Old Blue - 1984 XL Flareside

[FuzzFace2]

Each carb'ed motor starts a little different and it takes time to find just what it takes to start yours.
What makes it even harder is todays gas and what happens when the motor sits for a bit.

As you found day to day it seams to start up pretty fast, 1 pump and maybe hold the throttle down just a little and it fires up.
If it sits for a week you can try the 1 pump & hold but if it does not fire up right a way then when cranking keep pumping till it fires up. If it does not start in a short while stop and let the starter cool off for a min or 2 and try again.

I adjusted my choke last weekend and how I start the truck now is different so I have to re-learn what the truck wants to start LOL
Dave ----

[ckuske]

The endearing thing about carbs to me is that they are analog - with all the peculiarities that come with that. Temperature, time, phase of the moon (joking on this last one) all can change things! Ha!

[ckuske]

Hi Guys,

I'll have a bigger update thread soon (I hope) but I am trying to install new front shocks.  When removing the old ones, I had to get a mallet to extract them from the shock mount bracket (E0TZ-18126-A).  It seems to be a very tight fit.

Now I am trying to install the new ones, and I'm having a hard time getting the lower mount of the shock in between the two sides of the bracket.  It is almost like the spacing in "the channel" is 1mm too narrow.

I know I can whack away and force it in, as this is how it must have been done with the old shocks but it seems excessive..

Tips?

[ArdWrknTrk]

Is the metal bushing in the rubber grommet too long?
Do your rubber bushings use a cupped washer on either side?

There's nothing wrong with using a mallet to drive them in.
It's really nothing compared to the beating from road bumps at speed.

[ckuske]

So I got my calipers out this morning and compared the metal grommet in the old shocks with the new ones.

The metal grommet on the new ones (Bilstein B4600s) are a little under a millimeter longer.  

My gut is to just get the Dremel out and try and grind the grommet down but I don't know how well that will go... I imagine the steel is hardened.  

I guess the other option would be to try and bend the bracket slightly, but that is some thick steel as well.

Thoughts?

[ArdWrknTrk]

I imagine it might take a while with a Dremel.

Do you know anyone with a bench or angle grinder?
Those would make quick work of it. It doesn't need to be a work or art.

[ckuske]

I’ll bug the guy across the street when he opens his garage door.

Or, I might go down to Lowes and get an Angle Grinder, they don’t seem to expensive…

[ckuske]

I got it on finally... I had to grind the bushing down on both sides down to the rubber plus a tiny bit.

It occurred to me that the last time shocks were installed, someone could have seriously over-tightened the nut on the bottom, and drew the ears closer together, adding an extra challenge for me...

I now have the underside from the cab forward fully painted, and the shock installed.  I'm gonna install the exhaust shroud and lower this side, raise the other side, and crawl around and paint the underside of the driver side, then I can start reassembling everything in earnest!

[Gary Lewis]

Sounds like you are getting close, Chris.  I think you'll really be pleased with all your work.  

[ckuske]

Thanks Gary!  Getting tantalizingly close to be able to start putting things back on instead of taking more things off!

[ckuske]

Aside from the issues getting my front shock on, I also decided to try something (successful or not still TBD) ..

The need to crank for almost a minute when the truck has sat for a long time bugs me.  Theories include evaporation of the fuel in the bowl (naturally, or because of the prevalence of ethanol in gasoline these days), but bottom line I don't want to take my air cleaner off etc to use starting fluid or something similar.  I'm lazy, I guess?

So, I did some research and found something I think will work.  I got a Airtex electric fuel pump and mounted in near the drivers' side shock... it seems to allow fuel to pass through when not supplied with power, so the mechanical fuel pump will handle everything when the truck is up and running.  

Essentially, the plan is to toggle a momentary push button switch routed to the cab to run the electric pump for 5-10 seconds to load the fuel line and carb bowl, and then it will turn off when the button is released - and the truck should then fire up.

I tried to be aware of where I put the pump (I tried to get it as far away from the exhaust as possible), and unfortunately because of its location I have a 180 in the fuel line from the metal line on the frame to the input nipple on the electric fuel pump which I'm not super excited about but I didn't want to cut the line and have to re-flare it etc.   I have tried to use a decent length with no visible kinks etc, but feedback is welcome.  The glass filter will probably go away as soon as I prove it all works, it's just for diagnostics mostly.  Given that, I have zip ties to keep the filter from hitting metal and getting cracked or shattered...

[ckuske]

I got the valve covers back on.  Not hard, except on the passenger side dealing with the morass of vacuum lines, solenoids, etc.

Here is a picture from the top view when I got the truck back in 2017 (yikes!):



And after lots of cleaning etc... spark plug wires aren't on yet (but soon!)...

[Gary Lewis]

Looks SO much better, Chris!!!   Well done!

[ckuske]

Thanks Gary!  I bought some black zip ties and I hope to route some things to be less cluttered than before as well.

With Cory's help awhile back, I discovered that I had the valve cover bolts with the stem on them for mounting the wire looms, but they had been put back on in the wrong place when I had the engine rebuilt a long time back.  So, that will turn out nicer too and I bought some Dorman ones that slide right onto those stems.

I have the silicone gaskets from realgaskets.com installed, the instructions said to have the covers torqued to 40-60 inch pounds and no more.  Now I don't know everything, but I know to divide by 12 to get ft/lb.  But my torque wrench doesn't go nearly that low... do you have any advice on an equivalent "feel" would be?  I hand tightened them then went about one turn past that, but....?

[Gary Lewis]

If you have a 1/4" drive ratchet use it as it has a lot less leverage than larger ones.  And just snug them up pretty snug.  I don't know how else to describe it.

[ckuske]

Good enough for me!  They were barely hand tight before, so I think what you're saying makes sense!  

[ckuske]

Hi All,

So I'm putting things back on - just replaced the power steering hoses, I'm painting the fan shroud with SEM black so it matches everything else, put the foam gasket between the blower motor and the plenum that I bought etc.  I've started tightening belts and getting ready to move on to putting the radiator support etc back in and prepare to fire!

But first, remember when I let my alternator fall?  I swore I'd remember what goes where... well, some months later I found I've broken my cardinal rule and didn't write it down.  I'm confident the wire with the terminal lug is correct, but the other two I'm not sure of, only because the wire colors are essentially gone.  This is a 1G alternator.  One for sure is O/LB (the red cap wire) so I'm guessing its to Field (F), so that means the other should be Stator (S) even thought its not W/BK.  I guess the Red/Black caps on those wires are there just to confuse things more????  Can anyone confirm?  If it's not clear to you either, I'll go buzz out the wire to the choke, that would clear it up I suppose but I'd appreciate the input anyway!  

[ckuske]

I buzzed it out, and it seems like the black connector is the wire to the electric choke, so that got hooked up to the Stator terminal

[Gary Lewis]

I missed this, sorry.  But glad you got it figured out.  The electrons probably don't care what color the insulation is.  

[ckuske]

No worries Gary, I completely understand, I appreciate you taking the time.  It just pushes me to dig in a little deeper.  

As no-one said "NO, DON'T DO THAT!"  I'll keep moving forward!