Technical Life's good, sometimes it sucks, BIG TIME!!

My ride is out of commission for the foreseeable future. This pisses me off, leaves me deeply disappointed and leaves me bummed beyond words.
Yesterday the Torque Flight gave up the ghost (almost). 34 still moves, and shifts but it was smoking, and first and 2nd are slow to accelerate from a standing start, 3rd and reverse are ok.
Because I wasn't thinking right when rebuilding the fame, I welded in the tail trans mount
instead of building a bolt in and so that means engine AND tranny have to come out together. (I'd post a pic, but the car isn't HAMB friendly.) As I have said, I'm now 80 and the aches & pains and deteriorating health of an old man may well play a huge part in getting this accomplished. I'll do my best to be certain, and hope I can get-er done. The task before me means crawling under to take out the drive shaft, removing the tail shaft bolts from the tranny, unbolting the seats and removing them, taking out the carpet to get to the trsnny cover to unbolt the the Lokar shift linkage, unbolt the motor mounts, unbolt the exhaust at the headers, unhook all motor wiring, taking off the new carbs, removing the radiator and grill, and anything else I've missed here. Then there is the hooking on to the thing and trying to pull it out. Then unbolt the trans from the engine, take it to the trans shop for repair, fork out who knows how much $$$$$$$$, bring it back and reinstall all I went through above. I'm sure I missed something above but who knows?
I'll maybe post the progress (if allowed to do so by the moderators) along the way, but It won't be very soon. Just to discussed with life right now, and I have to clear my garage up some by selling my recently deceased middle daughters 97 mustang I was going to do next) So that's my crybabies story for today and don't think I'll be involved here so much for some time to come. DAMN IT, I REALLY WANTED TO DO THE GOODGUYS NEXT MONTH.

34Larry.

 

If you were local I’d be there to help. Is there anyone around that can give you a hand for a quick removal? Torqueflites are pretty easy to rebuild but the task sounds like getting to it. I know of a good MoPar guy in Spokane that may be able to help if you can get the car to his shop.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Sawzall that rear trans mount out, build a bolt-in one, then tow it to your local trans shop and have them do all of the work.

 

Prett y damned nice of you pacecar. Thanks. Yes my guru buddy can help with the heavy lifting and he will.

 

Yep, I did think of that and when able to get under there I'll what room I have to that done. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Man that is a load of bad news on your shoulders right now. Take it one day at a time like they say. Try the cut it out trick before you have to pull them as a unit you were going to modify it anyway.

 

And yet.....you own a bitchin 34 highboy. So you're still ahead of the game. Ebbsspeed has your answer.

 

Lots of us would if we could!

 

Sorry about that. I'm with Ebb, chop that crossmember out and take it to a trans shop.

 

Hey Larry ,sorry to hear about the car; I was hoping to get down your way and see it in one of the shows. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you are able to her back on the road soon. Take care sir

 

I blew up my Muncie a year ago... the crossmember comes out easy, but the frame relaxes and it has to be spread to get it back in. I had to summon the troops for that one. I did most of the work putting the car on jack stands, pulling the driveshaft and other fun shit.

 

X3 on ebb's suggestion.

One year going to the Frog Follies a friend I was running with pulled off the road about a half hour short of Evansville. Trans was acting up. We limped on into E'ville and went to the show. At the show he found someone who had a trans shop in the vicinity. We (several of us) accompanied Johnny to the shop and they put the Chevy coupe up on the lift. Like in your car, the trans crossmember was welded in. They sawzalled the c-member out, replaced the T-350 with one already rebuilt, and rewelded the crossmember. After we got back to Missouri Johnny replaced the welded crossmember with a bolt-in one.

I highly recommend this over jumping through all the hoops you described above.

Regardless of how you get it done here's hoping you're back on the road soon.

 

I see quite a few OT vehicles with cut and welded cross member's.

 

Sorry to hear that. But working on these types of things will help keep you spry!

 

Do you remember the name of the shop? Sounds like a shop I would want to use in the future.

 

Sorry, I don't. However, I'll ask around to see if any of the other folks who were there can remember. It's been 10 -15 years, though.

 

Man that is a lot of bad news. Really sorry to hear about your daughter.
Well. At 80, I don’t suspect your gonna be taking any of that money with you.
Pay to have it done and get to the Good Guys.
This very well could be your last chance. Good luck and my condolences to your whole family.

