Chevrolet C8 1940 Cab 11 restoration, The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

Installing was quite easy, although you have to make sure the spring pins are properly aligned before hammering them into the spring hangers! One pin slightly rotated and it was a bit of a *(&(* to get it a aligned to get the locking bolt in.

@ Bob. here you can also see the spacers a C8 uses to fit narrow leafs to normal spring hangers.
Two of the spacers from my C8 were pretty worn, so I had two new ones made by a machine shop, along with two brass bushes for the spring eyes. Earlier in the thread I mentioned that the replacement spring eye bushes were to small for the spring eyes...in the end this was only the case with 1 spring. Somehow this spring had slightly larger spring eyes....I guess it musy have been replaced some time during the life of my C8.


@ Bob (sorry...again)...Brian was indeed able to help me out Thanks! So, a 216 doesn't use a high pressure cooling system? Does that also mean the stress on the rad is less, so I only have to gravity test the rad in stead of pressure tesing it by an expert....? Or am I cutting corners there?

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

I guess Spring as arrived !!!!!!

Glad Brian was bale to provide the NOS cap...... you could test if you wish....garage usually have a machine the fits on the rad opening and the hand pump up to 10 to 15 pounds and look for leaks......A real pressure test requries removing the rad....plugging all openings except the one for the tire valve fitting and using a compressor to load the rad..... then the hwole thing is submerged in a (usually vry filthy) water tank and you look for bubbles to pin point the air leak.

For our purpose...... if you cap is on tight and after running hot for 30 minutes it does not leak....you're good for the road. If I used a hand pump I would not test any higher than 2 or 3 pounds of pressure.

Like a 6 cyl. flat head Dodge engine a Chev can be driven for a long time with the rad cap missing and will not boil over......

Bob

[Alex van de Wetering]

I guess Spring as arrived !!!!!!

da-dum-dum-tseee

Thanks for your comments on the cooling and rad Bob; will have another good look at it soon. Maybe I will move the rad work till after the engine is done, so I can check both together.

The C8 is really looking quite sad now as stripping has continued under the tent. I have started labelling the wires which will hopefully help with the buildup in the future. Some wiring has been cut, so I do have some sorting to do in due time, but Phil's wiring webpage will probably help a lot here.

I try to store the smaller parts in the garage and the bigger parts in the back of the C8 until the parts are ready for refurb. When the parts are done I install them at the other end of the yard, under the carport, where the chassis and springs are on axle stands.



I basically have the parts ready to re-install the rear axle, but as the setup of the drive shaft on the C8 is somewhat different from other CMP's, I wonder if re-installing the rear axle and shaft is wise considering I am installing the gearbox and engine later on????
The reason I want to re-install the rear axle is that soon I want to move my attention to the brake and new brake lines.

Alex