Gary Lewis

I specifically searched for this thread to find out where my oil pressure was in my 1980. The old 300 purrs like a kitten and runs really well, but the factory oil pressure gauge drops down and the needle covers the "N" when it's hot. It looks quite low on the gauge, but it is technically still within the "Normal" scale. When I start it cold, the needle is straight up in the middle, but it slowly drops down to rest on the "N" as it gets hot. So based on Ron's observations here, I'm guessing that I'm running around 25psi hot? That should be OK for an old 300 with unknow mileage, shouldn't it? I was reading somewhere a while back that "if the 300 inline six has any oil pressure at all, it has enough" LOL. I did talk to the previous owner, and he said that when he put the 300 in the truck that it was a very low mileage engine (only had about 40k miles on it). However, I have no idea how it was treated, and when I found it, it had been sitting for probably a decade out in the elements (in the truck, but certainly not prepped for prepared for any kind of long term storage lol). Well, yes and no. Or jein if you know German slang. Where the gauge reads is mainly dependent upon the output of the instrument cluster voltage regulator, with each ICVR being different. And many times I've seen the ICVR change its mind mid-drive and all the gauges read differently. Yes, there is some variability in the gauge itself and the sending unit, but not nearly as much as there seems to be in the ICVR. So I'm not sure how much pressure you have. But, I think you have enough pressure. Surely over 10 psi, and I've always thought that 10 psi at idle was adequate. Maybe some day I should spread out on the work table several gauge clusters and using several different ICVRs and senders map what the gauges read at differing pressures?

Well done, Cory! That looks great. And I agree with you, having my presets is a requirement. I would not like having to reset them every time I turned the key off, and that might be enough fuss not to even turn the radio on. Which would be a shame. No guesses on the year of the radio, but I see the model number in the lower right of the pic, and while I can't read it you sure can and may be able to figure it out that way.

Thanks for doing that, Vic. You are right, in the future we are going to be happy that we have those.

Nice! And the bumper for $100 is a good buy.

Ahhh! Those bolts. Yes, they come with a new locking hub. And they can be a bear to get out. I put mine in with anti-seize, but that won't help you now. Good luck!

It only happens when under power like pulling out into traffic or pulling a long hill. Maybe I need a bigger or a 2nd juice can for vacuum, other wise it works normal. I also have to re-look at the heater core close off valve as it works by vacuum but cant remember where I tied it into. IIRC my HVAC control is not for a 81 truck, want to say 84 but maybe not? Dave ---- I would check the line from the control out to the recirc motor. I suspect you have a crack in it.

I'm not sure I understand what bolts you are talking about. But, I think you mean the lug bolts as the rotor is held to the hub by them. They just press in/out so you can swap them out.

I was just looking that up for when I get into to checking this out and was thinking "what if I had no power to the psi switch where is it coming from? I looked up pictures of the ones I have before install to see where the compressor gets its signal from. It has been a bit since I messed with this and the wires plug into the end of the HVAC control. It is to be cooler this weekend and think I will look into this as far as I can without gauges at this time. The easy part is to see how far the power goes getting to the compressor. The other thing I found strange is if I have the control on "MAX AC" and I am under power the vents change to defrost like loosing vacuum. I do have a new check valve but so is the one in place now and dose not seam to be working? Any way if I have the control on "Normal AC" the vents do not seam to change to defrost? Guess I got a new onion to peel Dave ---- If your air flow goes to Defrost when you go to Max A/C then I'm betting that you have a vacuum leak in the recirculate line. That would drop the vacuum in the system when in Max A/C but not in A/C, which might explain the difference.

Vic - Did you buy it?

Very nice score!

Thanks, Scott. I was shocked that the cooler had made it so far at that speed, but through the window we could at least hold onto it. And if you are replacing that flimsy latch you might as well do it right. For $9 you can't go very far wrong.

