Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so here are some pics of my manual steering box Pitman arm turned all the way one way than the other way, it's hard to see where it ends up when turned to the passenger side (its about 1/2 inch passed the inside of the frame rail) but you git the idea, should be equal distant side to side

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

True, I think my rear is slightly off, no surprise for a 44 year old truck, plus I had the rear off to lower it, I will git it adjusted when I do the entire alignment later on, it's not life threatening at the moment

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Good luck!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Victory, Victory!!!

well I think we have achieved Even-A-Bility, seems like now finally the truck has the same turning radius both ways, it even passed the 57' foot donut parking lot test, yes both ways

I will drive it to work for a week or so and report back to you all how it feels, though the true test will come when we go on our last camping trip of the year for Labor Day weekend, 90 miles away, I gots to tell you all climbing up and down to 4,000 feet of elevation on those twisty turney roads up in them El Dorado Forest hills will surely separate the men from the power steering crowd, and pump you up - ha ha

https://www.nbc.com/sites/nbcunbc/fi...z_anvver_1.jpg

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Hopefully the adjustments stay instead of working themselves back to being absolute trash.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Guess What?

My brand new oil pressure gauge broke again!!!

Yup the replacement Summit gauge that they just sent me like 2 weeks ago stopped working yesterday and now reads 00 like the first one did.

I think I am sending it back with both sending units and asking for a refund. 2 week life expectancy is not worth the $35 bucks each I spent on them

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

You seem to have the worst luck with them.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

True, but I still like them

Re: Restoring Rusty - Digital Fuel Gauge
 

so I hope to install the Summit digital fuel gauge today

as with any Universal fuel gauge it is designed to fit different makes and models, that's what the two blue and orange loops of wires are for, they are essentially jumpers which you cut accordingly for what ever vehicle you have

in our case we are instructed to snip the Blue wire only for GM purposes

kinda feels like defusing a suitcase bomb in an old Bruce Willis Die Hard 80's movie

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I must have trust issues because I decided to pull out the old brown fuel gauge to sending unit wire, something about not having too much faith in a 42 year old piece of copper, ha ha

here I am divorcing it from the tailight wiring harness, it was wrapped up in old electrical tape and ran by the hot exhaust, well not any more...

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

also the new fuel gauge has a yellow wire for the sending unit so we will splice /crimp a yellow wire for the home run all the way from the sending unit to the gauge, we will NOT be using the bulk head connector that's just another potential area to have a failed connection

note how it took me 2 years but I finally separated my bulk head connector to two sides, the left side (closest to engine) is for engine run wires only, (starter, alternator, ignition, choke, etc) the right side with mostly green wires is for all the lights (headlights, tailights, turn signals, etc.) and windshield motor

then all my diagnostic wiring enters the firewall by the distributor using the old mechanical oil sender tubing hole

it aint perfect yet, but it is getting much better

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so here is how all the four digital gauges look in the back all wired up, I joined all the red wires into one common positive lead with a quick disconnect bullet connector and did the same for all black wires for a common ground

I ran out of shrink tubing so I just wrapped them in electrical tape

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and here's the cluster with all the OEM gauges evacuated

I like how the new digital gauges fit without having to cut up the back bluster housing

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

well the Good News is the new digital fuel gauge works

the Bad News is now the Water Temp gauge don't work

whaa haa haa ha ha

love 'em ol' trucks!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Welcome back to the world of funny fickle old pick-it-ups. Lol

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

false alarm, the Oil Pressure Gauge works, the wire just came off the sender stud, it uses a hand tight type of nut on it, so this time I tightened it down with some pliers

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Thank goodness

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Last camping trip of the year and the twisties were just fine with the manual steering box I think I was doing about 40 MPH with one hand on the wheel and the other on the stick

Did I mention truck camping is the best!!! Git on outder!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Manual steering is fine until it's a 3/4 ton with big tires sitting on concrete.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

So awesome.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Out with the New and in with the (slightly) Used

so I got tired of the head pounding drone of my Flowmaster Series 40s and decided to weld up the Magnaflows

here's how they compare, the Magnaflows are longer

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

see how they came with the hanger rod, I try to do a good job a clean job so I cut it off and grinder that area smooth

