Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by RDrancher

Looks good! I remember the first set I did...more than a couple decades ago. No cool tools included back then, and I butchered a couple wires up pretty good. Those wires got a little short before I was done. lol

I hear you brother, I was quite surprised my first few turned out as good as they did, and that's why two (#2 & #4) are a bit longer cause I built in some length in them just in case I messed up, ha ha

well here's one half done

[enaberif]

That black "goop" is just non-conducting electrical paste. You can buy that stuff in jars/cans form most automotive stores.

I personally would veer away from those types of caps.. But hey whatever works for you.

[rusty76]

Looking good.

[Gregski]

~ Now Off To A Birthday Party, I hate stopping like that midway through, but sometimes life gets in the way! ~

[Gregski]

well after attending three birthday parties this weekend it was time to get back to work on the truck

I made one mistake in terms of making my own spark plug wires

I should have tested the wires for resistance before cutting and building them

MSD makes two types of wires (that I know of) their high end Super Duper Conductor wires RATED AT 50 OH MY GOSHes per foot and their cheaper ones called the Street Fire RATED AT 500 OHMs per foot (we got the Street Fire ones) hold on to that thought

... but all is not lost, just wanted to give you that tip

[Gregski]

so after The Greg made all his 8 wires this is how they tested in terms of resistance, now keep in mind the magic number is 500 Ohms per foot

#1 - 26" long scored 5,600 so 2,584 Ohms per foot - BAD

#2 - 26" long read 5400 so 2,492 Ohms per foot - BAD

#3 - 25" long read 1020 so 489 Ohms per foot - GOOD

#4 - 25" long read 1050 so 504 Ohms per foot - GOOD

#5 - 36" long read 1,418,000 so 472,666 Ohms per foot - INSANE

#6 - 20" long read 873 so 523 Ohms per foot - GOOD

#7 - 22" long read 911 so 546 Ohms per foot - GOOD

#8 - 22" long read 53,800 so 29,345 Ohms per foot - TERRIBLE

NOTE: 22" and 26" are standard generic universal wire standard lengths, so four of the wires I made were sort of a wasted effort

[Gregski]

here's a picture of #8 and it shows that the problem was not with my crimping but even after I cut the crimped ends off the wire still read high

Note how the Multimeter is set to 200K Ohms that's 200 thousand, so 200,000 is the scale, so 50.3 x 1,000 = 50,300 Ohms

[Gregski]

now I never made my own spark plug wires before so I decided to cut them in such a way that if things went South I could maybe recover by being able to make another wire from the part of the long wire that I cut off

so for example if I had to make a 22" wire I did not make it out of the 31" one but I used the 55" instead that way I could make two 22" wires out of it if need be, follow me Vern?

anyway this way I had enuff wire to make another 22" wire for #8 also MSD threw in 3 extra crimp ends so I was golden

this time when making the wire I tested along every step of the process

so cut the wire to length and test it

crimp one end and test it

crimp the other end and test it

and it turned out good, it now reads 948 so 517 Ohms per foot - GOOD

[Gregski]

I also made a new #5 wire though its now only 32" long but with some creative re routing it works, it reads 1322 so 495 Ohms per foot - GOOD

Note: I had to remove and reuse one of the crimped ends but taking my time I was able to pry it off with a small flat screw driver and a 12oz can of Bud Light

[Gregski]

hey look fellers if I am going through all the trouble of making my own wires I do want them to be perfect you know what I'm sayin'

so I think I have enough wire to make one more 26" one, to replace #1 and I will use the extra coil wire they provided to make a new #2 wire it is also 26"

I think I will be giving MSD a call tomorrow, interesting that they included such a card along with their product, hmmm makes one wonder how many "difficulties" people had with their product

you know what? 50% failure rate that ain't too good!

[RDrancher]

Wow, that's not good! Makes me wonder if their pre-cut sets are within spec...or any other brand for that matter.

[MikeB]

Mine are MSD Street Fires like yours, so I just went out and measured them. Only did five wires due to attack of laziness.

nos 1 and 2: approx 1.9K (They are the longest, so this makes sense)
nos 5 and 7: approx 950 ohms
no 4: 1.45K

So, I'm gonna call mine good until I get motivated to do the remaining three. It's hot out there!

Will probably have to make new wires when I install headers, so will go with better MSD or Taylor wires then.

For what it's worth, I read where brand new carbon core wires have 10K ohms/ft resistance or more.

