Well, I have had a chance to drive the truck at speed around town, and there's good news, and bad news:
The GOOD:
The 14-bolt rear, with discs, combined with the installation of the one-ton brake booster, results in excellent braking, I couldn't be more happy with the performance.
The Crossover steering conversion which I made up using a fab kit from Chassis Unlimited, is GREAT, and the steering feel is much better than the stock setup, MUCH tighter turning radius as well.
While it required quite a bit of fabrication to mount the caliper (to my satisfaction, anyway), the High Angle Driveline NP205 parking brake setup works GREAT. I am really glad that I didn't go the "eldorado calipers" route, with the rear axle.
THE BAD:
The SM465 trans shifted fine but made a **GOD-AWFUL** clattering racket when coasting, indicating that something was loose/sloppy in the trans.
So, I yanked out the trans and NP205 transfer case. Let me tell you, that SM465 at around 180 pounds is one heavy / awkward SOB.
After getting it out, I opened up the trans and it was obvious that the input bearing for the trans input shaft was shot, and also as a result (or partly as a cause?) the pilot bushing in the crank was badly worn out. The output shaft splines on the trans output shaft were badly worn as well, along with the coupler to the NP205. Taking all of this into consideration, I decided to have the trans completely rebuilt.
I thought about just scrounging up another SM465 locally, but the prospect of going through a full install of a trans with an "unknown" level of goodnesss, only to find out that it also had problems, was not appealing. At All.
I considered doing the rebuild myself, but given time constraints, and also in the interest of knowing for sure that the rebuild was done correctly, I decided to have Anaheim Gear do the rebuild. My family and I were down at Disneyland last week, so we threw the trans in the car and took it along
.
My wife was thrilled that 180 pounds of SM465 transmission were coming along in her car, for the trip. I made my best attempt at hermetically sealing the greaseball, so as not to permeate the car with the smell of ancient 80W90.
Anaheim Gear did a full rebuild and also added their 3rd gear sleeve (prevents 3rd gear pop-out) along with a few other upgrades, including stiffer springs in the shift rails to tighten up the shifting. These guys know their stuff. This pile of parts came out / got replaced with new components:
All buttoned up, Dyno Tested, and ready for a coat of paint:
Of course with the NP205 out, I am going to change all the seals on that (it does not seem to need a rebuild). I'm also going to install a twin-stick conversion from ORD.
And of course, since all of this stuff is out, a new clutch and flywheel are going in (Flywheel showed some hairline cracks).
Hopefully I'll have all of this all back together within the next few weeks...Then I can get going on fixing the floor pans and rockers.