my rusty dirty bump

[hedz]

i got alot of work done today.

i fixed the problem on my steering column. IT WAS A MASSIVE PITA. i did not have any jackstands or a jack handy. wish i had so that i could have moved the steering column easier. basically i losened the two bolts in cab keeping the steering column firm. then losened the large bolt under the hood right above where the linkage connects to the column. then backed off the steering column after unbolting the coupler to the column. then stuck a huge screw driver with some reach and jammed it into the tooth coupler side engaging the steering box and attempted to pry it lose. this didn't really work. i then got a wood carving tool and wedged it in between the coupler and the column. then pushed the column onto the the wood carving tool and bolted it back up with the carving tool stuck in there. this way i could use the tool as leverage. i then hammered it with a hammer about 200 times. seriously. finally got it into the intended position. unbolted everything removed the carving tool and then rebolted everything.

the lesson learned from this fix: toss the steering column and coupler asap and replace with a flaming river column, steering u joint adaptable to the steering box, and a nv4500 transmission. hooooooooooooly crap i hate rag joints and anything resembling them

then disassembled my original passenger door that was hit by the tree that fell on the truck years ago. pulled everything out for spare parts and pulled out the lock cylinder.

dissassembled my junk yard passenger door while leaving it on the truck. all i did was lubricate everything with marine grease and installed the old lock cylinder in the junk yard door so i would have keys that worked on that door.

yall are going to think i'm stupid for doing this but i don't care, i'm poor and i'm not restoring this truck... so i siliconed my vent window back into place.

the result: my passenger door is now funcitonal in all ways. it's not perfect, the insides of the door are rusted toast, but they function for what i need to do. and i also have a box full of spare parts if i every get around to restoring the door. i even have extra glass.

then i went to the junk yard. i pulled two light fixtures for cigarette lighters. yes, i have two!

saw some interesting things as well. i saw 3 sets of trim on 3 different trucks that go on the drip rails. i guess it's 70-72 drip rail trim. how the hell do you take this trim off without damaging it?

also saw a outside access tool box installed from the factory onto the outside lower area of the truck bed. it was missing the door. i was thinking about pulling it. it would be cool to have one of these installed on each side of my bed one day.

anywho cheers

[hedz]

man i need a bench seat. mine is killing my back. i'm in search of something with a split bench and headreasts and some kind of armrest thingy in the center. going to mylar/dynamat my interior at the same time. it's getting hot in the cab even with the heater fixed. it's those darn manifolds and all the holes i have in my firewall that need to be plugged. i went to a yard and didn't see anything i thought was worth it. whatever i use is going to have to be a good deal - something cheap and a good find. probably will have to sacrifice the gun rack for comfort

[hedz]

been real busy perfecting and testing my earth battery. moved the buick electra 225 to a family members lakehouse where its going to live for a while. still need to get the wrecked blue g body over there. pulled the heads off the 79 g body(thought i had a blown headgasket on both sides). everything seems clean inside the motor from the pistons down. heads are deffinitely paper weights at best. having a case of indecision on what to do. if you aren't familiar with the sbc family, theres a hellofalot of interchangeability in parts and millions of routes to go with a build, especially the 305s and 350s so just been mulling and reading on that car. finally found some time this past week to focus on the ol green booger. about to upgrade my carburetor to a quadrajet. have 2 inline fuel filters and am bending some stainless for them. i like these filters because i can clean them out with water and reuse them. and they're close to ford blue . rerouted my brake lines from master cylinder to distribution block to try and keep some of the manifold heat away from the lines. also picked up the egr water cooled 4 barrel spacer. i'm going to test both carburetors on the spacer, the quadrajet, and my ol school. whatever the case i am expecting better winter performance, quicker warm of up the carb, and hopefully a slight increase in combustion efficiency and the bonus of a devoted egr first into the intake. if i decide to shelve the ol school carb i can still use it on one of my other engines. and picked up two headrests. trying to see if there's a way for me to mount them in my existing bench seat and just rebuild the whole booger to maintain some sort of originality. bought some gauges. going to run a oil temp, water temp, and maybe a transmission temp. been looking into how best to do this as i have the rat rod 3.03 for now
(nv4500 in a couple months hopefully). found 4 original steel wheels and 120$ worth of rubber to go on them. want to have two mounted beneath the long bed towards the rear and then one on each side of the longbed inside of it each standing up on the rubber and bolted to the inside of the bed. and finally bought some seat belts. got some installing and a little more purchasing to do(alot more in the long run ). oh and repaired the windshield solution spraying system. i think i had a clog. blew out the lines and is working fine now

