"STOP" When The Light Flashes

Hello Gray Ghost fans!

Well, it's still winter and it's still cold out.  So work in the garage is painful.  Time for one of my "patented" small projects, to keep me in the game while I wait for warmer weather.  This one, though, is one that I've been thinking about for several years.  I've had the parts almost that long, too.  I just never got it done.

Have you figured it out from the title?  Maybe you have an idea, but I doubt you know the specifics.  The title phrase (minus the quotation marks) is what is on every school bus stop sign.  It tells the good drivers that when the lights are flashing, they must stop.  That way the kids are safe to exit the bus.  OK, you knew that.  But how does it relate to the Gray Ghost?  Easy.  But first how about a pic?  Here is a shot of an aftermarket, universal light socket for a single contact bulb:

Interesting, n'est ce pas?  I did not, however, need the whole socket.  This is all that I needed:

The wire/contact/spring will be used.  The housing is extra.  Too bad they don't sell just the wire/contact.  You'll see why in a moment....

Next is another aftermarket, universal housing.  This one, however, is a dual contact housing.  Together, in the package, it looks like this:

Blown apart, it looks like this:

The only part that I need for my project is the white wire and special contact ring at the top of the photo.  This special contact is the ground contact in both the original application and in my custom application.  It looks like this in a closeup:

Together, the two parts that I've hacked these socket sets for look like this:

You can see that the black (power) wire goes through the ground contact ring.  The ring will sit in the bottom of the socket, held in place by the spring and the non-conductive material that surrounds the power contact.  I needed this extra wire for the grounding connection because the custom application that I'm making will not be making contact with any metal on the truck, thus it can not be the ground point like it is in normal single contact bulb applications.

But what is this going in and what, exactly are we doing and how does this relate to a school bus?  Patience, grasshopper.  All is about to be revealed....

This is a view of the inside of the light housing for the light that I am restoring/modifying.  As you'll quickly see, I did nothing to restore it, other than the rewiring that we are about to talk about.

The socket is in the middle of the housing.  On either side of it are two press fit bolts.  These are the attaching points for the light to the truck/bus.  I chose not to strip the housing and repaint it because there is only a slight amount of surface rust and it is coated with an industrial quality paint.  Probably full of lead, too, now that I think about it.  Next is the reflector, the original cork gasket and the new, LED bulb sitting inside the housing:

Notice that the reflector and cork gasket both have a notch in them.  When you assemble the whole light, those notches need to be aligned with a similar notch in the light lens.  These allow moisture to weep out of the housing, if necessary.  Next is a stainless steel ring that clamps around the housing and the lens and holds it all together.  It looks like this:

I did have to replace the nut and bolts, as the originals were rusted badly.  Here's a shot of the reflector and LED bulb assembled into the light housing:

And now, for the the reason for the title and all of the hoopla... the light lens: 

It's the "STOP" light from a 1940's - 1950's school bus!  The whole light assembly is about 7 inches across!  This will be the the third brake light.  Fully assembled, it looks like this:

My plan is to build a set of bed rails and incorporate the third brake light into the rails that cross the rear of the bed.  There is plenty of room between the top of the bed and the rear window, so I'll adjust the light to sit just below the window.  It should be plenty visible from the road.

I know what you're thinking.  Seven inches across!  This is overkill.  It may well be.  However, back in the day, safety just wasn't the same consideration that it is today.  In fact, the truck originally came with only one tail light.  If you were worried about safety, you could buy a dealer installed second tail light for the passenger side!  Same for turn signals...not included.  However, the dealer would be happy to sell them to you!  And, as if that weren't bad enough, the tail lights are tiny!  It's also something that modern drivers have come to expect...that bright light on the back of the vehicle.  So that's where it is going.

Here's a shot of the back of the light showing the mounting bolts and the wires coming out of the housing:

I'll need a little dab of silicone caulk where the wires exit the housing.  I didn't have a grommet to use there, so the silicone will seal it up.  Turns out the bolts are standard 1/4-20 sized.  I'll get some washers and nuts to attach the light to the bed rails.

