I'm installing a new, never run M-23Z transmission. My existing drive shaft with the old M-21 transmission had the wear line about 1/2" farther out on the front yoke. This is at full droop on the rear end while on the lift. Will this be OK or do I need to have it shortened a 1/2"? I cleaned off a lot of the built up gunk on the yoke and use 1000 sandpaper to get some of the rust off.
I just went through this - it definitely needs to be shortened or it'll bang the hell out of the rear pinion bearing.
I dropped the drive shaft off this afternoon. They are going to shorten it and put a new yoke on it. The old yoke was pretty pitted.
I've o.d. ground .010 or so off the dia. and renewed the finish on my yoke. Seals have a useable "range", usually .030 or so.
It was pretty bad. I used 1000 sandpaper on it to take off some rust and the pits were deeper than expected. The drive shaft work was a little over $500. Over $200 was the new Sonnax yoke. Then, the cut, balance, new U-joint, assembly and paint. It should NOT be the next thing to fail.
I got one of those new Sonnax yokes doing the TKX swap. Almost like a blued Colt Python. Was tempted to put in a holster and stick it in the safe...
Yep, it looks premium. For the price, it better be. For the record, I found a picture of the Muncie that was in it when I was under it. The drive shaft was that tight with the Muncie too. Still, I feel better with this setup.
Drove the '68 to Wichita and back this weekend, 700 miles, gotta tighten power steering belt, started squealing when I got off the interstate today for gas, but it was the only writeup. Drove 85-90 that's what the GPD said, but I think I was really doing the speed limit... It runs great, power on tap, can put it where I want it, and the spread is sweeter than with the ST400 and I get back 40 ponies for pumping fluid and spinning all that weight in circles compared to the cost of the manual. It hits hard and instantly puts power down. I have to learn how to tame that, it will spin in first or second at full throttle, and haze in third. With the auto, it would spin in first, and bark into second, but I tried avoid spinning in second, to save the sprag. The manual is as fun as I hoped, and the OD is sweet. Turing 2600 @ 80mph, 170F steady, 47 oil for hours. Temp and humidity was way up coming back. Put temps to 185F, oil to 42 for the hottest part of the day,then back to the other numbers. I did beat on it a bit to be sure I could make the run to BG and back with confidence. My brother has a trailer, so breaking on the shorter trip would be an easy ride home.
Have you run the car down the track with the old setup? If so, what did it run? And did you say you will be in BG and will you be running it?
A bit of a long read, but there was a lot tied to the numbers it ran at BG 2 years ago. I trailered it and ran it at BG right after break in (500 miles for new rear end). Right at the end of that time, the converter failed and roaches the transmission. I rebuilt it, put in the Bruce Roe box, rebuilt 12" Switch Pitch converter and ran 16.48 @ 86 mph 1/4. Just laid down on me. So, when I got back home I would drive it and just had several weird issues. I have FiTech single on it, and have the FiTech 2x4 on the 64 nailhead and it runs like a raped ape. So I just went over everything. Did full recurve on distributor, had reset the rockers as I had set them to Morel roller lifters, but had swapped them for Johnson's and did not know they run tighter. (had popping in exhaust that got worse as car ran longer). That helped, then it started acting up again. Case of too many variables in a new build, complete drivetrain swap from 350/2 ST300 and 2.78 rear to new engine, big cam, ST400, 4.42 rear and EFI. So, one day, it's running well then on the way home, off the highway after 20 minutes, lifted and it stalled, would not start (like no spark/no fuel). I suspected the in tank pump may have overheated or died, had that happen with the Spectra in tank pump on the 64. Luckily, when it stalled I was able to make the left and pulled over where they were doing construction on the road two miles from my house, but it was dusk. So, popped the hood, pulled the air cleaner and smelled gas. Tried holding the pedal to the floor and cranking to clear, but it still would not fire at all. Went back up front and could smell gas strong, and used the phone camera took a pic with the throttle blades open and could see wet (flooded) intake. So, I propped the phone up over the throttle body and turned on the video. Went and pressed the pedal to the floor before key on (this prevents prime ****/turned the key and the pump primed the rail. Pulled phone and looked at the video and see the right rear bore just spraying wide open during the pump prime (about three seconds, like WOT spray). Managed to get the car started, by holding the pedal and cranking without turning the key off so the pump would not put anymore pressure on the rail, and after about 4 times cranking for about ten seconds, it started, ran like crap, but got it home. Reeked of fuel. Next day pulled the injector, swapped injector from front to rear to verify bad injector or ECU, and ordered new injector. Bought a gallon of O'Reilly's cheap dinosaur fluid and cheap filter drained out old, put oil and filter in and slaved injector from the 64 and ran it for five minutes drained and pulled filter, put good filter and fluid in and waited for the new injector. (The original oil was very heavy with fuel). Put new injector in, did wipe and set up EFI tables from scratch, drive to "re-learn", car was running great. Now I could focus on tweaking the Bruce Roe box for switch pitch, and modulator and recurring the governor. When I rebuilt the trans, I put in a NOS valve body, that changed shifting of 1/2 up and 2/1 down. Even after all of that, I did not like the way the engine/transmission were as a combination. I probably could have retired the Switch Pitch and got a good 9" from Jim, but frankly, I enjoy manual in the 64, and no longer have money to race enough to enjoy the car with an auto. I did get a chance to run it at the 1/8 track a couple of passes, before I had everything tweaked as well as I could before I moved In the 8s so I was a bit disgusted with things. Drive the car around here and kept tweaking, got it really running well, but no track time. It still felt heavy like gears were spread to far for my liking. Boiling tires through 1st and second, But sometimes it was not into power or a happy place when rolling and hammering on it, like rom to the gear when I hit it was wrong. But now it "feels" right to how I drive. It seems to get moving and pulls hard through all gears, the auto seemed to have some curve when shifting that were "weak" in the pull. Unfortunately, the other factors make run comparisons, apples and watermelons. If it runs 16.48 @86mph, I might sell it for a dollar... I will be making a few passes, hope I can get my launch sorted before then. Country roads, and all around here...
18.5 MPG, windows down, in Oklahoma headwind and I did get in quite a few blasts on the trip. I'll drive a bit more steady to BG, to get better realistic highway MPG. I just wanted to give it a bit of a flogging to make it or break it. Mark me down as "happy".
