47-55.1 Project: Kechi AD S10 4.3 auto

[joedoh]

first update was the last page, copied here

Originally Posted by joedoh

she is the age where we barely see her unless she needs something, so asking her to do plumbing wouldnt produce any result. although let me be clear in case she finds this post years from now, both she and her sister have always pitched in wherever possible.


and now back to everyones favorite dumpster fire show: "COAXING DEAD STUFF BACK TO LIFE". I love bargains and hunting for bargains. so most of the trucks I start with are literally 10s of random parts. cab here, door there, bed over there, you get the idea. I would love to start with something complete but my frugal bone would probably suffer a compound fracture, popping out of my skin wherever the frugal bone resides (probably somewhere around the buttocks). so I spend a lot of time on repairing various parts. for example:

the cab I bought had three hinges, and you can see what happened with a little thought. they removed the passenger upper hinge and broke a bolt, which soured them on removing any more. I had to drill it out carefully, the fine threads of these hinges wont take much shenanigans like a coarse thread would.



afterwards I ran a tap through all the holes to clean them up, if you are needing to know the thread and pitch its a 3/8" 24 . a trio of new bolts in the right size and viola.



normally I would run a lock washer on these but I didnt have them so I will buzz them back out when I run for the door side hardware.

a quick trip to the backyard for the doors and the tires I will use to set ride height, the current tires are staggered and that makes it hard to get a good visual.



the doors had three hinges too, well, two and a half. so same again, get the bolts out and run a tap through them. same size, 3/8 24. I luckily got the lower cover to bend down, there was about 2 cubic yards of dirt inside this door for some reason and the screws were reluctant but the bolts blessedly cracked





more in a second post

then it was time to tackle the hood, I had good luck taking it off the truck until I didnt. one bolt broke and a second threatened to, so I took the spring off at the firewall on the last bolt and have been soaking it randomly with penetrant. worked good for the stuck last bolt, it turned right out, but the broken one fought all the way, I was up to the 7/32 before it spun out.





I use my drill motor for the tap, its fast and easy, juts make sure to turn it down, I use low speed and set the clutch low too. I have turned taps into potato chips by forgetting this step



so after tapping all 6 holes, the thread size is 5/16 24, another fine thread, the hood bolts just hand thread all the way in. dont skip this step either, the tapping out of the hood bolts, the new hood bolts are stainless and will gall and break in dirty threads.



I dont have them in the right order, but they are all 5/16 24.

more to come!