The light itself is a K-D lamp company light.  The housing is an SP158:

And the glass lens is an LS321:

Interestingly, the inside of the lens is embossed with the word "STOP" and it is painted to highlight the wording.  The inside looks like this:

And now for the money shot:

It Works!!!  Took it out into the garage and used some alligator clips to test it on the battery.  Voila!  The light is lit...better follow the rules and STOP!

Tomorrow I hope to beat the rain that is forecast and actually build the bed rails.  That means running the table saw outside in the cold... not fun.  We'll see how well I do in the morning.

Making Space On The Workbench

Hello Gray Ghost fans!

I had a productive day in the garage yesterday, finishing up a project that I had started a couple of weeks ago.  Initially, I had wanted to drain and remove the radiator from the truck and put it on the engine test stand.  But, it was really cold this weekend and as everyone knows, I'm pretty much a weather wimp.  Meaning, as I was inspecting the old radiator, it was so cold that it was making my hands hurt. So on my day off (Friday) I decided to not even work on the truck and instead put on my outdoor work gloves and tango'ed with the sweet gum tree gum balls....  What an awful tree, but I digress.  Coming back on Saturday, it was 10 degrees warmer, but still not conducive to crawling around on the concrete floor.  What to do?  I know, finish cleaning and then painting the flywheel and clutch cover.

To refresh everyone's memory, there are two pieces to the cover.  One of them attaches to the bottom of the bell housing and is rounded to accommodate the flywheel and the second is a piece attaches to the back of the bell housing to cover the remaining opening.  When I removed them from the old engine that is currently in the truck, they looked like this:

Inside - Before initial Cleaning

Outside - Before Initial Cleaning

Inside - After Initial Cleaning

Outside - After Initial Cleaning

All in all, it was a pretty dramatic improvement.  However, they were still not ready to accept paint.  There was still an oily film on them and clearly, there is some surface rust.  All of that had to go, but I wasn't sure how I would get that last bit of oil off.  The rust would be easy, after the oil was gone.

Then, while cleaning up from working on the water pump installation, I had an epiphany.  Why not use my citrus based hand cleaner?  That stuff is amazingly good at getting the crud off of my hands, why not give it a try.  The hand cleaner that I use is this stuff:

So, I squeezed a little on one of the pieces and used a damp paper towel to work it around a small area.  To my surprise, the paper towel turned a nasty gray/brown.  It was working!  I took it to the hose outside and washed it off then dried it.  I ran my finger over the area and there was no oily feeling!  Hello!  Here we go!  Working a little area at a time, because the cleaner tends to dry out, I cleaned both pieces completely with the hand cleaner.  After cleaning, washing and drying, I then washed them down with brake cleaner.  The thought here is that there could be some citrus oil residue and that would mess up future paint.  After the final cleaning, it was time to deal with the last bit of rust.

Being cold, I really didn't want to deal with cleaning out the garage to get to the blast cabinet and compressor.  So, instead, I used the Dremel and a sanding wheel.  I did a quick comparison and figured time-wise, it would be about the same time and easier on me to just use the Dremel.  In reality, it was quick and easy.  Sorry, but I didn't take any time for pics at this stage.

After using the Dremel, it was a quick wipedown with mineral spirits and when dried, primer.  I've got this process down by now.  Heat the metal up a little with an old hair dryer, apply primer and then help the primer flash over with a little more hair dryer.  This allows you to paint when it is cold out and speeds up the process.  After primer, it was time to spray on some of that beautiful Chevy Blue paint.  Working one piece at a time, they both got done and then moved to the basement so the paint could fully cure overnight.

Here's what they look like now:

Inside - After Cleaning, Priming and Painting

Outside - Outside After Cleaning, Priming and Painting

To give you all a reference point as to where these parts actually fit, here is the larger piece attached to the restored bell housing:

Viewed from bottom of bell housing

Viewed from back of bell housing (side that faces the transmission)

Smaller part attached to side of bell housing that faces the engine block

So there you have it.  A small project finished up on a cold January day.  It needed to be done, so that was good.  These parts were taking up a huge space on the workbench, so having them restored and off the workbench is also good.  Figuring out another way to degrease parts without having a parts washer, also good.  All in all, it was all good.

