I am a bit behind on updates due to family, work and all that getting in the way but I will now catch up on the latest happenings...
And this part is called "Father gets to hang out in Yuma", or "I love old rigs because I can actually fix them"
So a fellow on the 67-72chevytrucks.com forum from San Diego posted up that he was tearing down a old burb to make a crew cab truck, and since Tom is such a cool guy he agreed to let me drive from Phoenix and raid a bunch of parts from him.
Roof Rack
Aux tanks
Original GM grill guard
bumper to go with it
And a bunch of little things I didn't get a pic of like 2 Spot lights for the A pillars, hand throttle, manual choke, hand e-brake (remember I am an amputee so the foot one sucks) and other little bits.
Well on the way back from San Diego to Phoenix I notched that the rig was slower to crank over at each gas stop and at Yuma the battery acted too low to crank her over.
Now my first thought as I am looking around the gas station for someone to give me a jump start is that I have been running alot of aux stuff over the last 24hrs like a laptop, ham radio, cell phone and such and maybe I just over did what the original 61amp alt could keep up with.
Well I get a jump start from a very nice older guy and get about 2 miles down the highway (unplugged all the aux power draws) when it dies on the road.
When I pop the hood the battery is hot and hissing...not good.
I remember an O'reilys autoparts just back a bit (ended up being a 2 mile walk) and head back to get a battery so I can get off the highway and figure things out.
A great older guy at the parts place takes a break to give me a ride and I slap the battery in but no go.
Now one thing I really like about older rigs is how simple they are. Air, Fuel, Spark....that is it. I have air, I can see fuel through the clear filter and when I pull a plug and do the "hold it near metal test" using my remote starter switch I see I got no spark.
Now you can see at the back of this pic that I have a Mallory distributor and what you can't see is the big red Mallory box on the inner fender well.
Ok so now I call a new buddy Nick from the chevy forum (and now he is here on expo) on a Sunday afternoon to pick his brain. We agree it must be that the external voltage reg went out which let the alt fry the electronic ign parts.
So now it is getting dark and I have 45min to get back 2 miles to O'rielys...as I (remember I am the 1 legged guy) start jogging down the frontage road I see a couple in a nice CJ5 jeep and wave them down, quick explanation to them and we are zooming off to get parts.
I buy a stock HEI setup, wires and figure I will drop in the distrib, get off the highway and grab a hotel for the night in order to replace the alt the next day.
The jeep owner Randy was cool enough to grab his Chevy 4x4 and strap tow me through the median and back to his house (less than 2 miles) AND give me access to his garage to do the repairs that night. Super cool Yuma Jeep owner!
After dropping in the distrib, changing the wires and a bit of tuning by ear I was running! And managed to get 2 miles back down the highway to the Micro-tel Hotel next to O'riely's.
Pizza, shower and checking the chevy forum for info on the alt change out rounded out my evening.