Sloth's Build

[OrrieG]

I remember wrestling with those distributors and I have pretty small hands. You need to make sure that none of the screws or wire connectors inside and outside the dist are grounded. If I remember right when tightening the nut on the wire connector outside it can turn the inside and short to the housing or dist. plate, which will keep the points from working.

I do not know if you can test for spark by wiring directly out of the coil. I just take a phillips screwdriver, shove a plug wire in it and hold it next to the block (about 1/4" away) while the engine turns, if everything is working you will get a blue spark when the cylinder is firing. Since you don't have the new cap, that might be the missing link.

[Russell Ashley]

Here is a way to check for spark when working alone. Remove the distributor cap and rotate the engine until the points are closed. Take the coil wire out of the cap and put a spark plug in it, and ground the plug to the engine. The other end is still in the coil. Turn on the ignition or just hot wire to the positive side of the coil. Open the points with a screwdriver or other tool and the plug should spark. If you don't get a spark there is a problem between the coil and distributor, maybe what Orrie said above. The spark should be blue. A weak, red, or no spark might mean a bad condenser

[_Ogre]

Wah Wah Waaaaaaah? i think your truck is laughing at you

spark, fuel and compression with proper timing should work
point gap should be set at 16
plug gap sounds a little tight, it's been a while on a 6 cly but i'm thinking 35 would be right
did you ground the spark plug? check this document out for setting the distributor
wire between the coil and distributor should go to the negative side of the coil
if you have a wire from the battery to the coil... when and if it starts, you won't be able to turn it off
that could be bad if it runs wot or has no oil pressure. don't do that.

[Russell Ashley]

If that Wah Wah Waaaaaaah? sound means it seems to spin over a little faster at some point in a revolution of the crank it might mean that there is little or no compression on one of the cylinders, or worst case the cam isn't spinning at all. I would squirt enough oil into the cylinders to be sure it got completely around the rings and then check the compression in all cylinders. I wouldn't be too concerned about the amount of compression at this time as that it's somewhat even. If you have low/no compression on one cylinder but even on the rest it should still at least attempt to start.

Ogre beat me to the plug gap: .020 is too close, should be .035.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[danheit]

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies and help! To start off, my plugs are at around 33 (just left them with the plug manufacturer gap, they were all the same), and my points were at 20. HOWEVER-- I did find out today, that it really helps to think things through when setting the gap on points!! Did you know that points open and close? Did you know that when they are supposed to be closed, mechanically of course, that if you set the gap to 20 THEN, then when they open they will be around 40 and never make contact or get a spark? Well, I finally figured that one out today. Long story short, I went and purchased a new coil from NAPA, and picked up my new cap. Now, everything in the ignition system has been replaced but the distributor itself, the wiring, and the ballast. Put the new parts on, and no spark. Looked around on line and here a little bit (yes, I actually use the search function) on why I would have no spark from the coil, and came across a very crude, common sense way to test the coil with a test light. With that, I found out that the coil was good, but something was wrong with my points and/or condenser. That is what led me to figuring out I had my points set waaaaay to far apart. Properly regapped them, sprayed some ether down the carb, and she sprung to life! Well ho-ly crap. After this, it was time to get down to business! I attached the radiator hoses and filled the rad, pulled the old fuel filter, installed a new one, and ran a rubber line from the fuel pump to a 2 gal gas can and began to start her up! The truck ran, but only if I feathered the gas. The carb needs rebuilt badly. I pulled the top cover off and it looked terrible in there. Everything was clogged and had thick sludge buildup. Ordered my kit today! I will also point out that the few seconds I had the truck going, with the feathering of the gas, the engine heated up REALLY fast, and I had a bit of smoke coming out of the breather cap. I am sure this isn't really that big of a deal, but either way, I want to get it cleaned up and out. Any suggestions?

Today I got it running, tomorrow will be a rebuild of the carb, and start on the brakes. Once I get it running and stopping, it's off to the kingpins and on the road!

