Working Man's Burbon

[HO455]

Thanks Dieselwrencher. I kinda feel bad for the PO. I have a receipt for $1700 to install the air bags back in 05. He didn't get much for his money. Plus he told me the MIC panel was given to him so it wasn't part of the $1700.

[HO455]

I got the sway bar finished today. Forgot to get a photo of the brackets before I installed them. But basically I cut the stockers down then welded a plate to the them. The front edge I cut so it was one inch high and the back at 1 1/2" high.

[3drburb]

Nice work.
Did you get the clearance you needed by adding the brackets?

[HO455]

Owwwmm? You know it cleared when I mocked it up, but I got them installed and started greasing the rest of the chassis and forgot to drop it down and check it. That will be the first thing tomorrow I do. Thanks for asking.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by 3drburb

Nice work.
Did you get the clearance you needed by adding the brackets?

I was shooting for 1/4" and ended up with 3/16". I will keep an eye on it and if I see signs of contact I will have to put a spacer under the rear bolts. Or maybe I will have to look into installing some steering stops.

[nastety92]

What size front tires do you run on your truck? I see you just put some 275-60-15's on the rear.

Thanks,
Nick

[HO455]

Originally Posted by nastety92

What size front tires do you run on your truck? I see you just put some 275-60-15's on the rear.

Thanks,
Nick

The fronts are 245-60-15's.

[HO455]

Spent most of the day remounting the air compressor. It was hanging upsidedown screwed to the plywood behind the fuel tank. I fabbed a sheet metal base that attaches to the front of the trailer hitch like a cross member would. Using some sound isolation mounts I attached the pump to the base. The result is a marked reduction in noise. Two people can have a normal conversation when it is running now. And it doesn't startle me every time it starts now.
I had to drop the air tank to flip the compressor and I glad I did. There were only three bolts holding it and one of those was backed out about a 1/4". They had installed the tank the same way as the compressor, by hanging it from the floor with 1 /4-20 bolts going up into T-nuts on the inside. There were only three T-nuts installed, but four holes drilled, so I guess it never had four bolts. The bolt that was backed off was so badly corroded and I ended up having to drill the T-nut into thirds and chisle the pieces apart to remove the bolt. This was less than optimal when it came time to put it back together, as I did some damage to the wood. So I purchased some 5/16" 3 wing T-nuts which have a larger head to make up for the damage and should allow the nuts to support the weight of the tank better. When I replace the floor I will figure a better way to mount the tank.
All in all a good day (except that I had to work outside due to the shop being slammed with work and it rained pretty good a couple of times) that finished with a short drive in the WMB! Night and day difference with the bags isolated and the big sway bar.

[nastety92]

Man that previous owner really did some "NICE" work on that burb. Good thing you seem to be doing everything correct this time around. It must feel nice to get the truck up and running again and all of these little problems worked out.

[Dieselwrencher]

I bet those brakes worked really great before.... Nice job fixing all that crud.

[HO455]

Thanks guys. Several months back I installed a sender for the temperature guage (there was no way to tell engine temperature) and replaced the wire from where the PO had cut it at the firewall. The guage worked until the engine temperature got to 160* then it would peg the guage high. I confirmed the sender being bad with an ohm meter. I finally received the replacement yesterday. I got it swapped and went for a test drive ( It read zero ohms above 160 degrees). The guage now reads about 1/3rd of scale with the engine at 190*. Progress! I went to the gas store and got the WMB some new gas. The attendant didn't believe it was a Suburban. He said it had to be a hearse. He liked it but wouldn't drive something dead people had been in. I forgot to check if the door was now sealing as the sun was out for the fifth time this winter and I had the windows down.