Speaking of Amazon, I just ordered the C.R. LAURENCE DVL2 CRL Replacement Metal Backslider Latch for the rear window of Big Blue. I forgot to say that the plastic latch was a casualty on our GOAT trip, coming off in my hand at a filling station. We got the rear window closed using that latch, but it was fiddly and not something I'd want to do very often, so it was time to replace it and upgrading to metal seemed the way to go. And, for your amusement, I'll describe the scene wherein it came off. We'd just left our B&B and were headed back out to the GOAT for another day on the trail. After a couple of miles, and while we were doing 45 MPH, I looked in the rear view mirror and realized I'd set our little soft cooler on the tool box and it was riding there with its strap waving in the breeze! So I quickly slid the rear window open, breaking the latch in the process, and Janey grabbed the strap to the cooler to keep it from flying away until I could stop.

Yes, I have a 3G capable of 130 amps, so there's plenty of power. But since I have the 3KW inverter it would seem like one of the little welders would work nicely. For instance the HF Titanium Easy Flux 125 should work nicely on the inverter as it is said to pull a max of 23 amps, and that times 120 volts is 2760 watts. The inverter is good for twice that on startup, so it should work nicely - although Jim may know for sure since I got the inverter from him and he has one of those welders. Anyway, if I do get the urge to have a welder on Big Blue I'll start a thread on that, for sure. Thanks, for the suggestion.

Sounds like you are getting close, Chris. I think you'll really be pleased with all your work.

That is amazing work on the valve! I'm seriously impressed! You have elevated "detail" to a whole new level!

Congrat's!!!! Glad you got it going.

No, not until Friday according to Amazon. So maybe Saturday I can put the hoses on - for the third time. I hopes that's the charm.

I want to go over all the cable connections to make sure they are good, cable were new as part of the build. It has crossed my mind its the starter but it will then catch and crank normally. If it was a dead spot on the starter I would think it would not turn? As for the psi switch it is on the AC dryer. IIRC the power comes from the HVAC control to the psi switch and if closed it sends power to the AC compressor. If it is the solenoid/starter relay do you think it would send any power to the starter and if it dose it may just not be enough? I ask because if I use a test light do you think it would light but not crank the motor? How would you go about checking / testing the solenoid/starter relay before replacing it? And that brings up the next issue, who would you go through to get a good one as I hear most are junk out of the box. I think over the holiday weekend I will check into both issues to see if I find something. Thanks guys Dave ---- If the starter and cable connections are good then a test light won't come on if the starter doesn't crank. There might be a bit of power there with a bad relay, but it shouldn't be enough to light the light and all the while the relay is probably frying. I would test by having someone else turn the key and if it doesn't crank I'd short across the battery and starter posts on the relay with a screwdriver or a pair of pliers - that I don't particularly like.

I've added your pics for you, but it isn't difficult at all for you to do it. Anyway, if I understand your question correctly, you are asking if you can run rubber fuel hose from the fuel pump up to the wye fitting that feeds both front and rear bowls on the carb. Right? If so, yes you can. But be aware that fuel hose can get punctured and leak, and a leak there has been the cause of many fires. I've done it, but I'm careful about the routing to ensure the line won't get rubbed through or have a spark from a plug wire puncture it.

Beautiful pic! Good job on the tailgate cables. Your repair looks strong. But I'm surprised that the washers, or spacers as you called them, would break that way. Glad you got them replaced. On the locking bolt, does the washer come off? Some of them did, and on those a piece of 1/2" PEX water tubing is a good fit for the bolt and holds up well to the locking mechanism. And if your washer won't come off you can get one from a later truck and those do come off. On the camber, did you measure after backing it up? If so try it after driving forwards a bit.

Sounds like you either have a bad solenoid/starter relay or a bad connection from it to the starter. Probably the relay. On the A/C, if you have a leak the pressure may be right at the cutoff point such that at some temps it'll work and others it won't. Anyway, I know the feeling. There are times when I wonder if I ought to sell.

Yes, with the choke pinned open you may not have had enough gas to start a "cold" engine. And especially if your idle air/fuel mix is lean, which can happen if you don't have it adjusted correctly or have a new vacuum leak. Said another way, I don't think it is a timing issue, although that can cause problems. I think it is an air/fuel ratio issue. And I think when it isn't starting that you have too much air and not enough fuel. That may well be due to the choke not coming on far enough, or a vacuum leak, or both. How does it run when it is fully warmed up? Is the idle steady and at the same RPM it has always been at?

