Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[knomadd]

Looks good Vic! Can't wait to see it this weekend. Call or text when you're in the Houston area.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Looks good Vic! Can't wait to see it this weekend. Call or text when you're in the Houston area.

Will do, Duane. Hoping our plans don't change, though. We're holed up in McAlester, OK waiting for a line of severe storms to pass thru before we can swing by an auto parts store and then hit the road to Fort Worth. CRLS has developed a couple of problems on the road. It's suddenly become very hard to start, but will eventually fire after a couple of tries which is sort of a nail biter. This seemed to start after we fueled up yesterday and put 87 octane in it instead of 91. I doubt that had anything to do with it, but I'll switch back to 91 from here on out. Don't know if there will be any tuner vendors at the LMC show, but if there are, I may see if they can check out the programming.

But the more serious problem is with the serpentine belt. I noticed yesterday after about 250 miles that the AC was cycling a lot. We pulled into a truck stop for a break and when we went to leave, the belt was squealing like pig. Turned off the air and it finally settled down, but when it's not running you can see black specks in the pulley grooves which is a sure sign the belt is self destructing. I'll pick up a spare this morning and some belt dressing, but there's no way I'm driving 3000 miles without AC. We're going to try to make Houston this weekend but if the belt problem persists, we may have to trailer it back to KC, revise our vacation route and take the Daytona for the remainder. Fingers crossed!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Xeen

Hey Vic did the engine start hard before it was "tuned" or is this only happening after?

This all started on the trip shortly after stopping to fill up with gas at a Love's truck stop. It was hard to start (and even died once) before we got out of the parking lot. Since then, I've put nothing but 93 octane in it and it seems to be starting somewhat better. It's still not instantaneous, but it's pretty quick and certainly not cranking forever like before. I'm starting to think it was an issue with that particular fuel stop. It was also the mid grade fuel instead of premium, but I'm unsure if that would be a factor.

Originally Posted by knomadd

... You probably won't be able to try this until you get home, but if you have a way to bypass the AK system, you could test to see if it fires right up without it.

Actually, that was one of the first things I tried. I had tied off the stock wiring harness plug for the ignition switch under the dash when I put in the AK system. I also carried the switch and key with us just in case. So I plugged it in and tried it, but there was no difference. Forgot to mention that when we were down at your place yesterday.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Glad you're still rolling! Hope it's going well!

We're still fighting some issues, but we're slowly winning. There's a problem between the ignition switch and the starter solenoid that I'll have to address when we get home. After we left the show on Saturday, we stopped to eat and the truck wouldn't even turn over. I finally MacGyver'd it by cutting the wire going into the solenoid, splicing some wire onto it and touching the bare end momentarily to the positive battery post. With the ignition on, it fires right up. So that's how we're starting it right now.

We decided the problem with the belt was that it was too long to start with and had stretched just enough to start slipping. I talked to March today and they said it would be fine to go to a 75.5" belt instead of the 76". I'm betting they didn't factor in the small diameter pulley on the alternator when they did their belt calculations. I had bought a brand new 76" and it was even looser than the one that was on there when we tried it. So we dropped back to 75.5" and it's nice and tight. No more squealing belt (knock on wood).

We developed a rattle underneath the truck on the way down, so while we had it up on ramps to install the belt, my bud, Bruce, found that the bolt holding the bottom of the RF fender to the rocker panel had worked loose and fallen out. We replaced it and the rattle is gone.

The PWM controller for the electric fans has been forcing the fans to run at way too low a temperature. So we adjusted it some to delay the onset of the fan signal. I plan to replace the controller with a fan relay that's switched via the fan output from the ECU when I get back home.

The LMC show in Fort Worth was fun, but there were several, pro-built, no expense spared 67-72 trucks there that grabbed the awards for our series. My bud, Jay, struck out with his '52 5-window also and it's super nice. I really didn't see anyone that looked like "judges" stop and give our trucks a once over. Late in the day, a guy on a four wheeler came by going from truck to truck putting stickers on them to indicate they'd been judged. So I reckon they were doing that to keep the riffraff quiet. Lotsa nice trucks though. I'll post some photos over the next few days.

[builtbyKane]

That's the type of shake down I use to do after a fresh build years ago. Now I'm to scared to attempt a long drive. Keep the updates coming.