FuzzFace2

If you dont have smog where you are and I dont think you do if the EGR tube has been cut and folded closed, and you having a feed back system and maybe needed a carb that you do a search for "feed back delete". The feed back uses a computer to adjust the carb & timing and IF ANY of the feed back system is not working or missing the computer goes into "limp home mode" and locks the timing and the carb at full rich. To bypass this system you need to install a pre-feed back carb (that may already been done?) and a dist. with vacuum advance and the wiring harness for the dist. and the computer could then be removed. Again do a search for it so you can read up on it. I think you started a post on the carb then removed it. Just fill that first post back in with a picture of the carb & dist. so we can make sure of what you are working with. Dave ----

On the shake I would think driving for 30 to 40 min to / from work would be enough to boil out the condensation even when it is cooler out. Guess time will tell. On the relay I sure hope so. It's not cool trying to start it at shows and only get a clunk! When it cools down later got to wash the truck as a few of us are going to a show a few towns over. Got to have it looking good. Dave ---- Relay update: Friday I started the truck a few times so I could wash it for a show on Saturday. Saturday I started it a bunch more times between the trash run, car show and stopping for the most needed ice cream on the way home LOL It started every time and even with heat soak at the ice cream shop so I call it fixed! I was a little worried I drove only a few miles to meet up with a buddy and left the truck running as he switched cars at the storage area. We get on the road and the truck stumbled just after a gear change and I am like "great the IGN box that leaking its guts is about to crap out"! Kind of like maybe running out of gas also? It was ok for the rest of the trip. I think the carb got hot and was the start of a vapor lock and once the air got moving, the temp gauge did come down, it was ok? The show was the first for the town of Kenly NC so hope there will be more. Lot of nice cars and a few trucks mostly the bow ties. I did not know this but it was a peoples choise and they picked a Big Bad Greren Super Bird. I was told he gets a lot of them as no one ever sees then any more, it was a nice car. Dave ----

No not the axle housing but the part the tie rods bolt to. I dont know how the axle is set up if they bolt on or part of the spindle / knuckle assy. but that part could be bent and cause the issue he has. Something has to be bent to cause this. Dave ----

On the shake I would think driving for 30 to 40 min to / from work would be enough to boil out the condensation even when it is cooler out. Guess time will tell. On the relay I sure hope so. It's not cool trying to start it at shows and only get a clunk! When it cools down later got to wash the truck as a few of us are going to a show a few towns over. Got to have it looking good. Dave ----

Last week after the trash run I run to NAPA and picked up their top of the line starter relay. I got out of work early one day and swapped it out. Now wouldn't you know the truck started a few times I tried before moving it to my garage (were the tools are) to do the change out When I put all back together I sanded all connections and used dielectric grease on them. I also cleaned both battery connections and used grease on them also. I gave it a few starts and it did each time so i moved it back to the house garage and will see if the new relay and all connection being clean fixed it. On a side note I think I had a post of milk shake on the dip stick & tube and the oil fill cap. Well that is no longer happening and dont know why but am happy its gone. Maybe adjusting the timing and carb settings did it? I have not seen any change on the factory temp gauge, not that it would show up on it. I still have a little pinging at speed under a light load I am still working on, think I went the wrong way with the vacuum can adjustment the first time? Dave ----

Well if the parts were from the truck the 60 came from then it had to be toed out also. Was the truck crashed that the 60 came from? If so how badly was it crashed and thinking pretty good if it was totaled. I ask because the knuckles could have gotten bent where the tie rods bolt on making it toe out and not be able to get it back in. I had this happen once on a Toyota LC I use to race off road. I dont remember now if it was jumped or rolled but the toe also was out and could not adjust it as there was no more adjustment left. Because it was a race only truck we cut a chunk out of the center link and welded it back together with a pipe sleeve and was fine after that. Dave ----

Thanks for the reply. Lighting damn will have to look at them just dont know if I want something down that low or not. How hard was it to get it to fit as the shape of our trucks are a little different? Yea the speeds here are about the same even with a posted of 70, so maybe that little air damn is not the ticket? Post up what the MPG are with this larger one if any at all as I would like to know. Thanks again Dave ----

So this is a 4x2 converted to 4x4 what steering parts were used? It could be you are using the 4x2 parts or a mix of them on this project when you need to use the 4x4 parts. Dave ----

My fix for fog / driving lights and not wanting them above or below the bumper and look factory. Where did you get the air damn from, got a link? In the MPG thread it was posted the little one below the bumper helped get better MPG and would like to try one if not a lot of money. BTW looks good Dave ----

