Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

I put the time and energy on the bump stops since I had been advised not to rely on the internal bump stops. Apparently over time little bits of material from the bump stop will break off and make their way out of the bags and into the dump valves, eventually causing them to malfunction. This may not be a concern for vehicles that aren't driven daily, but I felt it was worth the work to avoid the issue if i could.

[crakarjax]

Originally Posted by HO455

I put the time and energy on the bump stops since I had been advised not to rely on the internal bump stops. Apparently over time little bits of material from the bump stop will break off and make their way out of the bags and into the dump valves, eventually causing them to malfunction. This may not be a concern for vehicles that aren't driven daily, but I felt it was worth the work to avoid the issue if i could.

I hadn't heard that, in fact the internal stops were a selling point of the bags for me! After some digging I came across this on their site though:

"All Slam Specialties air springs are supplied with an internal bump stop. This has been designed into the air spring to protect the rubber layers when fully compressed. If a vehicle is using the internal bump stop on the air spring as the primary bump stop all defects arising from this type of installation will not be covered under warranty."

I guess I'll fab up some adjustable bumpstops next time the control arms are out...

[Dieselwrencher]

I'm currently trying to come up with a creative but not gawdy way to put bump stops on my MII on my 40 Ford. Maybe should have left it a lone. IDK. haha

[HO455]

I have discovered that bump stops can be a big pain. At least with the air bags and tuning ride quality on my Burban.

These finally showed up yesterday! I wasn't expecting to see a pair of bump stops with them. Down the bump stop rabbit hole again!

I went with the 2 inch drops as the other option was 4 inch ( I wanted to stay with Hotchkis as I have had better luck with them in the past over others)
I know that they will sag with time. If they just stay too high maybe a larger engine would solve that.

[Average Joe]

Originally Posted by HO455

I have discovered that bump stops can be a big pain. At least with the air bags and tuning ride quality on my Burban.

These finally showed up yesterday! I wasn't expecting to see a pair of bump stops with them. Down the bump stop rabbit hole again!

I went with the 2 inch drops as the other option was 4 inch ( I wanted to stay with Hotchkis as I have had better luck with them in the past over others)
I know that they will sag with time. If they just stay too high maybe a larger engine would solve that.

Iron headed BB will fix you up!

[HO455]

Picking back up where I left off in post 678. I want my rebuilt seat to have a taller back so I am cutting 2 backs to make one. First step was mocking up where I wanted to be. Which was 3.5 inches higher than factory.
It was important to make the cuts low enough on the bar to avoid the deformed areas below the 90 degree bends. It is important to be able insert a piece of tube inside to strengthen the weld joint. I also thought it better to have the joint as high as possible since there would be less leverage on it than there would be at the bottom.
After deciding where I wanted the joints to be I added an extra inch in each direction just in case. I took my 9" grinder with a cutoff wheel and had things apart in no time.
My caution in the layout paid off immediately when I looked at the cuts. For some reason there are tubes installed inside the tube frames. (Photo #2) They seemed to be in the bends and at the bottom where the flattened bends are. (I have to admit I didn't spend a lot of time examining them.) I was lucky in that I only had to adjust the location of the joints by 1/2 inch to be clear of the inter tube.
Once I had ground the ends square, I cleaned up inside the tubes with a file to allow my stiffeners to fit. The ID of the tubing is just over 7/8" which isn't a real common OD for tubing available on a Sunday afternoon. Fortunately I managed to scrounge up two 1 1/2" long spacers, which I feel will work fine but I really would have liked some longer ones.
I drilled some holes to allow me to plug weld the spacer to the tubing as well as the weld at the joint. I'm shooting for a 1/16" gap between the upper and lower tubes that will allow the weld to penetrate all three pieces.
My spacers may look a bit rough but that came from grinding the galvanizing off so I don't poison myself welding it up.
The rest of the afternoon was spent removing paint and rust from all of the wires on the back that will have to be welded.
Oh and I ground down the ends of all the wires where they are welded to the frame. Every one of them had poked through the upholstery. (The last photo.) I want to avoid that in the future.

