'50 chevy 3100

[Matt_50]

Productive morning today.

Ignition switch, headlight light switch, fan switch, dome light, and my little cluster of gauges installed! Yesterday I got the radio and speaker in but I still need to wire them up.

[8man]

That's very difficult upside down. Still, nice work.

[Matt_50]

Headlights in!


I also pulled the driver door off to work on it easier. Awhile back I had to repair a crack in the middle of a dent in the door. A PO had filled the area with lead and bondo. Not sure when the crack occurred, when the dent happened or after a while but it was a pain.

Found out part of the reason there was so much bondo was due to a couple of high spots. Someone used enough bondo to clear the high spots and smooth out a nice door lol. So the first thing I did today was to beat those down.

[Matt_50]

Messed with the door off and on all day. A little paint to help me see it in the light and it is much better than before!

In the right light I can see it still needs a little more attention but it turned out good. It was hard to be patient.

[joedoh]

heyooooo!

[8man]

Amen to the patience!

[Matt_50]

I have constantly changing ongoing list of what I need to do, change, modify, buy...

Helps me not to forget anything and today I marked off a few things.

I got some screws I needed and finished hooking up some ground wires.

Wired the radio and the speakers.

Wired my new usb charger outlet.

Replaced and wired up the neutral safety switch.

Made a battery hold down.

Cleaned, painted and installed turn signal covers.

Doubled checked all unused wires and capped them off as needed.

And I moved the alternator charge wire. Had it going to battery but was told it would be better to move it to my terminal block on firewall.

Wired my brake light switch too. Slight modification was needed but looks good.

Yesterday I cleaned up the engine, tightened p/s lines and filled reservoir. Shined up the air cleaner a bit too.

Tomorrow I plan to do the oil change and I think add a little oil to cylinders.

[8man]

Keep it up, you'll be cruising in no time.

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by Matt_50

I have constantly changing ongoing list of what I need to do, change, modify, buy...

Helps me not to forget anything and today I marked off a few things.

I got some screws I needed and finished hooking up some ground wires.

Wired the radio and the speakers.

Wired my new usb charger outlet.

Replaced and wired up the neutral safety switch.

Made a battery hold down.

Cleaned, painted and installed turn signal covers.

Doubled checked all unused wires and capped them off as needed.

And I moved the alternator charge wire. Had it going to battery but was told it would be better to move it to my terminal block on firewall.

Wired my brake light switch too. Slight modification was needed but looks good.

Yesterday I cleaned up the engine, tightened p/s lines and filled reservoir. Shined up the air cleaner a bit too.

Tomorrow I plan to do the oil change and I think add a little oil to cylinders.

Wow, you are working hard!

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by Matt_50

I have constantly changing ongoing list of what I need to do, change, modify, buy...

Helps me not to forget anything and today I marked off a few things.

I got some screws I needed and finished hooking up some ground wires.

Wired the radio and the speakers.

Wired my new usb charger outlet.

Replaced and wired up the neutral safety switch.

Made a battery hold down.

Cleaned, painted and installed turn signal covers.

Doubled checked all unused wires and capped them off as needed.

And I moved the alternator charge wire. Had it going to battery but was told it would be better to move it to my terminal block on firewall.

Wired my brake light switch too. Slight modification was needed but looks good.

Yesterday I cleaned up the engine, tightened p/s lines and filled reservoir. Shined up the air cleaner a bit too.

Tomorrow I plan to do the oil change and I think add a little oil to cylinders.

Lots of little things. Making progress though! Funny that you have a USB charger outlet. That's what I'm putting in instead of a cigarette lighter adapter.

[Matt_50]

Yea, I didn't want to have an adapter for a cig lighter. A dual usb outlet works for me.


This morning,

Fuel filter done.

Oil change.

Spark plug wires.

A tiny little bit of mystery oil in each cylinder. Less than a tablespoon. Spark plugs loosely in until I get back next week. I'll crank engine with plugs out to blow out excess oil.

Started messing with dash pieces last night and a little more today. I need to repair bottom trim piece. I want to make a cup holder that fits in ashtray spot at some point too.

[28TudorAZ]

Looking really good.

[8man]

Waiting to see the cupholder.

