Yea Pat, definately making progress every night. I get out of work and head straight for home. Tonight i got the other PTO shift shaft seal changed and both PTO shift boots on. After that was done, about 5 minutes later the transmission was on the 3 point hitch boom behind our Ford 8N and headding for the Deuce. With the help of my dad (helping me guide the transmission in the truck), mom (holding the brakes on the 8N because the parking brake does not work) and my 86 year old grandma supervising, we got it in and bolted up!
Following that was installing driveshaft and PTO shaft, repaced the hose on the thermostat housing, replaced the tube on the steering column, fixed the cracks in the "new" take off hood i bought, and cleaned up my windshield mounts/hinges. The hinges were frozen up like i would think how 95% of the deuces/800 series trucks are out there. While i had them off i worked them back and forth and kept spraying them with penetrating oil. I finally got them so they would swing back and forth just by holding one part and letting the other part of the hinge dangle. It may be excessive, but at least i know they will be good for another 40 years. Haha. So i cleaned up all the oil on them, wirebrushed them and layed down some primer.
the cracks in the hood were not too bad to fix. Im no body man, but i think i did good on fixing it. I didnt use any plastic filler (aka bondo) and just took my time grinding the welds down carefully. Long story short, it turned out good.
The steering column was not too bad to do (with the cab off). The key here is paying attention to the shims between the column and box when it gets taken apart. The replacement tube i got i measured the distsnce from the bolt flange and the very bottom of that casting. My original column was about 1.674" and the new column was about 1.684 inches. So with the stackup of shims from my original column, i took off .011" of shims. This way i keep the correct pressure on the bearings inside the steering box. I hope i did a good job at explainging that... i didnt get pictures of it, but i can tomorrow after work.
tomorrow's agenda might be putting on the cab. If not tomorrow then i will mix up some paint and throw some color to everything under/around the cab before i put it on. My nieghbor has a contractor doing some digging with an excavator and maybe have him come over and lift it on for us. No matter what, i know some 383 green is getting sprayed tomorrow! Well enough rambling for now, time for bed. Ill post the pictures tomorrow around 0900.