[HO455]

Another major truck failure happened on Monday. I was driving down the road at 40 mph the truck died. Fortunately I was able to coast to a nice safe place to troubleshoot the problem.
After verifying I had fuel pressure, and the accelerator pump was spraying fuel. I pulled a plug wire and found no spark.
I ran a jumper from the battery to the distributor and still nothing. So I called my buddy and he brought me a HEI module and a complete distributor. By the time he got to where I was I had the HEI module removed. (I love my Gerber Multi-tool) I installed the module he brought to no avail. So I pulled the distributor and installed the spare distributor he had brought and the truck fired right up.
At this point I don't know if the module he brought was also bad or if the coil in the HEI failed. It doesn't really matter at this point as I am done with HEI's. I had planned to remove the HEI since I got the truck, and had finally started on its it's replacement several weeks ago. All that was left was to have my buddy curve it. After he came and rescued me my distributor went to the front of the line.
I picked it up Wednesday night and will get it dropped in hopefully Saturday. If the heavy rains predicted don't happen.
Early cast iron distributor with a basic Pertronix point replacement installed.

The upside was I met several really nice folks who stopped to see if I needed anything. One gentleman in a 51k mile 1966 Super Sport Impalla stopped and talked for a while. His Impala is a truly original car that looked better than some restored cars. The only non original parts on the car were the interior door look knobs and the radial tires. It had the 283 four barrel engine, dark blue poly paint, with a black interior. He bought it from the son of the original owner. Including a box of paper work that had the payment coupon book. The payments were $83 & some change a month.
Not an actual picture of the gentleman's car but one I found on the interweb.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

Another major truck failure happened on Monday. I was driving down the road at 40 mph the truck died. Fortunately I was able to coast to a nice safe place to troubleshoot the problem.
After verifying I had fuel pressure, and the accelerator pump was spraying fuel. I pulled a plug wire and found no spark.
I ran a jumper from the battery to the distributor and still nothing. So I called my buddy and he brought me a HEI module and a complete distributor. By the time he got to where I was I had the HEI module removed. (I love my Gerber Multi-tool) I installed the module he brought to no avail. So I pulled the distributor and installed the spare distributor he had and the truck fired right up.
At this point I don't know if the module he brought was also bad or if the coil in the HEI failed. It doesn't really matter at this point as I am done with the HEI. I had planned to remove the HEI since I got the truck, and had finally started on its it's replacement several weeks ago. All that was left was to have my buddy curve it. After he came and rescued me my distributor went to the front of the line.
I picked it up Wednesday night and will get it dropped in hopefully Saturday. If the heavy rains predicted don't happen.
Early cast iron distributor with a basic Pertronix point replacement installed.

The upside was I met several really nice folks who stopped to see if I needed anything. One gentleman in a 51k mile 1966 Super Sport Impalla stopped and talked for a while. His Impala is a truly original car that looked better than some restored cars. The only non original parts on the car were the interior door look knobs and the radial tires. It had the 283 four barrel engine, dark blue poly paint, with a black interior. He bought it from the son of the original owner. Including a box of paper work that had the payment coupon book. The payments were $83 & some change a month.
Not an actual picture of the gentleman's car but one I found on the interweb.

Glad to hear it was a fairly easy fix. I have had a Pertronix kit in my stock 327 distributor in my '36 Ford since (I think) the early '80's and have never had a lick of trouble with it. I rebuilt the 327 a couple of years ago and never touched the distributor. Just stuck it back in the engine and roared off into the sunset...... Still runs like a champ.

LockDoc

[HO455]

I finished the seat back fabrication. In addition I got the broken welds on the seat base rewelded. Now to decide whether to have the frames powder coated or just painted.

