Builds A pig for Father's Day (3 Viewers)

[WarDamnEagle]

I got the Steering box back from Red-head yesterday. Hopefully it performs as well as it looks. According to them, the OEM box had a satin black body and natural finish head. They added a clearcoat to the head to help keep it from rusting.

 

[bobm]

Make sure to follow instructions to a T. Guy who put it in my pick up Fuuk it up.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Make sure to follow instructions to a T. Guy who put it in my pick up Fuuk it up.

I haven't read the instructions yet as it will be months before it goes back on. Hopefully they tell me how to recenter this pitman arm. If not then I'm sure the FSM will address that question. Not sure what else there is to screw up?

 

[jestlurnin]

This isn’t going to be much help but to center the pitman arm I found 2 marks, that when matched up aligned everything. Pretty sure I found it in the FSM. They were not very pronounced on either surface you are matching up so it was a bit of a head scratcher. I believe I have pictures in the “Marge” thread.

 

[DTC72]

How long did it take for Red Head to overhaul the box?

 

[WarDamnEagle]

How long did it take for Red Head to overhaul the box?

I want to say maybe a bit over 2 weeks from shipping off to receiving back. Maybe 3 but not more than that.

Edit: 3 weeks exactly

 

[bobm]

They didnt bleed the system right and it wound up causing more problems and the steering still wasnt right, come to find out it was a Bad U joint at end of axle shaft the whole time.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Hopefully they tell me how to recenter this pitman arm.

As Jestlurnin said, line up the two marks and you're good to go.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Changed out the old style Vintage Air bracket with a new one this morning. Much happier with the bracket and especially with the belt configuration. The old bracket had the A/C and alternator running on the same belt and the alternator pulley had very little contact with the belt. New bracket has them on separate belts and the alternator belt will now see about 2/3 of the pulley.

I am changing to a new 8 blade fan which is about 3/4" larger diameter. Looks like I will have plenty of room though to run everything without interference.

See post #66 in this thread for more details: Stock A/C - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/stock-a-c.135197/page-4#post-15889632

Old bracket on the right; new on the left.

Finished. Just needs correct belts.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Starting tearing down the rear axle today. First problem I encountered was removing the liner pad springs. I have drum brake spring pliers but they don't work on this configuration; or at least I can't make them work.

The directions in the FSM list an SST, 09703-30010, which is NLA. I also don't really understand the process from the photo. It looks like they are using the SST to push down on the top coil, presumably to release the bottom of the spring? Seems like you would want to push down on the bottom coil so that both coils in the spring stretch. Maybe the tool is prying the spring up to release from the top?

I spent a while searching the site but didn't find much help. I'm sure it's there multiple times if one has the patience to go back a few years. I then looked at the order of removal in the FSM and saw to remove the hold down springs and clips first. Well as soon as you do that the pads lean out and all the tension is gone. So now I really don't know what the SST is for. Maybe it's more important when you put everything back together?

Was going to order new pads and drums but mine are well within spec. In fact, I think the pads are almost new. Minimum spec is 0.06" and mine are at 0.25". I'm really and truly a "buy everything you can new" guy but I'm probably going to delete those from my cart. The wheel cylinders are a bit grimy so I need to clean them up but the rubber on them also looks new. So maybe all the brake components were rebuilt before I bought this pig. Makes sense if it truly was sitting in a barn for 25 years (Redline Cruiser claim before it sold to two POs before me - neither of which kept it very long).

I got a lot of parts with this pig but unfortunately not a single maintenance record.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

Yes, I've always found that taking the pins off first allowed me to take the springs off and then the shoes. I put it together in reverse order with no problems.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Spent some time this afternoon getting down to the bare frame. Dropped the axles one at a time onto a furniture dolly and wheeled them outside and onto jack stands. Plan is to try to get most, if not all, of the grease and grime off of them before tearing anything down further. In hindsight, I should have done that as a rolling chassis but this way wasn't that difficult other than the weight of the front axle. My son was helping me and we decided to use the tractor to put the front axle on the stands. Front is considerably heavier than the rear - but then I guess we all knew that.

Now is when I really wish I had a Hotsy. Hard to justify the price though given how seldom I need one.

 

[scrapdaddy]

The wheel cylinders are a bit grimy so I need to clean them up but the rubber on them also looks new. So maybe all the brake components were rebuilt before I bought this pig

You might consider replacing the cylinder cups inside the cylinder. They might be deteriorated from sitting so long. You're this far and rebuild kits aren't too bad to do.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

You might consider replacing the cylinder cups inside the cylinder. They might be deteriorated from sitting so long. You're this far and rebuild kits aren't too bad to do.

I left those in my cart.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I've been getting a lot of updates from @kelly saad. He has started on the doors.

Just a little off around the bottom sir.....

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Paint question for the sty? Generally speaking what bolts were painted originally? I think all the bolts that hold the upper and lower fenders in place were painted but not sure about the cowl cover screws. When I took the fenders apart, it looked like everything was primed, then assembled, then painted.

Radiator core sides, and upper? We've already discussed the black spray paint application so I think these were "painted" one way or another. Although I think the upper support was painted black and maybe installed after the spray paint was applied so those upper bolts probably weren't painted.

Door hinge bolts? Maybe the body side bolts were painted and the door side weren't? Guessing the hinges were bolted to the body before final paint and then the doors were hung.

Hood hinge bolts? Same thing as doors maybe; hinges mounted, final paint and then hood installed?

Tailgate torsion rod cover screws? There's like 15 of them. I don't think they were painted.

Bumper bolts were not painted. Maybe they were white zinc plated originally (other than the chrome ones for the chrome bumpers)?

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Might as well throw another question out there. I have a few boxes of parts that came with the pig and ran across these two parts a few weeks back looking for something else. It didn't occur to me at the time but I ran across them again today and these two parts were screwed together at 8 points and then bolted on somewhere. All the original smog equipment as well as a few non smog related items were in this particular box. Anyone know where this assembly went? I'm assuming it's some kind of heat shield and hose bracket, probably smog related.

 

[bobm]

 

[scrapdaddy]

That wasn't on a '71. All I know.

 

[cruiserbrett]

The upper one is a bracket found on the firewall side of the factory air conditioning (Nippondenso) under dash evaporator. The other part is an air deflector inside the evaporator.