GMC General at abandoned house

[DieselDeere]

1 minute ago, carlotpilot said:

what are they charging for them now ? last i bought new were around 6.50 each

2.69 a piece plus shipping

[carlotpilot]

Just now, DieselDeere said:

2.69 a piece plus shipping

wow came down  you must have a good supplier

[JTFormula]

I have to say it again. I'm truly impressed and happy that you are the new caretaker of the General. I've been collecting some of your pictures and will do a new web update on my Save the General video series on YouTube next week. It will be two part. First when you bought it and some of the initial tear down shots, then a second video with the build up. When you are all done I'd love to come visit you in NY and do a full of finished video of the truck as well. And of course see it in person.  

[DieselDeere]

Been making some progress but not as much as I would have hoped.  I got the roof buffed and the new cab lights mounted and wired. Very happy with those.  The new inner lug nuts for rear showed up really fast in 3 days (more on that later) so i would recommend Van Horn truck parts to anybody. I also started to collect the aluminum bungs and vent that i will need to put in the driver side fuel tank to use as the hydraulic tank for the wet line kit in the future.  I'm mimmicking the fittings and sizes off of a friend's Peterbilt since his works so well and I will most likely be using his low-boy or dump trailer.

[DieselDeere]

Next I decided to straighten and clean up the bumper.  The passenger side of the bumper was pretty tweaked and creased pretty good.  I would really like a new bumper, but thats not in the budget at the moment.  I spent a few hours with a sledge and a welder and my skid steer getting it somewhat presentable.  They i polished it quick with the same compound i used on the tanks.  For how dirty and stained it was I was happy with how it turned out, until i mounted it on the truck.  I cant believe I didnt notice it before, but the holes are not symmetrical or straight.  Now that that bumper is straight its very obvious that the whole thing is shifted to the passenger side 1.5 inches.  Its almost like somebody at some point bought a blank bumper then just blasted some holes in it without caring.  The fact that it is not centered bugs me more than the ripples in it from straightening it.

The sliders on the inside of the hood latches were all cracked and broken so I had  friend of mine make me up some Delrin replacements.  Very happy with those.

[DieselDeere]

I decided to give up on the cosmetic work for a while and do some more important mechanical maintenance.  I put the truck up on blocks and removed all the wheels for easier access.  First step was draining the gear oil from both axles.  The rear axle was full of fluid but it was also full of metal.  At this point i just pulled all the plugs and diff temp sensor, clean those up and put a fresh 5 gallons of 80w90 in it.  Ill run it and see what happens.  The front axle had clean oil but only about 2 gallons in it.  Once again i pulled and cleaned all plugs and temp sensor and put a fresh 5 gallons in.  The rear most torque arm bushing on the driver side was pretty much missing.  I told myself in the beginning i would run it this year and adress it next winter.  OF course i coudnt deal with that so I decided to change it.  Upon investigating the other bushings, I figured I might as well change all of them.  The brakes are good, so once i address these bushings, there should be no reason to pull these wheels anytime soon.  So I enlisted a friends help because he has a lot more finess with a torch than I do so we torched out all 8 bushings/bolts and removed all 4 torque arms.  Sand blasted the arms, painted, and pressed new bushings in the axle end, then assembled the new eccentric bushings on the frame side.  I finished assembly yesterday morning so i figured I would grease all the brake components then start putting the wheels on with the new nuts.  My goal was to have all 8 drive tires on and torqued for good.  I put the two rear insides on. hand seated all the nuts, bottomed them lightly with my 1/2" impact then got the torque wrench out.  Started torqueing the drivers side to 400 ft/lbs. did 5 nuts then took all the threads off one stud.  F$%K. So then I started googling everything about dual alcoa setups.  Not a lot of hard facts out there but the numbers I came up with is that I should have 1.33" to 1.88" of stud standout off the drum face.  I have 1.125".  It looks like the only option now is to pull all the drums and change 40 studs unless im missing something again.  This has been been quite the learning experience.  On that note, anybody near Rochester have the tool to change the studs while the hub is still on the truck???

