Project Salty

[Hotwire]

It will probably get some mtx speakers in the future, just to keep with it's history. Only speakers in it now are hanging by 1 screw from the rear deck.

Yesterday was pretty much a bust. Left early, swapped out master cylinders and got a 1330 to 1310 conversion u-joint. While I was grabbing breakfast I got a call from my nephew. He was 2 hrs away in the mountains and his truck wouldn't crank. Sounded like fuel pump to me, but didn't hear back from him.

Cleaned up the garage, bench bled the master, then started bending brake lines again. I will never quit my day job. Figured I needed to get the steering shaft installed to make sure everything clears. Got out my rag joint rebuild kit, cleaned everything up, then found hopefully the last egg this car has to offer. Another parts trip done.

How'd you like to put your life in the hands of that? Even the bolt threads were marred up and dragged when trying to turn the bolt.



Around 4 nephew calls and asks if I can swap out his fuel pump. I said ok, and he was conveniently 5 miles away towing it to my house anyway. We were under a tornado warning. With the garage still full we had to do the work in the driveway. Pulled the pump in torrential rain, they went and got replacement. While I had my body under the bed held up by a jack installing the new pump, a tornado with 130 mph winds touched down 10 miles from my house. After that I was soaked to the core, cold, and done.

Driveshaft in the truck, going at lunch to see if they'll work with me to get another inch on it. I'm sure it won't be easy, but we'll see how it goes.

[static low 92]

Originally Posted by Hotwire

Nope. Went to replace rear seal, yoke spun on pinion. Turns out S10 yoke is 27 spline and doesn't work on 25 spline pinion even though it was positively engaged before.

The original yoke now fits, have no idea what the difference is but it's really tight, almost keyed. Replaced seal, speedy sleeved yoke, and buttoned up rear. Got conversion u joint, driveshaft is too short. They cut it short to begin with, then 8.2 yoke is shorter (.446"), got to talk with them Monday to see what can be done. It sucks. Bad.

][/URL]

Sounds like my kinda luck with stuff...


On second note, the rag joint on my car fell apart one day when I was changing AC compressor at a buddies house. Heard the bolt hit ground and took us about 30 mins to notice what it was from. I would have had no steering. Its crazy that I was that lucky. I scrapped the rag joint setup and bought a borgeson joint.

[HectorM52]

Originally Posted by static low 92

Sounds like my kinda luck with stuff...


On second note, the rag joint on my car fell apart one day when I was changing AC compressor at a buddies house. Heard the bolt hit ground and took us about 30 mins to notice what it was from. I would have had no steering. Its crazy that I was that lucky. I scrapped the rag joint setup and bought a borgeson joint.

Funny you mentioned Borgeson...I was going to tell Jeff to just bite the bullet and upgrade now. They're getting cheaper at Summit versus when I bought mine back in '02.

And I've gone down the road [briefly] without steering thanks to half-a$$ed steering components. Talk about an eerie feeling. So it's one thing I don't skimp on anymore... though, admittedly, the S10 does have a Jeep joint that I cobbled together with old parts. But I honestly think it's safe.

[static low 92]

Originally Posted by HectorM52

Funny you mentioned Borgeson...I was going to tell Jeff to just bite the bullet and upgrade now. They're getting cheaper at Summit versus when I bought mine back in '02.

And I've gone down the road [briefly] without steering thanks to half-a$$ed steering components. Talk about an eerie feeling. So it's one thing I don't skimp on anymore... though, admittedly, the S10 does have a Jeep joint that I cobbled together with old parts. But I honestly think it's safe.

I have a Jeep shaft in my S10 too, ive had some weird things happen with it. Like the thick rubber at top gave up and it let T portion of shaft move at least 1/4" before grabbing. Was sketchy.

Replaced shaft with another junkyard one. Been fine since.

[Hotwire]

Originally Posted by HectorM52

...And I've gone down the road [briefly] without steering thanks to half-a$$ed steering components. Talk about an eerie feeling. So it's one thing I don't skimp on anymore... though, admittedly, the S10 does have a Jeep joint that I cobbled together with old parts. But I honestly think it's safe.

And what were we discussing yesterday?

I'd thought about a universal joint, but my steering shaft is just round rod w/ the plate welded on the end for the rag joint. Would I have to cut off the plate and grind a flat spot in the rod? I honestly have more than enough to worry about right now on this car.

The new coupling joint was $35. It'll do for now, I'm going to red loctite the assembly and blue loctite the clamp bolt.

Stopped by driveshaft shop, they'd used an off the shelf powerglide slip yoke that was short to keep from bumping the PG speedo gear. It was also a 3R joint, so it had a conversion u-joint on it. They ordered a 1" longer slip yoke with 1330 joints, so that should fix this issue.

Daughter's games were cancelled tonight due to the fields flooding from the rain last night, maybe I can make a little progress.

[static low 92]

I didn't really think about it, just assumed your car would have D shaped shaft.

My car already had an ididit column and aftermarket gear box. So good chance all connecting componets were swapped to aftermarket. I think I paid like $50 for my u-joint

[HectorM52]

Jeff, there are a ton of options now, just go to Summit's website and look around. My shaft is "round" too - maybe 3/4" or 1" diameter, i can't remember. I ended up grinding a little flat spot just to be safe.

Also, your idea about red and blue loctite is another safeguard. Can't be too safe on this one...

Oh, and my steering shaft falling apart wasn't bad luck, it was taking one-too-many shortcuts. And it almost bit me. At least when it comes to steering shafts I don't shortcut quite as much. I guess maybe stupidity sometimes begets bad luck. Yeah, that's probably right.

[Hotwire]

I'm not happy with the results, but marking brake lines off the list..



Done with bending I moved on to trimming.



It's getting closer, really helped to step away and sleep on how to make it work. Only kink is the tailpipe. Going to have to guesstimate the cut then take it somewhere to get it expanded. Could possibly use a butt band clamp but man it's tight back there.



Only at Napa folks...

[6SpeedBlazer]

sloppy mechanics style. weld in a 1/2" swivel. no more rag joint lol.

[Hotwire]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedBlazer

sloppy mechanics style. weld in a 1/2" swivel. no more rag joint lol.

Trying to remove sketch here man.