'36 Chevy Sedan "The PackRat Rod"

[RimSpoke]

I had no doubts the I-beam would hold up to standard use and then some, but I wanted to make sure it’ll hold up to dropping down out of the sky from wheelies… just in case.

So I tied it to the main crossmember with another brace and debated drilling a hole in it to make it match everything else.
“Just cut the stupid hole!” right?

 

[RimSpoke]

Half-way through, all the smoke comes out of the drill… and I mean all of it. Now I’ve got a circle engraved about half the depth into the center of this bracket. I don’t know about you but I finished the hole with the torch, the doughnut from which can be seen resting on the bottom of the crossmember.

That little booger in the pin hole was one thing, but I don’t own enough dremel bits to handle this much metal. Without much thought or any complaint, I sat down for some timely meditation with one of my Dad’s old double-cut, half-round files and cleaned the inside of that rough-edged, torch-cut hole.

 

[itsmecord]

Love your work man! This car is gunna be sick when its done! If its not to much to ask could you do me a solid and tell me how far appart the frame rails are at the front? From center to center of the frame rail itself.and also how long the rails are from front to back?

 

[jfg455]

Tenacity! and some call it a mental defect...nice work as usual! [P

 

[bob w]

More first class work from Mr. RimSpoke.

 

[MercuryMac]

Hi RimSpoke, dang, you do nice work. [ I also notice that you have a total lack of laziness, and I'm willing to give you some of mine. Your car is going to be awesome.
Keep on tinkering.

 

[RimSpoke]

And for those of you who prefer the video mode:


http://vimeo.com/69361197

 

[dmw56]

Very nice work. [cl[

 

[RimSpoke]

Love your work man! This car is gunna be sick when its done! If its not to much to ask could you do me a solid and tell me how far appart the frame rails are at the front? From center to center of the frame rail itself.and also how long the rails are from front to back?

Sure thing!
They were 26" apart (center to center) where I put the crossmember in. Towards the front of it they're pretty straight but the rails taper in width to 42" (center to center) over the rear and then they're straight back again from there. Not accounting for bends, rear kick-up etc, they're 13' 4" as measured front to rear.

- Jack

 

[itsmecord]

You have no idea how graatful I am for the measurements! Now I have a loose idea of where to start with my frame.

 

[RimSpoke]

^^^ Anything I can do to help you!

Measurements, pictures, confessions of mistakes made, whatever!
PM or post here. I'll do my best.

 

[RimSpoke]

235 Straight Six & 4 Speed Trans

10 Bolt Rear

One front mount for the rear spring cut. One to go:

Putting it together:

The frame rails are tapered, front to rear. The mounts have to be parallel, like the leaves. You can't just align the mounts with the rails otherwise they'll be pointing away from one another.

My son and I snapped a line across the rails at two measured points - one on each rail where the outer bolt hole should go. This created a line across each rail that was perpendicular to the leaves and in line with each spring bolt. It was just a matter of aligning the inner and outer bolt holes with the chalk line.

 

[RimSpoke]

The rear mount from the inside:

The shocks can't stay here. This space is for the gas tank. They'll get moved over the weekend.

Rear View:

and I still have to finish the front:

 

[RimSpoke]

The rear shocks are where the gas tank is supposed to go...

so I swapped the lower brackets left-for-right to move them to the front,

and welded the upper brackets.

The upper left bracket already had clearance to allow for plumbing brakes and fuel between the frame and bracket so all that was really left was to make an elevated anchor point for the differential vent tube and add the bracket for the connection between the hard plumbing and flexible section of brake line.

 

[RimSpoke]

Time to figure where the motor mounts need to go:

and the transmission

It's nice to know the pedals will clear the '58 truck bellhousing and that some sort of clutch linkage is doable:

and that led me to want to make sure everything clears before I weld any mounts or cross members in... so on went the body:

What's in your wallet?

 

[GJunktionMike]

Sure looking sharp.

 

[roddguy1]

Nice work, your moving right along on this. Love that straight six too. [cl

 

[jfg455]

Nice! [P

 

[zzrodder]

Looking good man. [cl
So does the 5 speed bolt right up to the truck bellhousing or did you need to re-drill it or other adapting to mate the two?

 

[RimSpoke]

ZZ,

The mounting bolt holes line-up but you need to ream two of them from their current metric status to allow a 1/2" bolt to go through, but that's not the challenge with these. The transmission input shaft is a little longer than the older stock one, and so is the sleeve around it that is part of the front bearing retainer. Your throwout bearing rides on this sleeve.

Some people cut 1/2" off the input shaft tip to get the trans to slide forward & meet the bellhousing. You need to leave enough of the shaft's tip to allow it to slip into the pilot bearing in the center of the crank. (Make sure you use the one for the trans you're installing as it may have a different internal diameter from the one that's in the end of your crank). Then you cut about 1" off the sleeve to prevent it from interfering with the rotating clutch hub when installed. Note that you need to keep it long enough that your throwout bearing doesn't fall off the end when the pedal is fully depressed.

To make up for the shortening, you then dremmel the input shaft splines back another 1/2" up the shaft to allow the hub to slide that little bit farther up the shaft.

The second way is to make/buy a 1/2" spacer that takes-up the 1/2" gap between an unmodified transmission and the bellhousing & still allows the input shaft bearing retainer to index (read: "center") the transmission into the bellhousing. Do not rely on your mounting bolts as a method of indexing the transmission input shaft to the crankshaft centerline. If you do, you're going to find that the sideways pressure created from misalignment (read: "runout") will soon lead to unwanted transmission noises followed by an eventual failure. So... if the hole in the bellhousing is any bigger than a slip fit for the transmission front bearing retainer, take the two to a machine shop and have an adapter made that aligns them concentrically + or - .001" or buy one from someone who's already been through it.

Once you're that far, you'll need a clutch disc that works. The one on the left is the 11" for a 10 spline shaft out that came out of my '58 Series 40 Viking with the 235. The one on the right is the 9" for a 1" 14 spline shaft that came from the donor vehicle. All you want is an 11" disc (fits the older 235) with a 14 spline 1" hub (fits the newer trans).

I've heard & read that the '85 Astrovan came with just such an 11" x 14 spline clutch disc. I've also read where some people have had issues with this particular piece and have decided to go with a custom-made clutch. Although a custom disc is not as expensive as you might first think (many driveline shops do them - racers & all that), I'd much rather use something off-the-shelf whenever I can. It makes maintenance & repairs down the road much easier. I will post what my reality is here when I get that far.

FWIW, it looks like either throwout bearing will work for me. I'm going with the older style since it's much beefier.

Edit: The Harbor Freight of Rod Parts, Speedway Motors, offers some concoction of a disc that probably works for a while. I'll shy away from any proprietary stuff for previously mentioned reasons.