Gary Lewis

There are vacuum lines everywhere, with thermal switches and check valves, etc. And everything has connections, with the attendant chance to leak. And the valves, switches, etc can leak as well. So, I'm thinking he has a choice to make. Either we pull the carb and go through it, pull the EGR valve and clean it, and replace many/most/all of the vacuum lines, or we gently remove all of that and add back the one vacuum line he needs - vacuum advance. (He has an NP435 and 78's had no vacuum to the heater.) Tuck the vacuum harness and EGR valve away and he can return it to stock if he needs to at a later date. And, if those engines were lean from the factory then it might be about right w/o the EGR. But at least we'd know if that solves the problem. Oh yes, I heard a noise coming from the carb today that I've never heard. It was a grumble sound, and it happened at really low idle. I am sure it was from the carb as both of us put a hose to our ear and listened to find it. And it went away if the idle came up to above 600 RPM. But below that there was this weird sound. Could it be exhaust? Might that confirm that the EGR valve isn't fully closing?

Sorry, 1978 emissions. We haven’t done any more troubleshooting, like propane or carb cleaner. We were running out of time, and then the thunder came so we quit.

I think you have the speedo gears figured out. Should work perfectly. On the transmission, isn't it amazing how hard they are to clean? The aluminum castings really seem to suck up the dirt and grease.

We got Scott's truck going today, but it wouldn't idle as well as I thought it should so I checked the idle screw - 8 1/4 turns out on the passenger's side and 6 1/4 out on the driver's side. Turned them in to seat them and then out 2 1/2 to start and it would barely run. Wound up at 7 and 7 for a decent idle but still only 17" of vacuum. I'm guessing he has a bad vacuum line somewhere or the EGR valve is leaking. We tested the valve and it moves with vacuum and even holds vacuum, but maybe it isn't closing completely? The truck has all of the 1987 emissions stuff on it, and it is a 351M w/a 2150. Thoughts?

Scott, who runs a welding supply shop in Tulsa, said that if we turn the hub down so we have at least an 1/8" of the bottom hub showing it'll be easy to weld it. Then he said "Remind me what welder you have? Oh, we've not gotten you a TIG yet?"

No hurry at all.

Both of those engines look GOOD! Well done, guys. Bill - Are you going to send me the stripped upper plenum? No hurry, but seeing that one reminded me.

The regulator installation looks good. But I'm confused about the dash lights going. As you can see from the schematics on pages 39 and 40 in the 1981 EVTM, the headlights and side marker lamps should both be on when the headlights are on. And Page 54 gives you the dash lights. Looks like the switch has to be faulty.

Wow! That looks great! Maybe even the same color as my two trannies and t-case. What paint did you use?

I'm happy to scan whatever you want. You can see what literature I have in that section of the website. And, it is easy to do it be bits and pieces. Plus, I can work on the part number bit if you tell me what ones you are looking for.

I don't remember either. But, maybe it'll work this time?

Scott will be over in a few minutes and I'll ask him what he thinks about welding that.

That would help to know what other options are. Thanks, Bill. But, welding to the C2 pulley would be easier than to the Sag. The plastic would melt off and you'd have clear access to the hub.

That "jewel" is the adapter we made for the throttle bracket? As for the bolts, the term is "place bolt".

Glad you did. How far have you gotten?

Good thinking, Jim. I like all of those ideas. My only concern is how much room or accessibility there is on the back of the pulley to do the welding. Unfortunately I've packed my pulleys away. Jonathan - Can you post a pic of the back of your Sag pulley? Maybe from an angle to see the room available?

That's true, Jonathan. And, the Sag has a larger shaft as well. So perhaps the extra space could be done that way.

Jim - I'm not sure I understand. I think you are suggesting welding a piece to the hub of the Saginaw pulley to move the whole pulley forward. Right? That could work. A piece of material could be welded to the back of the pulley and then chucked in the lathe and bored out to match the original bore. Good idea!

I've been remiss at announcing the addition to the website of a couple more pages, with more on the way. That's 'cause Vinny sent me several TSB's and I'm adding them to the site as I can find time. The new pages are: EEC-IV Diagnostics: A 33 page TSB that outlines a new procedure for testing. Stall/No Start: A TSB on how to fix a TFI module that is causing a stall or no-start condition due to moisture. The reason for the slowness is because I'm trying a new approach at posting things like this. For the most part the pdf's I'm sent are pictures of pages of text, and you can't search pictures. However, I have an OCR program that can turn pictures of text into text, and I'm running that against the pdf's. That takes a lot of my time to verify what the program finds. But, it means that as Google, Bing, and Yahoo crawl the site they'll find the actual text of the TSB's so others can find it when they need it. Please take a look and tell me what you think.

Brandon - Did you find all of the fasteners?

I know a machine shop that does work pretty cheaply for special friends. But, I'd have to look at the Sag shaft to see if it can even be chucked up in the lathe. So, that's a possibility, but it does create a one-off that would require the pump to be rebuilt rather than replaced.

The page exists but doesn't show in the navigation menu: XLS Option. But there's no hurry on my part. Having said that, it doesn't have to be done in one go. You can write something up and I'll put it on the page. Then change your mind and we can change the text, add pics, etc.

First, I like the cooler. Now, for the pump. Your measurements seem to confirm what I found earlier - that there's no way that the Sag pump needs to be set back 5/8" given the pulley you have. But, let me measure the pulley I have and see if they are the same. Maybe I can do it this afternoon. In fact, is there a number on your pulley? If our pulleys are the same, meaning the 351W's and 460's used the same pulleys, then maybe there aren't other pulleys with different offsets to be had. But, what about boring a C2 pulley to fit a Saginaw's shaft? Or, turning a Saginaw shaft down to accept a C2 pulley? Would the C2 pulley give us enough room to install a spacer? If I understand your measurements correctly there's 1/4" more offset on the Saginaw pulley vs the C2 pulley, so that would give us room for a 1/4" spacer - right?

Jonathan - That would appear to settle it. You know, as I think about it, we need a page on XLS trucks explaining how they are different, how you can tell if it was originally, etc.