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-   -   Working Man's Burbon (https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=698377)

markizme 08-21-2018 09:33 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by HO455 (Post 7806181)
I'm hoping someone can tell me if my glove box door, ash tray, gauge panel, and dash pad were painted this color at the factory? If so what color is it? Thanks in advance.

My 68 GMC is light green and The glove box door and dash bezel are CHARCOAL GREY I believe with ARGENT SILVER trim:gmc2:

markizme 08-21-2018 09:38 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by HO455 (Post 8326805)
I've been AWOL as of late. I just finished a 96 day run at work with no days off. With the exception of the rear end work nothing got done on the WMB. I drove it to work every day (except the days it was at Six States for rear end recovery. About 83 days) until the 5th of August. When I fired it up to go to work that morning I looked down and saw smoke wafting out from under the dash! OH #$%&3! Quickly tuned the ignition off and laid on the floor to see if I could see anything. Nothing to see but I could feel some warm wires. So I pulled the negative lead on the battery and hopped in the Blazer and went to work.
Foward to today. I took my old school hand amp meter along with my trusty voltmeter and started looking around. When I turned the key to run the factory amp meter went to 25 or so amps and seconds later the smoke started leaking again. Having a flashlight this time and already being on my back on the floor I could see the smoke coming out of the switch. With further investigation I noticed the purple lead on the ignition switch was warm. The purple lead is the solenoid power and should not be hot when the switch is in the run position. The purple wires run to the neutral safety switch from the ignition switch so I unplugged the neutral switch and checked the wire at the ignition switch to ground and found it ungrounded. Then I checked the purple from the ignition switch to ground for voltage in the run position and found about 8 volts. Not good. I then pulled the ignition switch being pretty confident that it was the problem. Looking at the back of the switch I could see the plastic had definitely been hot and had bulged up. (Photo 1) Checking for continuity between the ACC post and the SOL post I found less than 20 ohms of resistance where there should be none. (photos 2&3) I took the switch apart just to see what was what. I didn't find anything that had fallen apart, but the plastic between the posts was melted away and they were touching. (Photo 4 lowest contacts in photo) My feeling is this would be caused by cranking the starter for long periods of time overheating the contacts and melting the plastic. My removing the old wiring harness and installing the new one disturbed the switch and caused additional damage to the switch.( At least that is my theory. I've never had to crank the truck for any length of time since I have had it as it has always started easily.) After enough bouncing around as I drove it eventually arced over inside when I was starting it. There was one time in the body shop I thought I saw a wiff of smoke upon start up but I could get it to repeat so I wrote it off as dust.
Any way a quick trip to Dan's Classic Chevrolet got me a new switch. (Photo 5) Then some checks on the bench to verify the old one was definitely bad before installation. Now the amp meter barely moves when the switch is moved to run.
So excited to be back on the road I drove across town and took mom to dinner to celebrate.

Posted to the music of the Poges.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fBCiy6Da96o

Soryy for your woes, but thank you for the info. I'm having some similar issues, I now have somewhere to start tomorrow. Your truck is coming along very nicely BTW, I'm sure that you are proud! Thank you again!

HO455 08-22-2018 02:08 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Thank you and good luck with your no crank issue.

Killer Bee 08-22-2018 03:41 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
how the heck did I miss this?! subscribed, might take me a while to catch up though :lol:

Average Joe 08-22-2018 10:22 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Yowza! 96 days straight without a day off?!! I would go nuts!

Glad you got the switch fixed. I just replaced mine in June. I made it home from a camping trip before it completely died on me.

HO455 08-23-2018 10:36 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
I was lucky to be at home when it went into smoke mode. Saved me from having to a bunch of "field engineering" to get back home.

HO455 08-29-2018 01:04 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
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The WMB started giving a small backfire out of the passenger side exhaust early last week and by the end of the week it was getting loud and extremely annoying. I pulled the plugs on the passenger side and found the #6 plug fouled. I hadn't driven the truck the last couple of days so l couldn't smell fuel on it but my hope is that it is a fuel issue. I have noticed that most of the time my fuel pressure gauge shows zero and I was assuming it had expired.
I cleaned the fouled plug and swapped it with #8 to see if the problem would go away or at least get better. Upon start up it seemed to idle smoother but I noticed the fuel pressure was reading 6.25 PSI. I adjusted it down to 5 PSI and went for a 10 mile test drive. For the most part the backfire went away. I checked the pressure again went I got back home and it was reading zero again. I tapped the regulator a couple of times and it started reading 3.5 PSI. The regulator is the generic Holley style and it is not giving me a happy feeling. It has no name or number on it so I don't think it is worth trying to rebuild, so I'll replace it. I am not sure as to what I need as the fuel pump is a Mallory Comp 140 which is overkill for the engine. So my new regulator will have to be up to a 12-15 PSI input and a non return set up.

