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1951 76R Roadmaster project


Eric W

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Been a while, but I did have another thread about the park linkage repair in the post war forum. If you missed it, I did repair park with a 1/4" grade-8 bolt.

 

Trying to beat a cold front, with 4-5 days of mid 60's-mid 70's temps before it gets cold, Dec 10-17, I got the following done:

Decided to forego taking trans to the vintage trans guy in town since I fixed Park. So this is reassembly with the idea of being able to move it under its own power so I can get one of our daily driver cars into the garage. Made a list of about 20 items to do this, and I found another 5 or 10 as I went along. Got trans back up under the car by myself. It had been sitting on 2 short lengths of 4x4 to keep it up off the floor. I lifted the back end and slid a car wheel dolly under the pan. This let me roll the trans up under the car.


I had marked the floor with masking tape for where the stack of MDF boards sat to give the jack the last 1 1/2" or so of lift. So I knew where the jack needed to be. I tipped the trans onto its front end off the dolly, then slid the MDF boards into position just behind it. I tilted the jack's table as far forward-end-down as it would go, then tipped the trans back onto it.
The trans wasn't anywhere near settling onto the jack's table, so I used four ratchet straps to pull it into position. Two straps for "tilt", then two more to pull the trans back on the jack so the jack would balance and crank back down to level. I doubt if there was a 2nd person there we would have done much more than over-strained ourselves trying to muscle the trans onto the jack. With ratchet straps, it was slow, but fairly easy.


With the trans nicely balanced on the jack, I re-used 2 of the straps to strap it to the jack table. That loose chain that comes with the jack is fairly useless. It falls off continuously, and there's no way to put any tension on it so the trans is held tight to the jack. I lifted the trans with the jack, and it didn't take a whole lot to get the bottom left bolt lined up.
Directions say to get the mid-left (tight tolerance) bolt in place, so I did that. I had cleaned the tight tolerance bolts and their holes in the bellhousing so they slid nicely before getting the trans back under the car. I got the lower right bolt in place, and all 3 of these bolts were tight. As such, the turbine housing at the front of the trans won't turn relative to the flywheel. I loosened the bolts a little on each, then the turbine turned easily, so it was easy to line up the bolt holes between the turbine and the flywheel. I next installed the bolts around the flywheel, then the other 3 bellhousing-to-engine bolts. I got the rear mount bolted to the frame cross beam, and got the cross beam loosely bolted to the frame with 4 of the 8 bolts, so I could leave the trans until I could get back to it. Getting the trans to this point (safe back under the car) took about 2 3/4 hours.


I got back to it the next day - cycled the flywheel around again to re-tighten the turbine to flywheel bolts. I got all 8 bolts for the trans cross beam in place and tight. Installed the starter (2 bolts). I worked the trans aft mount bolts to the trans, again using the ratchet straps to pull the whole engine/trans forwards and another strap to pull to the left a little to line up the left bolt hole. Got this bolt mostly in, then the right bolt hole needed the trans pulled forwards some more or the mount moved aft. I could reach the edge of the mount with a screwdriver, and hit that a little with a hammer to shift the mount aft enough to get the right bolt in. That was it for the 2nd day, about 1 hour.


Third day, I got the rear end hung back under the car. Again, this went easier than I thought it might. I used the trans jack under the front end of the torque tube, and the other jack under the rear end. I replaced the seals between torque tube & trans flange (there are two - a thin inner ring, and a wider outer ring that has the bolt holes in it). I looked at replacing the toothed rubber seal on the drive shaft splines, but the vintage one that was in there was a better molding, and it cleaned up nice, so I put it back. I got the drive shaft sitting on the back of the trans output, again using ratchet straps to pull the rear end forwards (wrapped straps around the diagonals of the rear suspension where they join the torque tube, and around the trans cross beam to pull rear end forwards). To line up the splines, I had clocked the trans output "ball" before I put the trans under the car because the bolt hole spacing on the torque tube is NOT equal. There's an "up" and "down". To get the trans output ball to move a little, I loosened the 6 bolts on its retaining cover. With that, I shifted the ball by prying action with a screwdriver until the drive shaft just popped forwards. I used the ratchet straps to crank it forwards until the bolts would engage, then I used the bolts to pull it in the rest of the way. I put the retainers on the lower ends of the rear springs so the rear end would hang from the car rather than sit on the jack. End of the 3rd day, about 1 more hour.


Next day I got the panhard bar re-mounted. No real tricks there, but again used ratchet straps to pull the rear end to the left. Connected trans cooler hoses. Connected dip stick tube. Added the lower bell housing cover plates. Maybe another hour.