[HO455]

I got my new distributor installed. Converting from the HEI meant I had to install a new coil. This ended up being the most difficult part of the conversion. I only had a couple of Pontiac brackets, one AMC, and no Chevy ones. None of them fit particularly well, but I did modify one of the Pontiac ones to work using one of the back intake manifold bolts. Painting the bracket became rather annoying. As is the case nowdays the can of paint quit spraying during the second coat. . After messing with it for 5 or 10 minutes I grabbed another can of black paint and finished the 2nd coat. But when I checked on the paint 30 minutes later I discovered I had sprayed lacquer over enamel. Now I had a nice wrinkle finish on half of the bracket. Uggg! It was time to start over.
I am really getting tired of spray cans that are won't spray all of the paint in the can unless you use it all in one shot. It never used to be a problem if you shook the can well before using and kept the nozzles in a jar of thinner between uses. Nowadays if you leave the nozzles in the thinner they swell and don't fit the tube on the can. And with the new and improved cans that spray upside down you can't clear the tube of paint. Another product engineered to fail to improve sales. Just like rubber bands, tooth brushes, and of course automobiles.
The distributor is an early 60's cast iron unit with a Pertronix Ignitor basic unit installed. (Photo #1) This made wiring simple. Just 2 wires on each post of the coil. I had to change the lugs on the power and tachometer leads to ring terminals before hooking them to the coil.
I like using the early distributors as they have larger shaft bushings and if your running points the cams are ground more accurately and were heat treated better than the later distributors.
Before I pulled the distributor out I set the crankshaft at TDC on the firing stroke. (Photo #2 More on why it's at 8* BTDC later) You don't have to do this but it makes starting the engine easier if you're working alone like I was.
I used an MSD HEI conversion cap which other than the aluminium posts I am quite happy with. (Photo #3) The rotor is a solid unit with no flex or play in the mounting. It came with a nice go/no go guage for the center contact or tang as they called it. (Photo #4)

[HO455]

Once I had the new distributor in the block, with the rotor aligned with #1 cylinder, it was time to preset the timing. This is where the 8* BTDC mentioned previously comes into play. It is my initial starting point.
With the crankshaft at 8* BTDC I turn the distributor so that8 #1 plug wire is clockwise from where the rotor is. About one plug wire works well (Yellow arrow in picture) I hook up my timing light and while aiming at the timing marks I slowly turn the distributor counterclockwise (blue arrow) until the timing light flashes. I stop turning the distributor and that is my preset timing. This allows me to hit the starter and have the engine start immediately so I can then set the timing properly. This works well when starting an engine for the first time.
Once started and idling I set the timing at 12 BTDC. Next step was to shut the engine off and restart it to check how it cranks over (looking for any possible kickback or slow turning of the starter indicating the timing being way off or plug wires out of order).
With nothing of concern noticed, I revved the engine a couple of times and watched to see if it came back to the same idle speed every time, which it did. It was at this point I noticed that my A/F guage was reading about 1 point higher than before. The reading had always been around 12.2 to 12.4 with the old distributor. Now it was reading 13.1 to 13.3 (Disregard the .8 in the photo as the numbers jump around and I just happened to take the photo as it flashed a high reading.) The new ignition system is obviously giving better spark than the HEI was. Time for a test drive.
The test drive revealed that I had some pinging at part throttle acceleration. I have suspected that my timing light isn't giving me accurate readings since the last time I used it. The 12* on the timing tab and where my light was indicating 12 degrees didn't agree . Whether it was the cheap aftermarket timing tab or the light I didn't know. We had set the tab to TDC by measuring piston travel. (We didn't use a degree wheel to check the accuracy of the tab or the cam timing.)
It is an adjustable light with a knob on the back and over the years I think the sticker with the degree indications has moved. So I drove over and borrowed a friend's light and sure enough it showed that I was at 17 degrees not the 12 degrees my timing light indicated. Problem detected, but how to repair the light has yet to be figured out.
Anyway with that figured out the truck was no longer pinging. With some fiddling with the idle screws the A/F ratio came up to around 13.8 to 14.2 better, but I couldn't get it to 14.9.
The idle was a bit too high and the idle adjustment screw is not holding the throttle plates open. It is as far as it can go.
So now it's back to the idle bleed adjustments that we did when the Qjet was installed. The idle bleeds in the carburetor are still too large and need to be smaller. This will will reduce the amount of emulsified fuel drawn into the idle circuit for a given amount of air flow past the throttle blades. Thus the engine will idle slower. Ideally I want to reduce that amount of fuel so I have to turn the idle set screw in about 1 turn to get the idle speed I want. Once I get to that point I should able to get the idle A/F ratio to 14.9.
With this gain in idle fuel usage and the Gearvendor overdrive I'm sure to be getting 13 MPG in town.
Time to fill up and drive.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