HO455 08-29-2018 01:10 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by markizme (Post 8327463)
My 68 GMC is light green and The glove box door and dash bezel are CHARCOAL GREY I believe with ARGENT SILVER trim:gmc2:

Thanks for replying. I'm sorry I missed this earlier. Do you think your bezel and door are the same color as mine? I'd like to repaint the jockey box door and ash tray but my bezel is in great shape and wouldn't need painting. So I would like to know what color I need to match.

markizme 08-29-2018 01:21 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Lemme grab a pic of the door and bezel and I will post them in the morning. I know this is factory paint on them, the truck is pretty stellar as far as original goes except for the recovered front seat. I am almost positive the two colors are Argent Silver and Charcoal Grey. I've restored many Pontiac Rally2 wheels and they come to mind whenever I look at the dash as they were the same colors.

HO455 08-29-2018 01:42 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Thanks that will be awesome. Painting Rally II's are a pain. I remember doing a set back in the eighties. I bought about 8 cans of paint trying to match the colors. Got them all done and was so proud that they came out nice, only to be told a couple of months later that I had painted them the wrong colors. I had matched the old faded paint colors. I had no unfaded wheels to color match off of. Now days you can just buy the correct paint. What will they think of next. Those wheels are still the wrong color on my GTO to this day.

markizme 08-29-2018 04:35 PM

2 Attachment(s)
Here ya go. I hope this helps and If there is anything else, just ask
Posted via Mobile Device

HO455 08-30-2018 12:52 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
I got excited by 68SWB4X4's posting about going to a car show so I washed the WMB and headed off to the Beaches show at PIR this afternoon. I got there and found out it had been canceled at the last minute due to the Indy car races this weekend. They were nice enough to give everyone a $25 gift card for dinner just for showing up. Score! But on the way home I started smelling burning oil and seeing wiffs of smoke. I get home and start looking around and I find the passenger side exhaust pipe is dripping oil and the engine is a quart past the low mark. Popping the hood I can definitely hear valve noise on the passenger side that wasn't there yesterday. #$%$&@$!!!! More heartache to follow. Maybe I can trade the gift card for engine parts.

HO455 08-30-2018 12:53 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by markizme (Post 8333208)
Here ya go. I hope this helps and If there is anything else, just ask
Posted via Mobile Device

Hey thanks man! I see your jockey box door has the silver around the outside and the bezel has silver accents which mine doesn't. That looks good. I will have to do that when I repaint mine.

HO455 08-30-2018 09:44 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
5 Attachment(s)
I tore down the engine today and found a broken push rod, a valve tip with a bad wear pattern and no real indication as to why the engine was smoking. Here are a couple of photos but I started a thread in the engine section asking for help getting to the bottom of what has happened.
Photo 1 is how I found the valve train when I pulled the cover
Photo 2 is how I found the push rod
Photo 3 is damage to rocker stud
Photo 4 is the headers right tube oily left tube is showing a cylinder that is running rich.
Photo 5 is #4 & #6 intake ports on head. No sign of oil being sucked from the valley.

Link to the engine section thread.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=1#post8334115

HO455 09-01-2018 12:30 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
4 Attachment(s)
I took the heads to the shop i got the crate motor from. They are tearing them down and will get back me next week. In the mean time I need to drop the fuel tank and find out where it is leaking from. If I fill it above 3/4 I get a fuel smell and I can see signs of fuel on the side of the tank. I suspect it is the seal for the sender, so I grabbed one on the way home from work a couple of days ago.
Dan's Classic Chevrolet has changed hands and locations. Amazingly they have gotten much more convenient for me. I just hope the rest stays the same. Although they no longer stock any used parts that shouldn't be a problem ( they told me who bought all of it). Not that they had much in the way of Suburban stuff.
Started off by wetting the strap nuts and bolts down with some PB Blaster. Then spreading my carpet under the back of the truck I got comfortable and when to it. The two strap bolts came off easily to my surprise. Maybe they have been off before? Anyway I got the tank on my floor jack and removed the straps. The hoses to the fuel fill came off with out any fuss. Which was expected as I put them on last summer, but the suction hose to the fuel pump did not want to come off and I ended up tearing the hose. It too was new as of last summer but it acted like it was 10 or more years old. The stuff we have to use as fuel now days!
Once that was disconnected I raised the rear end with the bags to full and slid the tank right out. I did end up cutting the ground wire for the guage. After getting the tank on a table to clean and inspect I noticed that my leak seems to be from the suction tube being loose in the sender assembly. (Last two photos) As much as I wanted to get it cleaned up and apart the mosquitos were making it difficult to concentrate. So it waits until tomorrow.

