I bought my dream truck

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very nice truck, i love that body style!

any chance i can get some pics of the mechanical part of the dump bed. i am looking to build one myself using a stock bed on my F350.
 
very nice truck, i love that body style!

any chance i can get some pics of the mechanical part of the dump bed. i am looking to build one myself using a stock bed on my F350.

Ya I can work on that for you. I left yesterday to pick it up at 4pm, and got back at 9am this morning, it was a little haul, but everyone loves it, the wife does too so it's staying for quite a while ;)

Out with the new, in with the old, right? lol. After I give her a tune up and once over I'm gonna start hauling some of the dozen or so cords of big oaks down in my woods. But now it's bed time.

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btw the truck is built like a tank!
Full floaters all around, dana 44 up front, corporate 14 bolt in the rear
1st gear does all of 10 mph if your lucky
Dump works good
not an ounce of bondo, very, very straight, not gonna take much to get ready for paint. but the drip rails are a little bad, and the rockers need a couple patches, and a little golf ball dent on the fender, but thats IT, for the body anyway.
Lights need wired, interior needs a heavy cleaning and a few items
all trim is real nice
needs a brake line for the rear
I'm pretty happy so far, just a long day

Does anybody know what kind of 4 speed this might have? here is the gear pattern if it helps. Because it whines, it came with a spare.
1 3
2 4 R
 
well it SHOULD be a sm 420 4 speed, but you said it has a 14 full floater in the rear and i'm pretty darn sure that rear was not stock nor orderable for that truck, but i could be wrong. if i'm right then someone has done some work to it and your tranny could be a sm 465, but it's one of the two for sure, most likely the sm 420.

something is tellin me that is not a 14 bolt corporate rear end. i'll look into it for you. also a dana 44 is not a full floater. i don't know a whole lot about the pre '73 trucks but i remember reading about your rear end, and it's very strong but not a GM piece IIRC.

i'd like to know what t-case you have in that baby. also a cst/20, i never heard of one, if you know, what does the cst denote?

the dump system is it hydraulic or electric over hydraulic? electric over hydraulic will only dump so much while a full hydraulic system will dump it or tear itself apart trying. also the mis alignment of cab and bed could be from the dump bed.

amazing lookin truck brother, congrats!! on a side note, i LOVE your Ventura! i wish it was Pontiac powered but it's still gorgeous.
 
btw the truck is built like a tank!
Full floaters all around, dana 44 up front, corporate 14 bolt in the rear
1st gear does all of 10 mph if your lucky
Dump works good
not an ounce of bondo, very, very straight, not gonna take much to get ready for paint. but the drip rails are a little bad, and the rockers need a couple patches, and a little golf ball dent on the fender, but thats IT, for the body anyway.
Lights need wired, interior needs a heavy cleaning and a few items
all trim is real nice
needs a brake line for the rear
I'm pretty happy so far, just a long day

Does anybody know what kind of 4 speed this might have? here is the gear pattern if it helps. Because it whines, it came with a spare.
1 3
2 4 R

You have the Muncie SM465 - it is one heck of a truck tranny (GM built 'em from 68 to 91)! The truck I bought has the SM465 as well - has the same pattern and very low 1st gear. From what I have read, they are pretty easy to rebuild.

Here is some good info about it... http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/sm465.htm

You have the same drivetrain as mine actually...as chopper said, the dana44 is not a floater but the 14 bolt rear is (pretty strong rear end too for hauling). The dana44 is not bad either, unless you are doing some serious wheeling and crawling. For our purpose, it should be just fine IMO.
 
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a dana 44 is not a full floater.

All solid front axles are full floating by definition. The axle shaft does not (and can not) support the weight of the vehicle. The common use of the term full floating or semi floating is in reference to rear axles though.

Nice truck. And good to see it being used as a truck.
 
You have the Muncie SM465 - it is one heck of a truck tranny (GM built 'em from 68 to 91)! The truck I bought has the SM465 as well - has the same pattern and very low 1st gear. From what I have read, they are pretty easy to rebuild.