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and so the passenger side is done, this is what it looks like it will go slightly down and out the side (not exactly how it lays in the picture but you git the idear)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and here is the driver side same but opposite (hey is that like yes and no or same difference, ha ha) by they way I can't stand both of those responses, ha ha

took me about 3 hours from the time I got home to take the old exhaust off cut it up, moc up the new exhaust, and weld 'er up - for those of you keeping track of our billables, hee hee

FACT: The best exhaust clamp is a WELDER!!!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

alright enuff of your bugger welds how do it sound?

well honestly it's too soon to tell I did drive it around the neighborhood a bit (late at night) cause that's where the drone was the worst below 1000 RPM and I also took it on a highway

in One Word I would say it seems - RASPIE...ER

but ever since I topped off my transmission fluid now my New Process 833 overdrive transmission likes to make a Chewbacca choking on a hairy dog noise in second gear making it difficult to hear the exhaust note, and a bit of a whinning noise in 4th gear, old trucks gotta love 'em fix one thing and TWO others break

also, it seemed like I left it idling a bit high at 850 RPM the last time I made carb adjustments so I toned it down to 700 RPM (that put some low end rumble back in it) and will drive it to work tomorrow and report back my findings when I have more data

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

So the drone was still that bad after you added the turn outs?
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Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Yes Sir, seemed like every time I did something the drone moved down in RPMs, originally it was at about 1500 RPM then I added the resonators before the mufflers and it moved to about 1000 RPM (head pounding during fast idle choke warm ups, couldn't sit in the truck until the truck warmed up) then I added the turn outs and I thought it got better (cause it wasn't there during warm ups with the choke) but it moved down to about 800 RPM, so PIA at stop lights

I figure I could have played the H pipe or the X pipe game but I wanted better flowing mufflers anyway so went with the straight through design of the MagnaFlows

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

~ Parts ~

time to do something different and away from the engine

got this Roll Pan from Summit for $99 bucks looks like a nice piece

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Cool pan.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

That roll pan looks like a nice piece. It even comes with the plate light. I assume it's weld in?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

screw on, has six holes across the top and comes with SEVEN philips head screws - LOL

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so lets fit this thing

OK our roll pan is 67 and 2/16ths (that's right I said 2/16ths take that my 6th grade match teacher)

And our opening is [wait for it] 67 and 1/16ths - Surprise Surprise

so out comes the Power Spreader 3000

so Moses parted the Sea out to 67 1/2 inches so that after the spreader was removed the opening now was 67 1/4 inches, see how that works

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

alright so now it fits width wise but why won't this darn thing slide up another inch? what is it hitting on?

so we clampatize it and take a peak underneath

(finally git to use my cheap Harbor Freight clampy clam, and oh boy does it suck)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

A math lesson, product introduction and tool review all in the same thread? C'mon now...it doesn't get any better than that! Wait...maybe it does... :)

Keep up the good work.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Are sure the license plate isn't in the way? Lol.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

ha ha yup, thanks

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

good guess, the license plate is dangling by two white zip ties, a tribute to the boyz of Roadkill

but you are in the right area, The Greg just had to get the roll pan with the license plate recess so sure enuff it hits the 2x4 at the back of the bed, so out comes the blue tape and the Wheel of Death

it was roughly 27" from the side to the indent on the pan, so I went 26 1/2 to make the cut just to have a bit of wiggle room, then I just bent the metal back instead of cutting it all out, you know if and when the time comes to put this NUMBERS MATCHING barn find to spec in time for 2038 SEMA

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I was too lazy to take the tailgate off before drilling the holes, and only after I scratched it up drilling the outside two holes (one on either side) did I put the blue tape on for "protection" to make you guys think I was that careful, but guess what even with the blue tape I mucked it up, ha ha - hey IT'S A TRUCK!

it was dark it was late, and I was sweating profusely = beer time

I took as many pics as I could (without getting off my butt) to show you how it looks all moched up, I will remove it and make it GREEN soon

also the phillips head screws they give you to hold this thing on are COMPLETELY and utterly useless, you need a hex head on a self tapping screw, just sayin'