LockDoc 09-01-2018 10:39 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
-
I don't know what kind of shape the sender is in other than the leak but I have had good luck sand blasting and soldering the tubes. If you choose to try it just be sure and tape up the rheostat good to keep the grit out of it..

LockDoc

HO455 09-01-2018 07:44 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
4 Attachment(s)
Thanks for the tip Doc. Unfortunately my blaster isn't available at present. I cleaned it up with a Dremel. As Doc alluded to getting it clean and free of contaminates is vital to get a solid, leak free joint. The resolding went well. I used my grandad's old soldering iron and heated up it with a Mapp gas torch. It works well for things like this you dont want to get too hot. Kinda of old school, but once you get the knack, it works well. Since I had the sensor out I added a 5/16" port to the unit. This way I can add an evap canister or a fuel return line down the road. To make it easier to access in the future I ran a piece of tubing from the new port over the top of the frame and then I pinched the end off and soldered the end. The hope being that I will be able to cut the end off and hook it up with out dropping the tank. Before reinstalling I checks the sensor with a meter to make sure all is well after all the monkeying around.
The ground wire insulation was a bit fifty where it attached to the sensor so I put two layers of heat shrink over it. Before installing a new insulated spade connector I coated the wire with Copper-seize to prevent corrosion down the road. I will do the same on the truck side and inside the connectors.
The locking ring was a bit of a pain. It had more slop in it than other ones I have dealt with in the past. It took about 15 minutes and 100 taps with a small hammer and punch to finally get lined up correctly. It wasn't in the proper location when I removed it. Only two of the three tabs were lined up in the locking detents.
Now I just have to muster the energy to elevate the tank which is about 1/4 full back into place. (I thought it was emptier than that when I looked at the guages). This may be a job for rachet straps. But before that i need to find a second piece of rubber for the mounting straps. One is missing and has a small rubber scrap of some kind in instead. That pretty much proves to me the tank has been out before. I was pleased to see that the inside of the tank is clean and rust free.

HO455 09-01-2018 08:45 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
5 Attachment(s)
Here are the meter readings from the sender. High, low and middle. The last photos are of the locking detent. I don't even know if that is the right name or not.

LockDoc 09-01-2018 09:51 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
-
That should work great for you. Good job....

I have a couple of the old irons too.

LockDoc

HO455 09-02-2018 05:38 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
1 Attachment(s)
Thanks Leon. It passed the slosh test! :lol:
The tank went back in with no problems. Well there was one glitch. I made the piece of hose on the new port too short. That made it impossible to move the hard line to the side enough to lift that side of the tank into place. I replaced it with a piece that is 3/4" longer and now there is plenty of flex to get the tank up in place.
One other side note. Last summer I replaced all the rubber fuel Ines on the truck and now I find that the 5/16" hose I had installed has started to degrade. Most of the ends are hard and cracked. The outside and the insides seem OK it was just the areas that were in contact with the tubing. (Photo) This time I got some European hose with the woven covering. I have used it in the past on motorcycles with good results. There are two down sides, it is more expensive and it only comes in metric sizes.
Now I think about it I probably cracked the solder joint on the sender putting the new hose on last summer. Dhoo!

crakarjax 09-03-2018 03:53 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Is that fuel injection hose that cracked, and did it crack because it was too small for the tube? Makes me worry about the places I've used it if so...

HO455 09-03-2018 04:17 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Nope it was regular 5/16" Gates low pressure fuel hose. I couldn't find the number on the pieces I replaced. I still have one more piece to replace and I may get a complete number off of that piece.

Average Joe 09-03-2018 06:36 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Nice work as always!

Thanks for posting the sending unit readings! I need to diagnose my non working fuel guage one of these years. Lol

HO455 09-04-2018 09:06 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Thanks again Joe! Good luck on your fuel gauge. But be careful those new fangled convenience's are addictive.

Average Joe 09-04-2018 10:15 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by HO455 (Post 8337516)
Thanks again Joe! Good luck on your fuel gauge. But be careful those new fangled convenience's are addictive.

Lmmfao!!

