Southwest Fall Tour - 09/26/16 03:54 AM
To my friends on the Southwest Fall Tour,
Thanks to Dean Echols for organizing another great Southwest Fall Tour, this time to Heber City, Utah and the surrounding area.
Some of you may have been aware that my blue 1940 pickup developed a troubling drive train noise during the tour. It sounded like a bad bearing, and was noticeable only in high gear at low loads and low speeds (below 40 mph). I was concerned enough about it that I was seriously considering making arrangements to trailer the truck back to Reno. In the end, after some testing and evaluation, I decided to drive it home.
I left the Homestead Resort at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday in a drizzling rain and utter pitch-black darkness. It was a white-knuckle drive from Heber City to Salt Lake City--not because of the truck but because of the terrible driving conditions. Only the sealed beam headlights and the vintage Bosch 6-volt windshield wiper motor that I retrofitted made the drive possible. The cab was kept warm and dry by my Filling Station windshield rubber seal (thanks, Steve), and by the 1940 heater/defroster unit. It was about 42 degrees at Parleys Summit on I-80. The rain increased as I dropped down into Salt Lake City, and the traffic, mostly trucks, increased as well. The glare from their on-coming headlights and the splashing water from their wheels posed a real challenge, and I had to hold my speed to about 45 mph.
Once I got safely through Salt Lake City and headed west on I-80, the rain stopped and I was then able to pick the speed up to 60 mph. The truck was running great, with no abnormal noise from the drive train, though my nerves were on edge, listening for the slightest noise that might indicate a problem. But, the truck kept humming along, and at 2:00 p.m., I turned into my driveway and heaved a sigh of relief, having completed the 570 mile trip in 11 hours.
I spent the day today disassembling the drive line, and to my dismay, I have found nothing wrong. The transmission looks good, the rear end looks good, the propeller shafts turns free and smooth, with no axial play, and the front propeller shaft bushing is tight, with minimal radial clearance. I thought maybe the pilot bushing in the rear of the crankshaft had failed, but it looked like new. I started reassembling everything, but now I think maybe I better extract the propeller shaft so I can look at and feel both of the pinion bearings individually. I suppose it's possible that the forward pinion bearing is going bad and I can't feel it by turning the propeller shaft by hand with it installed in the torque tube. I'll write a follow up post when I find out what the problem is.
Meantime, I hope everyone had a safe and uneventful trip back home.
Mark
Thanks to Dean Echols for organizing another great Southwest Fall Tour, this time to Heber City, Utah and the surrounding area.
Some of you may have been aware that my blue 1940 pickup developed a troubling drive train noise during the tour. It sounded like a bad bearing, and was noticeable only in high gear at low loads and low speeds (below 40 mph). I was concerned enough about it that I was seriously considering making arrangements to trailer the truck back to Reno. In the end, after some testing and evaluation, I decided to drive it home.
I left the Homestead Resort at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday in a drizzling rain and utter pitch-black darkness. It was a white-knuckle drive from Heber City to Salt Lake City--not because of the truck but because of the terrible driving conditions. Only the sealed beam headlights and the vintage Bosch 6-volt windshield wiper motor that I retrofitted made the drive possible. The cab was kept warm and dry by my Filling Station windshield rubber seal (thanks, Steve), and by the 1940 heater/defroster unit. It was about 42 degrees at Parleys Summit on I-80. The rain increased as I dropped down into Salt Lake City, and the traffic, mostly trucks, increased as well. The glare from their on-coming headlights and the splashing water from their wheels posed a real challenge, and I had to hold my speed to about 45 mph.
Once I got safely through Salt Lake City and headed west on I-80, the rain stopped and I was then able to pick the speed up to 60 mph. The truck was running great, with no abnormal noise from the drive train, though my nerves were on edge, listening for the slightest noise that might indicate a problem. But, the truck kept humming along, and at 2:00 p.m., I turned into my driveway and heaved a sigh of relief, having completed the 570 mile trip in 11 hours.
I spent the day today disassembling the drive line, and to my dismay, I have found nothing wrong. The transmission looks good, the rear end looks good, the propeller shafts turns free and smooth, with no axial play, and the front propeller shaft bushing is tight, with minimal radial clearance. I thought maybe the pilot bushing in the rear of the crankshaft had failed, but it looked like new. I started reassembling everything, but now I think maybe I better extract the propeller shaft so I can look at and feel both of the pinion bearings individually. I suppose it's possible that the forward pinion bearing is going bad and I can't feel it by turning the propeller shaft by hand with it installed in the torque tube. I'll write a follow up post when I find out what the problem is.
Meantime, I hope everyone had a safe and uneventful trip back home.
Mark