Once I had the new distributor in the block, with the rotor aligned with #1 cylinder, it was time to preset the timing. This is where the 8* BTDC mentioned previously comes into play. It is my initial starting point.
With the crankshaft at 8* BTDC I turn the distributor so that8 #1 plug wire is clockwise from where the rotor is. About one plug wire works well (Yellow arrow in picture) I hook up my timing light and while aiming at the timing marks I slowly turn the distributor counterclockwise (blue arrow) until the timing light flashes. I stop turning the distributor and that is my preset timing. This allows me to hit the starter and have the engine start immediately so I can then set the timing properly. This works well when starting an engine for the first time.
Once started and idling I set the timing at 12 BTDC. Next step was to shut the engine off and restart it to check how it cranks over (looking for any possible kickback or slow turning of the starter indicating the timing being way off or plug wires out of order).
With nothing of concern noticed, I revved the engine a couple of times and watched to see if it came back to the same idle speed every time, which it did. It was at this point I noticed that my A/F guage was reading about 1 point higher than before. The reading had always been around 12.2 to 12.4 with the old distributor. Now it was reading 13.1 to 13.3 (Disregard the .8 in the photo as the numbers jump around and I just happened to take the photo as it flashed a high reading.) The new ignition system is obviously giving better spark than the HEI was. Time for a test drive.
The test drive revealed that I had some pinging at part throttle acceleration. I have suspected that my timing light isn't giving me accurate readings since the last time I used it. The 12* on the timing tab and where my light was indicating 12 degrees didn't agree . Whether it was the cheap aftermarket timing tab or the light I didn't know. We had set the tab to TDC by measuring piston travel. (We didn't use a degree wheel to check the accuracy of the tab or the cam timing.)
It is an adjustable light with a knob on the back and over the years I think the sticker with the degree indications has moved. So I drove over and borrowed a friend's light and sure enough it showed that I was at 17 degrees not the 12 degrees my timing light indicated. Problem detected, but how to repair the light has yet to be figured out.
Anyway with that figured out the truck was no longer pinging. With some fiddling with the idle screws the A/F ratio came up to around 13.8 to 14.2 better, but I couldn't get it to 14.9.
The idle was a bit too high and the idle adjustment screw is not holding the throttle plates open. It is as far as it can go.
So now it's back to the idle bleed adjustments that we did when the Qjet was installed. The idle bleeds in the carburetor are still too large and need to be smaller. This will will reduce the amount of emulsified fuel drawn into the idle circuit for a given amount of air flow past the throttle blades. Thus the engine will idle slower. Ideally I want to reduce that amount of fuel so I have to turn the idle set screw in about 1 turn to get the idle speed I want. Once I get to that point I should able to get the idle A/F ratio to 14.9.
With this gain in idle fuel usage and the Gearvendor overdrive I'm sure to be getting 13 MPG in town.
Time to fill up and drive.

Good deal! You've been a busy man....

LockDoc

[HO455]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

Good deal! You've been a busy man....

LockDoc

Oh boy! And I've been working on a 68 Lemans to sell. Oh and the winch project too.

One more note on the distributor swap is that my factory tachometer only now reads 75 or so RPM high at idle and about 300 at 55 mph. With the HEI it was about 300 high at idle and 800 at 55.
A nice unexpected benefit. I may try and adjust the tachometer to see if I can get it closer.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

Oh boy! And I've been working on a 68 Lemans to sell. Oh and the winch project too.

One more note on the distributor swap is that my factory tachometer only now reads 75 or so RPM high at idle and about 300 at 55 mph. With the HEI it was about 300 high at idle and 800 at 55.
A nice unexpected benefit. I may try and adjust the tachometer to see if I can get it closer.

I would think there would be enough adjustment to make up that difference. Let us know how that goes.

LockDoc

[HO455]

Will do Doc!

