The Bulldog.

[Piece-it pete]

So tonight I start: clutch kit, all seals, input shaft bearing, greasable pivot ball stud, mount, clutch MC, slave, and hose, and the universals as well as a good look at the cat converter.

Added up the cost, around $320 all in including a coupla tools and shop supplies. Good quality parts too. DIY for the mf win!

It SHOULD be cake. I'm hoping to get the ujoints done tonight at least, Chevy so I have to burn the plastic out, first time I've done it.

Pete

[purplebomb302]

So tonight I start: clutch kit, all seals, input shaft bearing, greasable pivot ball stud, mount, clutch MC, slave, and hose, and the universals as well as a good look at the cat converter.

Added up the cost, around $320 all in including a coupla tools and shop supplies. Good quality parts too. DIY for the mf win!

It SHOULD be cake. I'm hoping to get the ujoints done tonight at least, Chevy so I have to burn the plastic out, first time I've done it.

Pete

I've gotta do U-joints in my C-1500. They just started cracking pretty bad on my today. Getting the plastic out isn't that bad. I'd use mapp gas if you have it. It burns hotter than propane. Make sure all the plastic is out, otherwise you'll have a hard time getting them joints out.

[Piece-it pete]

I tried last night, even being warned about the possible 'pop' the first one that did it made me jump 10 feet

Then broke a craptacular Chinese c clamp on it. I'll borrow a ball joint press today.

But cake it is so far. The BIG issue - no bolts holding the tail to the mount And I can't find the slave/clutch MC I bought a while back :grr:

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

NOT done. Between Easter being Saturday at the in laws and a last minute Sunday Easter dinner at dads....

But I've got it out, replaced the tranny and rear engine seals and oring on the speedo sender, got the ujoints and pivot ball stud in, cleaned it up a little...

The throwout bearing is definitely bad, clutch & pressure plate look 'OK', pilot's a bit messed up (probably a result of no tail bolts!), flywheels' beautiful. Was also missing a bellhousing bolt. All bolts are getting a drop of Loctite blue on install.

Decided to leave the input shaft bearing alone. There was an 1/8" or less play.

Whoever installed the newer cat did an amazing hack job. There's got to be 6 joints all welded terribly and leaks. I cut the whole thing out and am debating my move - I need 1 more echeck before I can leave the cat off (though I 'd rather have it on) so do I monkey with it now or just install a straight pipe to get it back on the road and do it later? I've got 11 months before the echeck, probably the straight pipe.

One note. The service manual says pull the gearshift lever off. BUT there's still a stub bit of shifter that you have to remove from the tranny that is not mentioned in the manual, it hits the floorpan and you can't slide the tranny back far enough. As I didn't know what re-installing it entailed (Chevys' manuals direct you to different manuals for bits removed if you know what I mean) I just cut a slot in the floor so the tranny could slide backwards. I kinda hated to molest it but there it is. Hopefully I'll need another clutch waaaay down the road anyway

Still can't find the slave and clutch MC so that'll be a job for another day, like when I go oh THERE it is! D'oh.

All I need now is the pilot bushing puller and back together it goes. So strange, all the bolts come out like they should and no rust in eyes. A dude could get used to this.

Btw Exedy is Asian and it shows. A page included in the kit has a pictorial on 'proper handing procedure' that cracked me up for a while:

http://www.exedy.com.my/proper-handling-procedure.asp

It also included a sheet of stickers that included a small sticker of the little clutch guy smiling his big anime smile similar to step 5 but doing a thumbs up, I stuck that on my nephews' toolbox along with a small regular sticker.

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

Clutch done. Oof.

Should have been cake, but NO ONE EXPECTS:



THE FROZEN PILOT BUSHING.

To quote my favorite Texan, bah! Tried the grease trick. Nothing nada zilch. The old bushing was egged pretty badly so no real way to seal it. Called around and only one store had a puller, but it was the gear puller style (nobody had the slidehammer type) so even after filing the hook castings sharper it just pulled out - itself. Useless.