[hedz]

i havn't had time to do any of my repairs yet. during this down time the shaft that threads into the carb that is used to retain a air cleaner in place broke the tube at the carb where the shaft goes in. i'm lucky as hell nothing fell inside of the engine through the carb. basically my ol school holley given to me as a gift from the great jerry hallman is now officially fubar . so i think i'm forced into buying a quadrajet rochester alot quicker than i intended if i want my truck to drive. i was in a pinch for cash when all of this crap broke late at night on the interstate so i had to drive over 100 miles with no air cleaner. awesome right? so i get into town and park it. i wake up the next morning and my fuel gauge quits working. i go to a auto parts store to try to find one of those tiny clamp down air cleaners which turns out have to utilize that threaded shaft so i realize that route it useless i have to toss the carb. while driving back to the house to park the truck the truck bogs down and then quits in the middle of the road. so i push the truck into a neighborhood and figure i ran out of gas. i look at the tank and it has to be almost empty. so i fill up a can of gas and add 2 gallons of 87 to the truck (because i can't afford anything else) and can't get the truck to start again. checked all my spark plug connections and electrical connections. nothing. i inspect the engine and i see a very small oil drip at the front of the oil pan. very minor oil leak, but maybe it's actually so catastrophic that i can't regain compression? i inspected my rear fuel filter and it appears fine. i pulled the oil filter in my carter fuel pump and it appeared fine. all it does is crank and won't start. battery has plenty of juice. i think the alternator is fine. i think all my ignition is fine. i know driving that ridiculous amount of mileage with no air cleaner is terrible for the engine.

the engine may be locked up. stay tuned...

[hedz]

ive had some time to sort out some issues on the old green truck. i've been having alot of back problems and can't do hardly any work right now. my engine is fine in a way. the shortblock surived perfectly. the whole rotating assembly is still a gem.

unfortunately my drive with no air cleaner forced too much unrestricted air into the engine. as a result it caused a leak in my fresh oil pan gasket at the front and the oil filter side towards the back(still the oil pan) so very small leaks in two places. doh! i just had it replaced. oh well. it's a very small drip. hopefully it won't get worse by the time i can get it over to my friends who has a cherry picker and a better back than me at the moment . mine is still in birmingham unfortunately.

got all my parts in so just need to get in shape

[hedz]

just tested the egr plate. i think it's pretty cool. it functioned well and i like the way the engine responded with the egr pumping into the primaries. unfortunately i won't be using the plate. i won't be using it because i just verified that my holley 600 has gone to carburetor heaven. using a conversion spacer plus the egr plate is just too tall when the quadrajet eliminates all the vachume issues i've had from lack of ports on the holley. i glued my original holley 600 up the center and put glue in some other places to keep it together. it worked for a few days. but it just officially bought the farm today while i was testing it with the egr plate. i realized the dern carb is warped on the bottom and won't mount flat. i had it mounted on top of one of those really thick gaskets and it had so much cussion that it eliminated the vachume leaks even though it was warped. i bet it warped when it cracked down the center simultaniously. time to test the rochester r4-6. i forgot i needed to get a adapter plate to go from quadrajet to square bore. so off i go in search of one. think i saw one at advanced auto

i ruined alot of tubing today. my flare tool is crap. the second one of these i've broken from harbor freight. if you get a flare tool invest in a nicer model, not the cheapest one you can find. essential to make good purty flares. will probably pay a shop to do the tubing for me.

started pulling out the a/c unit to get at the cigarette lighter cover plate in the dash. almost done wiring it. going straight to the battery. also i just realized that the lighter i bought, although nice, cannot use the backlight that some of the oem lighters use. probably because it is aftermarket/brandnew

sooooooooooo if anyone wants either or both of my two cigarette lighter backlights just let me know and i'll be more than happy to send them to you free of charge.