Phase II: Major Assemblies Freshened
At this juncture, we removed the engine, transmission, and transfer case from the Chevy chassis. I wanted to install reliability in each of these three components. To the engine, we removed the oil pan and checked the rod and main bearings for wear. Everything looked great, so we buttoned the engine back up with new timing chaining gears and tuned up the engine.
We sent the transmission out to a local re-builder and he reported that the transmission looked great. However, we went ahead and installed new all soft parts: clutches, seals, gaskets. We also installed a re-built torque converter.
To the transfer case, we split the transfer case (see photo) and checked the internals. We re-assembled the transfer case with a slip yoke eliminator kit. Additionally, I researched and found a special speedometer drive. So there would be both an electrical signal for the computer and we could drive the original Studebaker speedometer. We were trying to keep anything original, wherever we could. The re-assembled power train was replaced in the chassis.