Frankentruck

[cwcarpenter98]

I have two starter for the truck. One that would spark really bad when I tried to start it, and the one that was in the truck but sometimes wouldn't do the spinny thing and sounded pretty crunchy most of the time.

I took the extra sparky one to a starter and alternator shop in Milledgeville before I graduated to have it rebuilt. I haven't had the time to rebuild one myself, so it made sense to pay $60 for the knowledgeable folks to work their magic on it.
I was able to swap starters this evening, so now I'm not worried about the starter for awhile.

[cwcarpenter98]

Fixed another issue with Frankentruck today. I didn't realize that one of the taillights would turn off at night when the blinker was activated. My dad noticed it over the weekend. I cleaned up the grounds on both sides, and that fixed it. The lights seem a lot brighter now too

I also had to pull the starter out of the Dakota this morning so I can have it rebuilt. May is the month of starters for me apparently

[LostMy65]

Yep, they do corrode and weaken the connection. I think I mentioned in the 'What did you do to your truck today?" thread that I had to use PB Blaster to get the bulbs out of my tail lights.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by LostMy65

Yep, they do corrode and weaken the connection. I think I mentioned in the 'What did you do to your truck today?" thread that I had to use PB Blaster to get the bulbs out of my tail lights.

Yeah, that's no fun on that one. Thankfully, it wasn't the bulb that had corroded. It was more that I didn't do a great job of grounding the housings when I swapped bedsides last year. They work way better now for sure.

[cwcarpenter98]

Dad and I had a wheelie good time at the Dawsonville Varsity cruise in this evening.

[TJ's Chevy]

My GMC's starter darn near left me trying to push start it at a gas station once. Kept clicking and even did after the ol hammer trick. FINALLY it gave one last go and I got home. Needless to say it was rebuilt. lol Been fine since. Looks like a nice an sunny cruise with some good looking trucks!

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

My GMC's starter darn near left me trying to push start it at a gas station once. Kept clicking and even did after the ol hammer trick. FINALLY it gave one last go and I got home. Needless to say it was rebuilt. lol Been fine since. Looks like a nice an sunny cruise with some good looking trucks!

That was almost really unfortunate for ya!
The starter that I pulled out a couple days ago was the one that was on the truck when I bought it. It's made an awful noise ever since I got the truck running, but it never let me down. I just wanted to be preemptive since I had the second one already on the shelf.
It was a great cruise in with lots of variety. A couple Corvettes, Chevelles, Camaros, Mopars, and Fords. I really liked a 58 Impala that was there, but didn't take a picture

[cwcarpenter98]

Frankentruck returned to the farm life for a couple hours today.

I went back to tinker with that 81 I posted about a couple months back, so when I saw the open section in the barn, I had to take a couple pics.

There's a really old International L-160 on the property as well. Apparently, the roof was fine before the timber crew went through and destroyed it beyond use. It has been sitting in that spot since the mid to late 1950s

[pdxhall]

Frankentruck looks right at home at the barn. Nice pics.

[TJ's Chevy]

That's calendar worthy pictures right there! lol Looks good!

[Braunschweiger]

Really great pictures, really looks like his home

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

Really great pictures, really looks like his home

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

That's calendar worthy pictures right there! lol Looks good!

Originally Posted by pdxhall

Frankentruck looks right at home at the barn. Nice pics.

Thanks, fellas. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more pictures on a farm in the future.

[cwcarpenter98]

Dad and I went up to the old family farm today to find out if the front tires would hold air at all on the old John Deere. It's a 400 Industrial tractor that someone painted green a long time ago. Only one tire held air, so we decided to bring them home to get some new tires mounted up.

We took his truck though because on my way back from Milledgeville yesterday, Frankentruck started doing something funky. In overdrive trying to accelerate up a hill, the engine kept bogging or losing ignition. It was real jolt-y, and would lose power, then suddenly get power and try to accelerate, then loose power again. That cycle would happen withing several seconds until I got to the top of the hill and then it would be fine. It also does the same thing in when accelerating hard in 2nd gear once it gets past 3k rpm.
I'm thinking it might be the fule pump or maybe the HEI module??
I don't believe it's vapor lock because I've never had vapor lock the entire time I've owned the truck.

