Re: Frankentruck
 

Made it home yesterday evening, but not with a slight adventure.
Since the gas gauge isn't reading right, I thought I had more fuel in the tank from looking inside the fill hole than what i actually did.
Ran out of gas 2 miles from the restaurant I was planning to meet my parents for dinner at. Got some gas, enjoyed some food, made it home.

Today, I got a chance to put my birthday present from last month together. My many years of Lego sets paid off.

Also diagnosed why my Dakota wouldn't start after I parked it back when I brought Frankentruck to Milly.
I had power to the starter wire, power to the solenoid wire with key turned to start. I flipped all the relays around to make sure, but still nothing.
Finally, I pulled back tbe blue, rubber cover over the wire from the solenoid to the starter motor and found a bunch of corrosion on the wire. Cleaned that, and the bendix started clicking, but wouldn't engage. Wacked it a couple times with a hammer and sure enough, she started right up again. Going to keep that hammer in the truck for a while, just in case :lol:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Figured out why the fuel gauge stopped working well. The float was full of fuel!

There was a very small crack that I pressed on and there's the hole. Jb weld is most likely not a permanent fix, but hopefully it will work long enough until I can swing by Summit Racing to pick up a new one

Re: Frankentruck
 

Nice photos

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thank you! They aren't too bad for a smart phone that's about 4 years out of date :lol: :lol:
Current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S8 if anyone was wondering

Re: Frankentruck
 

The annual tradition continues!


Also, update on the float. I don't know if it's reading accurately yet. When I filled up, I'm not sure that I got a full tank. I'm also not sure that I put the float back on the arm in the right spot. If I put it back on the wrong way, I'm wondering if it could be hitting the side of the tank and not going all the way to full when the tank is full.

One other thing: I found out in a different thread that I was using tapered seat spark plugs in non tapered seat heads. Whoops.
I robbed the plugs out of the old engine, then found a second set I had kept. I forgot I had changed the plugs twice on the old engine. Anyways, I also spent a little more time messing with the idle mixture screws and a vacuum gauge while I was back home. Seems to be running good still and doesn't smell like raw fuel as much at idle now. I checked one of the plugs today and it did look better than before, but I'm really considering getting an AFR gauge to better tune the carb in all driving conditions. Sure, it would be nice to have an EFI system, but the carb hasn't treated me wrong yet, so I feel inclined to keep it around for awhile longer

Re: Frankentruck
 

I personally like the personality of a carbed car or truck I think it gives them charictor.
But I grew up with my parents driving old carbureted cars and I will always remember them pumping the pedal and cranking until the engine started lol. guess it's just a childhood memory thing.

Those are some good pics of frankentruck btw!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thank you! Sounds like a good childhood memory.
Switching to an electric choke made a world of difference in the drivability year round. The Quadrajet I'm running will start every time with one pump of the gas unless it's been sitting for longer than a week

Re: Frankentruck
 

Went up to Winder for a car show this morning.

A good amount of nice Chevy trucks were there, but only three 60-66 trucks

Re: Frankentruck
 

One thing I always look for when people mount their beds is if they get things lined up correct. It erks me when it isn't. You got yours right on.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thank you for the compliment. I tried to get it as best as possible with the frame I have. I believe the frame is slightly tweaked from when the truck was wrecked, so the passenger bedside is slightly higher in the front than in the rear. Once I have the frame straightened, it should look even better than it does now

Re: Frankentruck
 

Oh, I see it now that you pointed it out.
I'm erkd again. :D

Re: Frankentruck
 

Perfect! :lol:

Hopefully I'll get it into the frame shop over Christmas. Once that's straightened out, you and I both won't be erkd anymore

Re: Frankentruck
 

I bought these a while ago, but finally had a chance to start the caster mod. My dad and I don't have a working drill press, but my adopted church family in Milly has one. Thankfully, he had a 5/8" drill bit. We had it set to 620 rpms and with plenty of cutting fluid, new holes were drilled fairly quickly. The drill press is definitely the way to go

Re: Frankentruck
 

Fantastic mod. I fully approve.

I usually move 3/4", but I usually also have to bash the lip of the crossmember to clear the (larger squarebody) bushings.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Yeah, I had a drill press mount for a typical drill. I don't know what happened to it. It was easy to mount up the drill and once you clamp the piece down, a lot safer.

Re: Frankentruck
 

I moved 3/4" from center of the hole, it just doesn't look like it from the picture. I purchased ACDelco uppers and lowers, and read on the caster mod thread that the original ones on trucks had 3" from center of factory hole to very end of shaft. I measured out 3 and 3/4" then drilled.

That's not a bad idea. I'll have to look into it. The other option is to try to fix the drill press my dad and I have. It spins, but the chuck is frozen up on it. Might try to fix it over Christmas

Re: Frankentruck
 

When you get that Drill press going.

I suggest 2 things

Center Finder


Attachment 2150839


Center Drills




Attachment 2150840

Re: Frankentruck
 

Getter-Done,
Thanks for the suggestions. I like that center finder

Re: Frankentruck
 

Got back from Milledgeville on Thursday. Yesterday was another C10 Club Georgia meet, so drove up for that. Was then able to help return the lights used for lighting up the location. This morning was a show at Auto Metal Direct's warehouse. The rain, and cost, was a deterrent I think, but there were still some nice trucks. I didn't take a bunch of pictures though

Re: Frankentruck
 

Here's my favorite from the show. A home built 64

Re: Frankentruck
 

Lutinent Dan, you ain't got no legs :lol:

Re: Frankentruck
 

haha!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Started studying this morning for my first part of the CPA exam. That's going to be most of my life for the rest of this break :lol:

As a study break, I took some time to fiddle with the truck. Had to buy a socket for the lower control arm shafts. Took the old off and started to install the new, but stopped so I could fix the frame first. I pulled the steering gear so that I can fix the cracks while everything is out. That'll probably be tomorrow's study break

Re: Frankentruck
 

Today's task: welding up the frame and making the reinforcement plate.

