Back on the Road!

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

It gives me great and unending pleasure to report that my truck is back in running form again.

Here's a recap of the events:

 

- First, the broken clutch actuator was re-welded with the transmission in place. It was a crappy weld, though, and broke again after two days.

- Next, the tranny was removed and taken to be repaired, the arm being re-welded properly. In the meantime we discovered one of the U-joints was shot, so we replaced it.

- Transmission finally came back, his time with a good, well-penetrated weld on the actuator arm.

- When the transmission was reinstalled, though, the arm was two inches back, out of position. Plus the throwout bearing didn't engage the clutch. Damn!

- Tranny was removed a second time. That's when we discovered the actuator arm was rewelded about 10 degrees off from original position. This caused it to bind on the tranamission housing.

- Straightened actuator, relieved the underside to accommodate the weld and adjusted for stroke length.

- This time we measured the distance from the engine takeout to the clutch bearing. Made sure there was enough stroke.

- Transmission was re-installed, but would not bolt up properly. Cha-chi (my helper) was about to take it out AGAIN when I said, "Hey... you have to turn the drive shaft a little to make the shaft splines line up.... BINGO!" (Hopefully Chachi learned a good lesson on that one.)

- Install shift lever and adjust clutch pedal travel.

 

End result; runs smooth and runs right! Now, I have to go back to work tomorrow - vacation over! Damn, again!