What did you do to your truck today? Chapter II

[TwoFiftyShifter]

My "budget" 71 is costing quite a bit - but I get enjoyment from it. So who cares? At least the value isn't depreciating like a late model car.

It's only money.

[mud.man.rj]

Plus it's nice to see old iron cruising down the road, people just appreciate the old trucks, as for the new over priced trucks even lifted or lowered just don't have it in comparison plus a lot more of them on the road.

[wpavlis]

Climbed all up inside the engine compartment to change the spark plugs. Passenger side was easy because I still have the inner fender removed. Just stradled the suspension. Drivers side made me glad I don't have headers.

[snipescastle2]

Well, I didn't really get anything done except re-attach the wedge base for my rear view mirror to the windshield....seems this 700R4 my brother-in-law built for me hits second so hard, the rear view mirror keeps coming off the windshield! seriously, it does.....any way's, I had posted before that I found an unusual noise in my front end while turning left or right, come to find out, the pinch bolt that clamps the steering shaft to the rag joint was too long ( I used the pinch bolt that came with the Van Tilt column I bought) any way's, I was trying to find the noise and when I had finished checking the front end, I grabbed the steering wheel, and Voila! there it was....the pinch bolt was rubbing the sheath of the emergency brake cable so, I relocated the clamp that holds the cable to the inner fender, noise gone.....

Now, I had a noise coming from the rear end while making turns, and I believe I have figured that out too. when I rebuilt my 12 bolt rear end, I added the gear lube with limited slip additive in the oil, never thought I had to add the posi additive in addition to the gear oil that had it blended in it, well, to make a long story short, when I made my turns, it felt like something "Ratcheting/grabbing" and the noise/vibration, was probably my posi unit not agreeing with the gear lube I was running. I bought the regular 80w 90 gear lube and a bottle of the GM posi additive, and I'm planning on doing that tonight, hopefully, that will handle it. I read a few horror stories about people running synthetic gear oil ruining their posi carrier....an ounce of prevention........
Have a Great Day!
Ben

[In The Ten Ring]

This is really for yesterday, because I got in at midnight and was too tired to post anything.

Big day yesterday: I picked up the front fender from "paint jail" and OMGosh it is amazing! I wish I had a pic. I think the painter missed the shade but is probably closer to what the truck was originally (it was repainted in 1990). The fender is just amazing. I put that into parents' garage as mine is too small and it was still out-gassing so I was fearful to put it into my house.

I hit the ring of the fuel nozzle with NAPA Rust Treatment to handle the rust there and that seems to have gone well. The inside of the nozzle is rubber now ("renewed") so to protect that I tied a string around a rag, stuffed that down the nozzle, and taped off the outside. After spraying, I pulled out the rag.

When the painter got home from his chores, I picked up the two cowls. He used one to figure out the paint shade and the other is my replacement, again making the color ochre an amazing color. No wonder my dad fell in love with this truck when he saw it on the car lot.

I also ordered the radiator roboticjunky suggested yesterday morning. Hopefully it is actually copper and brass.

[matthamby]

The blasted starter wire has been the proverbial thorn in my side! 2 weeks ago I took the C10 to my buddy to use his lift to change the U-joint in the rear. The first one was too large - if you look back far enough you will see where I burned my arm on the muffler while trying to check the size. Anyway, with the truck on the lift, the U-joint was no trouble at all, we "fixed" the exhaust with some good tubing laying around his shop (just temporary until I can find some headers and re-work it all, properly - we just removed some really bent up and thin pipe up close to the "Y"). We started her up and backed her out, turned her off, cleaned up everything, got ready to leave, click & nothing! We moved the leas going to the battery from the starter - Bam! she was running. 2 nights later I was going to a Men's meeting at the church, decided to take the old girl out, got to the gas station and same thing, fortunately I was able to roll start her. Got to the church and parked such that if I had to I could roll start again, made several comments to the Ford guys there about even having to roll start her it's still better than any of their stuff etc... Well, roll starting in the rain was no fun, but I got her home in the monsoon (talk about those Ford comments biting me right then)!

Last night I checked all of the wires and found what I thought was the culprit - whoever did the engine swap for my grandpa needs never to touch another vehicle! This is the same wire that I tried to couple together and just couldn't get leverage on it. I had to loosen the starter from the engine to get to the connections, this same wire was barely on the starter, I pulled the wire back out far enough I could get to it and get enough leverage to get a good crimp on it, tightened everything up good and replaced the starter on the engine and let it rip!

I drove it to pick up my daughter from cheer, she was happy to see that she was going to be able to ride in it! She likes it almost as much as I do!

[kilrcady]

Believe it or not go with a ford starter solinoid.

[matthamby]

Originally Posted by kilrcady

Believe it or not go with a ford starter solinoid.