After searching the internet and reading various methods I thought heck I can do better. I tapped the bushing and threaded a big'ol coarse threaded grade 8 bolt, attached a cable to it, fabricated a small pulley system bolted to the block so I could run the cable out from underneath the back of the truck, walked out to the telephone pole at the street and pulled it out with a comealong.

Just kidding :-D I got a 3/8" cold chisel and busted that b*tch out. It was hard work. I only scored the crank in one place. A slidehammer puller might have worked, might.

Once that was done it was just another clutch job. Midas GAVE me a 3' piece of 2-1/4" exhaust to bridge the ugly cat gap (awesome) but nobody had a 2" od to 2-1/4" od adapter (I need it for one end), and it was getting late so I skipped replacing the donut on the manifold downpipe and forced the missing adapter bit with a clamp, so it's quite loud. I also managed to forget to install the exhaust support bracket but for that I only need to remove the 2 bolts holding the trans to the mount, no biggie.

The biggest deal happened on the test drive. The truck started without bucking, no noises ('cept for exhaust!), everything works great. I expected improvement but didn't expect it to clutch/shift like butter. Nice

Head up to the nearest higher speed road, got going for a 1/4 mile or so and BANG! followed by a huge vibration. Heart into the stomach, truck to the side of the road. Look and - rear ujoints' loose, lost a cap. Almost certainly my fault. If I had to bet I'd put my cash on a c clip not seated properly

Sucks, but minor, minor, minor. I'll have that done and hopefully the exhaust at least a little quieter this week. Yay.

Pete

[packman]

I can't remember what part rotted and broke on my S-10, all I remember is that it wiped out my clutch and pressure plate in the T-5 one morning on the way to work. I just remember the trans shop guy saying "there's a bit of rust under here." At the time, I didn't realize how much of an understatement that was. I wish I still had that S-10 though. I really wanted to put an LSx in there.


Packman

[Piece-it pete]

Rust sucks. Tranny crossmember perhaps?

I really like the little S-10. Many have mentioned a V8 swap but for now at least it's a daily driver and I've been enjoying the (barely) adequate power and 22-24 mpg average Who knows what the future will bring. Rust? -yep

Pete

[sly]

To quote my favorite Texan, bah!
Pete

I'll second that "BAH!" and tag on a HUMBUG for good measure.

[Piece-it pete]

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

FINALLY got the S-10 back together done.

Not like I've never done universals but this was interesting. It certainly was a c-clip not seating, because:

These irritating fiberglass or nylon or WTH whatever string things GM used to hold u-joints in with at the factory instead of c-clips. Even though I burned the crap out of them it still took a heck of a lot of ball joint remover clamp force to pop them out.

It appears that in doing so I managed to squeeze the ears of the driveshaft together slightly. So the replacement c-clips didn't have enough room to seat, the spread of the ears was out of tolerance.

BFH time! Shaft in the vice, beat the living heck out of them, didn't spread'em but did of course mush up the metal around the holes. Filed them flat again.

I ended up clamping an ear in the vice with the shaft sticking straight up and pushing the shaft hoping I didn't break them off. After a couple tries I did manage to spread them JUST ENOUGH to tap the c-clip in.

I'm still concerned, I believe there is still too much stress squeezing on the ends, that the joints aren't designed for, so I plan on redoing it again before I'm stranded or worse.

Any 'spreading' ideas?

Also because I broke a couple ujoints in the process I got a look at a couple parts stores parts. Advance sold Moog 'super strength' as their premium, I got the non greasables but they were simply greaseables without the zerk hole drilled, still cross drilled internally. Auto Zone sold 'Duralast gold' as their best, non drilled and the needle bearings were a bigger diameter. The clerk said they sourced them from Federal Mogul - Moog.