Before

After

Math Stinks and Other Things

Well Gray Ghost fans, the title says it all.  Math stinks.  Probably because I stink at doing it....  Regardless, today was supposed to be an easy trip to my flaps (friendly local auto parts store) to get a smaller fan belt and then off to the radiator removal from the old truck.  A funny thing happened on the way to the radiator.  It's called three trips to the flaps to finally get the right fan belt.  Clearly my math, my measuring of non-linear distances and my logic were all wrong.  That left me with trial and error, which lead to the three trips to the flaps.  In the end, I got the right belt and was able to install it.  Here's the money shot:

A belt that can be installed onto all three pulleys and allows for the alternator to be positioned away from the block but within the slot of the upper bracket is a very specific length.  So trial and error save the day, just not the gas in my car.

You may have guessed by now, but I never got close to the radiator.  That'll have to wait for my next day in the garage.

And that's the point of this post.  This is one of those things that happens when doing this kind of project.  You can't really factor it into your schedule.  You just have to deal with it.  It's not a sprint, even though I really want to get to the engine swap.  All things in time.  Easier said than done.

Cya next time, Gray Ghost Fans.

As The Water Pump Turns

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

Well, it's the next day and time for me to wrap up the water pump installation.  What's left you ask?  Well, plenty.  Starting with the RTV, the instructions tell you to only hand tighten the bolts and let the RTV cure for an hour.  I let it go overnight.  Frankly, I was so tired after yesterday, that I crashed on the couch after I got cleaned up.  So this morning, a couple of quick turns of the wrench and everything was as it should be. 

Next, it was off to the flaps to get supplies.  Of course, the set of hex sockets that I already had did not have the one size that I needed to tighten the plug in the extra hole in the water pump.  I also needed some heater hose.  Although I'm not ready to hook up the heater, I need to get some hose on those outlets.  If I don't, then as soon as the pump starts working, they'll spew coolant.  So, looping a section of hose from one outlet to the other solves the problem for now.  I measured the hose barb and headed off to the store.  Supplies in hand and back home I go.

Flanging down the plug was simple and quick.  On to the hose.  I measured the hose barbs before I left and found out that one of them was larger than the other, but only by 1/8".  No problem.  I bought hose to fit the smaller diameter barb, thinking that I didn't want to use the larger diameter hose and have a leak.  I'd just force it on...it's only 1/8", right?  Well, not so much.  So...back to the auto parts store.

Remember the odd swirly thing from yesterday's post?  It looked like this:

In the thermostat housing

On the workbench, top view

On the workbench, side view

So after a discussion on the truck forum and a little research, turns out that this is a heater core flow restrictor.  Apparently, some of the old heater cores could not handle the extra pressure when the engine was revved.  Meaning higher engine RPM's drove the water pump to higher RPM's.  The added coolant pressure could blow them out.  So, people sometimes added them to prevent the heater core blow outs.  While not necessary for the heater core in my truck, I thought I might make a compromise since I had to address the hose barb that didn't fit my new hose.  What I did was to get a new hose barb that fit the opening in the water pump, but had a smaller inner diameter.  The thought is smaller inner diameter, lower coolant pressure going to the heater.  We'll see.  Here are two shots of the old and new hose barbs that show the differences:

Bottoms

Tops

The difference in inner diameter is 1/8".  The outer diameter is identical and is 3/4".  The hose connection point is the same as the other original barb and fits a 5/8" hose.  So, after all the fuss, it got installed and looked like this:

Now there was nothing left to do except add that hose!  Finally done, it looks like this:

All that fuss so that I could add a simple loop of hose and avoid a flood on the garage floor.  However, it was not all just for that.  Once the engine is in the truck, I'll be able to restore the existing heater.  Once that is done, its a simple matter of running two separate hoses, one from the pump to the heater and one from the heater to the coolant return point on the thermostat housing.

