A'ight... I'm back!

[shuttermutt]

Okay, okay... it's been a while. A few months to be (kind of) exact. Works been keeping me really busy, though. I've barely had time to sleep, let alone doing anything fun these past few months.

I'd sort of shelved the truck and dug out the BMW once the cold weather went away. Recently, however, a spark of inspiration struck in the form of a donated Edelbrock 1406 carb and Performer RPM intake. I rebuilt the carb, set it on the intake, and put it on the truck this past weekend.

Man, what a difference! That simple swap (a Q-Jet that was acting funky and vanilla GM cast iron intake for the 'brock stuff) changed everything. My off-the-line performance is dramatically improved, my idle cleaned up (you can still hear the cam, but it's breathing like it should now), and my overall power improved noticeably.

Everything's just about like it should be again. The only serious problem I've got is my power steering bracket. I've got the old style pump and the wrong bracket keeping it on there. Apparently, the jackass that did my engine swap didn't move the correct bracket over and now this bracket has cracked and isn't long for this world.

Not so serious problems include a defroster vent hose that's basically cracked in two, a broken stud in my junction block, a missing choke housing, instrument panel lights that are burned out, a cigarette lighter and interior light that don't work, a missing center A/C register thingy, torn seats, a missing glove box liner, a burned out tag light (which nicely complements the Maine tag that should've been converted to Minnesota many months ago), and rust, rust, and more rust.

So, anybody got a correct P/S bracket for sale? This one is making me kind of nervous. I keep wondering when I'm going to be driving down the road, drop that pump, and all hell's going to break loose. Anybody?

[Stroker]

I noticed in you sig you have a 68 with a 350. Does your engine have the large balancer or the small? I ran into a problem with the power steering pump bracket when I swapped out the original 327 on my 68. The 350 I used to replace the original 327 engine had the larger balancer and the original ps bracket wouldn't work. This might have been the case with your swap also. I ended up using a 71 bracket, pump and pulleys. Going back to the smaller balancer would have been a better route to go IMO, but at the time I had parts to swap the bracket and the 8 inch balancer on the 350 was new. But as a result of the bracket and pulley swap I don't think my ac would line up now, if I decided to restore it. I've seen a lot variation in the pulley and bracket configuration on these trucks even though they are all swp. Good Luck.......Stroker

[dtlilly]

Welcome back! I know what you mean about out of state tags, I moved from Memphis to Milwaukee area, and refuse to get rid of the Tennessee tags

[krue]

Welcome back. Sounds like a few minor things to take care of, just like mine.

[Blue Beard]

Welcome back, did you miss us....?

[shuttermutt]

Originally Posted by Blue Beard

Welcome back, did you miss us....?

But, of course!

I've been driving the truck for the past couple of days. I swapped out the metering rod springs based on a recommendation from the Edelbrock tech support line. I don't know if that really did any good, but the guy said it was a pretty good idea based on my combo.

Aside from breaking my power junction bolt (the thing that mounts to the fender near the battery and supplies power to damn-near everything), things are going fairly well. I'm still a little nervous about it because every now and again the truck will just up and die like you turned the key off. I double-checked my HEI terminal and other connections, but I don't see anything else obvious.

I'm thinking it's electrical. I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to it. It's done it while at an idle. It's done it at ~2000 rpm cruise. It's done it shortly off the line. It's done it afer 3 miles of non-stop driving. It's done it in a straight line. It's done it after turning a corner. It's done it when the engine's relatively cold. It's done it when the engine's at temperature.

It's done it in a boat. It's done it in a moat. It's done it in a can. It's pissing me off, Sam-I-Am!

Like I said, the engine doesn't stumble or freak out. It's just like you turn the key off. When I stick it in Park and hit the key, however, it fires right back up and we're off and running. It did it really bad before I A) replaced the metering springs, B) replaced the fuel filter, C) re-connected the HEI power terminal and D) fixed the power junction to make a good connection.

