Rat repair.

[swamp rat]

Lookie what i found today!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=1#post6314975

[swamp rat]

How does the song go... "If it weren't for bad luck i'd have no luck at all...Gloom DISREPARE and agony on me"

When i installed the front Fox shocks i kinda felt that the shock bodys were a little long, sitting on the ground i have about 4" of compression travel but about 6.5" of travel to the bump stops, but decided to wait till i could get to the rear shocks today, installed one shock and jacked up the rear end, there is only about 2.75" of compression travel left, obviously something isn't right so i called my local 4X4 place and they called BDS, they asked me to verify that the numbers on the shock body are correct, yep they are the correct number but i still have a problem, so another call to BDS and the tech guy is hashing it out with the engineers to try and figure out the problem, more delays..

On a good note, I got the longer front brake hoses installed today, man they are a pita!

[Vintage Windmills]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

How does the song go... "If it weren't for bad luck i'd have no luck at all...Gloom DISREPARE and agony on me"


On a good note, I got the longer front brake hoses installed today, man they are a pita!

They are awful to replace with engine in. I tried that on a 71 GMC K2500 last year and eventually a buddy and I got them in. On my Ochre 71 chevy, I had the engine out and it was a piece of cake

Good luck on the shocks, that should be 101 stuff for those guys, surprised they need to "contact the engineers".

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

They are awful to replace with engine in. I tried that on a 71 GMC K2500 last year and eventually a buddy and I got them in. On my Ochre 71 chevy, I had the engine out and it was a piece of cake

Good luck on the shocks, that should be 101 stuff for those guys, surprised they need to "contact the engineers".

They are contacting because all the numbers they say are for my truck match what i have but when you look at the pic's its obvious there is a problem. If i feel up to it tomorrow i'll remove the rear shocks and keep pushing forward


Yea the front brake hoses are even worse with Headers installed too!

[swamp rat]

Went out and took off the rear shocks today and got out my floor jack and stands and went thru the lifting of the truck routine once again to take actual shock mount measurements both in the free state and while sitting on the wheels got roughly 6" too long on the rear and 2" too long on the front then sent the measurements to the local offroad shop, then put the wheels back on again.

While the front end was up I double checked my new longer front brake lines in the free hanging state and also turning the wheels side to side, 25" is great length for this kit.

Never got around to hooking my alternator and battery back up after welding the rubber brake hose tabs on the back so did that and put my battery charger on it for the night (2 amp)

Then while i was fiddling with the steering dampener i noticed one of the front U bolts was not hanging straight down when i torqued it so i reached over and got my 3lb hammer and gave it a love tap and it snapped right over so i had to re torque it, amazingly just from me jacking the axle and truck up and down a number of times all the rest of the U bolts all needed re torquing as well.

Tomorrow i need to work on getting my brakes bled, maybe reinstall the seat without the carpet and padding so i can get closer to a test drive. still have to set toe in and adjust the steering arm length. Its also looking like a lot of the play in my front end is coming from the rebuilt steering gear, i know how to adjust the upper screw but there is a different adjustment i recall reading about somewhere on this forum, gonna have to check into that later.

The days are getting short and we have been on a fog for about 2-3 weeks now, don't know what sunlight is any more...

[DWilbur]

Hi swamp rat
you should check the U bolts after driving a short distance. the tend to strech. Retorking them a couple of times you should be good to go. typical with new Ubolts. The days are getting shorter in Cal as well. it get worse when day light savings starts at the end of the month.

[Vintage Windmills]

I searched your thread for "tank" but didn't get any info on here did you got the rear tank and roughly what did it cost? I'm curious about that. I see brothers has a rear blazer suburban tank kit on sale now for 170 or so and I'm tempted. Would be nice to have room behind seat and a little more weight over the rear wheels. What did you do on the cab hole for the filler?

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

I searched your thread for "tank" but didn't get any info on here did you got the rear tank and roughly what did it cost? I'm curious about that. I see brothers has a rear blazer suburban tank kit on sale now for 170 or so and I'm tempted. Would be nice to have room behind seat and a little more weight over the rear wheels. What did you do on the cab hole for the filler?

Got it from a board member/vendor FuelCellGuy,

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/member.php?u=8871

He was running group buys here on the forum, not 100% sure if he does this now or if you have to buy his tanks thru other places, Send him a PM and ask. he had options for where the filler is installed, or if you wanted fuel injection ect. Don't remember exactly but i think i payed about 350-375? Right now i still have the stock tank in the cab.

Long story short a couple years ago i got sidelined with some health issues and couldn't finish the install, then had to remodel the kitchen once i got better. I have the line run to the fuel pump but its not terminated, i have a flip door out of an S10 and filler tube but have yet to install it or the filler in the side of the bed. I plan on finishing the talk next spring but i'm considering leaving the stock tank as well and adding a fuel selector valve so i have extended range.

This is a link to all the threads he started.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...archid=3972222

[swamp rat]

Well today was yet a couple more setbacks, Go Figure..