Now, I can drain the coolant from the engine that is in the truck.  Once that is done, I'll move the radiator over to the engine on the test stand and make those connections.  Then I can fire up the engine on the stand and test out that new water pump and the old radiator.  Hopefully, I can reuse the old radiator....  So, that's my game plan for the next time in the garage.

Water Pump Turns Into A Can Of Worms

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

A break in the weather made for a good day to be in the garage. I've been wanting to do the water pump replacement for quite a while.  Here is the link to the whole sad story on why I needed to replace the water pump.  However, I decided to wait until I was closer to doing the engine swap.  Now, I'm getting close.  So to the garage I went.

Taking the water pump off was pretty straightforward.  First, you have to drain the coolant.  That's pretty easy to do with the petcock on the radiator.  Due to the danger of animals getting into the old coolant, I always try to be careful and not spill any.  I collected the old coolant and have it in plastic jugs.  Tomorrow I'll take it to the recycling center at the dump.  So far, so good, right.  Right.  Too bad it never ends when it's going so well.

Anyway, all the coolant that would drain out was out and collected.  Time to get to that pump.  First, though, I had to get the alternator out of the way.  The bolt that holds one of the alternator brackets also holds the water pump in place.  So, I loosened the alternator, removed that bolt and swung the alternator out of the way.  Next, the other 3 bolts that hold the water pump in place.

After 66 years, that old water pump was really stuck in place.  A couple of blows with the persuader and it started to come loose.  Then it happened....  The water pump came loose and all of the coolant that hadn't drained out flooded out, right onto the garage floor.  A quick panic later and I'm crawling around mopping up the mess.  Holy cow!  A whole roll of paper towels later...and it's cleaned up.  Time to move onto the work.

Before I took the pump out, I removed the old heater hose that had been looped between the water pump and the thermostat housing.  The hose barbs that were attached to the water pump and the thermostat housing were crusty.  So, I took them both off and gave them as good of a cleaning as possible.  When the barbs were out, I noticed something sticking out of the thermostat housing.  It looked like this:

After disassembling the housing, I removed the part.  It looked like this:

I have no idea what it is or what it is supposed to do.  All I do know is that it isn't a GM part, so out it goes.

With the housing apart, it was time to replace the old thermostat.  The old one looked like this:

Pretty crusty!  Believe it or not, the black area surrounding the old thermostat is the old gasket...or what is left of it.  A little scraping and new thermostat and gasket and we're looking up!  It looked like this:

You can see a tiny bit of RTV under the gasket.  Just a thin layer to make sure it stays leak proof.  I then reinstalled the old hose barb back into the housing and added the upper part of the housing.  Once it was all back together, it looked like this:

I know what you're thinking.  You cleaned what?!?  Trust me, I cleaned the heck out of it.  In this view, you can see exactly where that water pump needs to go.  You can also get an idea of just how much coolant came pouring out when it flooded! 

With the thermostat rebuilt, it was time to put that new water pump in place.  Before installing it onto the engine, I put the other heater hose barb onto the new pump.  The pump had a second opening, which I didn't need, so I installed the plug that came with the pump.  Once it was on the engine, it looked pretty good:

Remember the can of worms in the title?  Yeah, well this project just keeps giving and giving.  Notice the pulley in the pic?  Yeah, so what?  Well, I'll tell you what.  This engine originally came in a car, not a truck.  The original water pump was a "long shaft" water pump.  Those don't fit in the truck without some modification to either the pump or the radiator.  This pump is a modified pump and is a "short shaft" pump.  So far, so good.  The problem is that the diameter of the pulley is smaller than the original.  So... I need a new fan belt.  That one I did not see coming.  So tomorrow I'll be heading to the auto parts store to get some heater hose and a new fan belt.  It seems as though I'll have to do some math to figure out the difference between the large diameter and small diameter pulleys and how much smaller my new fan belt should be.  My old nemesis, math...( (2 x radius of large diameter pulley) - ( 2 x radius of small diameter pulley) ) = number of inches less of fan belt required (I think).

