Prepping for the Big Day!

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

A super quick update for you today.  Nothing earth shaking, but keeping true to my goal of documenting a real world experience restoring an old truck.  So here goes...

It's now March, and the weather stinks!  Yes, I'm a fair weather restorer and I'm ok with that.  So this weekend was no different than any of the last couple...cold and rainy.  But wait, with the space heater blowing on my legs and feet, I could stand to be in the garage for a little while.  What to do?  Not really a question, as I had ordered (and received) an adapter to turn a smaller floor jack into a transmission jack.  Disclaimer:  some assembly required.  Meh, we go this.

Actually, assembling the adapter wasn't that hard.  No instructions, just a faint illustrated parts breakdown (IPB).  So faint that I had to run it through the scanner and then print it out darker to really read it.  Anyway, once it was done, it was time to take the "cup" part of the floor jack off to make room for the new adapter.  It was held on with a snap ring and came off easily.  The new adapter did not have a pin instead using a sleeve that would slide over a shaft.  That means I have to modify it.

So, I measured the inside of the cup receiver, transferred the measurement to the shaft sleeve and cut off the excess.  It looked like this:

Original "cup", pin and snap ring

excess sleeve material after cut

With the excess sleeve material cut off, it was simply a matter of attaching the adapter to the floor jack with common grade 8 hardware.  Here's a shot showing how it all went together:

attaching bolt

side view

assembled/modified transmission jack

So,  I know what you're thinking.  Why go through this little exercise?  I'll tell you.  It's the result of learning.  You see, last time I was under the truck, I realized that even though the transmission is light weight compared to the 4 speed monster that some of these trucks have, it still weighs in around 60 lbs.  That is simply too heavy for me to hold with both arms reaching over my head while laying on my back.  It was a recipe for broken bones or worse....  So transmission jack to the rescue.  I already had this floor jack and wasn't using it.  Why not buy the adapter and put it to use?  You can see it has all the bells and whistles, including the safety chain and adjusting wheel to make the angle of the bottom plate match up to your work.  It would have been nice to just be able to bolt it on, but you simply have to expect that nothing will fit as advertised and modification will be required.  Life as a restorer.  Just like the weather bollixing up another weekend.  Life as a restorer.  It is March now.  The warm weather will be here by the end of the month and I've got a transmission jack that I can put to work.  I'll be using that engine hoist any time now!

Here's a little preview pic:

Yes, that is a piece of carpet in the foreground.  To find out what's going on, you'll have to come back next time....