Rhythmic vibration at certain speeds

I ran a wooden bumper on my '58 Chevy work/play truck in Tennessee for years without any problems . It complemented the home built wooden flat bed quite nicely if I do say so myself .

Already bought the parts . I need some lengths of square steel bar for better press fixturing before I do that one . It's still tight , I checked . I think a ball joint failure a couple years back might have had something to do with this failure .

That's difficult to find as scrap and damaging to good stock. I have a rusty farm wagon axle that may be sacrificed, the rust pit pattern looks more like steel than wrought iron to me, there's no sign of a grain. I saved the main bearing caps from a scrapped Vega engine as press blocks.

Milling machine table clamp sets have parts that might serve as press blocks.

I usually need rounds for pressing bearings and the like . This time I also need longer pieces to get around the brake disc shield . Talked to my neighbor earlier this evening he thinks he has some 1 1/4 square stock . That along with the 2 x 1/2" I have and some sections of square tube should make this one a lot easier than the first one . Experience is a great teacher ...

It would pass here too - but my truck is not a "junker" and I am attemting to keep it reasonably "original" Got the new bumper today - ends up it is a 1997-98 bumper with the full black pad instead of the original partial grey one

After I read your last post I started looking at replacement bumpers for the Toyota ... I was surprised that the center section is widely available and reasonably priced . I'll probably be ordering one because as my wife said "What's another couple hundred bucks , after all the money you've spent on that thing it's just a drop in the bucket." And she's right , but I now expect this SUV will outlast me . Now that I'm sure the SUV has no more major problems I plan to work on the truck some more . I'm eager to see what a difference swapping out the stock 2.73 gears for 3.42's is going to make ... especially since all the motor work was optimized for the lower gears .

2.73 gears are car gears - particularly with overdrive transmission.

3.42 is a highway gear for a truck. I like the 3.55 gearing on my Ranger. Occaisionally wish there was another gear on the highway, but then I look at the speedo and back off the throttle a little - - -

Be glad its not a "newer" Silverado HD. You don't swap the bearing. You replace the wheel hub assembly.

I kept one planning to see if I could reverse engineer swapping the bearing, but I got tired of stubbing my toe on it.

Mine is the second pickup of that era that I have noted runs that high gearing . I think it might have been a mileage thing . I just know that up here in the Ozarks that's too tall .

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My old 1982 K10 4x4 with the 6.2L Diesel and 700R4 had .308 diffs🙄

Neighbor bought it a couple years ago now. It's still going, nearly everyday to his work and back. Had to get the Torque converter rebuilt last June or so. That made Torque number 2 it twisted out inside...

My 91 Ranger was an odd combination that sat on the lot for 6 months and went for $2000 below list. I don't know why the factory chose that combination, especially the 4 cylinder, but it fit my needs well then and still does now. They didn't say if it was a rejected special order.

It has a 7' bed, 4WD, MT5, 2.3l (100HP) engine and 4.10 differentials that make it reasonably snappy in 1st through 3rd. It has the height to see brake lights ahead and deter aggressive MA drivers, the 4WD to handle their inadequate snow plowing, the cargo volume and length to move firewood, machine tools and two garden tractors, and the mid-20's fuel economy for 1/2 hour commutes. Plus the bed is low enough to reach over the side, to easily unload firewood.

It lacks power in 4th and 5th, topping out between 70 and 80, but had no trouble with 50MPH in a double solid line of commuting traffic. It is NOT powerful enough for towing on the highway or climbing the mountains of the northern part of NH, but the southern part of the state is flatter and the traffic too dense to go fast. Either there is someone in front of me or I was returning from night school or a party too late at night to risk speed traps.

I had a guy one time ask me to weld up and regrind the needle bearing location on a Chevy pickup rear axle . I had to explain to him that the axle was a tempered steel unit and that there were many reasons that what he wanted just wasn't going to work . I think I heard him mutter under his breath as he was leaving something about he was going to find someone that could . I almost hoped he would , and that I'd come across him standing by his truck on the side of the road .

With under 6 liters that's too tall ANYWHERE there are hills IF you intend to use it as a "truck"

A 6.2 oil burner has enough torque to handle 3.08 gears - but as you found it also has enough torque to demolish the converter. Steeper gearing lowers the required input torque for a given load.

I've seen those axles spray welded and re-ground and actually WORK. Likely cheaper to get a new axle - particularly now that custom 3rd party axles are readily available - but 60 years ago it made sense to "rebuild" them

You want to reconsider that last statement Clare ? I think you might have it backward on that one . At 5:1 1 ft/lb in gets 5 ft/lb out . To get 5 out at 4: you need 1.25 in . A 700R4 trans question . Any idea which wire coming out of the converter lock vacuum switch energizes the lockup ? I don't think mine is locking up , the RPM's should hold steady with minor throttle variations and it doesn't . I want to put a voltmeter or a light bulb on it while driving on level road at a steady speed to check it .

You got that right ! This truck originally came from Ohio or near , flat country with salted roads ... The motor was built to run in the bottom third of the "power band" at highway speeds with the 3.42's . I suspect my gas mileage will go up a little after the gear change since I'll be running at a more efficient engine speed .

I figured that since that part of the axle is the inner race for that needle bearing mild steel weldment wasn't going to last long . This was the second go-round , he'd worn out both the original bearing and an offset bearing . IMO a needle bearing in that location on a truck isn't a very good idea .

A 700R4 trans question . Any idea which wire coming out of the converter lock vacuum switch energizes the lockup ? I don't think mine is locking up , the RPM's should hold steady with minor throttle variations and it doesn't . I want to put a voltmeter or a light bulb on it while driving on level road at a steady speed to check it . Snag

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My Honda developed that problem, but instead of the transmission the fault was with the thermostat, because the computer wouldn't enable lock-up until the coolant reached normal operating temperature. Finally the torque converter clutch locked after climbing a hill during the warmer afternoon return trip. As you say the obvious sign is whether the tach follows the speedo or the throttle.

The thermostat operated properly in a beaker of water on a hotplate. I think a rubber rim on the disk had deteriorated enough to allow leakage. A replacement from Autozone without the rubber fixed the problem, and I keep forgetting to compare it to a new OEM one.

The temp gauge isn't much more informative than an idiot light:

I know that at normal temperature the needle covers the waterline.

I'm glad Honda provided a tach with the automatic transmission. I wish both vehicles had real oil pressure gauges. The Ford has a dummy oil pressure gauge operated by a switch and fixed resistor. I bought the Diesel option oil pressure transducer that's supposed to convert the gauge to analog but couldn't make it work with air pressure.