I've been running .025 wire with gas on my mig. That was too thin for the 3/16" frame. I needed .030 wire to use with the gas, but I currently don't have any. The welder would be on the highest setting for that wire size. Instead, I opened up the .035 flux core wire that came with the welder and set up the welder for no gas. That worked pretty well, and I think I should be ok.

After that, i removed the sway bar and steering linkage to get it out of the way. I wanted 3/16" plate to use for the reinforcement plate, but didn't want to go to the store to get something that was way bigger than what I needed. I remembered that I had a section of frame rail in the back yard. Perfect piece to cut from! I fit it into the frame, got the holes drilled, then ran out of daylight. Tomorrow will be cleaning up the inside of the frame so that I can bolt the plate up, stitch weld around the edges, and throw in a couple plug welds where needed.

The holes in the plate are the 3 steering gear holes, the bumper bracket hole, and the smaller one is for the sway bar frame bracket. I'm hoping that will be enough to tie the frame together. If not, I might take some of the scraps and weld a stand on to the bracket that will bolt to the radiator cross member. Suggestions welcome!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Cool that shoul do it. Nice work.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thank you!

Re: Frankentruck
 

Today's progress:

Steering gear reinforcement plate was bolted in then welded in various places. I also did a couple of plug welds in the center areas not near a bolt to help tie everything together a little better. Hopefully, I won't have any more frame flex while turning now that the frame is doubled up in that area.

While waiting on paint to dry, I started on the lower control arm. With the arm moved 3/4" forward, I had to grind down the arm a smidge. To center the arm, the factory shop manual said to have 3/4" from the outside lip of the arm to the shoulder for the dust boot on the shaft. Well, of course, the shoulder is at a different spot on the new AC Delcos. For my application, the arm centered up needed to have 1 and 1/4" on each side. Got everything bolted in after several install, hit saddle, remove arm, grind for clearance, and repeat until clear. LCA shaft u bolts torqued to 85 ft lbs, shaft torqued to 125 ft lbs. I did not have to hammer in the crossmember to tighten the u bolt nuts like I've seen others have to do. The only trimming needed was on the LCA. Didn't need to trim anything else.

It's dark now, so I'm throwing in the towel tonight. If the weather is nice enough tomorrow afternoon, I'll get the UCA in, put all the suspension and brakes back together, then reinstall the steering gear if I have time. Once the driver's side is done, I'll start the passenger side.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Is that a clearancing on the a-arm to fit the caster mod?

Re: Frankentruck
 

It is. I didn't want to trim the saddle where the shaft sits in, so I took a little out of the arm itself. I don't believe the little bit I took out will negatively affect the structure of the arm

Re: Frankentruck
 

It will probably be fine.

I beat the crossmember in with a 5lb sledge.

Re: Frankentruck
 

Yup, I'm not concerned about it. I didn't notice any clearance issues with the crossmember itself, but was definitely hitting on the saddle that the LCA u bolt goes through. That's why I chose to trim the arm rather than mess with where the LCA shaft mounts to the crossmember.




Today's update:
I pressure washed as much of the frame that I could get to. Might as well sling some paint while most of the parts are off the truck. Make it look less rusty, but it'll get dirty real quick from driving it

Re: Frankentruck
 

Yesterday, I decided to finish tearing down the passenger side. I wanted to make sure I get all the mud off from the control arm mounting areas before some rattle canning.

Was going to finish the pressure washing today, but it's cloudy, windy, and not the warmest, so I decided to catch up on some CPA studying instead

Re: Frankentruck
 

Perfect opportunity to pancake the crossmember, just saying...

Re: Frankentruck
 

Definitely would be if I was lowering the truck, but through all of this, I'm staying with the stock height

Re: Frankentruck
 

Put lipstick on a pig today. Only the best for my tractor with windows :lol:

I ran out of paint, so have to spray the rest of the suspension bits tomorrow afternoon

Re: Frankentruck
 

The front yard paint booth wins again

Hopefully doing some assembly tomorrow

Re: Frankentruck
 

Almost back together. Only have to torque the steering stuff and reinstall shocks and sway bar. I'm going to get an alignment done right after it's back together.
A shop and a lift would be so nice right now, but the at least we had some nice weather today. It was around 70 degrees out

Re: Frankentruck
 

Today's progress began with finishing everything up.

I stopped last night with getting the steering stuff in place, but I had to torque it all to spec this morning. After that, I loosely installed the sway bar. Since it was all apart, I decided to go ahead and put some fresh grease in the front bearings. The bearings looked good still, so I opted only to regrease. I also replaced the inner seals. Once that was back together, I got some new bolts for the lower shock mounts, bolted the wheels on, and took Frankentruck for a test drive.

Test drive went well with no major problems. The steering felt tighter after fixing the crack in the frame. I'll be taking Frankentruck to the tire shop tomorrow for a tire rotation and an alignment. I'll report back with the alignment numbers once it is done

Re: Frankentruck
 

You got a Lot done in a Short period of time.:metal:

Great Job:bann::clap::clap::clap:

Re: Frankentruck
 

Thank you!
It only took 17 days from start to finish, but that was mainly because I took several days where I didn't touch anything truck related and most of the days I actually worked on it were only around 4 hours of working time. Definitely could have got it done in a week if that was the only thing I did all day, every day. There's more to life than just trucks though