Double Dingo's 1965 3/4 Ton "Crusty Biscuit"

[Georgeb]

I am excited to rebuild this transmission because I have never seen the inside of a transmission, let alone rebuilt one. Got a kit off ebay a week back from a place Vancouver Washington for $100 and the kit for the OD for $40, and both shipped together for $10.

Between now and then I will be replacing the clutch, and cleaning up the 3 speed that came out of the parts truck, and will run it in the interim. It doesn't have OD so driving on the highway to get up to the parent's place ought to be slow going with 4:57 gears. With the other 3 speed in the truck I can clean the 3 speed/OD so it is ready to go for rebuild. I figure while the truck is down waiting for the flywheel to get turned and 3 speed without OD to get prepped for install, I can replace a couple items under the truck like the rear control arms. And if the panhard bar bushings are bad I can do those too.

Man, I really enjoyed rebuilding those things. If you want a nice pan to keep all your parts from rolling away get a pan for under a washing machine.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Thanks George, I will pick up one of those pans. I can see it coming handy for other stuff too.

I think my stepdad enjoyed rebuilding those too. Usually when I call with a mechanical question or to ask him for help he himms and haws and shows absolutely no interest and will drag his feet to get going, but when I asked for his help rebuilding this tranny he was all for it.

Looking at the exploded views I've found of these transmissions, it looks very basic, but I know there are clips and retainers, and needle bearings, synchro's, etc., and they have their specific place in the line up.

 

[DoubleDingo]

What are your thoughts on this. I have a flywheel from my old '65, (and from here on out I will be calling it Mean Green because that was it's name when I daily drove it prior to rolling it in May 2005) that I know works with a 12 inch clutch but has a little surface rust on it. Would you suggest resurfacing that flywheel, or resurfacing the flywheel that is in the truck? The one in the truck I am not sure if it will work with a 12 inch clutch.

 

[bucket]

If it's just light surface rust, sanding it off with 80 grit paper on a DA works well.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Thanks @bucket, it didn't chatter when it was removed, so a little clean up on the back patio with some sandpaper in decreasing grit to get a nice smooth finish will save me $60-$70 to get it surfaced.

 

[bucket]

I've done that on clean flywheels for a new clutch before too. The 80 grit takes the glaze off a bit and lets the new clutch ride in well. It's a good way to save money on a resurface if there was no chatter with the old clutch.

 

[DoubleDingo]

After about 100 passes around the flywheel with 3 different grits of sandpaper, it cleaned up pretty good. The final passes were made with fine grit emery cloth with WD40 sprayed on the surface. I still need to clean it up better with brake kleen before installing it, but it came out looking pretty good. I will go over it some more with finer grit sandpaper after work to get a more polished finish on it. And then to clean up the other 3 speed so I can pull the 3 speed/OD trans for clean up and rebuild in 2 weeks.

 

[DoubleDingo]

This is where I am at the moment. I got the bellhousing detached from the 3 speed out of the parts truck. I have never seen the inside of a transmission, and also have never removed a side cover. So I was a bit nervous about doing so. This transmission has been sitting outside since 2005, but the tailshaft was covered, and with the bellhousing still on it, the input shaft was protected too.

So i pulled the side cover and expected to see rusty nasty insides. But the transmission looks just fine, and shifts smoothly. There are no marks/grooves on the tailshaft so that is supposed to mean it has 2.85 1st, 1.68 2nd gears. I don't know what that thing is on the front shift arm, but I'm sure one of you do.

 

[DoubleDingo]

I had the bellhousing from Mean Green that was already cleaned up and painted Chevy Orange, but since the rear axle is painted a dark blue, I found a GM Dark Blue Metallic, and that is what a lot of the stuff will get painted, I have a meeting right now so I will edit this message when I get done and share the color scheme, and the photos of the bellhousing.

Okay, done with the meeting. My original color scheme was going to be: Frame - Metallic Silver; Engine, Transmission, Bellhousing - Chevy Orange; Moving suspension components and some bracketry - Gloss Black.

