My new 57' stepside

[OrrieG]

duplicate post for some reason.

[OrrieG]

My 64 Chevelle Cragars just use cragar round washers but they are 5 lug which will self center on the oblong wheel hole. The lug nuts have to be the right diameter and length. I found out the had way that lug nuts just a little too long will feel tight but the wheel will move hogging out the oblong hole. The washers are pretty thick and labeled wheel side. Recommended tightness is 65# with a manual torque wrench.

[Lockedup]

Mine are 5 lug, does that mean they self center? If that's the case then they should even out when I put the 5th lug on all the wheels (each wheel is missing one lug right now).
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[Lockedup]

I found some lug nuts locally and installed them, it smoothed out the ride alot but it still has a shimmy from take off untill about 10 mph. Im going to take apart the front end today and check all the bearings, it has disk brakes up front so i am hoping that it has had the roller bearing upgrade already.


On the clearance between the front axle and the engine cross member i am not sure how to approach this issue, it looks like someone installed the engine and trans to far back. Here are some picutres to show what it looks like. If anyone has any suggestions i would love to hear them.

[_Ogre]

take it out and fab something like these.
i had these in my 58 for 15 yrs, cut them out when i did the mustII x-member.
a short piece of 3/8 tube, a triangle from each frame rail and a gusset in between the 2.



use the tube from your motor mount, i made/installed them without removing anything from the truck.

[Kim57]

Lockedup
I don't think you can run the uni-lugs without the proper washers installed.
They made different ones for the different wheel patterns. If you hit something hard it could move the wheels on the lugs IMHO.
Kim

[Lockedup]

Ogre - Thanks for the idea, after looking at it some more i think i will go this route it seems alot easier than trying to mess with the current cross member.

Kim - I got the correct washers along with the lugs and you are right you deffinetly have to have them.



I took it out for a drive today (only about 10 miles) but she runs awesome! It still has a shimmy at start off but im thinking it may just be the tires being out of balance. I found a good spot for some pictures so i took a few.

[ChuckDriver]

Awesome project! Keep us posted on your progress and have fun driving it!

[Kim57]

The truck looks real nice. I like the Cragars on it.
Kim

[OrrieG]

I got curioius and did some more research. I found a site that said the round washers are used on GM bolt pattern the oval-pinched washers for Ford - Mopar bolt patterns.

[Lockedup]

I have been driving the truck around town and am loving it. I thought the truck had great power and was running great but my uncle came over to check it out and he wanted to do a little more tunning on it and let me tell you i was no where close because it runs like a rapped ape now! Along with tuning the motor he looked over the motor and it appears it is a full roller 383 stroker


Along with all this new power a full throttle run was in order.... well i didnt make it to full throttle, only about 1/4 and i was doing well over 60 before i knew it. There was one problem though, at about 3,500-4,000 RPM there is a grinding coming from the transmission. It grinds at the top of first and then again into second for a brief moment then stops. It only grinds at high RPM's though, if i keep the RPM's bellow 3,000 it shifts perfect no grinding or noises. I have checked the drive shaft splines and there is plenty of shaft engaged in the transmission. So i am not sure where else to go with this besides taking apart the transmission and diagnosing it that way. Any ideas would be awesome.

[Curly5759]

Nice truck! Did you buy it in Az? I'm just over the hill from you in the Verde Valley.

The shudder on take off might be a driveshaft/ujoint angle problem. When they lowered the truck, they may not have compensated by changing the pinion angle.


curly

[Daze57]

if it s not the angle prob. it just might be the u joints themselves. happened to me a long time ago - took a while to track it down - i changed them out . no prob since.
good lookin truck

[Lockedup]

Originally Posted by Curly5759

Nice truck! Did you buy it in Az? I'm just over the hill from you in the Verde Valley.

The shudder on take off might be a driveshaft/ujoint angle problem. When they lowered the truck, they may not have compensated by changing the pinion angle.


curly

Yea it was an Arizona truck, picked it up in Phoenix.


I found the shutter problem, the little lip on the axle yoke that holds the U-joint centered had been worn off and the u-joint cap had walked out about 1/4" so i took the yoke off and welded a lip back on it and ground it down to spec and it fixed my shutter problem.


Here's my To-Do list for the next few weeks

Find Grinding noise in transmission at high RPM's
Notch rear frame
New Motor mounts
Build battery tray
Build new tie rod with heims

[Curly5759]

I don't think your transmission is the problem. If it was bad enough inside to make noise above 3k rpm, then I think you would have other noticable problems at lower rpms as well.

I would look for something grounding out and transmitting vibrations under heavy throttle or engine load. Broken trans mount, engine mount, exhaust contact somewhere, etc.

Curly

[Lockedup]

Originally Posted by Curly5759

I don't think your transmission is the problem. If it was bad enough inside to make noise above 3k rpm, then I think you would have other noticable problems at lower rpms as well.

I would look for something grounding out and transmitting vibrations under heavy throttle or engine load. Broken trans mount, engine mount, exhaust contact somewhere, etc.

Curly

Thats a good point, the fluid is perfect color and there are no metal shavings on the dip stick.


I got a little curious tonight and wanted to make sure that this motor was truly a 383. The reason we thought it was a 383 was because it is externally balanced.

Well....... turns out its actually a 1970-80 400 with 4 bolt mains I think i can deal with that, i just hope the TH350 can.

I also finished up notching the frame tonite, no pictures but i will take some tomorrow.

[Daze57]

well at least we were in the ball park w/ your u joints - glad you got it fixed

[Daze57]

just out of curiosity - no door glass ?

[Lockedup]

Originally Posted by Daze57

just out of curiosity - no door glass ?

I have the door glass but the guy threw away the regulators because he was going to do an electric kit.
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[oldcouple]

Good time to put in one piece windows, black diesels thread has all the details. Wish I had done it his way instead of the crappy kit from Brothers.

[Lockedup]

Originally Posted by oldcouple

Good time to put in one piece windows, black diesels thread has all the details. Wish I had done it his way instead of the crappy kit from Brothers.

Do you know what the thread is called? I did a search and didn't see anything?
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[Lockedup]

Nevermind i found it ounce i looked for it with a computer and not my phone

It looks fairly simple and straight forward but watching the video made me realize that i am missing more than just the regulators. I do not have the metal piece that goes on the bottom of the window or the channel piece that the wheels roll in on the regualtor. From what i can find i can only get that metal piece on the bottom of the window if i buy the entire window? If thats not the case than i would prefer to just by the parts i need and do one piece cause i like the way they look.

[zenchal26]

What kind of heders are those??? looks like that eng crossmember was installed backwards????? l/h side on the r/h side?

[zenchal26]

what size tires and rims on that

[truckerbob56]

great truck also do you know what rearend you have there