[HO455]

Today's project was to finish up the throttle cable replacement. I got started last week on this by getting a cable out of a 79 Burban at the U-pull-it. And once I got it back to the shop and looked at it in the truck I realized the ends where the cables connected to the pedal were different, I decided I to replace the pedal instead of trying to modify the existing one. So back to the wrecking yard where I got a pedal out of a 75 C20. The whole reason for changing cables is the PO had converted the linkage rod to a cable style, which is nice, with the exception of the pedal and cable must have come from a motor home or something as the cable is 63" long. To make it work he had the cable make a big loop around the brake booster (1st photo blue line show cable routing). I also wasn't thrilled about the angle of the cable between the carb and the cable bracket (2nd photo) or the fact he had Ty-rapped the spark plug wires to this big loop of cable The combination made for a stiff gas pedal. Once I removed the old cable I got to see the hacked hole in the firewall that was supposed to hold the cable (3rd photo) Obviously a patch was needed so that was the first task. Cut out a piece of sheet metal then, cut a rectangular hole in it for the cable to snap into. I don't know why but GM put the cutout for the throttle cable at an angle so I tried to match the angle in my patch. (4th photo). It took me at least an hour to form the patch to match the shape of the firewall. I planned to pop rivet the patch to the firewall so three hole were drilled. Then I filed down the bad spots in the firewall and drilled matching holes for the rivets. I put some sealant on the patch, riveted it into place, and gave it a squirt with a rattle can. The old cable and the new one fresh from wrecking yard. (Last photo)

[HO455]

The pedal arms were different (1st photo) so I decided to bend the new one ( which in the picture is the black one) to match instead of remounting the pedal in a different spot. The base that holds the pedal is the basically the same on both. Using a cutting torch I made the three bends, one at a time, quenching the rod in water after each bend. I forgot to get a photo of the finished pedal, but it is a close match. After bolting the pedal in I removed the old throttle cable bracket from the intake manifold, and installed a factory bracket on the carburetor mounting bolt. I installed the cable and put the springs on in the factory location. (2nd photo) When installing the cable I made the discovery that the secondary's on the carburetor did not open. Which I am sure has contributed to the lack of performance. It took about 45 minutes to get that straightened out. There were two issues, one was the tab on the main throttle shaft (3rd photo) just behind where the cable hooks up was severely bent back towards the firewall, and the kick down switch was way out of adjustment. After a test drive I wonder if someone intentionally tried to block the secondary's from opening, because the carb has a serious bog if you tip into the secondary's and if you nail it, it just coughs and dies. Whereas before it just ran painfully slow. I will also have to address the kick down switch mounting. If you look carefully at the last photo you can see it is using the front bolt of the factory bracket and then a loop of plumber's strap to hold the back end in place. The engine has a dual plane Street Dominator manifold on it and no provisions for the factory bracket. If anyone has any ideas on how to mount this better I would love to hear them. A successful day as the new throttle is silky smooth and light.

[HO455]

Jacked up the WMB and removed the front air bags earlier this week. It went easier than I had figured to cut through the welds. I did buy a good quality thin cutting disk for the rotary grinder. Then I fabbed up some upper plates to bolt in place. That took longer than expected as I decided to bend the inside down to match the cross member. I used a hydraulic press and like a hundred trips back and forth under the truck to get them to fit right. Then it was time to drill the holes. Oh boy nothing better than laying on your back drilling above you. I clamped the plate in position and drilled 3/32" pilot holes to start. After removing the plate I drilled the the cross member holes to 3/8" with a screw machine length drill bit I got at Grainger. The bit is only 3 1/8" overall length so using a 90* pneumatic drill I was able to fit the drill and bit without having to remove the lower control arm. Then it was on to the easy part of drilling the plates to 3/8" on the bench. That done I drilled holes for the air lines to exit on the back side of the cross member. With the bag bolted to the plate I realized that I would not be able to compress the new Slam Specialties bags by hand enough to get them in the proper location. So I ran the the line through the cross member and grabbed the shops power brake bleeder and hooked it up. The vacuum provided by the bleeder easily collapsed the bag and I was able to slid it into place with inches of room. Then I started all the bolts on the plate and the lower cup. After i turned off the bleeder the cup dropped right into position. I saved a ton of time over pulling one of the control arms off for clearance.
Looking at the old bags I think part of the problem with the alignment of the top of the bag and the bottom is either the upper part was installed at an angle or that part shifted over time as it was only welded about 180*. With no welds on the inside half there was nothing to keep them from moving.

[3drburb]

That looks a lot better. I will need to try that trick next time.

