californiajohnny's other cars

Very nice 

Engineering at its best. The farm truck looks like it could use a 454 connected to a 700R4! Did that to a 1986 K series Blazer. 

handsofstone wrote:    And you have seat belts as well? Winning!

i still have the originals but i'll get the newer matching retractors that fit the ones on the seats

nice fit :)

update on the wrecker... a buddy in town here gave me another ebrake housing as mine was unusable from the dry bearings but neither it nor the one i have has a speedo port, so must have been so mixing and matching of different stuff in the past
 but i did manage to find a guy with one from a low mileage tranny he got for his pick up and don't need it because a 4x4 has a transfer case instead of this ebrake unit, so he posted it on ebay! i got it for $500 but seeing rebuilt units going for 1k - 2k if you can find them this one appears in great shape and has a speedo drive in it i just need to swap the drive line hub on the end

found a used winch housing i figured replacing it would be better than welding it back together as is was broken in 3 pieces and with several perpendicular threaded holes it wouldn't be as strong as the original cast aluminum piece, and probably the same cost as having it welded, not to mention several hours redrilling and tapping the holes


 now the next issue is the trans mounted parking brake... its loose probably needs new bearings and seals even if i didn't use it the driveline is mounted to it so that kind of play isn't good...

pulled the driver side axle out last night... yep it's broke! but but not on the hub end on the splined end so today i spent a couple hours trying to get the broken piece out... tried a magnet taped to a piece of PVC pipe, but with the severely angled break there isn't enough flat surface to get a hold of for the magnet  then after some mallet work the magnet fell off in the axle tube after some work with a smaller 1/2" steel rod i moved the magnet and couldn't see it in there anymore shoved the pvc in again and nothing... looked in there with a flashlight it was now sideways onto the shaft... so i used a smaller telescoping magnet and by chance it pulled the bigger magnet and the shaft out to the second ridge inside the tube, but it caught the edge and the magnets came loose but at least i got them out after another hour of messing around, by chance somehow i flipped the broken piece partially over the ridge now to work the 6" long 2lbs of solid steel past the ridge... got it half way over  then tried using one of those little wire grabber things to grab the broken end... after a few tries it barely caught on a jagged edge and i slowly pulled it a few times and over the ridge and out the end of the hub about 1/2" before it slipped off ... now i was able to grab the end with my fingers to get it out 
 now to drag a magnet along the tube to pick up and shrapnel laying in there and pull the rear cover and check for and pieces in there and any other damage... if its all good then remove a good axle from the extra rearend that came with it and slide it in
 if that all works out then the next issue is finding a replacement side housing for the hydraulic winch that's broken too...

yeah i had a 93 f 250 4x4 years ago with a 7.3 it was decent and mileage wasn't bad i think like 13mpg

yep IDI i think is what they call them

King of the road! would like to do an interstate trip in that one.

Well that was an interesting read...youre a man of many faces Johnny, good stuff!

72 RS 351 wrote: Is it a car trailer, and I need to borrow it a few times later this year?

no, i built my own trailer 21 years ago




Edited by californiajohnny - 20-August-2021 at 11:18AM

Is it a car trailer, and I need to borrow it a few times later this year?