That AMC 360 was still running when I laud the car up, you know you have time to race and no money or the other way around. I could not get the car to start to load on the trailer for the move south and has since rusted up and won't turn by hand. I am sure if I put oil in the plug holes and let it work in it will free up but have other projects to work on. Other than doing really good measuring like a machine shop would only because of the tools I have everything was done like one even making sure the block was as clean as I could get it with hot water and soap many times. Dave. ----

Haha, thanks man! I'd actually like to change the wheels, and I think about it all the time, I just don't know what wheels I'd go with. Probably aluminum...and I really love the old school "slot" wheels, but they're more of a 70's thing and not as much 80's. Still, I wouldn't mind a set. I'll revisit this, soon. My mind changes often, but right now my plan is to work on the '84 some more and turn it into more of a touring truck. Right now, I don't go all that far with it. There's a couple reasons for that...and one of them is that a lot of the car meets and shows were cancelled last year, and many of them have been cancelled again this year. The other reason is that in my mind the truck needs some things to make it nicer to travel with...like AC, cruise control, more sound proofing in the interior, a nice bench seat arm rest with cup holder(s), and delay wipers...although I never do drive it in the rain...lol, but still. That's where my mind is, at least for now. Happy & sad to see it go for you as each truck has its own personality and why we own / drive them. Down here AC is a must! And why I did the firewall swap as part of the rebuild. Cruise control would be nice and I have looked it to it a few times but so far the most I drive it is under 50 miles each way so not really needed yet). On sound proofing the carpet made the biggest improvment in mine. I did add 2 strips of "peel & stick" to the inside of each door. That makes them less of a drum and solid sounding when closing. I did spray expanding foam in the roof but it did not fill even a 1/4 of it. No head liner. I do have a storage shelf behind the seat but no carpet on the rear wall as some say that helps on the noise. I am happy with the bench seat and the noise, its a truck not a cady LOL Same for the cup holder. Take the wife along she can hold the cup LOL. I do have delay wiper's and one of the best up grades I did. I do not take the truck out in the rain but sometimes you cant help it. Oh the wheels, I was lucky mine came with turbo's but if it had stock steely I would be happy with them as the truck would look factory stock and I like that look too. Cant wait to see your "up grades" and I know of the post you have going on one of them. Dave ----

Bad gas will not make the motor just die, only make it run like crap and that would show up mostly at idle and lack power. If the gas it really that bad it would not start. You are going to need to do a little checking when it dies to know what path to go down for a fix, fuel or IGN.? When it dies next time and it is safe to do so pop the lid on the air filter so you can look down into the carb. If the choke is not open, it should be if up to temp, open it and look down in the carb and move the throttle. You should see fuel squirt in the carb, if not its a fuel issue. If that checks out that you will need to check for spark. This can be a little harder as you said it will start right back up. This is how a bad IGN. box acts up, dies open the hood to check what is wrong and it will start right back up. THe IGN. box heats up and stops working open the hood and let the heat out box cools off and it starts. I would just replace the box and see what happens from there. Dave ----

A kit is nice and as pointed out dose not have the foam. The other thing is what shape are the springs on your seat? The bench seat I pulled from my truck besides the foam not there and all ripped up the springs were broken too. So if I was to get a kit & foam there was nothing to support it as it would fall right through to the floor under the seat. I was lucky my parts truck seat only had 1 small rip but in good shape other wise I used it along with everything else from inside the truck to fix mine up. Dave ----

X2 what Gary said. I also run a AFR gauge and do see it running richer when it gets hotter out. Remember colder the air the denser it is so more air packed into the holes with the same amount of fuel will make it run leaner. My 300 also runs in about that same range of mid 13's to low 14's. I have been thinking of leaning it out a little more, adjust the rod / seat, but it is running so good I hate to pull the carb apart and have it run bad. Maybe one day? Oh I am pulling cool air from in front of the support. I should check if the flapper valve is open all the way someday? Being you brought it up did you ever get a MPG with the 4x4 truck the short time you had it on the road? Dave ----

Rusty, Give him a call as he may not have it listed if he has it. The other is if you have gaskets he can make patterns from and then make new ones I hear he dose that also. I want to say on the factory AC kit he went to the junk yard and pulled a box so he had what was needed to make patterns & seals. Also at one time this was a side thing for him but I think he is now a full time buss. Dave ----