[MikeB]

The MSD Heli-core wires come with this type terminals. Not that they would have solved your problems, but they make for a better crimp than folding the conductor down between jacket and terminal. Unfortunately they don't seem to make Heli-Core sets anymore, so the next step up is insanely expensive Super Conductor sets. Hello Taylor Spiro Pro!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by MikeB

Mine are MSD Street Fires like yours, so I just went out and measured them. Only did five wires due to attack of laziness.

nos 1 and 2: approx 1.9K (They are the longest, so this makes sense)
nos 5 and 7: approx 950 ohms
no 4: 1.45K

So, I'm gonna call mine good until I get motivated to do the remaining three. It's hot out there! ...

Good job, now catch a second wind and finish the other three, ha ha

[Gregski]

OK, I just rebuilt the #2 spark plug wire and the resistance went down from 5400 to 967 so 483 Ohms per foot - Outstanding

and I also made a new # 1 spark plug wire and it went down from 5600 to 985 so 492 Ohms per foot - Spot On

well the good news is I can now build spark plug wires in my sleep, ha ha

[Gregski]

fellow truckers just wanted to give you a quick update on what The Greg has been up to, check it out last Thursday was a 50% Off sale at the local Pick N Pulls, so I found this 1977 with some goodies on it

[Gregski]

so although I was broke I scrounged up some moneys to get a couple things

1. I bought a manual steering box if for nothing else to use it as a core trade in for when I buy a brand new one. I paid $40 bucks for it and the core trade in value is $150 so I should come up ahead on this.

yeah still considering the power steering to manual conversion (like an idiot, I know)

glad this was an easy pull cause it was over 100°F by the time I got to the yard, it was so hot the metal wheel barrel handles that they loan you were burning my hands

[Gregski]

a little rant about Pick N Pull pricing scheme, so say you want a steering box like I did, ok so you do a little research and you look up the price and it's NOTHING, cheap, ok, then you go there and you pull the part and you go to pay for it, and this is how it goes

oh, is this from a car or a truck, oh a truck ok well its that much more

oh it still has a pitman arm on it so that's more for that

oh do you have a core to trade it, no, ok so its $10 bucks more for a core charge

ok, than there's some BS disposal fee

ok than there's taxes

blah blah blah

mind you $40 was the 50% off price so otherwise I would have had to pay $80 for this piece of junk

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by Gregski

a little rant about Pick N Pull pricing scheme, so say you want a steering box like I did, ok so you do a little research and you look up the price and it's NOTHING, cheap, ok, then you go there and you pull the part and you go to pay for it, and this is how it goes

oh, is this from a car or a truck, oh a truck ok well its that much more

oh it still has a pitman arm on it so that's more for that

oh do you have a core to trade it, no, ok so its $10 bucks more for a core charge

ok, than there's some BS disposal fee

Core charge at a junk yard? That's a new one.
Disposal fee for what? The core you should have given them?

Greg, this is Sanity calling. Convert to manual steering? Do you have a 24" diameter steering wheel? Or Arnold's biceps?

I went the opposite direction on my old 69 C10. Converting to PS was more bang-for-the-buck than any mod I did on that truck, just ahead of dual exhausts. And I did it all with junkyard parts. Only downside was my then 17 year old daughter decided she liked to drive it.

[SkinnyG]

Originally Posted by MikeB

Do you have..... Arnold's biceps?

You will

[D13]

The single complaint my 6'6", 300# father had about his 1981 GMC with a straight six and 3OTT (ie a light as you can get truck) was that the manual steering with the stock wheel was very high effort. I actually used to have to have the seat belt cinched down tight to keep me in the seat to turn the wheels sitting still on concrete.

I strongly beg to to reconsider. On the other hand your wife will drive the truck once in a concrete parking lot and then will never do it again.

I have manual steering in the truck I'm looking at drag racing. All the DD's will / do be power, and I'm a man who likes my trucks with no frills (5 squares, exactly 1 set power doors...)

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by MikeB

... Converting to PS was more bang-for-the-buck than any mod I did on that truck, just ahead of dual exhausts. And I did it all with junkyard parts. Only downside was my then 17 year old daughter decided she liked to drive it.

did I mention I have a daughter too, who will be driving in a few years, ha ha, a man must protect his investment

[Gregski]

2. I found this Hurst 3 speed shifter so I bought it, for the stick mostly, I paid $15 bucks for it, if the transmission was a 4 speed it would have come home with me too

the truck appears to have been an automatic that was converted to a stick

[Gregski]

so for now these things go in my Git To It Sum Day Pile - GTISDP, along with the new(ish) seat, clutch radiator fan, and what ever I have already forgotten about... I'm sure you know how that goes - but gentlemen The Greg is still having fun so its just a matter of time as it always be

[Gregski]

Door weatherstripping showed up from Classic Parts, I hope to get these on this weekend, I forgot to buy the special glue / adhesive from them so I hope maybe one of youz can recommend the proper one to use, thanks

I think I only paid like $30 bucks for the pair for these, score!