 

Going to answer my own post here with an update.
I went out this morning started it, it backed out just fine. Drove it up and down the drive way few times and it seemed normal. Checked the fluid level, it was full. Told the better half I'm taking it around the neighbor hood. Did that for about 30 minuets , all seemed ok.
Yesterday was an unusual hot day here and the trans seemed overly hot and a little down on fluid.
So going to nurse it if I can until fall and when the rain sets in again I'll tare into it. I had planed on doing a show about 20 miles away this Saturday and will give it a try, fully expecting a tow. Nothing ventured nothing gained I guess.
Thanks to all for your input on this, I'll post again on what happens.

 

That's the first thing that came to mind, not knowing the exact set up, but sawsall it out

 

Atch has the answer, have it towed to the transmission shop , have them cut out the cross member up on a hoist , it will be much easier for them than you or your friends trying to do that on your back on a creeper.

 

Good luck making it till you decide to have it rebuilt. A trans cooler might be a good investment if it lacks one.

 

For some reason unbeknownst to me but likely knownst only to the GM engineers, the trans cross-member in automatic vettes (C3) is removable BUT the 4 speed cars are welded in! This required surgery when I added a tremec to mine a number of years back. Saws-All to the rescue, added flanges to the section I cut out and a couple to the frame and bolted the thing back in when I was done. I should mention it was a factory side pipe car so there was no exhaust running through the section I wacked. You have side exhaust too so that part is out of the way. It would sure be a lot easier than all that other stuff you said.

 

Well they say that misery likes company.
Oh never mind its not a competition. I hope you get it worked out in time to hang with your buddies.

 

34larry, I had a torqueflight do a similar trick. I believe you're on borrowed time. I would use the last of it's movement to park it where it is most advantageous to rebuild the trans. The clutches and steels have cooled down to grab just enough to mess with you. If the oil on the stick is brownish or smells a little burnt, my diagnosis is correct. If not, forget I said anything.

 

While it's still drive able get it to a transmission place and at least get them to check it out. As someone has said "You can't take your money with you ",so spend if you can and make life easier for yourself. You don't want to go to the Goodguys event wearing a back brace or driving there waiting for the trans to go bang,clatter, clunk.

 

Seek out a good trans shop. At the very minimum, I would at least drop the pan and replace the filter and fluid.
I've owned a bunch of 727s, once they start shifting funky, for any reason, the writing is on the wall. Mine have never fixed themselves. Sometimes the fix is pretty simple, IF you don't run it until you turn it to mush. Gene

 

Thanks to you guys who have had the 727's I appreciate your input and I will heed the warnings. This one was with the Hemi when buying it and is a B&M 727.

Decided, even though I don't want to , not to attend the show this weekend, also means missing Goodguys and the rest of the summer season I guess. I enjoy working on the car a lot and this will give me perhaps a chance to redo something that I didn't do to my satisfaction the first time.

Since I don't like just the average somebody working on my ride, I'll most likely just do as I described in my OP.
I don't trust that some trans jockey of unknown fabrication abilities cutting out the trans cross member, fabricating a proper bolt in replacement, (meaning proper drive shaft pinion angle from the trans,,etc).
I spent a good amount of time making sure things were right, (except welding the member) and I do not want just "somebody" i don't know screwing around with it.

I'm going to seek, however, the advise of a neighbor, Dan Peterson, who for years had a hotrod/custom shop, (he was West Coast "Builder of the year") back a few years, who is retired now but maintains a beautiful fab shop and still builds, his opinion.

So that's my thoughts today.

My thanks again for everyone's input and advise, I know the task in front of this "to soon old hotrod loving guy"
Going to post a photo of this non HAMB friendly frame just to clear up what I'm speaking of. Again this is not intended to violate the rules, I understand with the IRS/IFS it is not considered to be "traditional", and I run the risk of this post being deleted. Kinda hard to see the crossmember, about mid way on the tail shaft. It is right up against the floor.
DAMN IT LAR, DO IT RIGHT NEXT TIME
(My apologizes HAMB moderators, I mean no validation malice.)

 

After seeing the pic of your frame I can see why you don't want just anybody hacking on it.

 

I would also look for a better transmission cooler, I don't think those aluminum tube things do an adequate job on their own.
Part of your problems could be the transmission cooler.

These are probably the best coolers you can get.
http://www.trucool.com/products/tru-cool-lpd

• 30% more cooling and 15 times less flow restriction than traditional tube & fin design

• Self-regulating for maximum cooling and running protection

• Available in stacked plate or fin and plate designs

• Available in 13 sizes

 

Excellent appearing cooler. It appears in the ad pic's to be mounted on the radiator which won't work for me as my electric fan is mounted on the front of and a there is no room for it on rear of the radiator.
I do like the looks of it and will explore more options, IE: size, alternate location, etc. Thanks.