As you know, if you have been following my posts, I pulled the trans and was going to have it gone over. I dropped off the trans to a local transmission specialist for a thorough inspection, I picked up the trans Friday and it passed with flying colors. Some slight wear on the reverse gear, but that is normal and it was well within spec. They noted that who ever last worked on it, used RTV and not gaskets.... The shop corrected that, so now it looks a lot better and will not leak. They cleaned it up as well.
Before
After
The next large item to address is the rear end. Since the rear end was rebuilt the same time as the trans, I am even more optimistic that it wont need any repairs, maybe new axle bearings, but even that isn't a big deal. I have been spending a lot of tile playing detective, under the car, as I go over it from front to back noticing items either missing or in need or repair or replacement. It pays to have an assembly manual or the link to an online version. The assembly manual shows where everything should be and how it is put together.
When I was driving the car (late 90's), I remember when the car hit bumps and the suspension was really working, I would always hear a loud noise, sounded like the suspension was bottoming out. That has been on my mental checklist to figure out. As I was looking over the suspension and checking suspension parts in my parts catalogs (Danchuk and Lutty's chevy) I noticed they listed upper and lower rear axle bushings. I consulted the assembly manual to see the drawing of their location, I quickly realized I was missing them. The noise I always heard was the rear axle hitting the underside of the frame. The bushing prevent that from happening!
http://www.trifive.com/garage/55%20Chevy%20Assembly%20Manual/4-4.gif
If you want to take a glimpse into how a 1955 Chevy Bel Air is put together, follow this link, it is the full shop assembly manual. It is an absolute must have when restoring one of them. Consider it the cars bible!!!
The bumpers and their brackets are missing from my rear end. The bumpers should be on either end of the axels next to the "U" bolts. The "U" bolts hold the bumper brackets to the axle.
I am also going to replace the sway bar links that connect from the frame to the ends of the sway bar.
Mine are a little tired....
When I test fit the rear break calipers (92 Chevy S-10) I realized that the disc brake conversion kit required a little hump in the casting to be ground flat. That only took be a few minutes with a grinder
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