My C-30 w/Holmes wrecker adventure

[jhe.1973]

Thanks guys for the views and nice words!

Steven, if you can weld with oxy-acetylene then you should have no trouble doing arc welding. In fact TIG welding is just like oxy-acetylene only the torch is electric instead of gas. All you need is to get some practice time. Have you considered taking a class? I would think that Simi Valley would have something to offer like community college or night school.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

November 21st I thought I was ready to drive the wrecker and use it to clear a few things from the backyard. I had let it run on fast idle for around an hour to try to use up the stale gas in the tank. When I shut it off I noticed the fuel pump was leaking from the crimped on bowl. I got a new pump from a fast food auto parts store in town and put it on the following day.

It started just fine and then started stumbling severely as if too rich. I thought the float(s) might be sticking. When I got out to look (hood was already up) gas was pouring out of the top of the carb and all down its sides and was on fire.

There wasn't any wiring or hoses etc. to burn where the flames were and I put it out with the with the ice tea I had handy.

I returned the pump figuring I got one for a TBI application. I had been considering going to an electric pump so I wouldn't have to prime the carb after it had been sitting for awhile and figured now is the time.

Here's the pump block off plate that I made:



Here it is installed:



This truck came with an auxiliary tank that wasn't hooked up under the bed right behind the cab. So, I installed a selector valve for dual fuel tanks at this time also:





All the holes were already there so it was a piece of cake!

It's gotten really late so I'll try to post more tomorrow morning about how I hooked up the tank behind the seat. I spent my day doing that today and have more photos to post.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Here is a shot of the auxiliary tank’s spout that I will be hooking up eventually:



The tank is held up by 2-14 inch long 1/2 inch diameter carriage bolts. Towards the upper right corner of this photo you can see where the diamond plate deck has cracked from the load of the tank. I will be repairing that before I get to actually hooking the tank up.

The first thing I decided to do was to remove the OEM fuel line that went through the floor and bend the lower portion to point towards the driver's side where the selector valve is located:



Because I wanted a rigid line in the cab, I cut off the end for the neoprene hose and installed an inverted flare coupling for a steel line extension. The plastic cap is from the local hardware store and fits the old hole great:



The challenge now was to have my new line follow the floor as closely as possible to reduce the chance of damage later on. Because this would involve at least 3 bends I needed to place them in the correct orientation to the coupling and to the original line. Soooo, I made this and cut the vee groove that will allow me to use it with small automotive brake lines up to 5/16 fuel lines:



By clamping the tool to the new line, parallel to the floor, I could remove the line and visually line up the bender in the shop in the same plane as the tool. In the foreground the line is marked w/a felt tip pen where the bends are to be. This allowed me to have it go through a rather small hole protected by a plastic grommet for electrical wires:



It should be noted that it didn't come out perfectly on the first trial but needed a very small amount of tweaking to get it as shown in the final view.

More to follow ........................

[GASoline71]

Such a badass truck, and I'm diggin' your story too!

Gary

[jhe.1973]

Thanks GASoline71,

Taking and editing photos, writing the descriptions and posting it all takes more time than I would like. However, I am glad to do it all when I see that the thread is being viewed.

Getting comments like yours (and the others) is frosting on the cake!

[jhe.1973]

Sooo,

Following along with my fuel line saga, I pinched an insulated clip under a tank clamp as shown:



This, combined with the small floor hole, made the entire line very rigid, reducing the chance of damage from anything knocking around the cab. Once it was clamped above the floor I started to bend it by hand underneath to get the orientation right and finished the bend in the shop.

Here is how it looks all hooked up to the selector valve:



The fuel pump has arrived along with a pressure regulator and gauge. I'll be making a rubber mounting system for the pump and it's filter today.

Hopefully, I can install it all pretty soon ..... but we all know how that goes ...... something about life getting in the way ......

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Because I got a late start today I didn't expect to get much done on the truck. I thought this fuel pump mounting plate w/rubber isolators might be all:



Daylight was fading but I figured I'd just go under and look around for a mounting spot. I wanted a spot that wasn't too rusty and to my surprise, just two holes to drill and finished. The inboard stud even picks up the reinforcing channel for the seat bolts ..... YAY!



Here's how it looks from on top:



Looking rearward to view the inboard stud for the rubber mount:



The fuel pressure regulator and gauge came today but I don't know if I will be able to get back to the fuel system right away.

I measured the roof sheet metal temperature late this afternoon and it was 69 degrees. It's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow and I may try to get the roof sealed. It won't be pretty but if I can keep it from leaking through another winter it will be worth the effort.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

Little bit of progress today cuz I got an even later start than yesterday.

AAARRGGHHH!!