[HO455]

Thanks guys. No real ingenuity here, just laziness.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work. That old cup sure wasn't much holding it in there was it?

[HO455]

After seeing the old bags next to the new ones it was very apparent how small and worn they were. (I should have gotten that picture.) I was unable to find any part numbers on them all I was able to read was Firestone Airstroke Actuator.
Thanks for the kind words.

[HO455]

Got busy the last two days installing my swap meet finds. Lots of visual upgrades. First up was the rear bumper remount. As I mentioned way back in the thread the rear of the frame is tweaked. The passenger side is pulled down about 3/8 of an inch. The result of that is the rear bumper fits poorly at best. (Photo 1) It also appears that the bumper is bent in the middle. Most likely from hitting a trailer tongue repeatedly when trying to hook it up. The ends of the frame where the bumper bolts to are both cracked. (Photo 2) So my solution is to remove those tabs and install step bumper brackets so I can move the bumper around and square it up to the body. It went pretty well after cutting the tabs off I had to trim the passenger side bracket to get it high enough as well as make a notch for the outer bracket bolt. After that it was just clamp the inners to the frame, bolt the bumper to them for one last check, then lay underneath and drill six 1/2" holes. While catching as many of the metal chips in my shirt as possible (saves clean up time later) The drivers side only required a notch to clear the outer bracket bolt. (Photo 3) I ended up using the outer brackets as they are slightly longer. However the outer bracket frame bolts and the center bolts for the inners I drilled ended up being too close together. I probably could of deleted the center bolts as the bumper will never have any real strain on it like a step bumper could, but the holes were drilled so I decided to use the center bolts and to make spacers to allow the outer brackets to sit over the center bolts. I put 3/16" spacers between the back of the bumper and the brackets to gain some more space in the center of the bumper and the body. Happily I was able to get it leveled out and most of the bend in the middle removed.

[HO455]

Final results. The bumper now is within 1/8" all the way across the back. F$%%#& A baby! Now I won't get dizzy walking past it. Still some bow in the middle and it has a bit of a twist, but overall it's so much better. If you look you close you can see how beat the license plate is.

[HO455]

Next step was three parts. First was to swap bezels on the tach dash set I got from board member jaybatta. The one got from him was from a later year. At the swap meet I scored a 67 guage set for twenty dollars from a supposed 6800 mile motor home that was in a flood in 70/71 and then parked in a tractor shed until last year. The old boy I got the gauge's from said he was able to save the 402 and the sheet metal but the rest was junk. He had been trying to buy the truck for more than twenty years. He brought the cab from Pendleton to sell. When I was pulling the guages out his son came up and said he sold the cab. I ended up buying the guages from the new owner. The insides of that cluster were really nice so I used the speedometer, fuel, temp, and the ampmeter with the tach, oil and air pressure guages I got from jaybatta. The bezel shows almost no wear and the little cushions that keep the plexiglass from rattling were still nice and soft. Not rock hard and brittle.
Part two was pull the old guage set out along with the glove box.... (Cue the Bob Barker voice) to install a new dash pad. Picked it up from the Truck Parts booth along with a new cigarette lighter. The old one came right out as I had removed during the paint part of the project. I started on one end inserting the bolts until all of them were in. Then I started all the nuts finger tight before I went on to the screws. I found it harder than expected to get the holes for the screws to line up. It took quite a bit of force to push the pad down far enough. Once all the screws were started I tightened the nuts and then the screws. There is some waviness on the top of the pad but maybe after some time in the sun it may flatten out. I didn't tighten any of the fasteners very tight, so the pad will be able expand and contract with temperature changes. After reinstalling the glove box part three starts.
I installed the new guages. I ran some wires to power and to pick up the tach signal for the tach. I was able to splice into the tach wire I previously had run for the fuel pump controller. Upon start up the tach worked fine. I was expecting a problem that would require some kind of electronic isolation, but it was a nonissue. I did have a bit of a ground issue that was quickly solved by retightening the screws on the circuit board. At this point everything works except the fuel guage. It is stuck at empty so could be bad (which would be a shame as it looks so good) or maybe I screwed something up when I was working on the bumper. Oh well that's another day. I still need to plumb the line from the air system to the guage. But I have some imagineering to do on that, not to mention finding an adapter to hook to the guage.
Oh I guess there was a part four. I put the new cigarette lighter in.