I too was a bit confused about these clamps in the sizing area. They are much like one of the PEX clamps that I have worked with in plumbing but those clamps are sized to the specific PEX they are going on. Not so here, at least with those that I have looked at. I suppose if the outside diameter of the hose fits in the range of the clamp, we'd be fine. But, that is assuming and I get burned when I assume. Look forward to your thoughts on this. By the way, one of my power steering lines had one of those Oetiker type clamps on it. This was a factory connector. Yes, the PEX clamps are made for a specific situation: PEX tubing on a PEX fitting. So they'd know what sizes they are working with. But I'm not working with standard things. The fittings vary and the hose varies as well due to both the wall thickness and inside diameter differences. So I've done some testing, calculating, etc. And the spreadsheet below holds my measurements, assumptions, and results. (I'd have "printed" it and shown you that, but there may be mistakes in it, so embedding it this way lets me correct or update things and they'll show up here.) To start with, I have four barbed fittings and basically two different sizes within them. And I have two different 3/8" hoses with very different ID's and OD's. So my concern is how Oetiker-style clamps that appear to have only one "closed" size can properly fit a wide range of fittings and hoses. Given that, I decided to see how well I could compress the Flexzilla hose on some spare fittings. I've included pictures of the results below the spreadsheet, but I tried both the clamp that says it is for 12-14 MM and the one that says it is for 15 - 17 MM. I lubed them with synthetic wheel bearing grease on both the screw as well as the two parts that slide on each other. And, on the smaller clamp I put 3 washers under the head of the screw and lubed them. Plus I used a pair of pliers to pull them together in addition to the screw. In other words, I went to lengths this time that I've not done before in order to get as much clamping force as possible. Both clamps basically quit tightening at the same ID - .553". (By that I mean the larger clamp's ears were touching, and I didn't dare tighten the smaller clamp any more for fear of stripping the screw.) And yet they both were cocked on the hose, surely due to the twisting of the screw, so they weren't clamped evenly across. In any event, I think that if you went to the extremes that I went to in order to get maximum clamping force it might be possible to hold the hoses on with the EFI clamps. However, it appears that the better approach is Jim's recommendation to use the Oetiker-style clamps. But which ones? In the bottom right corner of the spreadsheet you can see that the clamp I termed "#1", which is the 12.5-15.3 MM one, will have a .049" smaller ID than the EFI clamps. But the #2 Oetiker clamp, meaning the 15.3 - 18.5 MM one, will have a .049" larger ID than the EFI clamps. So I'll go with the #1 clamps since I don't think the #2 clamps will be tight enough. In fact, I think it would be about like the clamps that have already blown off.

Congrat's! One layer of the onion peeled. But, your vacuum at idle showing on the dash gauge is a bit low. Don't know what cam you have, but I'd expect the vacuum to be at least 16" if not closer to 20". And that can easily be an issue with the idle air/fuel mix. If you get that optimized you may be able to close the throttle a bit with the idle speed screw and that will bring the vacuum up. Or, it might be that your gauge isn't reflecting true manifold vacuum? By the way, how 'bout laying your phone sideways, meaning landscape, when taking videos? That works better.

I hope you are right. I researched Oetiker clamps a lot before buying. One thing that confused me was that Oetiker gives two dimensions - open and closed ID. But all the others give what appears to be a range. For instance, the Vigrue kit has one set of clamps that are said to be 12.8 - 15.3 mm and another that is 15.3 - 18.5 mm. I'm guessing that instead of reading that as a range those are actually the open and close measurements. Right? My Flexzilla hose measures 15.2 mm as best I can measure, which isn't easy as it is not quite round. So when slipped over a hose barb it'll be slightly larger. I'll measure it when slipped over a hose barb, but I'm guessing that it'll be tight getting the one that opens to 15.3 mm over the hose/barb combined, and it would really squeeze the hose. We are headed out to run an errand, but I'll measure the hose over a barb and report back.