55 Chevy Four Door "Gasser" new pg 5

Gettin' Close To Runnin' Again....
Gotta finish up that rear tranny mount first...

Made a cardboard template....

And cut some 3/8" plate, and drilled to fit...
7/8" grade 8 bolts, it's not going anywhere !

But just to be on the safe side, I'll add some side
gussets to that red tab before I'm done here....

I welded the bolts for the old tab in place,
and had to grind clearance for the tranny mount...

On the other side, I wanted full depth thread engagement
into that trans mount when it was tightened down,
and I had some 7/8" by 1" long bolts that are just a hair too long,
so did some trimming to get a good fit for this adapter
plate against this tranny mount...

Ignore the studs sticking up in the back, they only
distract your eye, the bolts in front are now 7?8" long,
and are screwed all the way in now,
so plenty of room to add a flat washer and a lock washer
on each bolt, tighten it down all the way,
and get full thread engagement without
bottoming out....

Like this....

Fitting everything together...

It's looking good...

Ahhhh....
A perfect fit...

I'll add gussets to the sides of that red tab to "just make sure"....
But it's plenty strong just the way it is,
I just really like to "make sure"...

I still have to hook up the speedometer,
backup lights (on a gasser, Willy??)...
neutral safety switch,
and pull the rear 3rd member and put in the 4.56 gears.
Along the way that gusset above will be added,
along with some paint. And that driveshaft
definitely needs some red paint !!

Bolted the old Hurst shifter that was on the Doug Nash
to the shifter box I had removed to get clearance to
install the transmission...

And was able to get it installed from underneath...
Neutral position

And yes, that button is for the line lock...

3rd gear position...

4th gear....

Can't wait to get it out on the road...
Soon....

But first I need to recheck the u-joint angles, make sure this new
driveshaft is phased correctly...

There was no machined surface available on the rear end I could get a
reliable and representative reading off of, so I dropped the
rear u-joint, and was able to get good readings off the face
of the pinion yoke where it is machined for the u-joint...

Sorry for the fuzzy pic, but I was able to get a clean fit of
this pendulum style protractor against the pinion yoke for a reading...

Between 4 and 5 degrees up, I'm calling it 4.5 degrees....

Put the rear of the driveshaft back into the pinion yoke,
and put the protractor on the middle of the driveshaft

In this pic it looks like 6 degrees up, but that's just the photo,
I checked it several times and several different locations on the driveshaft,
it was actually 7 degrees up...

There was no good machined surface on the trans to take a reading,
but the trans mainshaft, the crankshaft, and the blower are all
on parallel planes, as are the carbs, so I took a reading on the
top of the front carb...

And got the same reading as the rear end has....
4.5 degrees up...

That gives me a rear u-joint angle of 2.5 degrees up,
and a front u-joint angle of 2.5 degrees down,
So the u-joints are in phase and should not be a problem.

Some sources say to keep it at 6 degrees or less, I like
to keep it at 3 degrees or less if I can.

UPDATE:
OK, I've decided that the car can run as it is now
with the 3.50 gears, so I'll put it back down on the ground and
go for a run, just to see how "bad" it is with those gears...
Here's a chart to see what I might experience...

247 mph in 5th at 6k?   Yeah, Right.....

UPDATE
Have about 80 miles on now, running back roads at 20 to 40 mph, using the
1st four gears, OD at 0.64 ratio is too much for those speeds, so I'm driving
a very nice four speed on those back roads.  Running up and down through
the gears, nice crisp shifts, both up and down.  At 50 in 4th cruising at
1800 rpm is quite nice.  (see chart above)  At 50 I can downshift to
3rd at 2500 rpm and hit it if I want, 2500 is a real sweet spot for this motor.
But I now wish I had opted for the 0.82 OD instead of the 0.64. 
It would fit Maui's driving conditions much better.

If I wanted to make that change in this gearbox, I'd
need to swap out the countershaft as well as the 5th gears,
as it is different for that 0.82 gearset.  About $600 in parts.

UPDATE...

About 250 miles now, no problems so far...
Can't get the video to upload to my computer, don't know what that's about...
Got a speedo from a buddy, it's an Auto Meter electronic unit, but I need a gear
for it and my local Napa guy doesn't know how to help me out,
so am searching for "what do I need" to make this work...
Here's a pic:

I was given part numbers for these Ford speedometer parts:
yellow 18 tooth driven gear: CODD-17271-B
retaining clip:  C1DZ-17292-A

And they fit perfectly....

Now to see how well it all fits in my new Tremec TKO 600

More Later....

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