The Official John Lee Jr Thread

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by Sharps40

Sound bite: (Cheep style, I aint gotta recorder) Me and John Lee in the Sno doin doughnuts!

Zooooooooommmmmm, Weeeeeeee! Yiippppeeeeeee!

Vrrrrroooooooommmmmmmm, Yoooohoooooo! Huzzahhhhh!

Vrrrrroooommmmmm - Screeeeeeeccchhhhhhh (found a dry spot) - Zoooooommmmmmm, Yeeee Haaaaaaaa!

Hmm..not loud enough..needs a new muffler. HAHAHAHAHAH!!! Just kidding ya!

[Sharps40]

I put on a 26" thrush so it would sound nice and be gentlemanly quiet....none of that young girl cackelin from 2 short mufflers or straight pipes on a split manifold for me....I got dogs, they make nuff dayum noise!

[Sharps40]

Been haulin stuff in my truck a bit more often....getting kinda tired of wrappin the hooks around the top rails and scuffin paint so Mr. Gasket to the rescue. Even comes with backing plates to really stiffen things up. Wish I could find them for the full length of the bed, then I'd put these shorties on the header and maybe the tail gate. But, nifty, hardware is hidden under the outside lip of the top rail. Very smooth an about 20 minutes to install. Even painted the new holes against future rust.

Rated at 1000 lbs and they look unobtrusive in the nose of the bed.....

Front half done, gotta get two more to go back by the tail gate and we should be set for the next load. In fact, I think I'll get an extra set for the cargo bed of the wife's Wrangler.

[Sharps40]

Oh yeah, checked the break in plugs today on the motor, Autolite 65s....runnin light tan. So, feelin gooder bout the carb adjustments and went ahead and swapped in suitable NGKs for the long haul. Gapped 45 thousands.....can't bring my self to go to 60 thou, seems like quite a gulf to try to jump across and prolly not really necessary for a low compression I6. 45 thou should give me quite a kernel of fire in the hole though.

[TJ's Chevy]

Those look good! I like'em!

[Sharps40]

Thanks Gonna get two more for John Lee and go to the other company to get black ones for GoodWife's Wrangler. She don't want silver since the jeep is red and black. Ya can get extra clipper doojobbers for em too so I might put a spare or three in the tool boxes.

Lookin forward to tieing down a load now....it'll be lots more convenient. Worst load I tied down recently was in the back of a new f150.....factory tie downs are low on the bedsides and didn't notice it till the gear was in....reachin in and movin junk to get to them low points sucked so I mounted these higher. Would be nifty to inlet em into the deck and fasten to the cross bucks for some flush to the bottom tie downs though....hmmmmm, brain is spinnin.

[Sharps40]

Speakin of tool boxes.....them on the stepsides stepside look cool. Do they still make stuff like that or do ya have to go scrounging?

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by Sharps40

Speakin of tool boxes.....them on the stepsides stepside look cool. Do they still make stuff like that or do ya have to go scrounging?

You'd probably have to search the USA for one....I don't see many of those little tool boxes on the sidesteps on these trucks. Looks like most of them were mainly on the longbeds. Seems like youda be searchin fer a needle in a haystack to find one of them tool boxes! lol. I've been wantin one for mine to. I am thinking of making one.

[Sharps40]

Maybe I'll make one and spot weld it with the arc welder and hangers.

[Sharps40]

18.8 mpg on today's run with the most recent settings. About 18 corrected for speedometer errors.

Another tweak and a fresh tank and try again.

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by Sharps40

Maybe I'll make one and spot weld it with the arc welder and hangers.

That sounds good! YOU make it...I'll buy it from ya! Just kidding.

[Sharps40]

Today is the one year anniversary of the Death of Ol John Lee. Folded and squashed in a full on frontal assault by Unlicensed, Uninsured, UnCitizens.

Long Live Ol John Lee, he's out there rollin as a part of 15 other trucks now, including John Lee Jr!

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by Sharps40

Today is the one year anniversary of the Death of Ol John Lee. Folded and squashed in a full on frontal assault by Unlicensed, Uninsured, UnCitizens.

Long Live Ol John Lee, he's out there rollin as a part of 15 other trucks now, including John Lee Jr!

Uh...Pardon me if I am wrong...but are you sayin that Jonh JR is rollin as part a 15 other trucks as well??? I ain't quite gettin somethin here....

[Sharps40]

Yep. Ol John Lee got parted out like an organ donor.

[Sharps40]

Well, the Stovebolts air cleaner served well. A paper element under a spun aluminum dome originally, then trimmed so the element was exposed....here's how I've run it on John Lee for a good lil while now.



And it looks okay...just a bit out of place......and a dirty paper element, not to mention small surface area for air to come in.....