As a "test drive" today, I ran up to the Po Boys cruise in at Riverstone. The truck did the same crap, but at least there were some other cool trucks there

[350TacoZilla]

I would suspect fuel pump before hei but they can obviously fail. Do you maybe have a cheapie 12v pump you can bypass the stock pump with just to check it out for small cruise? Also don't forget to rule out something like clogged pickup in tank or something, make sure have good flow from fuel line before connecting back up to run.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by 350TacoZilla

I would suspect fuel pump before hei but they can obviously fail. Do you maybe have a cheapie 12v pump you can bypass the stock pump with just to check it out for small cruise? Also don't forget to rule out something like clogged pickup in tank or something, make sure have good flow from fuel line before connecting back up to run.

I drove the truck this evening and noticed that I could take the engine over 4k rpm in 1st gear and not have any issue with the bogging thing, but then 4k+ in 2nd gear would do the funky thing. Because of that, I'm thinking it's fuel related rather than ignition.
I don't have a 12v pump, so I'm going to change the fuel filter first since it looks kinda like it started to come apart, hope that fixes it, then test the fuel pump if that wasn't it

[Getter-Done]

There is a spring that works the fuel pump lever.
Once or twice, I have seen this spring break.

The pump still worked it just starved the engine for fuel.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

There is a spring that works the fuel pump lever.
Once or twice, I have seen this spring break.

The pump still worked it just starved the engine for fuel.

Good to know, thanks! I wouldn't be surprised if that has happened as I'm thinking the pump on it could be an original GM pump or was rebuilt many, many, many years before I bought the truck

[TJ's Chevy]

Agreed with all the above......let me add to your confusion

My 64 did the same thing once and it was also fuel starvation But the sock had fallen off of the sending unit and allowed a bunch of debris to build up in the lines. I run dual fuel filters and a big carter electric pump so for that thing to have fuel issues was something serious lol

Just something else to add if you haven't ever changed the sending unit.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

Agreed with all the above......let me add to your confusion

My 64 did the same thing once and it was also fuel starvation But the sock had fallen off of the sending unit and allowed a bunch of debris to build up in the lines. I run dual fuel filters and a big carter electric pump so for that thing to have fuel issues was something serious lol

Just something else to add if you haven't ever changed the sending unit.

I've had the sending unit out a couple times, and well, uh, there's no sock
My tank was in pretty good shape when I got the truck, and I've replaced all the rubber lines in the system. I haven't noticed any chunks of debris in several years at this point. Just waiting on some decent weather to be able to check some things. It's been raining all week here

[cwcarpenter98]

Replaced the fuel filters (inline and in the Qjet) and replaced all the rubber hoses this afternoon. That seemed to have fixed the problem.

The real test will be my trip to Lake Hartwell tomorrow to get some parts in the morning and hang out with a friend at his lake house in the afternoon. Should be a good time!

[cwcarpenter98]

Yeah, so the problem wasn't fixed, but still made the trip, got some parts, and had a great time at the lake

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

Yeah, so the problem wasn't fixed, but still made the trip, got some parts, and had a great time at the lake

That is a Great parts Haul

[TJ's Chevy]

Shoot, seems worth the hiccups lol

Just think....you are probably getting way better fuel mileage haha

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

That is a Great parts Haul

Originally Posted by TJ's Chevy

Shoot, seems worth the hiccups lol

Just think....you are probably getting way better fuel mileage haha

It's a fairly decent haul. I got some parts I want to keep and some parts that I don't need, but going to a swap meet in the morning, so I didn't even unload it

[cwcarpenter98]

I made some discoveries over the past week.

I was missing the ground strap from the HEI coil to the center terminal of the 3 wire plug in the cap. In trying to figure out what was causing the problem, I proceeded to strip a couple holes out in the cap where the coil mounts. That allowed part of the secondary winding of the coil to not be attached properly, and that fried the module. I decided to replace the cap, rotor, ignition module and coil, but that still didn't fix the bogging issue.

I should've started with the fuel pump since it had not been replaced under my ownership. I got the correct pump for a v8 this morning, but found out that the previous owner kept the inline 6 fuel pump when he swapped it over to a 283. The fittings are different between the two and an inline 6 pump was $92 compared to the v8 pump of $30 (both Delphi pumps). I was able to find the correct adapter and fitting to work with my 3/8 hoses and lines but 1/8 fnpts on the pump. Got it all back together, though I had it tight, but once it's tight, tighten it some more so it won't leak. On the test drive, I couldn't get the issue to happen again, so I'm fairly certain that was the fix.

I also got the reverse lights off the bed I picked up to install on the trailer bed. That looks much better now. I also washed the truck and trailer this evening in preparation for the swap meet in the morning. Oh yeah, I definitely have to bring the trailer along for the fun of it