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by Matt_50

Yea, I didn't want to have an adapter for a cig lighter. A dual usb outlet works for me.


This morning,

Fuel filter done.

Oil change.

Spark plug wires.

A tiny little bit of mystery oil in each cylinder. Less than a tablespoon. Spark plugs loosely in until I get back next week. I'll crank engine with plugs out to blow out excess oil.

Started messing with dash pieces last night and a little more today. I need to repair bottom trim piece. I want to make a cup holder that fits in ashtray spot at some point too.

Funny, that's exactly the hole I'm putting mine. Did you have to enlarge it at all?

[Matt_50]

I'll need to a bit, it's just hanging right now.

[joedoh]

I put lighter sockets on both sides, key and lighter. the donors come with multiples haha

keep it up!

[Matt_50]

It runs!!

First thing was to hook up battery. Horn started blaring. I unplugged the horns but how do I fix that?

I cranked engine to build up pressure, bring up fuel, and to clear cylinders of the mystery oil I squirted in.

Hooked up plugs and with a little help I got it running. Unfortunately there was a fuel leak. I added a fuel filter just before the carb and the little squeeze clamps that came with it weren't holding tight enough. In fact I should have noticed the filter moved about.

Just got a foot of hose, new worm clamps, and got that installed again just now. Tomorrow I will get the engine fully warmed up and look for any other issues. I hope not to find lol.

[Matt_50]

The steering column is from a 1970 c10. No steering wheel on it. Is this why the horn goes off?


Next, unless I bend the arm on the gas pedal; the throttle cable is a little to long. I'm not getting the full motion at the pedal. Can I shorten the cable?

[joedoh]

woooooooooooooo! congrats!

unless you have slack before the cable starts to move, shortening the cable isnt the answer, you have to change the pedal or arm for more travel.

funny story, I put CBR600 F4i throttles on a mazda truck a million years ago and the handlebar grip was set up for 1/4 turn full throttle. when I hooked it up to the gas pedal, it was like a binary switch, ON or OFF haha. I extended the arm where it attached to the throttle shaft so that I had normal amounts of travel on the gas pedal. the full throttle burnouts on the test run were fun though hahahaha

[Matt_50]

I misspoke. The cable is too long and the pedal is swung too far forward. If that makes sense. I think if the cable was shorter then the pedal would start in the right spot and then I could push it down with my foot with full movement.

[Matt_50]

Any advice on the horn? It's a new turn signal switch assembly.

Am I correct that the horn wire is hot and it is grounded when button is pushed down? But this button isnt pushed down....

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Matt_50

I misspoke. The cable is too long and the pedal is swung too far forward. If that makes sense. I think if the cable was shorter then the pedal would start in the right spot and then I could push it down with my foot with full movement.

might be, give it a shot, the "too long" you are talking about is the distance from the stationary point that holds the cable housing to the cable end itself where it attaches to the pedal. so if you held the pedal up where it should be there would be "slack" in it, dead space where there is no pulling going on till a certain point.

on the horn, that contact is just to pass the horn signal from the steering wheel button to the horn relay. its not necessary to push down on it, its just a pass through, it rides on a contact ring on the back of the steering wheel, and that contact ring is wired to the horn button. usually the other side of the button is wired to a contact that touches the center of the splined shaft (or if your wheel has a die cast center, is screwed to the die cast). the reason its honking is there is ground on that wire that shouldnt be there. might be at the bottom, where the wire is just laying loose and is grounding out on something. could be grounded at the horn relay.

[Matt_50]

Can I pull out the horn relay, set voltmeter to ohms, can set leads on black wire of relay on column side and one to a clean bare metal spot? To test for a ground inside the column?

[joedoh]

yep thats the way I would do it, except set the VOM to continuity (beep)

[Matt_50]

Thanks! I'll try and test tomorrow.

I also added a switch to manually turn on the fan. I tapped into the single wire going from the relay to the probe. I ran that wire back to switch and also ran a wire to ground off the switch.

It works, I can manually turn on the fan.

But... if I tapped into a grounding wire, and also grounded the second wire.... how is the light on the switch able to come on? It lit up and I didnt think it would, only used two prongs. These switches have three prongs so you could have it light up if you wanted. Is the wire going to the probe hot?