There, I'm much better now.

Assembled the fuel pressure regulator and gauge:



After struggling to get what looks like a simple line from selector valve to the pump/filter here it is now:



Looking towards the rear:



I'll get the clamps on the neoprene connecting hose tomorrow. It was quite dark by this time and I was getting c..c..cold....

[LT7A]

That's a cool rig. You have figured out good ways to use it. Earning its keep and getting fixed up at the same time makes for a good story. Thanks for posting.

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

I'll get back to the fuel pump upgrade soon, but here's a shot I came across now while looking for something else. It's a refrigerated railroad boxcar genset I bought in 2014. It's mounted on an old military water trailer.

I just had lifted the entire assembly from a U-Haul double axle open trailer. I am pretty sure the genset with its 3-51 GMC diesel engine is +/- 3000 pounds so it's not as heavy as that shaper I posted earlier:



Ya'll may have noticed in the photo of the shaper hanging from the boom that I had the trailer hitch of the wrecker blocked up to keep the springs from having to bear the weight. I didn't bother with that when I lifted the genset and moved it under cover.

This shows where I had backed it in as far as I could. The rear squat isn't too bad even with the boom extended much of the way out:



And here is how it resides today:

[jhe.1973]

Originally Posted by LT7A

That's a cool rig. You have figured out good ways to use it. Earning its keep and getting fixed up at the same time makes for a good story. Thanks for posting.

Your welcome, and thank you for viewing the thread !!

[jhe.1973]

I guess that 2014 was a busy year for me and my wrecker!!!!!

Here I was unloading the 11 foot long outer frame and rubber mounts that I salvaged from a 14,000 pound genset:





This was/is how I often unload a trailer or a truck in the alley before moving the item inside my yard. Who says you need a forklift to move things?



This genset was located in a communications bunker 22 feet underground.

I had to lift the genset out of it's outer frame and snake it through a narrow doorway and then move it across the bunker.

Oh, one more thing .... there was no getting heavy equipment down there so it had to be done by hand with simple tools.

After I had that frame back home I went back one Saturday and did the moving. Here it is about 4 hours after I had started (I'm a slender 6 feet tall):



I posted this photo in case anyone thought my 14,000 pound claim was a misprint.

Yep, same hat that was in the 4th photo of my original post to this thread!

Now if only I can get the same mileage out of my wrecker that I get out of my clothes .............

[D.B]

Hey, thanks for posting the pics of you working with your truck. Very cool and interesting to see what people do. Looking forward to reading and seeing more of your truck stories.

Happy Holidays!!

[sixty8HDC30]

That is mighty impressive! whenever I'm alone and think I can't move something by myself I'm gonna think of this picture haha

[jhe.1973]

Hi Everyone,

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!

We celebrated with our daughter's family (in-laws etc.) Great bunch and always a good time.

Now back to where I left off with the fuel system.

My next challenge was to route the fuel line from the pump up to the carb. I preferred to keep the line on the same side of the truck as the pump. I also wanted it fastened to the cab and not the frame. So to start with I bent a TIG welding rod to fit the path I wanted to take:



I was shooting for it to come up in this area:



Working with the original line from the tank, that I assume was original, gave me an end already designed for a neoprene hose.

With the bender in a vise, I followed the shape of the welding rod as close as I could:



I now needed it to bend towards the passenger side of the cab so I made some clamps to firmly hold what I had so far:



This view is where the last clamp below is, right before the line bends up towards the firewall:



By clamping it here and near the pump, the line is firmly mounted so I could start angling it towards the engine.

I'll show how the line comes out near the pump in the next post ................

[jhe.1973]

Continued from the last post ..................

As mentioned, here is how the line comes out near the pump:



Because of the holiday I didn't get to work on the truck for a few days. When I did get back to it I got the pump hooked up and the line clamped:



At this point, I used another one of the clamps to secure the line as it came up right to the firewall:



Just another view:



By making several small bends by hand from this last clamp I was able to keep the line from kinking.

I need to mention that fitting this line took several hours of trail and error tweaking with the line in and out countless times.

Some of you no doubt recognize that these clamps are made from EMT clamps. I have a bunch of these left over from hooking up power in my shop and it only took 20 minutes to make the 4 shown.

If there is any interest, I took photos of making the clamps and I would be happy to show how I did it. I'm still new here and I don't want to waste time/words explaining something y'all might not be interested in.

[jhe.1973]

Finished the line to the carb:



With the air cleaner on and all done:



All that's left is to wire the pump.

I have 19 photos showing how I have routed the wires and put a lighted switch in the dash. That is going to take awhile to write it all up. It's getting late, so I'll get to that tomorrow.

Many thanks to all you viewers!