Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

looks right

here is a pic of my 51 before it was disassembled

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Thanks! I wasn't finding any good close up pics.

Got passenger side running board on and went over both again. I can hop up and down and no squeaks or groans!

Rained some last night, no water in cab! I'm thinking a rubber mat and a I seat cover for now. I'll be prettyfying it slowly over next few months lol for now I just want it to run, be solid, and work out any bugs once rolling.

I think I can start running wires after vacation!

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

You mean working on your truck isn't vacation enough?

It's coming along.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Oh it's fun but its not 6 days in Hawaii!

First summer me and my wife are both teachers, school is done, debts caught up and lots of time for a trip or two.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Congratulations! You two have fun!

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Quick trip to father in laws before we leave Thursday, just got back and drove through a heavy rain. When it stopped I went out with a flashlight to check for and wet spots or trickles into cab. Dry!! I now feel comfortable getting wiring in after we get back.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Good deal. Have fun.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Waiting on first of three flights to get home. A lot of time to kill. Thinking about my wiring harness buy list lol.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Welcome home.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Been messing with electrical when I find time. Kept most of it on another wiring thread.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=750748

A couple of things have slowed me down. For example I didn't have the correct plug for steering column and I didn't get any smaller ring terminals, I think I need some # 10s. 7/32 size right? I'll get them ordered Friday.


I have been driving around with the slip yoke from my driveshaft in the car for weeks. Finally managed to be on the side of town with driveshaft shop. 55 to shorten, 50 to balance and whatever u joints are. Showed me where to measure and said to pull it out 1 inch. Now to see how long it takes me to take them the driveshaft lol.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Wiring is still on the other thread but I have gotten a few other things done lately too. The c10 exhaust got shortened and installed. I would not have attempted cutting and welding it a year ago lol. I was playing around with the fuel filler and I think I nailed it! Cut the factory one down and welded the tube from the factory one and onto the shortened piece. It came out pretty good so I'm gonna keep it.

Today I put the parking lamp to turn signal conversion kits in the grille. I also hooked up the horns. The grille is on! For the first time ever! Really, the grille and a few other things weren't bolted on so it took me over 2 hours to undo a few things and to get it all bolted up.

The grille was a bit beat up. I'm pretty sure someone had had a small fender bender. I had to put a bunch of screws in it and I bent and beat it until it looked half way decent. It was rusted too so I used the wire wheel and painted it black.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

The grill turned out nice. Good job on the fuel tank and exhaust work.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

I’m glad someone is doing interesting things, I’m stuck in boring bodywork jail.:whine:

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Oh I still have some bodywork left, but I jump around a bit lol.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

go man go!

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Productive morning today.

Ignition switch, headlight light switch, fan switch, dome light, and my little cluster of gauges installed! Yesterday I got the radio and speaker in but I still need to wire them up.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

That's very difficult upside down. Still, nice work.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Headlights in!


I also pulled the driver door off to work on it easier. Awhile back I had to repair a crack in the middle of a dent in the door. A PO had filled the area with lead and bondo. Not sure when the crack occurred, when the dent happened or after a while but it was a pain.

Found out part of the reason there was so much bondo was due to a couple of high spots. Someone used enough bondo to clear the high spots and smooth out a nice door lol. So the first thing I did today was to beat those down.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Messed with the door off and on all day. A little paint to help me see it in the light and it is much better than before!

In the right light I can see it still needs a little more attention but it turned out good. It was hard to be patient.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

heyooooo!

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Amen to the patience!

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

I have constantly changing ongoing list of what I need to do, change, modify, buy...

Helps me not to forget anything and today I marked off a few things.

I got some screws I needed and finished hooking up some ground wires.

Wired the radio and the speakers.

Wired my new usb charger outlet.

Replaced and wired up the neutral safety switch.

Made a battery hold down.

Cleaned, painted and installed turn signal covers.

Doubled checked all unused wires and capped them off as needed.

And I moved the alternator charge wire. Had it going to battery but was told it would be better to move it to my terminal block on firewall.

Wired my brake light switch too. Slight modification was needed but looks good.

Yesterday I cleaned up the engine, tightened p/s lines and filled reservoir. Shined up the air cleaner a bit too.