Heres a Specter, filter top, in Blue no less. I know which one I like better.....good thing the 9" Specter has a 5 1/8" base opening....perfect fit on the Stovebolts weber air cleaner adapter......No more changing filters for me and .... its Blue!




Hmmmmm....whats that sucking noise unner my hood when I slam in the secondary? Oh yeah, a Weber DGEV that breaths easier!

[TJ's Chevy]

Good work! I am gonna change to a 14 inch air cleaner one day..but for now the 10 inch works fine....even though its probably makin it a pain fer the monster carb underneath to breath. lol.

[Sharps40]

I like it...its the same color as the truck and the motor and the Blu Goo that holds it all together. John Lee, singin the blues.

[Sharps40]

I think tomorrow morning Garmin is gonna tell me if my math is any good.

The tranny came with a 9 tooth speedo drive gear and a 20 tooth driven gear. With 3.73 out back it left me showin 70 mph on the dial and actually moving 55 mph.

So, I modified a 24 tooth gear (cause there ain't no 25 tooth gears to be had on the whole planet for a GM T5) but that wasn't real satisfactory.

I calculated I needed 25 teeth to correct the speedo about 25 to 28% slower so it would read accurate. 24 teeth nearly did the trick.....leaving my speedo reading about 7% faster than I was really going.....but the gear had to be reduced in diameter (there are three sizes depending on the drive gear and my drive gear needs the smallest size but the 24 and 25 tooth driven gears are the larger ones!) and the teeth recut deeper by hand...a lot of work and still pretty off. The math, in this case, works out to a bit more than 5% reduction in speedometer indication for each tooth added to the driven gear.

Running a true 60 mph registered as 64 to 65 mph on my speedo.

So, because the bullet leaked, still, even with goo cause ya can't goo the inner seal....and because it was still off quite a bit at the speeds I'm driving these days with the new tranny.....I ordered a ratio reducer.

26.7% reduction which I think is also called a .7333333 or some such by the label on the side.

Got it all in....new bullet with oring, which still wobbles in the hole cause the hole is egged out....so I gooed the new bullet in place. But at least it has a new inner seal and that fits good on the driven gear.

I put the original 20 tooth small diameter driven gear in the bullet....it should run smooth and long on the 9 tooth drive. Its teeth and diameter are a much better fit.

Snugged the ratio reducer onto the bullet....rerouted the 83" cable (the 72 chevy 4WD cable is used for the T5 swap and its dayum near too long!) for smoother bends and hooked it to the ratio reducer.

I ain't brave enough to test drive it tonight. If I'm wrong, expensive mistake and I'll be up all night cursin. But if my math was right and everything works, the smooth running well fitting 20 tooth driven gear will drive the cable 27ish% slower giving me a truer indication of mph at the speedometer.

I sure hope so.....

[Sharps40]

Looks like my math was pretty good.....The speedometer corrects (with the instock 27.3% ratio reducer) to within about 2 or 3 mph against the GPS. It appears I am actually going about 62ish per Mistress Garman when my speedo needle is bouncing around the 60ish mark.

So, the speedo now reads a touch slower than I am actually going. Not bad and certaintly better than the 6ish mph higher than actual speed that I was getting before....

So....I'm going to drive it for a while, watching Mistress Garman untill I am confident that I have the new numbers figured right.

And, perhaps, if I can find one cheep, I'll try a 19 tooth driven gear. Math indicates that with the ratio reducer installed this should get me spot on (within a few tenths of a percent). Course, its hard to tell how perfect is perfect with an old and somewhat bouncy needle!

Its hard to make fine adjustments with such coarse gears. Guess thats why a lot of em have much higher tooth counts these days.

[1963c-10]

Bowtie bits can rebuild your speedometer for you. Pretty good turn around time also. I've had a few done by them.

[TJ's Chevy]

My speedometer bounces up to 90 mph when I am at 70! LOL!

[Sharps40]

Originally Posted by 1963c-10

Bowtie bits can rebuild your speedometer for you. Pretty good turn around time also. I've had a few done by them.

I've actually been thinkin of updating the dash....not sure yet...gotta get a sliding window and floor mat first. When I do, I'll have to choose between cable, electronic or gps speedos....so many choices and I didn't win the lottery yet!

[1963c-10]

Theres a sliding window on the classifieds Rich.

[Sharps40]

Its too big! Nice price though and looks in great shape.

[Sharps40]

I have setteled on engine timing for my new late 70s stock 250 reman with similar era GM HEI and Weber DGEV. The first motor suffered cracked pistons from too much initial timing and way too lean on the jetting in the carb. In addition, it had a massive vacuum leak in the form of a defective and upside down PCV valve. We compensated for the leak at idle with a large idle circuit jet but it still left the engine way too lean at critial moment. I did not recognize detonation, nor hear it but looking back I did see the black and silver flecks on the plugs are an indication of detonation in an engine. Lesson Learned.