Any particular part number?
Would you do that in lieu of an aftermarket electronic starting system?

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm open to any help!

[matthamby]

Let me start by saying I'm not a gear head. So I did a little snooping to see why you would want to put a Ford solinoid on. From what I can tell that only helps if you are having "hot start" issues. I'm not having an issue with hot starts, I had a problem with loose wiring. I do have a 5.7ltr that I have to do a little work to and I am going to be upgrading to a fuel injection system and upgrading the starter and multiple other items. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[matthamby]

Well, irony is not lost on me. I fixed the loose wire to the starter on my truck last night, took it out for a spin. Had to take my youngest daughter to open house tonight, she likes riding in the truck, so we got in, I noticed that I had left the key turned to the accessory position (old truck with no auto cut off = dead battery) so I had to roll start it 3 times tonight, it was so worth it, we had fun! She got out and acted like she was pushing - all 100 pounds of her, she was laughing so hard because she knew she wasn't really helping. She said she may have been helping at 1%.

[1957 Chief]

I finally got to the point that I took some pics and cleaned it up...

[Boog]

Hey neighbor. Truck looks good.

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Boog

Hey neighbor. Truck looks good.

Thanks brother. Maybe I need to ease up your way and meet you. You know Ole Chird? And Mr Doyle? They live up your way.

Bubba

[Boog]

I've heard of Chird. I do know Mr Doyle, bought some parts from him.

[kilrcady]

it also pulls all the wires at a point where you could access them.Only one fat wire to the starter.You could bump the motor with a screwdriver.And yes it primarily used for hot start problems.I had that problem with my Big block with headers.

[In The Ten Ring]

Long day! Borrowed dad's truck, drove 70 miles, bought a set of NOS front inner fenders from a board member.

Drove another 25 miles, left those with the media blaster for cleaning and epoxy priming.

Came back. All day adventure but worth it.

[matthamby]

Kilrcady, thanks, probably won't do that to the 305 in it, but will definitely look at it fir the 5.7ltr

[sKnNyPpY]

Modified up a nifty little bracket to keep the new a/c lines away from the alternator pulley and buttoned up installation of my CPP front sway bar. I've just taken it for a short ride to work and it feels real good around corners and even feels better over bumps and railroad tracks. Drivers side mounting bracket needs a little tweaking to get the a arm connector more upright and I didn't use the one inch spacers so it wouldn't interfere with the steering components and keep the bar level with the truck/ground.

[Already Gone]

Finally went to the local wrecker and got a 1 1/4 inch front sway bar for my Highlander. I already have new from ECE polyurethane bushings with brackets for lowered ( my truck is not lowered ) trucks that will be installed with this sway bar. The Highlander came with the factory front sway bar but I believe those are 7/8th's of an inch thick.

[WorkinLonghorn]

Replaced the broken hood hinge for $10.

Looked in a local classified and found a guy giving away a 1968 GMC 2500 Custom Camper so I took a look. If only I had more room or some parking space I would have snagged it or at least gotten the doors or the Dana 60 etc.

[Ekliptix]

sand blasted the trailing arms, rear drums and rad fan to brand new condition. Painted them all right after and are back in the truck now. Can't believe how quickly this stand blasting works. All done in 15 minutes for $40.

[JJ's Sierra Grande]

Originally Posted by Ekliptix

sand blasted the trailing arms, rear drums and rad fan to brand new condition. Painted them all right after and are back in the truck now. Can't believe how quickly this stand blasting works. All done in 15 minutes for $40.

Is that place in the SE? I used to use a place over there years ago, wasn't sure if it was still there. real convenient and yes cheap.

[toolboxchev]

Originally Posted by Already Gone

Finally went to the local wrecker and got a 1 1/4 inch front sway bar for my Highlander. I already have new from ECE polyurethane bushings with brackets for lowered ( my truck is not lowered ) trucks that will be installed with this sway bar. The Highlander came with the factory front sway bar but I believe those are 7/8th's of an inch thick.

Nice, now to figure out where I can get the rear from.

[Already Gone]

Originally Posted by toolboxchev

Nice, now to figure out where I can get the rear from.

Apparently late 80's and early 90's IROC Camaros and or Firebirds have a rear sway bar that can be adapted to ours trucks pretty easy. Do a search on this site and I'm sure you will find a thread or two on the subject. Hellwig makes a nice bolt on sway bar for our truck and its around 200.00

[Metaldoc]

Originally Posted by Already Gone

Finally went to the local wrecker and got a 1 1/4 inch front sway bar for my Highlander. I already have new from ECE polyurethane bushings with brackets for lowered ( my truck is not lowered ) trucks that will be installed with this sway bar. The Highlander came with the factory front sway bar but I believe those are 7/8th's of an inch thick.

Can that be delivered to my place if you don't mind, I'm in Canada. Just joking I'm still looking.