[hemifalcon]

May be a good idea to replace your thermostat--and before that--run a hose into the thermostat housing and let fresh water run through the engine... If you haven't changed the oil-filter prior to running--you should take care of that---
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[OrrieG]

Glad it is started. Expect it to be a little loose and smokey if its been sitting. It will take a while for the rings to reseat, lifters to get unstuck, seals to swell back up, etc. When I got my 64 it ran like crap the first two weeks I drove it as a DD, I thought for sure I was going to have to rebuild the engine. After it got settled in I drove it another 45 K before retiring while still running so I could preserve the original number matching block. There is also the good possibility that it is close to worn out unless the sellers told you that it had recently (like within the last 50K miles) been rebuilt. With no pvc system and just the tube you will get blow by in the engine compartment. Make sure you have all the holes in the firewall plugged.

[danheit]

Thanks Orrie. I'm hopeful on the truck as I have SOME documentation indicating this is a low mileage truck. The title was swapped in 1980 at 64K miles and according to Sloth's sister, it was put on a farm. Truck only shows 80something miles now. Normally I would say no way, but the wiper linkage is fairly tight (old car trick for checking mileage) and the doors close like butter. One curiosity I do have, how tight should that tube be seated in the engine block? Mine was wire tied to the fuel line near the fuel pump to keep it from popping out. It is very loose and just sits there in the hole.

Hemifalcon, I agree that there are def. some things that need done before running it for any period of time. I am actually going to pull the thermostat housing just like you stated and R/R it. I think the housing may be cracked, as it is leaking pretty good from right there. I also need to replace both radiator hoses, but especially the upper. Anybody have any idea where to get radiator hoses from? Local parts stores don't carry them (I ran into this on my last truck) and last time I had to build one from another hose cut down. I really don't like the flex hoses either though. Gonna throw on a chrome water neck just for fun, new thermostat, and see if I can get the cooling system up to par. The truck got pretty hot, pretty quickly. As far as the oil filter goes, currently there is no external filter on the truck, although an extra one was included in the pile of parts, still attached to another manifold. Going to look into installing that one, just have to find out exactly how it plumbs into the engine, and find a filter somewhere. Oil def. needs changed, as it is a nice dirty black, but it at least doesn't appear to be broken down.

According to the last registration sticker on the windshield, the truck was last driven in 1992. Guess it wouldn't pass NC emissions so it got parked. Thank God we don't have that crap down here!

[OrrieG]

The breather tube is a tight driven fit into the block, not bolt. Here is a link to a thread on the oil filter plumbing. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...235+oil+filter The block is already tapped for the fitting. You can still get filters at NAPA.

[danheit]

Orrie, thanks for that link. I don't suppose you have a pic of the filter installed in real life do you? It's kind of hard to see where the front hose goes to in that diagram. Also, my breather tube is REALLY loose in the block. Any way to fix that? I purchased my carb kit this morning around 1030, right after church, but then a quick trip to lunch ended up in us taking a quick trip to Southport, NC (about 45 miles away) and spending the day there. As much as I love working on the trucks, it was too beautiful of a day to not spend it with my girls. Sunny, about 78 degrees, perfect weather, light breeze coming off the water, and old timey ice cream store.

[OrrieG]

Google "235 chevy oil filter" images, lots of photos turn up, I don't have one that clearly shows the lines attached to the block.

[danheit]

She's ALIVE! ALIVE I SAY!!!! Muahh ha ha ha ha ha! Sloth lives and breathes!

OK, enough with my mad scientist garble.....

Finally got around to putting my carb back together today. With only one minor mishap in the rebuild, everything came together pretty easily. I'm just glad I had an extra carb to use for parts, otherwise I would have been kinda screwed! There's 2 little check valve balls in the carb, a big one and a little one. DON'T GET THEM MIXED UP, TRUST ME!