[mrsmackpaul]

looking good to me 

I wouldnt worry to much about that small amount of metal it could mean something or it could mean nothing at all you dont know it may have been there since new 

Why did you talk the studs so tight Im pretty sure those studs arent not meant to be that tight the later model ones with out a tapered nut yes but I wouldnt have thought those as the taper works like a morse taper on a drill bit at least thats my under standing 

Back when people used those style nuts the wheels were changed with a normal wheel brace you only needed six feet of pipe too get them un done when the thread was seized at least thats the way I have done things 

 

People only use the crazy tension on the later model wheels were the wheels are stopped moving by the clamping force of the nuts not by the tapper 

most tyre places dont have people left now that have worked on these older type of rims any more and they just torque them up as per a new rim

good work 

 

Paul

 

[BC Mack]

DD....

Budd nut wheel torque values are on the internet in many sources...and can be all over the place for data. Your parts supplier should be able to provide it from the manufacturer.

in general, the data from the 50/60's I have is lower than that of today... so I use later info as it has been increased due to a review of failures over many years... usually a cascade failure of the wheel studs caused by loose inner nuts... correct re-torque on your pm's should be to loosen off the outer nut and check the inner, followed by re-torque of outer nut.. it was not unusual to find a joined set of budd wheels sitting on the freeway... I recently saw a Prevost coach have that failure near me.

old data from 1956 GM books is ... inner, 300-325..... outer, 350-400

average of newer data is... 450-500 for both if steel wheels, 400-500 for both if Alcoa

these values are for dry threads, drop the torque if you lube the threads.. and no lube on the ball seats.

these numbers are not far off the later hub-pilot style of flanged nuts which are in the region of 500ft/lb.

if you end up changing the studs due to lack of grip length then the back nut is 175-200... and don't pound them out with a sledge while the hub is still installed, the wheel bearings don't last long after that. I assume you have steel hubs, not a big issue pressing them out... I get a lot of alum hubs on the old coaches and they have to be put in an oven first.... and don't forget which side the hub goes back on..!! :-)

HTH

BC Mack

 

[DieselDeere]

Well.....upon further investigation i realized that it wasnt just a simple knock the drum off kind of job, the drum was behind the hub with the stud pressed through.  I only took one drum off tonight because i didnt have much time, so i knocked those 10 studs out and am now trying to find the identical stud but with longer thread,  on the bright side, the brakes and bearings look mint.

[BC Mack]

DD

well, that was easy...!!!  I'm used to the other style of stud.

as said before, ask your parts supplier for the torques

BC Mack

[mrsmackpaul]

yep better ask your parts man as you can tell I am used to spiders or dayton wheels or what ever you lot call them but on those Bud style rims I have never done them up that tight oop's 

I might wanna get it off again so carry on and disregard everything I said above man oh man you blokes must have a big tension wrench must be 6 foot long or maybe one of them torque multiplier doodahs  

 

Paul

[DieselDeere]

The studs were waiting for me after work, so i got busy and took the other three axles out and hubs apart.  drove the old studs out and pounded the new studs in.  I grabbed a piece of 1.5" diameter x 2 ft long piece of bar so i could pound on the head of the stud without being inside the drum.  I cleaned the brakes, lubed the pivots, and got all four drums back on and set the spindle nuts.  I took one lug nut and screwed it on all the way. plenty of thread engagement now.  Before i started this process on monday night I had to make the 4 airlines to go from the valve bodies on the frame rail to the junction blocks on top of the axles so i could charge the brakes and brake all the slack adjusters loose. i included a picture of old stud compared to the new stud.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by DieselDeere

[fxfymn]

Nice job; I guess it's a little late to tell you to use an impact to pull the stud into place.

[DieselDeere]

2 hours ago, fxfymn said:

Nice job; I guess it's a little late to tell you to use an impact to pull the stud into place.

Ha! i always use that as plan B when i cant get to the backside to press one in or when they dont want to start straight.