In June of 2011 i purchased a Phoenix Systems brake bleeder after watching Stacy Davids Gears TV program, never got around to needing it until today, so with high hopes i got it out last night and familiarized myself with the unit, then this morning i tried to perform a vacuum flush at the caliper first with the intent of doing a reverse bleed once i felt all the old fluid was drawn out, tried for about 20 minutes with no luck so i decided to try direct pressure at the master cylinder, i was able to get some fluid to flow but every time i pumped the gun it would draw in all kinds of super fine air bubbles into the gun with no bubbles in the feed hose, Long story short after checking all the hoses, fittings and one way valve i can only conclude the pump and possibly a couple fittings have an air leak and does not work properly..

The other setback, one of the calipers that i got with my disk conversion kit had a frozen bleed screw, the housing was actually bored oversize and a threaded sleeve was installed then the bleeder screw was threaded into the sleeve, never seen that before.. when i went to crack the screw open it was super tight, more pressure and the sleeve started backing out instead of the bleed screw..... So my option was to go buy another caliper locally and use the bad one as a core, or contact the conversion company tomorrow and see if they would let me ship it back to them and wait for another one to be shipped back, that is if they are cooperative with me, so i said to hell with it and bought another caliper today.. Getting a fresh coat of red tonight..

Tomorrow is another day..

[DeadheadNM]

Another K20 build...I'm on board. Great work!!

[swamp rat]

Set up my workbench for a rush paint job on the caliper last night and put a couple space heaters on it to cure over night, then installed the new caliper this morning, guess i need to disassemble the pump gun ether before i leave for work or after work to see if i can find a problem.. My email to Brake bleeder.com is still unanswered..

[cmabolt]

lookin good! Keep crankin away.
Chris

[beardface]

I didn't quite follow your brake bleeding procedure there, but i've heard of air leaking through the bleeder screw threads while trying to use a vacuum. My dad puts a dab of grease on the bleed screw threads when he uses a vacuum to bleed brakes, and the grease seals the treads. If that sounds like your problem that could be worth a shot before you tear into your pump.
Good luck.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by beardface

I didn't quite follow your brake bleeding procedure there, but i've heard of air leaking through the bleeder screw threads while trying to use a vacuum. My dad puts a dab of grease on the bleed screw threads when he uses a vacuum to bleed brakes, and the grease seals the treads. If that sounds like your problem that could be worth a shot before you tear into your pump.
Good luck.

Ya know what i need is to be able to get one of my friends to live closer and be on the same shift as me so then i would have some help doing it the old fashioned way..

Isn't grease a contaminant? The owners manual does talk about using some silicone sealant of some kind but does not specify what kind when doing a vaccum bleed. Any ideas??

This tool has 4 different ways to use, 2 bleed and 2 flush if i recall correctly.

But when i got all the air bubbles i was doing a direct inject into the rear port of the master cylinder with a special nozzle tip so i was pulling fluid out of the container into the gun and injecting it into the master cylinders rear port, i could push the fluid in but when i released the lever to refill the guns cylinder that's when i would get all the air bubbles into the gun so it had nothing to do with the bleeders.

[swamp rat]

Took the gun apart while reading the manual ect, i did find that there is a felt seal behind an O-ring that the manual said needed to be wet before installation, does break fluid dry out? Nothing said to open the pump and saturate it first.. so i did that, checked the one way valves ect, I did a couple tests and found one of the siphon tubes does not seal when used with its coupler so will not use it.

Still looking for an answer on the Silicone film this manual says to use on the bleeder screw threads when performing a vacuum flush at the calipers.

[swamp rat]

Grrrr.. I frekin hate brake lines fitting leaks! Not to mention my vacuum bleeder seems to be a POS... I just went back thru and retightened everything, its all brand new hoses, copper washers, steel lines fittings ect. If i tighten stuff any more i will probably break or strip something so if it leaks after this i won't know what else to do but take it all apart and start over..

[swamp rat]

Oh I forgot to add, after i fired up the truck when i push down on the brake pedal the pedal takes its sweet time coming back up, pretty slow, what would cause this?? It seemed to act normal when the engine was off.

Any ideas?? I suppose my booster is bad??

[swamp rat]

Reevaluating my situation on my rear disk conversion and brakes, my lower flex hoses at the caliper in the disk conversion kit were female 3/16 inverted flair so i bought fittings to bring it up to the stock size 1/4 female flair, made 1/4 steel lines because the first upper hose i bought for my lift was also the stock size 1/4 female inverted flair.

When my longer upper hose arrived it had the 3/16 female inverted thread at the T only so i said to hell with it and bought 2 more adapters so i could keep my 1/4 steel lines. and in the prior post you read i was griping about leaks at the fittings...

So i gave in today and bought some 3/16 X 40" steel lines and will be bending and flaring them and getting rid of the adapter fittings..

I believe the problem with the slow pedal return is due to the proportioning valve needing to be reset, I don't know if its gonna reset by itself when i replace the steel lines at this time.

I put the key in the ign today and turned the key on, and there was no brake light on the dash, but there was also no oil light ether so that's a first, the truck would turn over so now i got to figure out whats going on there too.

it never ends...

