My Mountain Trail

Hobby Hard

Today I took the day off from work to, er, work on the old truck.  Yes, the 1969 hobby-truck.  A few months ago the transmission gave up on me.  It was about 2 miles to home, but still required a tow.

Anyway, I did the research and it was pretty clear that the lowest cost/highest value path was to buy a new high-performance (streetable) TCI C4 transmission.  I could have rebuilt the old transmission for $300 +/-, but then there would have been doubts about the rebuild.  I could pay someone a couple of grand to do the job.  Or, I could buy a new unit and make the swap. 

Buying a new transmission also meant buying a new torque converter (because the one I have, while fine, is for a ’69 transmission (24-tooth spline) and a replacement transmission is only available w/ a ’70+ 26-tooth spline).  Well, truth told, I haven’t been completely happy w/ my 3000+ rpm stall converter because it is a bit too extreme for my street driving, so I went for a slightly more moderate 2400-2600 rpm (or so) stall converter and the new transmission.  Total package cost, $1340, delivered from Summit Racing.  BTW, I ordered on Monday and Summit Racing delivered on Tuesday.  Amazingly fine service, and one of the reasons I try to shop there first.

I put eight greasy, dirty hours in under the truck today.  Frame cross-member removal was the hardest nut to crack.  I did take my time too, but it was definitely hard on the hobby spirit.  The old transmssion is out.  Now I need to transfer the bell housing and install the new tranny.  I’ll get the final details done tomorrow (I hope) and then take another day off work to finish the job.  Looking forward to chirping those tires soon!

So anyway, I did take some pictures of the truck and tansmission today.  I used the Yashica GSN for that job, so it will be a few days before I have the film developed.  So today’s picture comes from a walk with Lori, Cookie, and Perco (whom we were dog-sitting for) from a month or so ago and shot on film w/ the Hasselblad.  The second picture is from the same walk.  Just a bit of grass drying out for the summer.