Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Mongus
What is the upper mast jacket?
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Jason ;
The " Mast Jacket " is the steering column and the upper part is the rotating collar that has the wobbly shift lever hanging on precariously by the roll pin that's prolly 2/3 the way slipped out at any given time .
GM did (IMO) a fabulous job on the design , knowing it had to be cheap yet withstand serious abuse ~ even if the holes in the pot metal collar part are egged out (usually) you can hunt up a small bolt with the part near the head smooth and use that in there , add a nyloc nut and trim off the exposed threads , if you hunt you can find these in button heads or other low profile , I just use the allen headed versions because my truck works , it's not a fashion rig .
Or , get a new roll pin and slip it into place then slide a snug fitting cotter pin through it with a small flat washer on top and deform the cotter pin's head to reduce it's visibility .
Be creative here but mainly you need to remove the steering wheel and turn signal plate and shift lever , then slip off the collar and you'll see some black & gummy old grease and the detents , clean every thing up really well and spread a thin coating of fresh grease before re assembly ~ there are detents at the bottom of the mast jacket too where the shift tube comes through the firewall , I cannot stress how important it is to CLEAN OFF the old grease before adding new grease if you want it all to work *perfectly* no matter how worn out and wobbly everything is ! .
The main thing is to
NEVER allow any threads in the holes where the parts move and load .
Once you've played with it to see how lifting the shift lever slides the tube up you'll figure it out quickly .
All clean , greased and re assembled ? good now comes the fun part :
The round shift rod leading from the column to the tranny has bushings in it , these are usually worn out too , easy to make new ones out of cut up PCV or other plastic piping that slips into place , then shim it all using super thin flat washers from the " HELP " section of your local Hardware Store so they're not floppy but twist easily with _zero_ drag - this is vitally important .
I've used both nylon and steel thin washers on the tranny arm to cure the floppy bit .
The rod is attached to the shifter with a simple pinch clamp , loosen it and hand shift both the tranny and shift lever into the " D " position then snug up the clamp , if all is well you'll feel the column lock into the Park position just after the tranny clicks into Park .
Then test to insure the starter lockout works only in Park or Neutral and the reverse lights still come one without you needing to lift the shift lever that last 1/2" or so .
It's funny , this loud "
CLICK , CLACK " noise Chevy's made when new , at the time it was often said that's because they were so awful and cheaply made but to me , it is music .
BTW : lifting the shift lever and racing it from Park to Drive as fast as you can , is a very bad practice and is why most of these columns are worn out and wobbly .
I checked a few junked trucks before finding a decent shift lever , they're available new these days .
Remember :
PARK BRAKE SET AND WHEELS CHOCKED ! .
My borhter's legal blog had some comment about watching me struggle with the filthy , grimy and un co operative shift linkage across Texas thusly " Nate's struggles to get his old Chevy pickup out of park remind me that truly , White Men Can't Dance "
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I am loving seeing the care and details taken in engine painting here ! . GOOD WORK Men ! .
I see a 402 engine was decked and the heads shaved .020" , what's the final CR going to be ? will this engine run on pump gas ? be able to hit the cruise night or is just for those incredible tire shredding 1/4 mile blasts ? .