When you say "nothing", so no lights or anything on the dash? First is to make sure the battery is up to the job, should have 12.5 volts anything under 12 it needs a charge or be replaced. If the battery is charged then I would pull every connection and clean them really good. No lights or anything a bad connection on either side of the battery could be the cause. Ground should go to the motor / trans, to the frame and to the body. Pos. of battery to the relay, out of relay to lug on starter. The relay needs to be grounded to the body and why the body needs to be grounded. If the ground to motor / trans is bad no lights / start. Dont forget to clean the battery connections. Check that all out and let us know what you find. Dave ----

I have not used their Ford 80 - 86 kit but have for my 70 AMC javelin HVAC box rebuild and was vary happy with the product and directions that came with the kit. From what others that have used their AMC kits I would go for the Ford kit no question asked! Also if you dont see something you are looking for on their site give them a call. Dave ----

as I said in my other post when you can measure the lobe(s) from the side cover area so you know if the cam is good or bad. I think if I had it down this far I would pull 1 or 2 main & rod bearings so I know what they are like. To throw a set of bearings in it would not be hard at this point. I would also measure the holes to see if they are factory or been bored over size and maybe throw a set of rings in it after running a hone to break the glaze this way the rings will seal good. On the head and you saying the valve had leakage I would check on either a replacement head from one of the local parts stores or maybe pull yours apart and lap the valves so you know what you have. Maybe check to see what the turn around is on a valve job on it. Yes it is a quick rebuild without the machine work and other than the head would last longer then the 20k you might put on the motor and even if you do get the other built you have this as a spare. BTW I did a quick rebuild on a AMC 360 motor I had never heard run when I got it. All bearing were showing copper but the crank measured factory so a set of bearings fixed that part. I forgot to check the cam bearings but did not have a way to change them anyway. All the rings were stuck in the pistons and i had to break them to get them out. I used the broken parts to clean the grooves. I picked up a new set of rings but the gaps were large, I was in a time crunch and went with them anyway. I had a set of heads that were good to bolt on, same on the oil pump as it is partof the timing cover. I went with the largest lift cam kit I could with out machine work, did I say I was building this for my drag car? I cleaned the block for hours as it was really bad. Ran a hone in the holes before the pistons went back in and did all the measuring just like you would when rebuilding a motor, even coil bind for the cam. I got to say the motor ran strong, great oil PSI even hot idle, did not smoke at all I was kind of shocked because of the ring gap. Other than the money for the parts and time I think in my case was all well spent. Dave ----

Much better Dave ----

This was the exh. Valve IIRC so if not opening the exh would back up into the intake and cause a pop from cam over lap was there a pop more so under load? Still easy to measure pop the side cover and check the lifter movement to the others. Dave ----

A leak down test is a good start but I would look into why no oil to that rocker? I would pull that rocker & rod and distributor so I could spin the oil pump and see if oil comes out the lifter. If not pull the lifter and see if oil comes out the block. If you don't get oil out of the block the garage rebuild will be for nothing. Maybe that should have been done before pulling the motor? Good luck Dave. ----

What kills me on the relay is the truck sat for a week and hit the key and it cranked over for a bit as the fuel in the carb was gone so I stopped and hit the key again and it cranked again. But after I did the work on the ground side and it did not crank gets me Dave ----

Yes that is what I am saying. With the nut on the top and the spring clip down the weight of the tire is now pulling on the nut that is on the top of the frame. Right now the weight is pulling on the spring clip and it can pull it open and drop the tire assy. on the ground. The same goes for the bolt on the other end of the cross bar as it also goes into the same kind of spring / nut deal. Dave ----

Will do Thanks Dave ---- With help from my son we swapped out the AC clutch. Now before I did someone asked if I ohmed out the coil and at the time I had not but did before I started any work and yes it was open .... read bad! It was not hard to swap out the AC clutch other than we had a heavy rain storm come through just before we were going to bolt it to the brackets. Came down so hard had to close up the garage as we where getting flooded out, no the truck was not in the garage. When it slowed some we took a dinned break till the rain stopped. After the rain we got the compressor mounted back up and I now have AC blowing cold again! Wile my son was doing that I pulled the solenoid off the fender and sanded the fender and the solenoid where it hits the fender for a better ground. I also added star washers between the solenoid & fender. Well that was a wast of time, I had to hit the key a bunch of times before it would crank over. Tomorrow I will pick up a new solenoid after the weekly trash run from NAPA to replace it. Dave ----

Thanks for your feedback, help and motivation Randy. I am looking forward to getting to the interior. It is a serious mess! Looking good Got a question on the tire mount/ In the picture I think the nut should be on top of the frame not below as all the weight is pulling down on the clip not the nut. same should be true for the bolt on the other side nut on top of the frame not below it. Dave ----