Splitting Up (A Universal Joint) is Hard to do

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

It's still cold outside, but things are heating up in the garage!  And by heating up, I mean getting serious!  It was time to overcome my fear of the torque tube crushing my skull and get to work on splitting the universal joint.  This has to be done in order to get the transmission out, which is the next major step in the engine swap process.  Friday was a regular day off, so out to the garage I went!

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I had already loosened the bolts that held the universal joint cover collar in place and unscrewed the u joint cover end cap and slid it to the rearmost position on the torque tube that it can go.  However, on this first attempt, the u joint cover would not budge.  I could not rotate it, slide it or wiggle it out from it's position.  I made a request of my forum buddies and the awesome suggestion of using a strap wrench came back.  A quick trip to the big box store and I was the proud new owner of a strap wrench.

After clearing out the garage, I got under the truck and attached the strap wrench.  At this point, it was just silly how easy it was to rotate the u joint cover.  Once again, the lesson of leverage was taught.  With the u joint cover now moveable, it easily slid down the torque tube and out of the way.  Here is the assembly prior to moving the collar rearward:

In this shot you can see a block of wood.  This is a good time to let everyone know that the torque tube is under pressure from the rear axle, so using a floor jack is required to ensure safety.  The whole thing looked like this:

I know, even to me it looks a little dodgy.  But the truck was on jack stands and pretty high off of the  ground.  So the floor jack wouldn't reach without the wood block.  Thankfully it held.  Time for that u joint.

With the torque tube supported, there was no pressure on the u joint, so it was just a matter of finding the right wrenches and unbolting some unnervingly small bolts.  I noticed as I was working on the bolts that they really weren't torqued down very much, although they did still have the safety tabs in place that prevent them from spinning loose.  Only one of the four bolts had a washer and one of the four bolts was a different size bolt head, but same size shaft and threads.  It was odd.

Now I was able to slide the torque tube side of the u joint backward, too.  Using the floor jack, I raised the torque tube as high as it would go and installed a 2x4 cut to fit between the frame rails.  Once that was in place, I lowered the torque tube until it rested on the 2x4.  It was now safely out of the way.  That means it was time to start on that transmission.

First on the agenda was to undo the shift rod linkages on the side of the transmission.  That was easy as the rods are held to the transmission with a washer, spring and cotter pin.  With the exception that one of the cotter pins was really hard to get to, this part of the job wasn't bad.

Next, it was time to make a tool.  This required cutting the head off of 2 bolts that will act as guide pins for removing the transmission.  This is what it looked like:

Before

After

Once again, not too mentally taxing.  The shop manual for the truck tells you to remove the two top bolts and insert Chevrolet guide pins J-1116.  Those are antiques and not readily available, so making your own out of these bolts is the next best thing.

With the guide pins made and installed, it's time to get the bottom two bolts out.  The top bolts attach the transmission to the clutch cover (bellhousing).  The bottom two bolts attach the clutch cover to the transmission.  They go from inside the clutch cover into the threads cut into the transmission.  On the top, the transmission only has holes and the clutch cover has threaded holes.  Not sure why they did it that way, but ok.  You creep a little farther under the assembly reach into the clutch cover and a 3/4" wrench makes quick work of them.  Once again, not much torque on those bolts....

With the bolts out and the guide pins in place, it's time to slide the transmission out.  The guide pins keep the input shaft of the transmission from damaging the clutch while it slides out.  At least that's what the manual says that they do.  I wouldn't know, because having the torque tube raised all the way up blocks the space that the rear of the transmission needs in order for the input shaft to clear the clutch cover!  OY!  I knew that this was going to smoothly!

So...I reached out to my forum buddies again and learned a couple of things.  Most important, having the jack stands on the rear axle (like I did) puts all the weight of the truck onto the axle and consequently onto the torque tube.  If the 2x4 were to fail to hold the tube, it would crash down with considerable force and could actually be lethal.  Time to take a step back and rearrange the jack stands.  Saturday was a washout, which meant that I couldn't clean out the garage to get access to the underside of the truck.  It would have to wait.  Sunday started with rain, but cleared by mid-morning.  Time to get back to work!

It was a total PITA to move the jack stands!  Let's just say that it is done.  In the process, I lost several inches of clearance, which means that working under there will be that much more difficult.  By the time that I got done with the jack stands I was pretty tired (it's a really long story).  After that ordeal, I spent some time cleaning grunge off of the replacement engine.  Not fun nor pretty work, but useful.  Next weekend I'll go after the transmission one more time.  This time, I plan to lower the torque tube out of the way, making the room I need to get the transmission out.  Once the transmission is out, I'll raise the torque tube again and block it with the 2x4.  Assuming that I can do that, the only things left to do are to remove the 2nd and 3rd gear shift rods from the clutch cover, drain the oil and remove the hood.  It will then be time for removal of the dead engine!  Like I said, things are heating up!  Stay tuned for more Gray Ghost action!

Three Days of Pain, But at Least I Can Sit Now

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

I'm sure you're wondering about the title of the post.  Is it risque?  Absolutely not!  All will be revealed in due time.  But first, a quick pictorial reminder of where we started:

Yeah, Baby!  Nothing like a visual reminder of how she got her name!  Anyway, so what's going on?  Upholstery, that's what's going on!  The floral print sheet was nice and all, but it did smell of mouse pee and was probably 30 years old.  So when I did the cab cleaning, the sheet, 2 layers of seat covering material and all of the old padding went into the trash.  The seat cushion springs were treated to a good power washing and set in the sun to dry.  Afterward, I just put down a sheet of plastic and an old strip of carpeting to sit on while I did other work in the truck.  In the meantime, I acquired the seat coverings but never got around to doing the reupholstering.  This winter, I got the seat cover installation kit and was out of excuses.  After doing a little research, it was off to the races.

