'36 Chevy Sedan "The PackRat Rod"

If by "mid travel" you mean having the added weight of the body and other things on the chassis then yes. I have always heard that the driveline u joints like to be at an angle greater than zero but less than or equal to 3 degrees. This keeps them the happiest and minimizes driveline vibration. I found a PDF document put out by Spicer on driveline installs and it has lots of good info in it. If youre interested i'll post the link. Please dont think im trying to tell you how to build your rod. Im no professional builder this is just what ive heard from people/ researched.

If it does pose a problem you can always tweak the spring perches, no big deal.

-Chris

RS, the pinion angle needs to be set when the vehicle is at whatever ride height you're going to make it.
You are correct, the angle will change with a heavier load but, what ever the normal static ride height is going to be is when the pinion angle needs to be set and the perches welded on.
Example:
1. All body and interior parts installed (or the weight of) including the weight of all the glass
2. 1/2 tank of fuel or the equivalent amount of weight in the trunk
3. The chassis sitting level on all four tires. For instance, if the tires are bigger on the rear than the front, then put boards under the front tires to level the chassis.
I'm sure you know that whatever the angle down of the engine and tranny, is the angle the rearend pinion needs to be up to match.
Just here to help

[PJimmy[P

I've read and understand everything written and appreciate people taking the time to share the results of their experiences. I'm also glad the suggestions are intended to be helpful and that no one here comes across as a self-proclaimed-all-knowing-hotrod-building-guru as can happen on some of these types of boards. Just because I am not following the advice offered does not mean I don't appreciate its having been shared.

My experiences have taught me that to avoid vibration, the driveshaft front and rear joints have to be in-phase at all points through their travel whether we have one, four, or six people in the vehicle, their luggage, a weight set, an empty or full tank of fuel. We also do not need to set the vehicle at "ride height", but at ride stance as I have previously mentioned (i.e. If the front tires are 27" diameter and the rears are 31", then the hub centerlines only need to be offset the 2" difference in inflated rubber radii regardless of relative height from the floor or ceiling.)

These methods and logic served me well when I built my chopped & sectioned, T-5 equipped '56 Ford over a score of years ago starting with a couple of sticks of rectangle tube for the chassis long before the proliferation of Internet information & misinformation about how to do so. My then wife-to-be drove with me in that truck for many miles over many years before we sold it to get something with more room for a (thankfully) expanding family.
We've been together 25 years this past Tuesday.

Pictures of the '56 taken when cameras had to have film:










This '36 is much easier since it, at least, has a frame to start with

I've also recently employed the same practices when shortening my '58. That little episode necessitated removing a frame kick-up under the bed which drastically changed the rear differential angle. I set it up and am regularly driving it without the bed. There are no doubts in my mind that I will not have to change it when I get around to installing the later-model bed and compress the springs some... nor when I change the ride height by loading it up with yard & shop stuff and then unloading it.

So after the tack welding shown previously, I welded the spring perches to the axle tubes:



and painted them to match, reassembled things, and let it all dry:



As Installed:

The differential vent tube and brake line have sufficient length at full suspension travel:



but my favorite part is the through-frame emergency/parking brake cable:



Then I started on the clutch:

In the image above, the entire S-10 assembly is on the left, the 235 flywheel with the 11 inch 14 spline '85 Astrovan clutch disc that I'll be using is in the center, and the 235 pressure plate and original 10spline clutch disc are on the right.


This image shows the difference between the stock 9" S-10 disc (front) and the 11" Astrovan disc (rear):


I saw some time ago that Speedway was selling one that is right in between these two diameters. They were advertising it for a flathead conversion and I believe it's 10".

It's worthy to note that the stock (S-10) clutch friction surface has the same inside diameter as the other two (Astrovan and '58 235) and that it fits easily:


The shortcoming is that you lose a full inch of surface at the outermost diameter:


That makes it the least effective of any of the 14spline options (11" Astrovan, 10" Speedway, 9" Stock S-10).
But could the stock t-5 disc be used in this conversion? Absolutely.
Would I recommend it? I obviously didn't use the small one. Considering the new, bigger one was ~$80-$90; you'd have to come up with your own valid reason for not getting the one with the most useable surface area while you're already in there. It's a stick-shift right? Smoke your tires, not some measly friction disc.