Got the carb re-installed, everything hooked up, connected my red plastic racing fuel cell (2 gallon gas can sitting on the ground) and with very minimal effort, she fired right up. Couldn't run her too long as my water pump has the pulley removed, no screws to re-attach, and there is no generator hooked up, so I wouldn't have spark for all that long, but I am well on my way to having her driving. Gonna see if I can get the generator (and the extra one in the bed) checked, find out which one works, and re-install it, find the proper sized bolts for the water pump, throw everything back together and have her running strong. I also believe I need 2 new radiator hoses, the top one always has been really hard to find and I have had to cut a bigger one down in the past, but we shall see. After that it's on to the brakes. I have no pedal pressure whatsoever, it goes straight to the floor. Hoping that I just need to re-bleed the lines. It looks like I have new rear wheel cylinders, so hoping that has something to do with it. Rear brakes look new all together. I'm really pumped!

[danheit]

So today finally saw the start to a new braking system. My m/c was in horrible shape and all clogged up and bone dry when I first got the truck. Today I went through the 3 hour ordeal of getting it off the truck, and I finally have it all pulled apart. Going to order a rebuild kit from somewhere and hone the cylinder. Then back it goes with all new brake lines and hoses down to the wheel cylinders. Those appear to be virtually brand new. I wasn't able to look really well into the m/c, but hopefully honing it will do the trick. Off to bed so I can get digging in her tomorrow!

[OrrieG]

The brake pedal is a tapered spline it into the pivot arm. Back off the nut so you are not banging on the threads and after soaking it good with penetrant a few good taps should break it loose. The pivot shaft is a tight driven fit, I seem to remember it has a notch with a cross bolt that holds it in place, like the spring shackle pins.

[danheit]

Yeah, I was able to get the pivot arm free with a ball peen hammer and a LOT of small strikes in a confined space. Thankfully there was still grease in the center, otherwise that would have been MUCH worse getting it out. I did, however, destroy the zerk fitting, not knowing which side to hammer on, I worked both. As of right now, the brake pedal is still hanging through the firewall, with the pivot shaft attached to it. I tried the penetrating oil and tapping on the bolt at the end of the threads yesterday, but I just can't get into a good position to get at it. Either my steering column, column shift linkage, engine or tranny are in the way, no matter where I put it. I may take a few more whacks at it, but not much. I have the m/c off, which was the important part. Giving that a good rebuild should do the trick for me. I would have liked to have gone with a dual reservoir m/c, but the bracket is just too costly and time consuming. That, and I really don't want to mess with trying to fab something right now. I need to finish too much other stuff. Sad part is I still have a good dual m/c sitting on my garage floor right now from my old CJ. It would cut down on the cost significantly, but the only prop valves I have are for front disc rear drum configs.

[_Ogre]

someone on this forum recently posted their version of a dual mc mount using the stock mc with the back cut off
using the whole stock mc for the pedal and ran the new rod thru the stock mc to the new mc
i thought it was ingenious and the easiest conversion i'd seen, one of those; doh, why didn't i think of that ideas.
maybe someone will see this and post a link

[danheit]

Thanks Ogre, I think I remembered seeing that as well. Today saw no work on the '57, but I did get to make a LITTLE headway on finishing the body mounts on the '55. Maybe one day I will have one of these trucks up and running!

[made2drag]

cool, this gives me hope on my rusted 56

[danheit]

Well, Sloth hasn't seen much love lately, other than a short trip into the garage and out of the rain. I actually almost sold her a couple weeks ago. Got a wild hair and put an ad on CL for 2500, received a ton of calls and emails, but couldn't go through with it! Anyhow, today is going to hopefully provide a little more headway on the ole girl. My plans are to try to locate new radiator hoses, which are surprisingly harder to find than you would think! put my water pump pulley back on, figure out which generator I have that actually works (if any) and re-install, and throw in my electric fan. Hopefully then I can get rolling on the brakes and fuel tank this coming week. I am finally feeling better after a month long cold and respiratory infection that seems to have run rampant through my area, taking out children and grown men alike!
Sadly though, I am thinking Sloth might be sold when I get her up and running well (and stopping) to free up some garage space (so I can move my Jeep back in) and to free up funds for the finish of the 55. We will see. I may end up keeping my cheap truck and drive the crap out of it.