So, a rambling post.  Sometimes it's hard for me to be succinct.  Anyway, one more link in the chain is complete.  That much closer to doing the engine swap, so it's all good.

Scrape, Degrease, Repeat, Repeat and Repeat Some More

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

I had a day off from work today, so it was off to the garage.  Even though it rained off and on throughout the day, I took the opportunity to paint the door trim that my son gave me for Christmas.  This is the metal that surrounds the door card.  The door card covers the open areas in the door that are needed to install the window regulator and door latch.  No pics of that, since it was new metal, it only needed a quick wipe down with some mineral spirits to remove the protective oil coating and then primer and paint.  Right now, it's in the basement so the paint can fully cure.  Then I'll put it in the truck.

After painting the trim, I decided to go under the truck and try to remove to access panels from the old bellhousing.  They'll be needed on the replacement, so I needed to get them off, cleaned and ultimately painted.  It took a little finagling to get the larger of the two covers out from under the bellhousing.  The second one required a ratchet with a flathead bit in it.  Otherwise, I couldn't get enough torque on the screws to get them out.  Once I did that, out it came...and what a sight they were.  Here is what they looked like right after removal:

Outside of the covers

Inside of covers

To really understand how much baked on, caked on grease, oil and dirt there is, you need to enlarge the pics.  The layers of crud were so firmly attached, I had to scrape every part of each surface with a flat blade screwdriver.  The scraping required a fair amount of force, too.

After scraping the majority of the crud off, I washed each piece in brake cleaner.  Scrubbing and scrubbing each part, then a wipedown with a rag and more brake cleaner.

The parts aren't completely clean, yet, so they can't receive paint yet.  Another round of cleaning will get them there.  After that, they'll need a quick media blast to get off the small amount of rust that is present.  So yes, the oil is a double edged sword.  It protected the metal all those years that the truck was sitting out in a field, but it is a pita now that I have to get every bit of it off.  So here's where we are after the first cleaning:

Outside of covers

Inside of covers

Pretty darned amazing!  They hardly look like the same pieces!  It's very rewarding to be able to bring these old parts back to life.  Each of them is structurally as sound as they were 60 years ago.

In other news, I'm currently gathering all of the parts to do the engine swap!  That is coming as soon as the weather warms up!!  Hopefully, it won't be much longer and the Gray Ghost will be moving under its own power!!!

Here's an example of the bits and pieces that I need to get together:

side facing the transmission

side facing the crankshaft

Of course, it's the clutch pilot bearing (or bushing, to some)!

Here's a short quiz:  how hard is it to find 7/16-14 x 1 3/8 bolts that have a 7/16 unthreaded shoulder?  Answer:  impossible!  Too bad for me, because that is exactly what I needed to mount the rear motor mounts to the bellhousing.  So...after searching and searching, I decided to make my own.  Well, not actually make bolts, but rather to modify store bought ones to match the specs that I need.  So, I got 4 bolts that were 2" long and had an unthreaded shoulder that was about 3/4".  Before cutting the bolts to the correct size, I threaded a nut onto the bolt.  After cutting the bolt down, removing the nut is like chasing the threads.  The nut corrects most of the thread that may have been damaged during the cutting.  After that, it was just a matter of using my tap and die set to cut more threads into the shoulder.  It took a little trial and error for each of the 4 bolts, since not all 4 holes in the bellhousing were cut to the same depth.  Here are the 4 bolts and the factory required lock washers:

I know it doesn't look like much and maybe like I'm too obsessed with having things just right, but there is a reason that GM wanted that last portion of the bolt to be full diameter and not reduced diameter due to the threads.  That part of the bolt bears the entire weight of the rear of the engine, two on each side.  They aren't the prettiest bolts around, but I think that they'll work, which is all I need.

Thanks for reading.  Clicking one of the "like" or other buttons at the bottom would be helpful to me and I promise that I won't know who you are!