Its not bad enough that Murphy is constantly around poking, and prodding, and generally causing discontent while you are working but now the little bugger is attacking while I'm not even around. Maybe he's mad that I haven't been spending any time in the garage lately or something like that.

I had gone out to the garage last night to try and take some measurements for another member here and I find a huge puddle of tranny juice on the floor under the truck....AAAGH!! It looks like the shift shaft seal (say that a few times real fast) has thrown in the towel.

OK, I'm done venting for awhile

Bobby

 

Bobby -

Sorry to hear that. It IS Murphy, tho. It seems that Murphy has a quota, whether you're busy or not.

I always wondered why something was in worse shape after sitting than if I had just finished it...

 

Its a vicious cycle isn't it. Now when I finally get a chance to touch my ol' County Cadillac I'll have to do repairs before tackling the next stage of the game. I think I can replace the shift shaft seal without tearing the pan off the tranny, or at least thats what my jumbled memories tell me, but then again, its been 15 years or more since I worked at the Caddy delearship.

Anybody out there got any experience replacing a shift shaft seal on a TH400??

Bobby

 

I am chasing rust - every time I fix a spot I expose two more that need attention. Someone on one of these forums was building a rotisserie so he could spin his cab around to work at the best angle. Now I know why!

 

Sorry to hear that, Bobby! Been a long time but I think the seal goes on from the inside... most do. Not that bad a job other than the lack of a drain plug, causing all that mess when you pull the pan. I always swore I'd weld in a drain plug every time I had to do that!

 

Bobby,

I feel your pain. I had the exact same thing happen on a street rod I was building some years ago. Only in my case it was the rear tranny seal. I had to pull the engine and transmission back out and replace the seal. Since we're venting, yesterday I started diddling around with my gas tank, sending unit, and gauge. I bought the gauge and sender brand new about a year ago but when I tested them yesterday I can only get a range of 3/4 to full on the gauge. Now I have to decide what to do about a new gauge or sending unit. This one is not going to cut it.

Vern

 

Bobby,
Kinda makes ya think, for those of us doing our own trucks. " Will they ever really be done ?"
Just gotta keep pluging away, Keep the faith !!!
Mike

 

Thanks gentlemen, I figured I wasn't alone with the gremlins but I just needed to cry and complain a little bit

AlbuqF1...yea, I'm sure you have to drop the pan...but it was nice living in fantasy land for a little while thinkig I could do it from the outside. Dropping the pan isn't so bad if you have a lift, pan, etc. I know that as soon as I try it in my garage laying on a creeper Murphy will sneak under the truck with me and kick the drain pan over. Its amazing how much area even 1 quart of oil will cover

Vern, does the gauge and sender designed for each other? I take it you are testing them on the bench so its not a matter of the float not going all the way up? Is there maybe a chance of adding some resistance to the circuit.

Mt54, thanks....your truck is looking good, love the chop

Thanks again to everyone
Bobby

 

Vern -

I had exactly the same problem with my fuel gage. I posted a thread about it a while back, got some great info and fixed it easily. Check out the link below before you spend any money. It is still working perfectly.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...light=gas+gage

 

I think everyone who enjoys working on trucks or cars goes through frustration. I know I sure do. I look at it now as being a temporary thing. Frustration really kicks in when the "temporary" stuff keeps popping up. When I get to that point, I remember to sweat the big stuff and remember I'm blessed for having what I have. After that, it seems like everything falls in place. It's our nature to be in control of situations, however life doesn't always allow it. I think Murphy was the one who said that. LOL... Hang in there buddy.

 

Bobby and Randy,

Bobby, sorry I didn't mean to hijack your venting thread. I bought the gauge and sending unit as a matched set since I have been through the problem with mismatched gauges and senders before. I am testing them on a bench so I know the float is going all the way up and all the way down. All the way up the gauge shows full and all the way down it shows 3/4 full. Even though the gauge and sender are supposed to be a matched set, I think they may not be. I don't know which (or either) of them is bad, the gauge or the sender. Maybe they both are good but just don't match. Is there an easy way to tell? I tried to measure the resistance and the ohmmeter needle goes all the way over to the right when the float is at the full position and about 3/4 of the way over when it's in the empty postion just like the fuel gauge. I don't think I have the electrical expertise to add in trimming resistors like in that previous thread. I'll have to figure out something else...

Vern

 

Vern -

As you tell by the previous thread, I am hardly an electrics expert. (Although George certainly is.) That said, my guess is that if the sender and gage go the same direction when the sender float arm is moved, they will work together. The throughput of the sender just needs to be trimmed to the potential of the gage. I did that by adjusting the float arm, but I was able to get the gage to operate thru its full range before adjustment by just working the arm.

It may also be that the sender rheostat is shorted so that it doesn't send the right range. I thought George's plan with the trimming resistors was way cool. The resistors were very cheap, too. If that's the problem, his plan should work. I never had to try it on mine.

Good luck.

 

Well bobby sorry to here about your bad luck. Seems for me the bad stuff always happens before I go somewhere. Ex: Left rear tire and wheel fall off at 65mph one week before the Southwest Street Rod Nationals. One week later I corkscrew the drive shaft while trying to show off in front of the house (this was the Saturday evening of the SWSRN). A month ago at the drag strip my fuel pump goes out at half track. Of course the list goes on.

My dad always tells me, it gets on my nerves after a while, "If it was easy everybody would do it." Good luck bobby and everyone else.

hotrod48

 

Vern,

LOL..don't worry about hijacking, I got what I needed to off of my chest and it sounds like you have a bigger problem than I.
I know that different manufacturers use different resistance on their sending units. You might call the manufacturer and find out what the range of the sending unit is, what resistance its supposed to have at full and empty. It seems to me like GM's were/are typically 0 to 90 Ohms (I can't remember which was full or empty)
I recently installed a late model GM tank and sending unit (mid 80's Blazer) in my truck, I checked out the operation of the sending unit before hand on the bench running it through a stock fuel gauge from a 58 Pontiac and it all worked fine.

I just did a quickie search, try these links;
http://www.stewartwarner.com/Tech/faqSc.html
http://www.autometer.com/tech_faq_an...px?sid=1&qid=7
http://www.classicinstruments.com/index.phtml?catid=61
http://www.classicinstruments.com/index.phtml?catid=46

Bobby

 

Randy,

I found another sender on Ebay and bid on it. It is a 33/240 ohm sender. BTW, I stopped by Radio Shack and that part 271-280 resistor is something called a pentiometer...whatever the heck that is. It looked like something you might plug into a circuit board...not something I want to get in to. I would have no idea how to use it.

Vern