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

Ah, bolts with washers and nuts to spread. Wish, ahem, others things spread that easy

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

Btw I stumbled on a cross reference list for the ujoints:

Rockwell/Meritor CP3147X
Neapco 2-3011
Borg Warner 114-3011
Chrysler 5093377AB
Ford C8SZ4635A
Ford E7TZ4635B
General Motors 522163
General Motors 535554
General Motors 565987
General Motors 1456525
General Motors 1463548
General Motors 3382446
General Motors 5671712
General Motors 5677656
General Motors 7806140
General Motors 12471502
General Motors 12479126
General Motors 26042371
Rockwell/Meritor CP3008

Ymmv. I'm going to use Spicer 5-795X.

Pete

[purplebomb302]

FINALLY got the S-10 back together done.

Not like I've never done universals but this was interesting. It certainly was a c-clip not seating, because:

These irritating fiberglass or nylon or WTH whatever string things GM used to hold u-joints in with at the factory instead of c-clips. Even though I burned the crap out of them it still took a heck of a lot of ball joint remover clamp force to pop them out.

It appears that in doing so I managed to squeeze the ears of the driveshaft together slightly. So the replacement c-clips didn't have enough room to seat, the spread of the ears was out of tolerance.

BFH time! Shaft in the vice, beat the living heck out of them, didn't spread'em but did of course mush up the metal around the holes. Filed them flat again.

I ended up clamping an ear in the vice with the shaft sticking straight up and pushing the shaft hoping I didn't break them off. After a couple tries I did manage to spread them JUST ENOUGH to tap the c-clip in.

I'm still concerned, I believe there is still too much stress squeezing on the ends, that the joints aren't designed for, so I plan on redoing it again before I'm stranded or worse.

Any 'spreading' ideas?

Also because I broke a couple ujoints in the process I got a look at a couple parts stores parts. Advance sold Moog 'super strength' as their premium, I got the non greasables but they were simply greaseables without the zerk hole drilled, still cross drilled internally. Auto Zone sold 'Duralast gold' as their best, non drilled and the needle bearings were a bigger diameter. The clerk said they sourced them from Federal Mogul - Moog.

Pete

I did the u-joints in my C1500 2 weeks ago. The rears were done previously as there wasn't any nylon in there. The fron't were OE but also had the c-clips. Weird. After doing them I now have a slight vibration between 40 and 60 and only happens when I let off the gas. Not sure why.

I've always put the end of the shaft in the vise, heated the shit out of it and stuck a socket in there big enough to cover the old joints and used the vise to press them out that way.

[Piece-it pete]

List for Bulldog, for my own convenience:

1) Install exhaust hanger bracket I forgot to reinstall during the clutch job (d'oh), get the cat installed.
2) Bed removal for:
a. Fuel sender (have)/AC Delco fuel pump, filler neck hose?
b. Poly leaf spring bushings
c. MaxAir shocks with Motorcraft compressor (out of my MGM) under hood & dash switch
d. Chassis Saver on the frame? Something on the underneath of the (super clean) bed?
e. Replace rear ground
f. Any suggestions?
3) Alt upgrade/main wiring upgrade (similar to our 3g conversion)
4) Complete stereo wiring/upgrade install
5) Front suspension including:
a. Moog or Raybestos Springs & (probably AC Delco HD) shocks
b. Moog upper and lower control arms (all other steering done already)
6) Poly cab mounts
7) Cooling system flush THIS SUMMER for sure
8) Seat swap to split bench
9) Motor mounts
10) Clutch MC slave and line if I ever find them
11) Dash cap
12) I'd like an all new distributor & NOS module
13) Finish tuneup, including wires cap air charge sender and other misc (have)
14) Door hinge pins (have)
15) Drivers door handle (have)
16) I'd like to add power locks for keyless entry

I'll think of other stuff

Pete

[Piece-it pete]

I did the u-joints in my C1500 2 weeks ago. The rears were done previously as there wasn't any nylon in there. The fron't were OE but also had the c-clips. Weird. After doing them I now have a slight vibration between 40 and 60 and only happens when I let off the gas. Not sure why.

I've always put the end of the shaft in the vise, heated the shit out of it and stuck a socket in there big enough to cover the old joints and used the vise to press them out that way.

I've done the vise method but heck, the ball joint tool is free

Pete