Sac79

Are you carrying more or less than you did in Dad's on your roadtrip/furniture haul east? I seem to remember a substantial spare parts list on that particular occasion...

Did just the spring come out, or did the bolt back out?

Some good ideas I would never have thought about, like the 'spring' on the caliper... And some I should have, like a starter solenoid. I recently did a PGMR conversion, but still. And yes, I think the setup and condition of your truck would certainly dictate what and how much you would be inclined to lug along. Also the space available. An underhood toolbox or even better a saddle box in the bed would provide little excuse to not have something for most eventualities. I have my spare under a tonneau cover in the bed already, so no reason I can't carry a big box full of spares along with it... I've carried a HF 130 piece tool set behind the seat from the start, but you can always have more.

I'm wondering what spare parts people carry in their trucks, either all the time or for longer journeys? Up to now, I haven't had any. About a year ago, the ignition control module on my HEI failed. I replaced the coil in a Jacks(not to be confused with 'Jack in the box') parking lot after my wife uber'd to get the part, but they didn't have the module in stock... We were close to home and the eventual tow was free. No real harm done, we only missed the drive-in movie. This past weekend the truck died in a similar(though not really) way, only slightly further from home. We were down in Auburn, about a 100 miles away! I thought it was a distributor part again(apparently it's a common failure), so my wife uber'd again... She got both parts by visiting numerous parts stores. I changed them out, just in the road this time. Still nothing though, but I started to think it was a fuel and not ignition issue since it would occasionally start for a brief moment. I disconnected some lines and it appeared that fuel was getting through, but it was hard to test without getting fuel everywhere. Anyway, there wasn't a fuel pump in stock anywhere close and our options were limited being Sunday. So we got towed home... At great expense this time since I only have basic AAA, which really put me in the doghouse, rightly so. Anyway, I changed out the pump yesterday(and upgraded AAA) and all is good. It was 3 years old with about 3000 miles on it, but I guess parts just aren't made the same as they were 40 years ago. Bottom line, in order for us to use my truck for mini-roadtrips I'll have to carry spare parts to prevent being stranded or being towed for anything less than an accident or major failure...

Gary, I think that plug just looks weird in the picture. I'm sure it's what we think it is. Mine was pretty crusty as well, but some warm soapy water does bring it back to some usefulness.

The driver's side stays open, at least on mine, and is sealed in with the cowl cover.

They do... But the end has a press in pin. I should have just cut the end off, or removed the pin. I drilled the hole off measurements I got somewhere.

Oh, and I added the dash cover. That picture was taken with it just lying in place and before I removed the speaker cover. And I changed out the exhaust at last. 2.5" throughout now, with a 'universal race muffler':nabble_smiley_what: It's OK in moderation, a little loud at times, definitely drowns out the cheap 4" speakers next to my ears. But the wind noise still wins out on the Interstate. I would like to get another muffler to swap in when I feel like going for a less noticeable drive. Any recommendations? It would have to be 2.5" inlet/outlet on center to make swapping easy. Length less important as I can add a different intermediate pipe. Lastly, I added a tow hitch yesterday(pics to follow). I haven't bought the ball or drop yet. Google comes back with 17" as a typical hitch height, thoughts? The bottom of my hitch tube currently sits at 16", so the bottom of the couple would be about 17, maybe a little over. I don't plan on using it much, I don't even have a trailer(otherwise I would of course set it up accordingly). I'll be borrowing my neighbors trailer when I buy a new mower. That's the only use I currently foresee.

A flare wrench would be perfect, but it would have to be skinny. The standard skinny I bought did this... Makes sense about the brakes causing the drag. And yes, I saved the settings. I filled up this morning - the trip meter malfunctioning messed up my mileage documentation. I had only been writing down the trip distance. So to figure out the last trip I added all the miles and subtracted from the current odometer in addition to the starting reading. Got 200 miles from just over 10 gallons...:nabble_anim_confused: As nice as that would be, no way. So something went wrong somewhere, my tripmeter probably acted up somewhere before and I didn't notice it. Anyway, I'll be resetting the MM on this next tank. It's reading about 2/3 now and I've done about 50 miles, seems about right for 3.5ish gallons. I'll do another 20 miles then bump it back to 2/3. Some other additions. I replaced the mirrors, I preferred the originals, but they wouldn't stay in place. And then I stupidly drilled these holes before checking fitment of the seals... So that's why it's all wonky, but they need to be so low to actually touch the cab. They do make a difference, not much at interstate speeds though.

