[rgunlock]

Not much of an update, but it's been a while. Been doing a lot of researching how to deal with the issues I described from the 16 mile drive to work.

Called Tuff Country about the bouncing around. They're saying I have the right shocks, and the correct springs, so advised to check I hadn't over-torqued the bolts on the spring shackles, inhibiting spring movement. Checked those today and they seem to be about right.

For the steering being pulled by the road, I've ordered 2 degree shims to get my caster within specs, and a better steering stabilizer setup. Neither showed up in time for the weekend.

For the dying when stopping I'd been reading a lot of threads about vapor lock. One of them mentioned "Never Ever" put a fuel filter between the tank and the mechanical pump. Who'da thunk? Of course I'd put fuel filters between each tank and the tank selector valve. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm guessing that the mech fuel pump struggles to provide enough fuel pressure if dragging fuel through a filter?

In any case, I spliced in a bypass for one of the tanks. Started the truck and could barely get it and keep it running and clouds of unburned fuel out the exhaust. Hmm... maybe the inline fuel filter did make a difference. Spent a while readjusting idle fuel mixture and timing and got it running at least decent again. Mixture screws all the way in and still some smoke indicating too rich mixture. Guess drilling those fuel-mixture holes out in the baseplate of the carb wasn't needed without filters inline. Oh, well, at least I have 3 other Quadrajets to grab an unmolested base plate from.

I'd mentioned that I did get it running decent again, so was snugging the distributor hold down bolt and it just got looser, WTH? Then it fell out. Threads full of aluminum from the Edlebrock Performer aluminum intake. I swear I never torqued that down enough to strip it, aluminum or not. Well, I've got a couple original GM intakes I can use.

Sometimes you reach a stage where you just wish you knew what the hell you were doing instead of getting more "lessons".

It's all fixable and shouldn't cost much, but frustrating...