Now it's going to be: Engine, Transmission, Bellhosuing, Rear Axle, and Moving Suspension Components - GM Dark Blue Metallic as shown in the photo of the bellhousing on the tailgate; Frame and Bracketry - Metallic Silver; Cab, Grill and the Grill Surround - Arctic White; Stamped C H E V R O L E T on the Grill - GM Dark Blue Metallic; Stamped C H E V R O L E T on the Tailgate - Arctic White

 

[DoubleDingo]

Last night I crawled under the beast and pulled the driveshaft. I didn't get photos of it, but I am surprised that it didn't vibrate like crazy because it is not in "time", "tune", "phase", whatever term you all use. The rear joints are fine, but the front joints are off two or three teeth, and this thing has a slider behind the carrier bearing as well as into the back of the transmission. Have never seen such an animal in one of these trucks. Have seen the slider behind the bearing for the sm420, and the slider into the back of the transmission for the 3 speed, but not double slider for a 3 speed. The carrier bearing is shot too. I need to get some photos of the driveshaft before I take it in to get the bearing replaced and have it balanced with everything in tune/time/phase.

 

[DoubleDingo]

After pulling the driveshaft I took some photos of some stuff for you guys. Some asshat hooked a chain to the driver's side rear control arm to yank the truck from something. I need to swap in one of my other ones to replace it.

The mufflers look like crap, and whoever did the exhaust didn't do it right. The pipe coming out the back of the mufflers wasn't expanded to slip over the output nub, and the one on the driver's side is not even attached to the hanger.

And there is a lot of slop in the rear axle. At least it seems like a lot to me. What do you guys think?

 

[DoubleDingo]

Got some photos of the OD 3 speed that is going to get rebuilt in 9 days. The OD governor, the OD solenoid, the OD solenoid and lockout cable, the back of it and all of the gunk to clean off. That gunk is preserving the cross member but it sure is messy when working on things under there.

 

[DoubleDingo]

This is of the front cab mount on the driver's side, the passenger side is just as bad. The rear cab mounts cannot be replaced unless you remove the entire mount from the frame and fabricate a mount, or buy one of the new options from LMC that allows a 3/4 ton rear vulcanized rubber cab mount to be replaced to accomodate the 1/2 ton disc style mount. I was pleased to see they have that option because I have new set of the 1/2 ton style cab mounts.

This is the disc brake stuff waiting to be swapped over from the parts truck. Look at the separation between the frame and the upper control arm mount. It would have been a nightmare getting this parts truck aligned properly if I were to run it like that.

After my camping trip the next big project will be the disc brake conversion. I plan on taking the '65 camping, so the big ticket items to get it ready for that is replace the clutch, rebuild the OD 3 speed, and replace the rear differential gear oil and friction modifier.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Last night I pulled the cover off the rear diff. Now that is one beefy 10 bolt posi unit!!! I had no idea the oil would drain out the bolt holes. It's a little dirty but not bad. I doubt the PO added any friction modifier because the posi didn't act the way it's supposed to from what I've read. I'm hoping the clutches aren't shot. There wasn't any flakes, so I'm assuming they are fine.

 

[DoubleDingo]

After spraying 4 cans of brake kleen in that massive pumpkin the gears and such look just fine to me. I ran out of daylight so I wasn't able to finish it. Tonight I need to make a gasket for the cover because I can't find one, and do some more cleaning up of the cover. For sure I'll be adding a smidge of some silicone to bolts that are below the threaded plug so I don't have gear oil seeping out of them.

When I crawled under there I discovered the rear bumper bolts aren't tight when I used the bumper as leverage to swing my body in behind the axle. That bumper being loose is definitely causing the majority of the annoying squeaking I hear back there when I am going down the road. The bed bolts need to be snugged up too just for the heck of it, but it's a good thing I didn't try towing anything with this truck yet. Now I know why my grandpa welded the bumper on Mean Green.