People are baffled when i tell them ive owned it for 9 years and still havnt bothered to fix it! Doesnt really bother me though. I just keep a notebook with my milage written on it. What can be confusing to some is the 1.25 correction factor on figuring out the actual mpg. Trans still has a 4.1 speedo gear in it while i now have 3.07's. Someday ill sort that out too. :lol:

HO455 09-10-2018 12:36 AM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
3 Attachment(s)
The engine is back together and running good. I put about 25 miles on it today and it runs nice and smooth. I spent some time filing the header gasket flanges (Now it dawns on me that I should have gotten before and after photos.) and it seems to have made a difference as the engine is really quiet inside. I must have had some small leaks that weren't bad enough to be annoying but definitely added to the engine noise in the cab. I replaced the fuel pressure regulator (It was pretty much just unbolt the old one and put the new one in its place) and now at idle with the radio off the you can hear the fuel passing through the regulator as it cycles. I may have to mount it on some kind of sound dampener. :lol: I have checked the fuel pressure 3 times now and it is the same every time! :metal: I tore the old regulator apart and it looked as if the diaphragm was leaking past.
It took what seemed like forever for the oil to finally finsh burning out of the exhaust. I was starting to wonder if I had another problem. But it all seems good at this point. I felt so confident I took the the better half out to dinner in it.

HO455 09-12-2018 09:39 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
The WMB let me down today! :waah:
I was about 1/8 mile from work and it just died. I was able to coast off the highway and sort of parked in the clear at the Army Corp of Engineers drive way. I called and told the folks at work I was going to be a little late and one of them was nice and came to get me so I didn't have to cut through the blackberrys to keep from walking on the highway.
I rounded up a few tools at lunch and shortly I discovered that the ignition power wired had broken off at the junction block on the fire wall. Fortunately I had enough foresight to bring a piece of wire and some connectors. I made a jumper lead to go from the battery positive to the BAT terminal on the HEI and when I touched the starter it jumped to life. It was good enough to get back to work and then home this evening. Looks like I will be doing some wiring on Saturday.

After some thought I have decided that I am as much to blame for this as the PO. He had the cut the ballast wire off about two inches from the connector and crimped a big yellow butt connector to the ballast wire and the new wire he ran to the HEI. I removed the connector and solderer the wires and covered then in heat shrink I failed to inspect the wire at the pin to see if it was damaged by the butt connector bouncing up and down. Which in hindsight it had been.

HO455 09-16-2018 12:23 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
5 Attachment(s)
I replaced the pin and the wire to the ignition on the WMB. First step was to get some new pins from Napa. Then pull the fire wall connector apart. (1st photo shows where the wire broke off at. The next ones are of the firewall connector apart). To remove the pin the goo that GM kindly slathered over the pins has to be cleaned out. You need some kind of fine pick (like a dental pick), some sharp pointed tweezers, and patience. The goo is hard and the same color as the connector body. Good lighting and a magnifier will help prevent you from damaging the connector body. (Photo 4 shows the nice goo and a pin partially removed). To release the pin from the body you have to squeeze it from inside the connector at the base of the pin. The pin holds in self in place and you have to squeeze the pin as I show in the last photo. The pin is out at this point but I hope you get the idea. Having some offset needle nose pliers makes this easier. However the goo doesn't help. You have to squeeze the pin and try to push it out the back of the connector body. I had to push and pull the pin a bunch of times and then go back and try to pick the goo out of the path the pin has to slide out of before I had it out. Patience is the key. The pin should not have to be forced to move.

HO455 09-16-2018 01:00 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
4 Attachment(s)
The first photo shows the pin almost out and the goo that makes it so difficult to remove the pin on the firewall connectors. These pins are much easier to remove without the goo. Which is generally only encountered in the engine compartment connectors. In the 2nd photo you can see how the pins are kinda hook shaped and the opening of the hook is larger on the new pin. That is the part you must squeeze closed to remove the pin.
The pins are crimped from the factory with a special tool ( Which is available for about $100 bucks). I solder them as I am cheap. If you do try to crimp them (Without the special tool) be aware that the pin must not get deformed when you crimp it or it will never slip in to the connector body and lock into place. I place the stripped wire in the pin and VERY carefully bend the four tabs over. Two of the tabs hold the stripped conductor and the other two hold the insulation. Once they are bent into place I solder the conductor to the pin. Then just make sure the pin is oriented the same as the rest of the pins and slide it into place. It should lock in and be the same height in the connector as the rest of the pins.