[Vintage Windmills]

Funny you mention the rear brake lines, I was just wondering How to do them on my truck now with the rear discs. Guess I will run hard lines until 12" or so from the calipers then buy some flex hoses, maybe a set of fronts to allow the calipers to move.

On the bleeder, I'd just grab the wife or neighbor for a few minutes, and save some more frustration.

Does the booster have that problem without the lines connected? I'd just use process of elimination on that one.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

Funny you mention the rear brake lines, I was just wondering How to do them on my truck now with the rear discs. Guess I will run hard lines until 12" or so from the calipers then buy some flex hoses, maybe a set of fronts to allow the calipers to move.

On the bleeder, I'd just grab the wife or neighbor for a few minutes, and save some more frustration.

Does the booster have that problem without the lines connected? I'd just use process of elimination on that one.

I would say 12" hose would be fine, even 10, but the hoses the disk conversion place sent me are pretty short. If i had to do a disk conversion allover again i would save a lot of heartache and piece it together myself. Don't forget to add a solid mount for the hose onto the axle, just scroll back a bit and you will see where i put mine, i was hoping the rubber hose would reach to the inside of the U Bolts. Humm, i just realized i do have some hoses that were too short for the front, but i'll bet there way to long for the back.

I figure i'll have to plan on unbolting the master from the booster too and see if the pedal gets better and eliminate the booster, wish i had thought of trying it out before i put the master and prop valve on but this is the first time i ever messed with ether of them.

My biggest problem is i'm a shift worker, don't see the wife except on weekends and when i work weekends it makes it even worse, I may have time to get her to help this weekend, we'll see.

[swamp rat]

Got a late start this morning, but i got the front Fox shocks off so i can exchange the set of Fox Shocks for the correct size, had to do about an hour of research and then email and call the local shop with measurements and some links...

Then i remade my new brake lines and installed them..

And then time to go to work again.

[swamp rat]

Killing time at work while my mill is running i was watching Youtube on inverted flairs, a couple of the vids said to not over tighten while doing the last step of the flaring process... Humm, now i'm wondering if possibly i could have overtightened any of the ones i did.. Guess if i have more leaks later i'll probably know why.

[swamp rat]

Thought I'd post why I'm removing the front/rear shocks and having to deal with BDS engineering, They have assured me that this will be taken care of. I combed the Fox shock webpage and found the two shocks i felt were the best for my truck taking into account the dimensions i took with the axles hanging free, the dimension's taken while on the wheels and the shocks extended and collapsed length, Doing the math i got the most travel possible without having the shock top out when the axles hang free, then i sent an email to my local shop and they are suppose to be forwarding the info to BDS.

Hey guys, none of my manuals are covering this but i need to know the proper brake pedal adjustment when installing a new booster, i don't know if i have it correct or need to slacken the adjuster under the dash, can anybody help?? I cant find squat on line ether.

Off the subject, on 10-25-13 i reached the 25 year mark at the same company, time fly's and ya start to feel old i guess, anyway i celebrated by working this weekend then had a little night cap... which about knocked me on my kester..

[swamp rat]

So i finally had enough of getting no answers about my Fox shocks from my local 4X4 company, so i had them give me the number of the guy from BDS suspension that they working with, i called Friday, and i called and i called, every time it goes to voice mail so i hang up, i tried again today with the same result so this time i left a message.

The guy called me back in an hour, find out he's just a sales guy and transfers me to someone in the tech department who had been working the shock issue.

It turns out that the guy in the tech department is the same guy i was emailing to about questions i had about my rear U-bolts, I had mentioned to him i had a shock problem going on in the U-bolt email but he didn't seem to know anything about it, so the reality is this guy knew about my shock dilemma but would never answer or talk to me about it in email, also last week he said he was going to send me different rear U-bolts but they were never shipped ether.... Finally the apologizes start rolling in about being busy with SEMA and he dropped the ball ect.

But we talked for over an hour and bottom line is that for my truck they sell the same shocks for an 8" lift a 6" lift and a 4" lift and said nobody in 15 years has ever complained about it, i told him that was absolutely absurd to use the same shocks for 4" 6" and 8" lift kits and that 2.75 inches of travel in the back is still unacceptable, especially if i ever load the back end, it would be bottomed out. He told me i needed to relocate my top and or bottom shock mounts...Really? That's absurd too..... He dug a bit and found one in there inventory that will work on my truck quite well on the rear but nothing for the fronts.

So now my options are to take these shocks back to the 4X4 place and get my money back for them all, OR exchange the rears for the ones that will work out great with almost 6" travel and live with the fronts which give me 4 1/8" travel..

I did go to the Fox webpage and found 2 shocks that would fit just fine on my truck BUT per the same tech guy the Fox shocks they sell have their BDS specific valving in them and if i ordered direct from Fox the valving would be totally different...

What would you guys do? I'm really fed up.

[Vintage Windmills]

i'd get a set of skyjackers and return those shocks you have and be done with it.

oh, and have another irish death-my kind of barley pop!