Yesterday I put the WMB on jack stands and removed the front air bags. I was pretty much A&E most of the day so I did get much in the way of photos. Just the one of using a Porta Power to pop the lower ball joint out of the spindle and one of how to modify the lower control arm if you re-index the control arm shaft for caster.
The photo of removing the lower ball joint was taken after the joint was popped out. Staged if you will. I used an deep impact socket to clear the upper ball joint nut and stem. I pumped the Porta Power up and put some soft heat on the spindle where the ball joint taper is and a couple minutes later the joint popped free.
I had notched the control arm (Blue circle in photo 2) so it will clear the saddle on the crossmember. (Photo #3) I had done this on the other control arms but I didn't seem to document it at the time.
Doing the caster modification on the lower control arm shaft it moves the arm forward and it will contact the saddle.
My new control arms had the wrong ball joints installed so I swapped them this morning and everything was ready to put the new springs in and button it up.
Unfortunately Hotchkis put the wrong springs in the right box, so no buttoning up of things! Ughhhh!
I called Jegs and they didn't have any other springs in stock and I wasn't going to have the truck sitting on jack stands for 7 weeks waiting for an other set from Hotchkis.
I ended up ordering a pair of Classic Performance 2 inch lowering springs from Summit. I went with 2nd day air so I might be get the truck back on the road by Saturday. I have no experience with this brand of springs but they were in stock. I hope they work out well, but it's still 2020 so I'm not placing any bets.

I need to thank Chevy_Mike for his method of installing the control arm shaft bushings. Much easier and faster than going by the book. When I was finished the torque came to about 130 ft. lbs. Slightly over the 95 ft. lbs. the manual calls out for used parts.
I found it in this thread. The 2nd post.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=508095

[zellway]

Amazing build. You have put in some major love and effort into this ride! Builds like this help motivate me to get some of my projects rolling. Keep up the great work!

[HO455]

Originally Posted by zellway

Amazing build. You have put in some major love and effort into this ride! Builds like this help motivate me to get some of my projects rolling. Keep up the great work!

Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words.
Especially after yesterday's spring debacle.

[HO455]

I got the air bags replaced with the new springs along with new outer tie rod ends and a pitman arm. Removal of the bags and the control arms was pretty uneventful.
The reassembly took quite a bit more time than I expected it to. I had to swap the ball joints from the air bag arms as the ones in the new control arms had the wrong taper.
Then the upper shock mounts I had installed would not work as they were, so they had to be removed and new holes drilled to get every thing to work. (The shocks hit the crossmember when compressed.) Drilling those holes was a pain the first time around and nothing was better this time.
When I went to bolt the right wheel on I realized that the outer edge of the new control arm stuck out too far and was hitting the brake rotor (Photo #2 @#%&#$= aftermarket parts) so instead of just letting it wear in I felt it would be better to grind it off with a grinder instead of the brake rotor.
After scratching my head and cursing a bit I concluded that removing the hub and rotor would be the easier than popping the ball joint out of the spindle to get access for grinding the end of the arm off. I taped a rag to the spindle to keep the grit from the grinding away and to make sure I didn't accidentally hit the spindle with the grinder.
Just an 1/8 of an inch was all that was needed to have enough clearance. The whole end to the arm had to have the 1/8" removed so the rotor cleared when steering. (Photo #3 yellow lines indicates the area I ground off.)
The drivers side had plenty of clearance between the arm and the brake rotor.
Once that was taken care of and everything was double checked, I went for a test drive. Everything seemed to be good on the test, but I will take another look at things in daylight tomorrow.
I still need to remove the air lines and get the front end realigned. And I don't have the bump stops for the lower control arms either. The ones I had turned out to be for something else.
As it was after dark when I finished I dont have any pictures yet.

