[hgs_notes]

Its been over 3 years since the last update. Anybody that was following along probably thought it was abandoned like so many projects on the board but basically I just got distracted by too many other things. Work, family, house, motorcycles, cars, etc. It's true that this sat a long time without much getting done. In 2019 I was motivated to get going on it again. One of the big problems was the truck wiring. It's hard to describe how bad it really was. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a new harness for under the dash and front lighting. Not the engine harness though because very little of that gets used after the LS swap. That was ordered in August and the guy building it said a few weeks lead time. A few months later I actually got it. It was winter and that garage isn't heated and I was done until it warmed up. I had other things to take up my time.

Anyway, summer 2020 comes along. I'm stuck at home like so many are and you would think I would jump back on this, but that didn't happen. Anyone that knows me knows I have several irons in the fire at all times. This particular iron was not one of them. Towards late summer I was looking at this one and the guilt of letting it sit so long finally overcame the reluctance to get the wiring fixed. Working under the dash of any vehicle is the work I enjoy the least of any project. I detest it. It's uncomfortable and frustrating.

Now that I've provided a fairly complete list of reasons for dragging my feet I'll get on with the update. The short story is it runs and drives. Very happy with it. The long story will follow.

I started by pulling out the old fuse block and dash harness and getting the new one installed. Wasn't too difficult. The harness was supposedly custom made for a 79 using a gage cluster from a 91. I'm not sure yet if that's what I got. Anyway, once that was in I sorted out the engine harness, eliminating the unneeded wires. Then put the new lighting harness in. Then I went back to the LS swap harness install instructions to find where I left off and recheck everything done before. I needed to fix ground wires and connect a few wires into the cab wiring. I sorted out the starter wiring that had been hanging there for a few years, crossed my fingers and cranked the engine over for the first time since I bought it.

I spent a couple of days working under the truck getting the exhaust Jerry rigged together, wiring the fuel pump, pulling even more old wires out, getting the transmission wiring and tranny cooler hooked up. Basically just rechecking everything and trying to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.

I had built an ECU mount last year for the driver side inner fender. Everything seemed to be powered up and ready to rock. So I turned the key and heard the fuel pump run. Did that a few times and then started cranking the engine. It fired for about 1/10th of a second. Multiple times. And never more than that. Dammit.

I talked to the local mechanic who helps me out occasionally. I borrowed his fuel pressure test setup and found that I had fuel pressure but it fell off as soon as the pump stopped. So it was getting fuel to the rails at least. And he suggested spraying ether in the intake. That allowed it to run for a few seconds. Long enough to know the ignition side of the equation was good. He also said that it was common for the junkyard engines that sat for awhile to get stuck injectors. I borrowed his injector signal tester and they were getting the signal to open so it wasn't a problem with the ECU. I pulled the injectors out and soaked them in cleaner and rigged up a battery pack to fire them but couldn't get them to open.

So off to the injector cleaning place in Mankato they went. Picked them up a couple days later and reinstalled. Time to hold my breath and give it another shot.

Success!! It fired up and idled along. Revved it a couple times and shut it down. No driveshaft. That was August 20th.