Part of what I accomplished today was disconnecting the electric choke power from the power to the ignition wire. The PO had them wired together by the distributor. Which means if the choke coil ever shorted out it would take the ignition power with it. I ran a new wire to through the firewall where the wire for the transmission kick down switch goes and hooked the choke power to the power for the kick down switch. One less thing to cause trouble down the road with the engine running. I will post some photos of this when I get a new grommet for the wire. The old one won't stay in place anymore.

Ol Blue K20 09-16-2018 01:02 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
I commend you on your patience. I would of been cussing a lot!!!

HO455 09-16-2018 01:16 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
I didn't get any pictures of when I stabbed my finger with the pick and cursed till a blue cloud formed around my head. Sorry.:lol:

LockDoc 09-16-2018 04:38 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
-
That tar stuff is terrible to work with. I de-pinned a complete connector a while back and it took me forever.

LockDoc

HO455 09-16-2018 11:02 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
I'm just glad I didn't have to sit on the assembly line back in the day and smeer that stuff on connectors all day long.

Ol Blue K20 09-16-2018 11:32 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by HO455 (Post 8345964)
I'm just glad I didn't have to sit on the assembly line back in the day and smeer that stuff on connectors all day long.

Oh yeah:lol::lol:

HO455 09-27-2018 11:45 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
5 Attachment(s)
Sometimes the simplest things take too much time to deal with. For instance fuel caps. The fuel cap that came with the WMB was a pretty well scratched up chrome unit. I replaced it with a nice locking aftermarket unit. Fast forward to today. I fixed the fuel pickup and that seemed to help the fuel leak, but I could still smell fuel after taking right turns at speed with more than 2/3 tank of gas. I couldn't really find any leaks at the cap but it didn't really fit very tight. To prove the theory I filled the tank to about 3/4's andI swapped the new cap with the old one (which fits tighter). After a couple of test turns with no fuel smell I knew had found the the source of the smell. So the next morning headed across town and about 8 miles later the truck wouldn't idle anymore. The only way I could keep it running was by working the throttle. Nothing seemed wrong under the hood. All the vacuum hoses were hooked up, fuel pressure was fine, the choke wasn't closed. I turned the idle up but it seemed to be surging slightly. I then remembered I had swapped the cap the night before. I grabbed the cap and turned it and heard a big whooshing sound. The engine idle speed jumped up. I turned the idle back down and everything was back to normal. It seems that the old cap is nonvented. The fuel fill isn't in the best condition and it may not allowed the nonvented cap to seal. (Photo 1 is how it is now). When it was in the shop I did some work on the fill and I think that may have allowed the old cap to seal properly when I reinstalled it.
The new cap has a questionable set up to pull the cap's seal down against the fill. The red arrow points to a thin tab that wants to grab the fill but it is too flexible to pull the seal down and it just bends. The green arrow points to a much more robust tab that is too far away to allow the cap to be pulled down and seal.I ended up removing the thin plate, pounding the thick plate flat and grinding the tabs shorter. But that it made it too tight to turn, so I had to give the tabs some angle in order to get it to work.

HO455 09-27-2018 11:54 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
2 Attachment(s)
I don't have a good feeling about how this is going to work out over the long run as the gasket bunches up sometimes. I like the look of the cap but the seal isn't the best design. I just don't have a clue as to what the thin plate is supposed to do.

LockDoc 09-28-2018 12:19 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by HO455 (Post 8352950)
I don't have a good feeling about how this is going to work out over the long run as the gasket bunches up sometimes. I like the look of the cap but the seal isn't the best design. I just don't have a clue as to what the thin plate is supposed to do.

The thin brass plate is just a backer for the seal, to make it stiffer. Otherwise the seal is too flexible to seal good. In the next to the last picture it looks like the seal is not laying flat on the top side. Is the brass backer plate bent on that side?

LockDoc

crakarjax 09-28-2018 12:23 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
I'd put some silicone lube on the seal to prevent it from bunching up. Went through the same hassle with my cap!

HO455 09-28-2018 12:52 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by LockDoc (Post 8353177)
The thin brass plate is just a backer for the seal, to make it stiffer. Otherwise the seal is too flexible to seal good. In the next to the last picture it looks like the seal is not laying flat on the top side. Is the brass backer plate bent on that side?

LockDoc

Hmmmm! There is no brass backer place under the gasket. Not even a flat surface. May be that has been the problem all along. I will get a photo of what is under the gasket and post it.
Thanks again LockDoc. You Da Man!

HO455 09-28-2018 12:53 PM

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by crakarjax (Post 8353180)
I'd put some silicone lube on the seal to prevent it from bunching up. Went through the same hassle with my cap!

Good idea! Now where did I put that can?


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