[mrsmackpaul]

no one can say your lacking in the length department LOL

sure is a big difference there in the studs 

I bet your feeling very studly now LOL

 

Paul

[hurstscrambler]

Great work, the truck looks very good.  Your not wasting any time either.  Andy

[DieselDeere]

This weekend I got all 10 wheels on for the first time and now everything fits correctly which is a good feeling.  The truck needed a passenger tie rod end so I decided to take the tie rod off and clean and replace both ends just so everything was nice and freed up and could be adjusted easily.    I also spent some time dealing with the horns.  The truck had 2 mismatched horn pedestals on it. one short and one tall, and the short one had a broken hoop.  A friend of a friend had another short one so now i was stuck with a good short one and the tall one.  I decided to make them match, so i cut the tall one and drilled and tapped the center for 10-32.  I made up a piece of aluminum that would mimic the base and put a countersunk hole for the 10-32 screw.  I put it together with some JB weld just to fill in the seam between the two parts and for a little extra holding power to resist vibration.  The chrome over the pot metal was really scaley so i blasted them real quick and hit them with some aluminum paint so they matched, then reinstalled the rubbers and made two new rubber mounting gaskets for the bases.  You can still see the seam where the parts joined but id rather have that than two heights.  Its the little things like this that seem like they take forever.  The first tractor pull of the year is memorial day weekend and I dont think ill be ready to pull the trailer with this by then, especially because I still need to take some time to service the tractors. I hope to have it hooked to the trailer sometime in June, but i do plan on putting some miles on it before then.  Might drive her back and forth to work for a week or so.

[mrsmackpaul]

looking good there and yes the little things take the longest and for me always seem to take a lot longer than I think they should

 

Paul 

[Mack58B42]

Looks great - you've brought it a long way!

[Timmyb]

Looking great! All them little things ad up. 

[fxfymn]

Wow! It really looks good. Time to re-think whether to attend Macungie???? We would love to see it in person.

And yes it is the small shit that kills you. It is relatively easy to find a new engine, but just try to find that used for one year bracket for any rig.  That is why most of us end up with a parts truck or two when we start to bring one back. No one but you will ever notice the seam on that bracket; nice work.

[85snowdog]

Nice job !   I can see you only have one way to do things………………….The RIGHT way !

 

[DieselDeere]

Made good progress end of the week and over the weekend.  Got the air cleaner polished up best i could.  The lid and intake hat were too rusted to salvage so i had to paint them black which doesnt look too bad.  I also had a good ebay score with a NOS hood emblem.  It was a little pricey (160$) but the odds of finding another one for a reasonable price are slim.  Wednesday night we finally started to pull the big dents out of the drivers side tank.  We welded the aluminum threaded rod to dent and hooked up the slide hammer.  Made good progress but the rod was only 1/4-20 and kept necking and pulling apart.  I should have gotten larger rod but i was afraid of the size of the weld at the tank hindering the metal moving.  So we decided to cut the end off the tank and hammer the dents out.  It was a little difficult wrestling it back into shape to put the cap back on, but it came out good.  There was one little dent toward the bottom I couldnt pound out because it was on the far side of a baffle.  Oh well. looks a lot better than it did.  Saturday night i got that tank sanded and polished and sunday I got both tanks on the truck with new rubber isolators and painted steps.  It was really exciting to get in the cab using the steps instead of climbing in and jumping down.  I also got my insurance cards and went to the DMV and got Historical plates for it.  Im thinking of taking tomorrow off work to do some more tinkering and put some miles on her before i do more tinkering especially since the rest of the week looks like rain anyway,

 

EDIT: forgot the pictures

Edited May 2, 2016 by DieselDeere

[41chevy]

Probably to your advantage to pull the cap off. There looks like a good amount of mung in the tank. Probably would have caused a bit of grief down the road.   Paul

[Underdog]

Been making some progress but not as much as I would have hoped.  I got the roof buffed and the new cab lights mounted and wired. Very happy with those.  The new inner lug nuts for rear showed up really fast in 3 days (more on that later) so i would recommend Van Horn truck parts to anybody. I also started to collect the aluminum bungs and vent that i will need to put in the driver side fuel tank to use as the hydraulic tank for the wet line kit in the future.  I'm mimmicking the fittings and sizes off of a friend's Peterbilt since his works so well and I will most likely be using his low-boy or dump trailer.

Where do you purchase the aluminum bungs for the tank hydraulic fittings? I am looking for the same thing to convert a fuel tank.

Gregg