Here is some good info about it... http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/sm465.htm

You have the same drivetrain as mine actually...as chopper said, the dana44 is not a floater but the 14 bolt rear is (pretty strong rear end too for hauling). The dana44 is not bad either, unless you are doing some serious wheeling and crawling. For our purpose, it should be just fine IMO.

your right, it is an sm 465, good call.

not all 14 bolts are full floaters. 3/4 ton trucks came stock with 9.5" ring gear semi floaters. 1 ton trucks came stock with 10.5" ring gear full floaters. if your 3/4 has a full floater in it, it was special ordered or has been swapped in by a PO.

the dana 44 is pretty stout, i have been wheelin mine hard with 35" tires for about 3 years with no issues. i know guys that even run 40" tires on these but they are easy on the loud pedal.
 
your right, it is an sm 465, good call.

not all 14 bolts are full floaters. 3/4 ton trucks came stock with 9.5" ring gear semi floaters. 1 ton trucks came stock with 10.5" ring gear full floaters. if your 3/4 has a full floater in it, it was special ordered or has been swapped in by a PO.

the dana 44 is pretty stout, i have been wheelin mine hard with 35" tires for about 3 years with no issues. i know guys that even run 40" tires on these but they are easy on the loud pedal.

From what I have read and seen, its not uncommon for 3/4 chevy's from the 70's to have a full floater. Easiest way to tell is if the axle hub sticks out from the wheel... all of the 3/4 ton chevy's I looked at had the full floater. :confused:
 
both the 9.5" and 10.5" have hubs that stick out of the middle of the wheel, the 10.5 sticks out further though. unless a 10.5" was special ordered or swapped in, all 3/4 ton chevy's came with the 9.5"semi floater, at least from '73 to '87. read around, you'll see. pm me for some VERY informative truck sites.
 
both the 9.5" and 10.5" have hubs that stick out of the middle of the wheel, the 10.5 sticks out further though. unless a 10.5" was special ordered or swapped in, all 3/4 ton chevy's came with the 9.5"semi floater, at least from '73 to '87. read around, you'll see. pm me for some VERY informative truck sites.


Sent ya a PM.
 
i know for sure there is literature out there that would support me here. however i trust whatever this guys says as fact, and he says you are right. he lists the 3/4 chevy as one of the trucks that got the 10.5" ring gear 14 bolt.

so i apologize and admit i was wrong. i would like to add i don't think he meaans they came in all 3/4 ton trucks and the possibility exists that he may only mean special order 3/4 tons. i will look into this further for my own satisfaction and can post my findings if you'd like. here is the 10.5" 14 bible, enjoy.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/14b_bible/index.html
 
The cst/20 stands for Custom Sport Truck and K20 I assume.
It is electric over hydraulic, I'm gonna have to see how much it will dump I guess
It does look like the 10.5 inch rear end, I will know for sure this weekend when I get a chance to work on it.

No need to apologize chopperfreak, I could be wrong too. I'm a noob to the wild wolrd of truck rear ends:cheers:
please feel free to post any more info!
Thanks for the trans ID, so is it normal for the sm 465 to whine? I was hoping it was a rockcrusher...
 
Well i'm stumped, we are all wrong, now it's my turn to apologize.
The rear end has got 10 bolts on it, it has a big round cover on the rear with a drain plug, but it appears the center section is removable through the front of the housing like a ford 9 or chrysler 8.75. It is a big sucker though, I would estimate it's gotta be a 9 or 10 inch ring gear. So far I can't find a match, I'll keep looking. It's also got 13" backing plates on it if that helps. I marked the bolts too in the pics.

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love those old GM's

great truck, will be perfect for firewood. i had a 71 3/4 ton 4x4, 292, 456 gears 3 speed. great truck and my dad recently bought and sold a 71 3/4 ton 2wd with 31,000 actual miles. a guy had bought it brand new and hauled a camper cross country with it. had original bill of sale and title but the body was shot. paid $200 and found aout 200 dollars worth of tools under the seat. i wish we would have kept them both!!
 
Thanks woodchucker! No tools for me, only lots of stink bugs....lol, they are dead now:clap:
The rear end is an Eaton H052, Full floating, 8 lug. Evidently it can take the same carrier as the 14 bolt, that sound right?
My bad guys, me and my car buddies got so caught up in checking it out we just thought it was a 14 bolt I guess.
 
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A beautiful day in the woods

I had her out in the woods today hauling a big ash that blew down a few weeks back, along with the other dozen or so big 2-3ft plus oaks that have been waiting for me to get a 4wd truck. It handled the big heavy wet rounds pretty good, still no need for first gear yet! I will probably add another leaf to each side of the sping pack to be safe.

The bed dumped the load allright too. It creaked a bit, but it went up like clockwork, sounded like a ton of bricks though....I don't think I will be using it much with big rounds for sure, unless I make some sort of bed insert. It's going to tear up that nice western truck in a hurry otherwise:cry:

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I still got alot of tree to cut up, would make some nice boards though
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