Really good indeed! Do you have an extension on the oil pressure sender?

I inquired about the gauges at some point and did make some progress there. I replaced the ICVR with one from my backup instrument cluster. I decided against the upgrade for now. I swapped out the coolant temp and oil pressure gauges and replaced the oil pressure sender, with some difficulty. I had a bear of a time to get the old sender off. I bought special skinny wrenches that simply stripped the stud. I had to use a big v-groove set of pliers in the end. Everything works as it should again though, so worth it. I then added a Metermatch to the fuel gauge. The wiring was easy, getting the fuel tank empty, not so much... I drove around the neighborhood to no avail. I then thought about testing the 4wd since I hadn't since the rebuild. This made me notice some weird characteristics. The front wheels don't always turn at the same speed... I guess it has something to do with the resistance in the shafts? To clarify, this is at idle in gear. Anyway, my truck was way to efficient with no wind resistance!:nabble_laughing-25-x-25_orig: Eventually I saw bubbles in the fuel filter. I shut it off there, added a gallon and set the metermatch to show empty. I then added 6 gallons and set it two about 1/3. Added another 6 and set it to 2/3. Then drove to Buc-ee's and filled up. I had hoped it would take another 6 gallons, alas it was less than 4... So with the 1 gallon expended to get to Buc-ee's, that meant I was only 3 short of full at 2/3. And I have 4 gallons left at empty!:nabble_head-slap-23_orig: I don't mind the 4 gallons at empty, but now my gauge essentially reads the same way it did before. Drops quickly and lingers down low forever. At least it's easy to adjust. Oh, and I know that my pickup tube is sucking air with 3 gallons in the tank...:nabble_smiley_unhappy:

I have done a few other things as well. I think I got the transfer case sorted, it just needed the RTV as Gary mentioned. But I still have a brake fluid leak from the rear 'split' fitting. I've tried re-tightening it many times to no avail. But it's small enough that it isn't giving me sleepless nights.

Can't believe I haven't updated this thread in more than a year! As mentioned on the main page I just did the pan gasket and timing cover seal again. Upon today's inspection everything around the pan still appears dry. I'll definitely do more runs this week, so hopefully that remains the case. To recap the last 12 months, I ran the truck with the leak mentioned in the posts above until somewhere after October. Can't remember exactly when, but I attempted a RTV only solution which was a catastrophic fail. Of course it leaked from the front(since we now know the timing cover seal was ultimately responsible), but oil just poured out from the back as the gap is larger around the rear main seal. The fact that RTV couldn't seal the front area, made me suspect the timing cover seal. But I was dreading doing that again, so instead attempted a 4-piece gasket(a Felpro performance set) again. Which leaked within a day and led me to the last few days. I had planned on going with another 4 piece set(original cork version), but a last second change of plan led to the one piece. So I started the rebuild with the 4-piece supplied in the kit, changed to a 1-piece, replaced that again in addition to the timing cover seal, tried RTV only, back to a 4-piece and finally, hopefully for the last time back to a 1-piece and a correctly installed timing cover seal!

That kit should be an absolute breeze for you. I got a universal kit from Painless(for about a 1/4 of the price) and I was surprised how easy it all was. And I'm not an electrical anything...

This would be not running like you left lights on? Dave ---- Yes, but now I want to try it running. Maybe tomorrow. I think these came in two colors with two different sets of functions. Black and white I believe. I'm sure there's been a thread on it before. I grabbed one(white) from a junkyard and modified it to only buzz for the lights(with door open). But yes, the sound is grating and music would definitely be preferred, but then I might just leave it playing!