Yeah, I know... I shouldn't have done all those things at once, but here's the way it all went down:

1. Drive to parts store to buy metering springs.
2. Consider the 12 mile drive home and decide to go ahead and drop the new springs in (easy on an Edelbrock).
3. Replace the fuel filter just because I'm already under the hood.
4. Get back in truck... no start (no power at all).
5. Re-seat the HEI power terminal.
6. While talking on the cell phone, give the power terminal nut a little twist.
7. Snap the power terminal nut clean off.
8. Let the wires slip out of your hand and make a nice, pretty blue arc against the inner fender.
9. Walk back into the parts store for a 4 amp fuse.
10. Replace fuse, put the wires together with a $0.25 black plastic spring clamp.
11. Start the truck.
12. Call the wife to explain why you're late for dinner.
13. Drive home and replace black plastic spring clip with a small metal C-clamp wrapped in a plastic shopping bag and secured with masking tape.
14. Proceed to drive the truck until you get a replacement terminal ordered.

Since all this happened, I've only had the problem once. It was after driving the truck about 3 miles. It died at the light. I started it back up, drove to the next light, and it did it about 3 more times. That was Friday morning. I've put on about 30 miles since then and it hasn't done it again.

Any ideas of where to start looking?

[cableguy0]

check the main power feed wiring coming off of the start i believe it is the purple wire look at thwere it goes through the little bracket on the back of the block make sure the wires arent all cracked and nasty and causing a nice light show like mine did i caught just before it caught fire had a nice little smoke show lucky it didnt hurt nothing and a dollars worth of connectors wire and shrink tube fixed it up good as new

[bumpster]

Nabisco called, something about the language over cell phone freqs when you snapped the bolt off.

[shuttermutt]

Originally Posted by bumpster

Nabisco called, something about the language over cell phone freqs when you snapped the bolt off.

Busted! As soon as the truck failed to start, I grabbed the cell and called in the expert (see #6 above). In a stroke of sheer foolish confidence, I drove the truck to a party this evening. It was a 50-60 mile round trip and it never even blinked. I'm almost hesitant to start poking around. If it ain't (obviously) broke, don't fix it, right?

[jay6891]

My truck was doing the same thing as yours. I to broke the terminal off. While fixing that I noticed that my positive battery cable clamp was looking a bit sorry. Thought I would fix that while I was there. Truck started dieing just like yours. Took me a week to figure out that I didn't get a good conection at battery, ie, vibration sometimes shook it loose truck would die, wiggle wire, start back up. Would last sometimes couple days, sometimes couple of feet. DUH, brain fart cleared and I redid all conections, has not died since. Check your connections.

[68C15]

as far as your problem with a missing center ac thing, I have a ummolested non ac dash I will trade that way you have one less thing to worry about. JK (maybe)
as far as pour PS bracket issue. get a hold of Alan Grove Components. they make a sweet bracket set for about $60 that puts it down low & works *****in.
when you say no-start do you mean no crank or no fire? no fire check module. no crank sounds like the junction block issue.
Todd

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Glad to see you back...

[shuttermutt]

Originally Posted by 68C15

as far as your problem with a missing center ac thing, I have a ummolested non ac dash I will trade that way you have one less thing to worry about. JK (maybe)
as far as pour PS bracket issue. get a hold of Alan Grove Components. they make a sweet bracket set for about $60 that puts it down low & works *****in.
when you say no-start do you mean no crank or no fire? no fire check module. no crank sounds like the junction block issue.
Todd

Thanks(?) for the trade offer, I'll hang on to mine for now. In the mean time, I've been checking out the Alan Grove stuff. It looks pretty sweet. I've just got to figure out precisely which style of power steering pump I've got. All I know is that it's painted blue, all metal, and cusses at me every time I turn a corner since the broken bracket causes the belt to slip.

Oh, and the no start issue was one-time only. When it happened, it was a completely dead key. It had to have been a bad connection at the power junction on the fender.

[shuttermutt]

BTW, here's a pic of my existing pump and bracket. As you can (hopefully) see, the bracket actually shares a mounting point with the damn motor mount. I've got a feeling that's gonna be a monumental pain in the ass to replace.

Can anyone ID that pump? Is it considered a "Chevrolet Saginaw non-metric power steering pump with the attached reservoir" like what the Alan Grove site refers to?