First Run

After fitting everything onto the frame that was easier to get to with the body
off, the boys and I removed all the stuff that would get in the way of putting
the body back on.





And then we did just that... after the undercoating dried.

And then we double-flared, bent, and painted some brake lines, attaching them to the double-reservoir master cylinder and to the rear. We've got the front run, but only up to the first flex line in the center of the frame/axle and that's where we left off for the night.

This is how it looks right now.

One of my favorite builds since the beginning! [cl[cl
Don't know how I missed the start up video but it sounds sweet, and it sure looks good with the body back on. Good to see the smiles on those boy's faces too.

[P[P[P

Good to see you're still plugging away at it.
Such a kool ride.

"It's ALIVE !!!!" Very cool man. [cl

The front is wired from the dash to the lights but not connected yet. I still need to adapt the original reflectors for halogen bulbs and get a Chevy light switch. You'd think I'd have more than a couple kicking around the garage somewhere, but now that I want one I can't find any.


I'd like to say the rear taillight and bumper installation went off without a hitch, but it didn't.

I also "Peal and Sealed" the interior and bolted in the center seat belts and shoulder harnesses. The upper attachment points for the shoulder harnesses (visible on the left side of the first image) are 1/2" thick plate, drilled through and threaded, placed inside each "B" pillar quite some time ago for just this occasion.

I cut an inch out of the seat frame before bolting it in. Height is a precious commodity when you're 6'+ driving a chopped rod... and headroom is where you can find it.

^^ I guess the images would have helped.

true inspiration

Rimspoke, So glad to see you are still plugging away on this. It has inspired me to start a build on my 35 master coupe and use a straight 6 to be different from all the small block rods. Keep us posted, your close.

Sincere thanks for the kind words ^^. I'm glad I could be of help... and if there's
any way I can assist in the future, don't hesitate.

Obviously, from looking at the missing images on the previous pages, the
duration of this build has outlasted a couple of websites. As you may know, I
started on it New Year's Day 2011, decided to to give this one to one of my
brothers mid-way through, around 2013 (that story may already be included
in the previous posts, I forget), and am hoping to have it road worthy by the
end of this year (2015).

Recently, I've modified the original 6V headlight reflectors to accept halogen bulbs:


You can see I also re-wired the top bulb and replaced it with a 12V. It will be
the marker light... most likely only visible when the halogen is not on.


The problem here is that I chose the wrong halogen bulb. These are not dual
filament and therefore have no low-beam / high-beam function. I've since
purchased the correct bulbs and will probably be re-modifying the reflectors
to fit those today. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing two or three times.

After the chop and channel, I cut a hole in the dash for the steering column's
new location. Although I only needed to flip the bracket over, behind the
dash, here's a shot with it installed in stock configuration for comparison:


But here's where the steering wheel ended-up afterwards:


Drive-able? Yes. It would be much like a set of ape-hangers, but I didn't want
to turn-it over to somebody else like this so...

I disassembled the steering gear, took 3-1/2" out of it's length, cut a
new key slot for the worm gear and pressed it back together.

En-Gauging

But now the column pokes right through some of the unseen support bracketry
for the gauges. The fix - in my mind - was to assemble the separate gauges
and back-lighting into a single instrument cluster. This would allow me to cut
the lower center out of assembly (where some of the original mounting studs
are) and bolt the whole thing in on its perimeter without having to worry about
the gauges flopping around in their holes. <-- I hope that description makes
sense.

I bring this up mid-stream, because I'd rather do the gauges before
installing the column since it's much tighter up there than it was before all of this.

Top side:


From the bottom:


Straight back - You can see the nut and bolt (lower center, left) still holding
the pieces together. This was only for fitting/assembly. That entire tab got
cut-off when I was done since it would interfere with the column's new location.



I know a lot of builders shy away from ampere meters and prefer volt meters
for reasons I am very well aware. I personally have no problems running
most of my electrical load through this gauge and if something should
go wrong that almost everything dies, I'll know where to look.

However, the fuse tab on this one was broken and needed some attention
before it could be put back into service:


so I did just that:







The completed assembly:




I've since installed the gauge cluster and the column but realize as I sit to
write to you that I haven't taken pictures of these completed steps. I'm
heading out there now and will take some to post with my next update.

BTW, I always paint my gauge (and taillight, etc) interiors white. It does a much better job of reflecting light than does silver.