You start with the bare seat cushion frame.  I sprayed it with the Rustoleum rust converter.  After it was dry, I brought it into the basement for a warm place to work.  The frame looked like this:

To the frame, I used hog rings and attached a carpet runner that I cut to match the outline of the frame top.  That looked like this:

The purpose of the carpet runner is twofold.  First, it provides some isolation from the seat frame springs and your butt.  Second, since it has a rubber backing, it keeps the springs from contacting material that may absorb moisture and cause more rusting.  Anyway, it is Home Depot, buy it by the foot carpet runner.  Next comes a layer of burlap.  It looked like this:

Originally, the burlap helped keep the cotton batting in place and from dropping down into the springs.  In this application, it isn't really necessary, as the carpet runner does that job, but the kit contained it, so I used it.  Next is the cotton batting.  The instructions that came with the kit said that I should use at least 2 layers.  The kit came with enough to go down, back and down again.  So I got 3 layers.  The cotton batting looked like this:

I left the cotton batting long on all sides, as I wasn't sure how the seat cover material would interact with the batting.  I figured that I could trim it as I was fastening the seat cover to the frame, which is exactly what I ended up doing.  So, next comes the seat cover material:

All you have to do at this point is fold over the edges and begin the process of fitting the edges of the seat cushion frame into the seam areas of the seat cover material.  Not hard, but a little tedious.  Next comes permanently attaching the material to the frame.  The kit came with what's called "C" clips.    The instructions that came with the kit were a little nebulous, stating:  "Press special "C" shape clips at rear of springs to permanently hold cover in place."  This, sports fans, is where the pain begins....

Not knowing what this meant, I literally spent some time staring at the underside of the seat frame.  I mean, hey, I'm a product of the Prince George's County school system with a degree from an institution of higher learning.  How hard can this be?!?  Answer, pretty hard.  Enough time wasted, let's call the vendor and ask for technical help.  OY!  Are you kidding me?  While good intentioned, the tech actually googled my question while I was on the phone and pointed me to a Youtube video that I already knew about!  When confronted with that, he deferred to another technician and needed to call me back, which he did in a few minutes.  The "expert" told me to do something, that I can no longer remember, it was that off the wall.  So, getting no help from the vendor, I reached out to the members of the truck forum that I belong to.  Most people there told be to wrap the seat cover material over the bottom of the frame and use the clip to hold the material to the frame.  This is what I was thinking that the clip was for, but there was a small problem.  I'll illustrate the problem with a pic:

Between the frame and material, that's 1/2" of thickness with a clip that is 1/8" at the opening and 1/4" at the widest part inside.  There was no way that clip would ever fit over that material and likely would tear it if I tried. 

Originally, Chevrolet used what look like "V" clips.  The shape of the frame is like a "J" with the hook of the J facing the inside of the frame.  They used the V clips to hold the material inside the frame.  Those clips, inside the frame looked like this:

In many instances, there were 2 clips nested inside of each other.  I think the assembly people got slap happy and just grabbed a bunch and kept on going.

So, after much trial and error.  After much ado trying to figure out how to make the clips fit over the frame, I said to heck with this.  I'm going to do it the way the Chevrolet did it.  The C clips are going into the frame.  I thought that this was doable because of the similar size of the clips, shown here:

Original V clip on the left and new C clip on the right.  However, before I could do that, I had another restoration challenge to get over.  Once again, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Yep, I never intended to clean out the hook part of the frame, as I never intended to use it!  Crap!  That meant disassembling what I had already put together and taking the frames outside to get that dirty mess out.  I guess I should have done this initially, and I did try.  But at the time, I had no idea how the fabric was held in place.  It took me 2 different sessions over 2 different days to get this cleaned out and repainted.  It hurt my hands so much they were useless the rest of the day.  First you have to pry the clips from the edge, then bend them so that they can come out and then finally grab them with 90 degree needle nose pliers and forcefully wrangle them out.  Then you can work on the material, which after 65 years, has solidified into something akin to tile.  Tile that is in the shape of the J hook!  Very tedious, very fiddly as getting a straight in angle was impossible and very painful to my old joints.

The first installation of a C clip looked like this:

It turns out that getting the first clip installed on a new side is the hardest part.  Once you have 1 clip installed, it helps hold the fabric so that you can make the bend on the next spot and so on.  Here's a shot of one side completed:

Even with clips installed, spring clips are your best friend here.  One is visible to the left.  The corners proved to be a bit tricky, too. but manageable if you go slow.  The seat bottom cushion looked like this when done:

Here, it is sitting on the basement floor.  There are still some folds visible in the material and the instructions say that they will go away soon after installation.  In it's defense, the material did sit in a box at my house for nearly 3 years.  So the creases weren't unexpected.  The seat bottom cushion also got an extra layer of a really dense felt.  The felt came in the installation kit and provides for a little creature comfort when driving around in your truck.

Now it's time for the big reveal.  How do they look in the truck?!?  Well, let's see:

Hey now!  Not too shabby!  Remember, the goal of the interior work is to make the cab livable while I work on other things.  Recovering the seats will not be wasted, if I decide to do a frame off restoration in the future.  At that point, I'd just take the seats as they are and store them for reinstallation when needed.  Same for the new gauges.  The rattle can paint is just for me.  And so are the seats.  I now have a proper place to sit.  And now the title is revealed.  It was a painful process that lasted over 3 days, but resulted in a nice place to sit.

That's all for now.  My next focus is on the engine.  I'm going to need advice and maybe actual help.  So I'm off to contact my forum buddies.  I've got questions.  Lot's of questions.

Just in case anyone was wondering.  Yes it hurt, but it did make me happy.