[HO455]

OUCH!!!
My test drive didn't go as smoothly as it seemed. (Photo #1) I thought 5/16" of clearance would be enough, but obviously I was mistaken!
Doing the caster modification to the lower control arm moved the lower shock mount forward causing the problem. I had forgotten that was the reason for the shock mount modification on the old control arms.
I fabricated some new mounts. Photo 2 shows the spacer I used to set the distance between the two tabs of the mount.
Photo 3 the completed mounts. And last one of the new mounts installed with a ton of clearance. I turned the lower part of the shock 180 degrees and will run them for a hundred miles or so just to be sure nothing touches.
The upside of this is that I haven't been happy with the shocks for some time so I'm looking forward to getting better ones.
I forgot to mention I also installed new outer tie rod ends and a new Pitman arm.

[HO455]

Well with a couple hundred miles on the new springs I am happy with the decision to replace the bags. Not once have I slammed into the bump stops jarring the truck. I did miss the ability to drop the truck when I washed. But such are the trade offs.
I still need to get the correct bump stops installed. I may also cut 1/2 a coil off the springs once I'm sure they are done breaking in.
The shocks have become more noticeably inadequate. I don't know if it is from the damage to the one side or if the air bags worked better with these shocks than the springs do.
Another thing I noticed is the truck leans a bit more in corners than before. After some thinking have decided that is because when I modified the old lower control arms I moved the sway bar end mounts about 1 inch closer to the front. Which in essence shortened the lever arm of the sway bar. Cheap sway bar upgrade. Woo hoo!

At first I wanted to move the mounts forward to regain that stiffer bar response, but I would like to find a 1980's Trans am or IROC rear sway bar for the rear axle. So after that is done it would be better time to decide if I still should move the mounts.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

Well with a couple hundred miles on the new springs I am happy with the decision to replace the bags. Not once have I slammed into the bump stops jarring the truck. I did miss the ability to drop the truck when I washed. But such are the trade offs.
I still need to get the correct bump stops installed. I may also cut 1/2 a coil off the springs once I'm sure they are done breaking in.
The shocks have become more noticeably inadequate. I don't know if it is from the damage to the one side or if the air bags worked better with these shocks than the springs do.
Another thing I noticed is the truck leans a bit more in corners than before. After some thinking have decided that is because when I modified the old lower control arms I moved the sway bar end mounts about 1 inch closer to the front. Which in essence shortened the lever arm of the sway bar. Cheap sway bar upgrade. Woo hoo!

At first I wanted to move the mounts forward to regain that stiffer bar response, but I would like to find a 1980's Trans am or IROC rear sway bar for the rear axle. So after that is done it would be better time to decide if I still should move the mounts.

What size is your front bar. You might have already mentioned it and I missed it. I have never tried a rear bar but I'm sure it would make a lot of difference. Especially on a Burb.

LockDoc

[HO455]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

What size is your front bar. You might have already mentioned it and I missed it. I have never tried a rear bar but I'm sure it would make a lot of difference. Especially on a Burb.

LockDoc

I have a 1-1/4" factory bar.
Having looked back at the fabrication photos my original statement of the sway bar mounts moving 1 inch was wrong. From the pictures it looks like 1/2" is a more accurate dimension. I find it interesting that only a half inch was that immediately noticeable.
Until now I hadn't considered that when I did the caster modification to the lower control arm shafts I moved the mount forward on the bar about 3/4". A 2 for 1 modification more caster and a stiffer sway bar!

[72MARIO]

I bought ride tech fox single adjustable shocks for my suburban. Absolutely insane the difference they make. Went from driving a boat to a slot car. I think you would be very happy with them.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

I have a 1-1/4" factory bar.
Having looked back at the fabrication photos my original statement of the sway bar mounts moving 1 inch was wrong. From the pictures it looks like 1/2" is a more accurate dimension. I find it interesting that only a half inch was that immediately noticeable.
Until now I hadn't considered that when I did the caster modification to the lower control arm shafts I moved the mount forward on the bar about 3/4". A 2 for 1 modification more caster and a stiffer sway bar!

That 1 1/4" bar should work good. I have the small one on the Panel Truck and it even made a lot of difference.

LockDoc

[HO455]

Originally Posted by 72MARIO

I bought ride tech fox single adjustable shocks for my suburban. Absolutely insane the difference they make. Went from driving a boat to a slot car. I think you would be very happy with them.

Thanks for the tip. Would you have the part number handy?