58 Chevy Truck Pro Street 1
Here's some of the earlier webpages on this truck. It was built during '96-'98, has been on the road continuously since '98....
- Link: Early Home Page
- Link: Makin' Some Changes
- Link: Rebuilding The Brakes
- Link: Adding A Trailer Hitch
This webpage is a work in progress....
Having a bit of a problem keeping turbo 400 trannys alive in my '58 pro street Chevy truck....
So, ordered an "ultimate street & strip" th400 from Mike's in Lancaster, CA, rated at 750 ft lbs, I'll bet this one will live....
Had to get the truck up on jack stands high enough to pull the tranny....
And flipped the bed up for even more access....
Disconnected everything connected to that tranny, and pulled it out....
Whatta pair, The Good And The Bad, and one of em's pretty Ugly too....
Eventually I'll pull apart the old one and see what went bad in there, and rebuild it for a spare....
Now to get that new one back in the truck....
LATER:
Stripped down the faulty trans and found the new clutch packs worn from excessive slipping. Found a crack in the case where there was internal pressure leaking from a fluid passage, so the clutch pack was not getting full pressure. I did have a spare couple of TH400 cases, but they are BOP bolt pattern. So I ordered an Ultra Bell, which has dual bolt patterns (both Chevy and BOP), and proceeded to fit it to that old BOP case.
First step is to saw off the stock bell, I use a sawzall with a fairly course blade:
Got most of it on the first cut:
Some more trimming with the sawzall....
Final trim job with a 4-1/2" cut off blade....
The Ultra Bell comes with longer grade 8 bolts and bolts up to the front tranny pump:
Now we'll stuff the internals from the leaky tranny case into this one and see how well it runs....
Runnin' good so far, first road test had a great feel to it, crispy shifts, downshifts are solid and positive, now tie the surfboards on top, toss in an ice chest fulla goodies, and head for the beach....
First day out in the '58 with the new tranny, and a fan belt pops and gets tangled with the other two, all three are gone, power steering is gone, temp climbs fast, I find a place to pull over and check it out....
Call for help and get a tow home. Buy three new belts and loosen everything up to put them on, the long pivot bolt into the left aluminum head for the alternator breaks off flush with the head....
Oh What Fun !
