Decided to start a thread to document and share things as i get my C600 back on the road. I'll just keep updating this thread as i work on things.

Earlier i had posted a thread about my struggles with the split hydrovac master cylinder. Ultimately i decided to send the master cylinder off to Brake Materials and Parts out of Fort Wayne IN. Hopefully it will be done this coming week.

While waiting on that I've been chipping away at some other things.

Along with the master cylinder being worn out. The bell crank that mounts to the firewall that the MC push-rod attaches to was really sloppy. Depressing the brake pedal would cause the bell crank to twist sideways and bind up. When i tore it apart i found the remnants of what looked like an old nylon bushing. Rather than find another one of those I decided to use a bronze bearing. After taking some measurements I settled on McMaster Carr part number 6381K477.
This bearing had the proper OD I needed but was a fuzz small on the ID.

So into the lathe it went.


Once i had that done i had a nice slide fit onto the stub bolted to the firewall, and nice press fit into the bell crank.





So with that out of the way hopefully when the master cylinder comes back i'll be done with brake issues in the cab.

Next issue was a non working speedometer. I pulled the front cable off at the gear box on the frame rail and stuck a drill on it. Giving the drill some trigger pulls had the speedometer jumping all over the place. So that was a good sign.

Pulled the rear speedometer cable off and found a broken cable. Based off the very faded tag on the cable it looked like it had the number D0HA-17835Y-AM on it. Rather than try and chase that number all over the internet, i decided it was easier to just get a new one made. So I sent some pictures and measurements to Speedometer Cables USA and i had a brand new one a few days later. I'm a little worried about the sharp bend in it. So if it breaks again i'll probably have another one made about 2 inches shorter (17inches instead of 19").



So that's where i'm at right now.

Some future sneak peaks:
Gas pedal is pretty rotted out and i can't seem to locate any C1TT-9735-D pedals. So i'm working on making my own.





Like most trucks this age, the parking brake cable is seized. I don't really like the lever in the cab anyway so i think i'm going to try out going electric.

This picture isn't that great but you can get the idea. I'm going to mount a 2" stroke actuator on the side of the transmission that pulls on the same lever the old cable did. Then i just have to put a switch in the cab.

Cheers!

 

Been making some progress while I wait on the master cylinder to get done.

The gas pedal is done. Overall i'm very happy with it. It doesn't look as nice as the original but it makes the engine go vroom. Hopefully the stainless steel hinge holds up better than the original. Only gripe is that i didn't make the holes for the PEM studs the correct size. So one of them slips a little bit when you are tightening the nuts on the back side. Surprisingly i managed to get the angle right on the first try as well.



Finished painting the floor and step wells with chassis saver. Haven't decided yet if i want to find a floor mat to install, or just leave it the bare painted metal.



Hopefully the master cylinder gets done this week, and i can hopefully get started on the parking brake actuator too.

 

Well progress hasn't been the fastest the past month but i have a few updates.

I decided to paint the front underside of the cab with some of my left over chassis saver. That's when i noticed my shifter rod bushings weren't looking to hot.



So i took a little detour to try and dig those puppies out. I got the little actuator rod out pretty easily. But that fork on the end of the rod was really putting up a fight and didn't want to slide off. I then went back at the u-joint to try and divorce the tapered roll pin from it and slide the rod out of the front. That didn't work either. So that's when i decided the bushings were fine and i'll tend to them later when my shop is more set up. I'll at least swing by Fa$ental this weekend for new ends for the actuator rod. Or order them from McMa$ster if Fa$tenal doesn't have them in stock.


Lastly I got my master cylinder back from the rebuilder. Total came out to $340 dollars to bore&sleeve it (stainless sleeve), and do a general rebuild/re-seal. I can't say enough good things about the shop. I learned more about hydrovac brakes and the various versions of it in the 20min i was there than all the reading I've done online. The guy there was incredibly helpful. I'll definitely be taking stuff back there.






Time to go see how many bleeder screws i can go round off...

 

looks like quality work. I’ve been getting my 63 c850 in shape for a while now. Those shifter rod bushings are obsolete but I’ve got a couple of new ones I picked up on eBay. I’m not sure if they’d be the same part number used on your 77 but I can post it if you like.
also have some nice used ones I’ve yet to take off my parts truck.

 

Thanks,
It's slowly coming together. I'm trying to take the approach of finding alternatives to obsolete parts, either through equivalent modern parts, or making my own version of an obsolete part with commonly available parts. I figure NOS parts are only going to become more scarce, so i'd rather leave those to the folks that don't want to go through the hassle of coming up with something on their own. I enjoy the challenge and am happy to share info and PN's as i figure stuff out.

If you have those shifter rod bushing PN's handy i wouldn't mine knowing what they were. It will certainly save me time later. I'll probably try and reverse engineer them and make my own. And when that doesn't work i'll just go buy some NOS ones :P

 

Short update this round.

Got the MC mounted the other day. Getting those banjo fittings at the bottom to seal was a bit of a challenge but we eventually got it. Tried to get away with just bench bleeding the MC and a partial gravity bleed. Needless to say the brakes still take two or three pumps to start applying. So i'll be bleeding the system here at some point. I also suspect one of my hydrovac units is bad. Applying the brakes pretty much causes me to loose all system vacuum. At this point im debating just taking the pain and going through and R&Ring the two hydrovac units, and possibly some of the wheel cylinders.



Unfortunately i hydro-locked my old 91 IDI this past weekend and i suspect i bent a rod. So my focus is going to shift to that for the time being. When i need a break from it though i'll still putz with this truck and i'll be sure to post updates.

 

Question for the brain trust.

Is there away to adjust the cab latch? Even with the cab fully latched (and lever closed) if i hit a dip in the road i can feel the cab "bounce." I noticed the two bumpers on mine have some shims under them. So i suppose i could add some more spacers under that. But im guessing mine needs at least 1/4" which seems a bit much for shims.

 

Not that I'm aware of but my truck is a 63 so that might have changed. It might be that the bumpers are wrong or partially missing. I'd suggest getting some longer bolts and some 1/4" bar stock. If you drill it and run longer bolts through that it will be a lot less likely to walk on you.

 

Thanks I'll give that a try. Took the truck for a spin today and hit a bump that actually caused the first(main) latch to slip. I'm a little unsure of how, considering the draw bar (guess thats what i'll call it) never came unlatched. Maybe that issue will go away with the elimination of the slop i was referring to earlier.

 

I forgot all about this until I was digging for something today and ran across those shift rod bushings. The part number for my 63 is B9TT-7A459-A.

 

Awesome! Thank you for the help!

 

1958/72 C/CT500/1100 & 1973/86 C/CT500/900 is the same.

NOS PARTS SOURCE in Olathe KS has 1 = 913-220-5746.

NOS PARTS LTD in Waxahachie TX has 1 = 972-937-2201.

CARPENTER NOS PARTS in Concord NC has 1 = 800-476-9653.

MCDONALD OBSOLETE PARTS in Rockport IN has 1 = 812-359-4965.