[Dieselwrencher]

That rear bumper looks so much nicer now! The dash pad and tach dash look great too. Nice work!

[HO455]

Thanks dieselwrencher! That bumper has bothered me since I slapped it on there. But I had other things to tend to.
First off for today was to find the problem with the fuel guage. Last night I did a search and found a great thread by T-Bone 1964 on fuel guage testing.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=640615

So this morning I crammed myself under the dash and put my multimeter to work. I wasn't able to get the appropriate readings with the guage installed thus removal was necessary. I was able to remove the fuel guage from the guage set without having to remove the whole set. Once it was out I was still only able to get two of the three readings. The other one was about half of what it should be, but it wasn't consistent. It appeared that there might be some corrosion on the posts so I carefully removed the nuts and the resistor. Then separated the face and meter movement from the mounting plate. Now it was more apparent there was a small amount of corrosion. (Photo 1). Using a very small wire brush I cleaned the posts, nuts, washers and the resistor ends. Once everything was nice and shiny I reassembled the guage using Corrosion Block.
If you haven't used it before I recommend it. As a marine electrican working mostly on tugboats I found it to be a product that lives up to its name. It is nonconductive so no worries about creating unintended ground paths or shorts.
Testing after the guage was reassembled showed the readings were now correct and consistent. Then it was back under the dash to install the guage. Two of the screws were marginal on how they felt as I tightened them. So I found a pair of metric sheet metal screws that were perfect for the stripped out originals. Upon completion of the reassembly and testing of all the light bulbs ( I'm not a big fan of the repop circuit boards, at least the one I have, it is so thin the bulbs are pretty finicky). Turning the key on revealed the same problem as before, guage stuck at empty. Following my time tested mantra of "always look at the last thing you screwed with" I went back to the rear of the WMB and...
Now it is time for full disclosure. After being careful about the wires when drilling and fabricating the bunper brackets. I Homer Simpsoned myself and bolted the wire behind the corner of the bracket. (Last photo) It took twenty minutes to unbolt the bracket, pry it off the wire, cut the smashed section out, and solder it back together. Now the guage works! I don't know if the corrosion was a problem, but it I feel the guage should be more accurate now.

[HO455]

The up side of the fuel guage debacle is yesterday when I got done with the guages I wasn't sure if the fuel reading was wrong or if the new guage just displayed a lower level. I knew I was low on fuel so I went and filled the tank for the first time since I bought it. It took 15.2 gallons in the stock tank. I don't know how empty that is, but it didn't cause the guage to move. Forward to today and when I crawled under the back to check out the wiring. I found the fill hose had softened and split and now fuel was dripping steadily from it. I had been smelling gas all morning, but thought it was from this 66 427 motor that had appeared next to the WMB on the overnight. I was aware the hose was kinked and it was on the list. But just not today's list. I had to order a foot of 1 3/8" hose to get the 7" I needed. I will replace the vent hose too.
Also today I reworked the front bumpstops. The new air bags are taller when they are aired out by about 1 9/16". I scored the two red 1 1/2" bumpers at the swap meet. I installed them in the upper plate holes and added a 1/4" spacer to the lower bumpers. Then it was just a matter of drilling two new holes for the plate bolts. I'm not sure this will be a long term solution as I'm also thinking of adding some steering stops. So why not combine the two like GM did? I will have to replace the control arm bushings and ball joints at some point not to far down the road. To make that job quicker I want to get a second set of control arms, rebuild them and then its just a swap out.
I have noticed that the new air bags are touching the lower control arm when aired out. So it looks as if some modifications are needed. I did a quick check of the interweb and didn't find any lower arms with air bag clearance that were set up for a stock sway bar. I guess it's time for some more imagineering.
And thank you Advanced Design. Hot metal chips are a good reason for a big beard.

[Advanced Design]

Yes, nice improvement! Clever process catching the drill chips in the shirt to save clean up time later. Even better when they are hot...