[americanmusc1e]

More parts and more fun this week!

First off, I worked on setting up the megasquirt to work with my 5.3. I had some ignition mods done to it to support TBI. I removed those and then realized that the MS2 doesn't support waste fire in it's base configuration. I only has one ignition output without mods. So I went on a late night run to Radio Shack and grabbed some 4k7 resistors and a transistor and worked on the necessary mods. For those of you interested in modding your megasquirt. I used the logic level outputs listed here.. http://www.msextra.com/doc/general/sparkout-v30.html

Actual Progress on the truck was slow this weekend. The weather was super nice for once, but I just feel like I was spinning my wheels more than normal. I got all the brake lines done excluding the rear axle lines. I still have to anchor them down in a couple places. I also fixed my front brake hose situation. The truck previously had the brake hoses not going through their retainer tabs (17yo me did that) and I cut the factory drum tabs off, welded them to a small tab, and bolted them in the front of the crossmember like they are supposed to be. I got the clutch slave to clear the headers finally. I had to modify my bracket and my slave. I also got the alignment to the clutch fork a little better. I got my loose rear shock bracket mounted and both rear shocks on. I got the new bushings in the tracking arm and attached it. I installed a new power steering pulley because mine was bent from shipping. And finally, I got the fuel pump mounted and pump to engine hose made up. I'm using a truck engine with the regulator built into the fuel rail (as opposed to a returnless used on 2004+) I'm using AN from the fuel pump to the engine and everything else will be rubber line. This was my first time ever using AN line. It took me 4 tries to get the first hose fitting, but after that everything went smooth. I bought 15ft of braided hose and used 5 feet. I have enough to do the pump to tank run, but my tank just has a barbed fitting. I'll probably just run rubber lines. I mounted the pump (a Walbro 255 external) under the drivers side seat on the top of the frame. I hope its not insanely noisy there. I used existing crossmember holes instead of drilling new ones.

I also realized that we put the backing plates on the differential the wrong way. My parking brake cables face to the rear of the truck. Now I have to drain all the oil out and pull the axles to flip the backing plates.

I also welded up the EGR bungs on my headers and I brought them back with me to wrap this week sometime