Tomorrow I plan to do the oil change and I think add a little oil to cylinders.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Keep it up, you'll be cruising in no time.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Wow, you are working hard!

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Lots of little things. Making progress though! Funny that you have a USB charger outlet. That's what I'm putting in instead of a cigarette lighter adapter.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Yea, I didn't want to have an adapter for a cig lighter. A dual usb outlet works for me.


This morning,

Fuel filter done.

Oil change.

Spark plug wires.

A tiny little bit of mystery oil in each cylinder. Less than a tablespoon. Spark plugs loosely in until I get back next week. I'll crank engine with plugs out to blow out excess oil.

Started messing with dash pieces last night and a little more today. I need to repair bottom trim piece. I want to make a cup holder that fits in ashtray spot at some point too.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Looking really good.:metal:

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Waiting to see the cupholder.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Funny, that's exactly the hole I'm putting mine. Did you have to enlarge it at all?

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

I'll need to a bit, it's just hanging right now.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

I put lighter sockets on both sides, key and lighter. the donors come with multiples haha

keep it up!

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

It runs!!

First thing was to hook up battery. Horn started blaring. I unplugged the horns but how do I fix that?

I cranked engine to build up pressure, bring up fuel, and to clear cylinders of the mystery oil I squirted in.

Hooked up plugs and with a little help I got it running. Unfortunately there was a fuel leak. I added a fuel filter just before the carb and the little squeeze clamps that came with it weren't holding tight enough. In fact I should have noticed the filter moved about.

Just got a foot of hose, new worm clamps, and got that installed again just now. Tomorrow I will get the engine fully warmed up and look for any other issues. I hope not to find lol.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

The steering column is from a 1970 c10. No steering wheel on it. Is this why the horn goes off?


Next, unless I bend the arm on the gas pedal; the throttle cable is a little to long. I'm not getting the full motion at the pedal. Can I shorten the cable?

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

woooooooooooooo! congrats!

unless you have slack before the cable starts to move, shortening the cable isnt the answer, you have to change the pedal or arm for more travel.

funny story, I put CBR600 F4i throttles on a mazda truck a million years ago and the handlebar grip was set up for 1/4 turn full throttle. when I hooked it up to the gas pedal, it was like a binary switch, ON or OFF haha. I extended the arm where it attached to the throttle shaft so that I had normal amounts of travel on the gas pedal. the full throttle burnouts on the test run were fun though hahahaha

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

I misspoke. The cable is too long and the pedal is swung too far forward. If that makes sense. I think if the cable was shorter then the pedal would start in the right spot and then I could push it down with my foot with full movement.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Any advice on the horn? It's a new turn signal switch assembly.

Am I correct that the horn wire is hot and it is grounded when button is pushed down? But this button isnt pushed down....

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

might be, give it a shot, the "too long" you are talking about is the distance from the stationary point that holds the cable housing to the cable end itself where it attaches to the pedal. so if you held the pedal up where it should be there would be "slack" in it, dead space where there is no pulling going on till a certain point.

on the horn, that contact is just to pass the horn signal from the steering wheel button to the horn relay. its not necessary to push down on it, its just a pass through, it rides on a contact ring on the back of the steering wheel, and that contact ring is wired to the horn button. usually the other side of the button is wired to a contact that touches the center of the splined shaft (or if your wheel has a die cast center, is screwed to the die cast). the reason its honking is there is ground on that wire that shouldnt be there. might be at the bottom, where the wire is just laying loose and is grounding out on something. could be grounded at the horn relay.

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Can I pull out the horn relay, set voltmeter to ohms, can set leads on black wire of relay on column side and one to a clean bare metal spot? To test for a ground inside the column?

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

yep thats the way I would do it, except set the VOM to continuity (beep)

Re: '50 chevy 3100
 

Thanks! I'll try and test tomorrow.

I also added a switch to manually turn on the fan. I tapped into the single wire going from the relay to the probe. I ran that wire back to switch and also ran a wire to ground off the switch.

It works, I can manually turn on the fan.

But... if I tapped into a grounding wire, and also grounded the second wire.... how is the light on the switch able to come on? It lit up and I didnt think it would, only used two prongs. These switches have three prongs so you could have it light up if you wanted. Is the wire going to the probe hot?