirrors, signals and marker lights in. New chrome inside the door above the door panel.


Repurposed a couple of steering wheels...

[BugzC10]

^^^ truck is comming along nicely! Like that yellow. How much of a lift do you have? Also like your hose hangers. Would like to see how you did that. I have a steering I could do that too.

[2 Far Gone]

Originally Posted by BugzC10

^^^ truck is comming along nicely! Like that yellow. How much of a lift do you have? Also like your hose hangers. Would like to see how you did that. I have a steering I could do that too.

Thanks
The yellow is a Skoda colour. Found it when I was looking for canary yellow. I like it was brighter but it has an almost green undertone sometimes.
The truck has a 4" suspension lift with a 1.5" body lift.
The hose hanger is made from an 18"x18" piece of 1/8 plate(so I could screw it too two stubs when mounting). A 4" x4" piece of tubing. I ran a carriage bolt through the center. bolted everything together and replaced the horn button. Painted for beautification. No welding just used some scrap left over from previous projects.