Luckily both of those valves were closed so I used a screwdriver to remove the wasp nests and vacuumed out the port with the shop vac. Fresh copper spray on exhaust manifold gaskets and lots of swearing I have the headers installed and the starter threaded in but not tightened. Dinner time.
In reply to RacetruckRon :
We have yellowjackets out here. shiny happy people with wings that will build a nest anywhere they can fit it. Bastards shorted out the controls for my sprinkler system because they built a nest in the outlet and tried to burn my shed down.
In reply to Recon1342 :
The yellow jackets around here like to make their nests in the ground or in trees and are hateful little bastards. The red dirt daubers in the south look scary and make their nests in inconvenient spots but we're pretty docile and easy going.
Getting closer to start up and a test drive. All of the shade from the trees in my yard has made working in the garage this weekend pretty bearable even with the heat wave. The current to do list:
Nice!
I haven't seen that screen in two years. Picking away at this wiring before I'm out of town for work for a week and it gets even colder. The wiring for the lights is the last puzzle I need to figure out before the truck leaves the garage.
The truck might be driving across town before the snow falls to sleep in the in-laws garage for the winter. They are snowbirds now so maybe the Yukon gets to come inside this winter.
I can't figure out the high beams for the life of me, I tried to get fancy with the relays and it might be missing a connection somewhere but that's a problem for future Ron. Coolant bleed tomorrow and it's ready to drive across town to hibernate in the in-laws garage. I am not making the sublooms pretty or installing the passenger those are also future Ron problems.
Enjoy this short clip of the 4.8 puttering away.
The drive across town to the in-laws garage went without too much issue. The radiator burped some coolant out in driveway right before I left and then immediately at the first stop sign, the first right turn, the turn signals decided to leave the chat. My wife was following me and called me immediately to let me know but it wasn't too big of a deal. I had a route planned over to her parent's place that was about 12 miles of back roads and very light on traffic.
It has been quite a while since I have driven anything manual and two years since I have driven this truck but the new clutch is great. I kinda bucked the first couple gear changes but the new clutch and rusty left leg both wore in quick. Speaking of quick, I forgot how good this thing scoots with the 3.54 gears I did back in SC, even with the little 4.8L. I did a couple 2-3 rips in on the drive over to remember what going fast feels like and remind myself why I like cars. The wiring isn't perfect like I wanted it to be and tune seemed a touch off with different altitude and 2 year old gas. The truck is running though and that's what I really wanted and I kinda needed that this year after it sat for so long. Oh, the new clutch is a dream compared to the heavy pressure plate and snappy 6 puck disk I replace this summer. Still not a light pedal, some of this is the heavy return spring on the Corvette pedal but the take up is smooth and linear. I might drive this thing into the office next year through Milwaukee traffic even.
Beyond the minor lighting issues and old gas the truck ran great. It needs an alignment and a good once over but it's barely had 1000 miles on it since I first fired it up the Summer of 2020. It's had a blown up engine and been moved across the country twice since then. Will I ever live up to my screen name with the truck, probably not but it's still a rowdy little street truck.
Oh and this thing doesn't leak a drop of oil unlike my two other LS powered vehicles.
And a cold start video because why not.
Fantastic! Im glad to see this!
Super duper! It's easy to forget how fun they are to drive when all we do is work on them.
It's still February in Wisconsin but it was 60 degrees the other day then it snowed sideways an now Tuesday is supposed to be 70 degrees. I have no idea what's going on we'll probably get 8" of snow the third week of April but the Harleys have been on the roads the last two weeks so I'm thinking about actually driving this truck as soon as spring is here to stay and the poison (brine) that WIDOT loves to spray on the roads has finally been washed away. Anyways I kinda half assed the uncobbling of the wiring last fall, time to whole ass it.
The god damn signal stalk in this thing has always fought me on this thing. It's some weird universal McJobber I found at 2am one night that's apparently great for old big rigs. I dunno I don't like the way you are supposed to run fused power through it according to the diagram and let the switch do all of the power distribution that's what relays are for. This $13 Husqvarna tractor switch popped up in a Sloppy Mechanics FB post a couple weeks ago so I pulled the trigger on one from ebay. It has high/low beam, left, right and horn button. I figure if I need a hazard button it'll either be real apparent I broke down or gapped a mofo in a 40 roll so I'll omit that function from the beige truck for now.
Gauging placement for measurements and some CAD work to follow. Maybe I put it on the wheel like a Ferrari 458 but with phone cord style wiring like the drag car guys? I do like to have the horn button easily accessible because if I add it to the truck I'm gonna use the damn thing.