5th day - brake line, parking brake, lower car off the platforms, battery cables, battery on charger. 6th day - saw in manual that diff cover bolts are NOT sealed - need sealant on those, so added that. Added fluid to trans. (Wasn't ever able to get the turbine plugs out, so 8 of 10 quarts should still be in it.) Tried to start. Realized ground cable was loose at engine mount (because it started GLOWING). Tightened that bolt. With that, it started, but carb was flooding over. Removed & disassembled carb. Found shred of something on the float valve plug. Removed that. Reassembled carb, reinstalled carb. Started again, no more flooding. Blew a bunch of crap out of the exhaust in front of the muffler. Realized I had loosened that exhaust connection for some reason. Raised car and tightened that. Restarted car. Trans heated up and "burped" about a quart of fluid back out the dip stick. Since I didn't have the dip stick in place, it went all over the engine & under the hood. I suspect the trans vent tube is clogged, so air heats up, expands, and throws the fluid back out.


I'm not going to un-do all of the above to get the trans rear housing off to access the vent tube and clear it, but it's something to be aware of. I tried the brakes. Though I had disconnected the line, so there's got to be an air bubble to the rears, they seem firm enough. Tried moving the car. One major purpose here is to reposition the car from diagonal across the 2-bay garage to over against the one side, so we can get one of our daily-driver cars back in there. Drive didn't want to engage, but the linkage may need adjustment. Reverse and low worked, so I got it backed out and moved over in the garage.

trans_on_jack.jpg

trans_on_jack2.jpg

trans_rear_thrust_pad.jpg

trans_rear_installed.jpg

trans_resto_parts.jpg

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Well - I'm caught up, I just found your thread.  I would have assumed that you would have good winter weather with moderately warm temps to work. It appears that you are putting the car up for the winter though. Your thread gives me hope for a thread I might be able to start a thread of my own.  I always thought I worked too slow to make a useful thread of my restoration.  I head out to Arizona from Atlanta this Saturday to pick up my project.  That will be the first adventure, the second will be towing it back on an open bed trailer.  Hoping weather isn't too bad.  Thanks for your effort in posting your project.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Was in the garage to start/run the car for a few minutes to keep the carb from getting gummed up. Noticed what looked almost like some sort of cardboard "shim" around the steering column, right were it passes under the dash. Remembering other posts on here that spoke of the steering column document holder, I pulled it out - it was a stack of old registrations (in the clear plastic steering column document holder)!

 

Though there isn't any paper from the very first owner, I'd guess it was Helen S. Schlecht of Denver, Co., because this was listed as who it was bought from on a 1963 Arizona registration. Colorado registrations for 1957, 58, 59, and 60 showed those owners bought it 4/15/55. They were Elizah Elmer Sisco and Lorenzo D. Uzzell. So the Az document showing Helen as prior owner, and the Co documents showing bought 4/15/55, put those together, and it was bought from Helen in '55.

 

There's a Colorado inspection from 5/1/61, but one of the Arizona papers shows "prior Arizona title 4/22/60". So somewhere in 1960-61 time frame, Lorenzo moved the car to Tucson. (Only Lorenzo's name appears on the Arizona papers). There are 1963 and 1964 Arizona registrations for Lorenzo Uzzell in Tucson. The '63 Az inspection shows the engine serial number lined through and replaced. Unclear when the actual engine was changed - could have been in Colorado and Az only noticed it at the '63 inspection.

 

The guy I bought it from, Axel, said he bought it in the mid 1980's in Tucson. If it was from Lorenzo (or his heir), and Lorenzo had been consistent with putting documents on the steering column, it may be that the car wasn't driven regularly since 1964. Axel did say he drove it from Tucson to Nogales, and there was a rubber fuel hose from the fuel pump into the front passenger footwell which could have let that happen.

 

The '57-'59 Co documents showed a License Fee + Ownership Fee of $19.49, then in 1960, it increased to $20.99. The Az documents don't have $ amounts.

 

Funny thing is, all these years later Az vintage plates are only $17.50/year...

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  • 2 months later...

After much deliberation, I concluded the remaining items to get this one safely back on the road, though not beyond my abilities to arrange, were beyond my capacity at the moment. The car has been advertised for sale on the local c-list for about a month, and after a visit from a Swede, an inquiry from an Australian, and a near-trade with a local, the car is in the very capable hands of Matt Tisdale, of Tisdale Coachworks in Winslow, Indiana. Matt is very well known in the Dodge Power Wagon community, and his company makes many repro parts for these. Sounds like he'll have this car on the road in a matter of WEEKS. He had an IMMEDIATE opening in his interior shop to get the seats re-done, among other things. For the exterior, he's only going to apply a little oil & leave the patina as-is. His thoughts/plans were very aligned with mine. Sounds like this might be a "shop car" for a while, but you'll probably see it for sale again soon.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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