I thought about a similar switch for my drift car, ended up going a different route, but street legality on that is not for frequent drives. I also omitted the hazard button. I think that style switch will work well for you for a vehicle that's primarily on the street.
That switch is slick, do you have a link?
In reply to fouckhest :
Kubota P/N 5T057-42242 You can search that part number too to sort the level of chinesey parts you are comfortable with. Mine came straight from China in about 10 days for $13
Oh yes, filed under potentially extremely useful for future me. Thanks!
Do you have info on the other half of the connector, or are you repinning to a universal hard shell?
In reply to gumby :
Plan on repinning with the Amazon Deutsch connectors I've been using. They're pretty cheap and use a metripack style crimper.
RacetruckRon said:In reply to fouckhest :
Kubota P/N 5T057-42242 You can search that part number too to sort the level of chinesey parts you are comfortable with. Mine came straight from China in about 10 days for $13
Appreciate that!
I drew up a little bracket thinger for that Kubota switch. This is the 3D printed/molded version printed in carbon fiber filler PC. I might make this version with compression molded carbon fiber to increase the stiffness because the printed piece is a little bendy for my liking. I also drew up a bent sheet metal version that SCS will make for roughly 30 American Pesos and then I can get goofy with 3D printed dimple dies to scratch the itch. That might be the easy option since I've kinda become a chicken farmer this spring and garage time should be spent driving this truck and finally fixing the Saab.
Quick ergo/human factors check.
Send cut Send for the win. Cut and bent bracket delivered in under a week along with a flange that I've been noodling on for the Saab. Plan is to get this switch installed and operating properly this week so the truck can do truck things.
Got to work on the truck for a few hours today. I discovered this little detail which had me absolutely fuming for about 20 minutes.
I'm 99% sure this is from my FIL's POS brother who had some scaffolding platforms and a few other tools awfully close to the truck a few weeks ago before heading down to Florida. I almost replaced the corner markers a couple years ago because one of them had a hairline crack but it wasn't a problem at the time. Well those have doubled in price now so I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet. I don't believe it was intentional but still E36 M3ty and the guy is a real piece of work so who knows.
Anyways, the SendCutSend bracket fits beautifully along with a little printed spacer to eat up all of the extra space for the snap fit feature on the switch.
Wiring sorted out and changed for the better. I haven't hooked up high beams or horn but I have turn signals, brake lights and running lights. That will be enough to get it back home next week so I can make the wiring pretty and install the passenger seat. I might start driving this thing into the office, it is my smallest displacement and most fuel efficient vehicle that's currently running.
Love to see the progress, that's a real nice bracket!
Insurance added, new corner markers have been delivered and some LED 5x7 lights have been ordered. Pictures later.
The truck started up no problem, no jump, no battery charger. The battery disconnect switch relay did it's job this winter. The Holley was showing some weird O2 readings that were swinging slowly from 10:1-20:1 when I was idling it in the in-laws garage. I decided I better run to the BP down the block because the last time I filled this thing up was in South Carolina, like late October of 2021. Of course the fuel gauge has decided once again it doesn't work so I was guessing whether the issue was gummed up injectors, bad gas, no gas or a combination of those factors.
After a very stuttery and questionable ride to the gas station the 13 gallon tank took 12.5 gallons. Ok that was definitely a factor even though fuel pressure was reading steady at 70 psi on the dash. After that absolutely no issues with the fuel system or power delivery. The AFRs were right where they should be.
Fresh corner lights are looking almost too fresh for the ratty grill. I have some new LED sealed beams I think should look pretty good on this truck and really brighten up the road at night. I still plan to do a retrofit on the sealed beams I tracked down a couple years ago but these should hold me over for a bit.
Truck landed at RTR home base without major issue. It feels great to drive this truck again. I need a coolant overflow tank ASAP so if anyone has any junkyard suggestions I'm all ears. I also need to fix a slight power steering leak from the hydroboost. It looks like the pressure feed to the hydroboost has a very slow leak but I noticed some smoke coming off the headers when I parked in the driveway
The oil pressure did not move much above 35psi no matter how high in the rev range I went. I suspect this 5w20 I put in the 4.8 back in SC may be a bit thin or the cam bearings are on their way out. I have a solution brewing to fix the latter issue, an old foe...
These amazon LED sealed beams look pretty sharp and are pretty plug and play.
Low beam new vs old
Ooooooh shiny.
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