Had some time to work on the white truck this past weekend.
I pulled the steering wheel back when I wired the truck up. When I installed it, I did so very crooked. It became very apparent now that it is driveable. So I threw a piece of tape where I thought the top was, grabbed a sharpie and drove it down the road. I was able to mark the top good then.
Since I was pulling the steering wheel to straighten it, I decided to replace it. The button no longer were connected to anything so I got a used wheel off eBay.
I pulled the old one with my mark straight up and installed the new one straight. Once I splined it on, I noticed a green arrow cast in the wheel that lined up with a punch mark on the column.
I also installed new front lights. The turn signals are led, and my headlights were busted and flopping.
A few years ago, I cut the torsion bars off the truck and installed coilovers. The front ended up being a bit low for what I wanted, but never did anything about it. Well I finally bought some different up brackets and was able to get the front to sit a bit higher. I got in a hurry and did not take any before pictures, so I also did not bother to yake after pictures.
Last thing I was able to get down was stripping down a set of rear doors I have for it, down to bare shells. They are red and I am going to attempt to make them white. I also have the front doors from the red truck that are going to need done too.
I was not getting any fluid to flow out of the rear port on the master cylinder and the year old brake fluid got very dark/ brown from how easy the mc was rusting.
So last weekend I was able to replace the chinese junk with some American goodies.
Old
New
I also replaced 3 out of 4 of the brakes lines down stream for the combination valve along with the hose to the rear axle.
I used the copper nickel line, and it was easy to work with. Even flairing it with an Autozone flair tool was simple.
Once complete, the gravity bled quickly. And then I was able to get me dad to come pump them up and gave them a good bleeding. I now have the best pedal I have had yet on the Blazer, and it feels like I could throw a passenger through the windsheild. Who wants to go for a ride?
I also replaced a busted chain on my little dirtbike. But unfortunately, second gear is messed up. I will be purchasing and installing a new motor in it when/ if it becomes available.
[This message has been edited by LitebulbwithaFiero (edited 06-12-2021).]
Everybody told me "they work, leave them alone." But that is the wrong attitude. Take care of stuff before it becomes a problem.
This is the front brake master cylinder on my 85 ATC350X. Rebuild kit was $15. Cleaned it up and put it back together with the new parts, should be good for another 30 years with occasional fluid changes.
I get bad at taking pictures. The after picture of the piston would of shown how bad it was. Also did some work on the Corvette. Remeber just because the parts are new, does not mean they are good. When I got it running again spring of '20, the alternator was had a bad bearing making a bunch of noise. I bought a new AC Delco from Rockauto and quieted it down, but it would always give me a charging fault on the message center even though it was charging fine. I finally looked into it, and it is common issue on them with replacement alternators. Something different with the factory voltage regulators. Well I kept the original alternator, so I swapped the voltage regulator over. Sure enough, problem fixed.
Only picture I took was the old alternator with the voltage regulator removed.
Another problem caused 3 warning messages to keep popping up on the message center of the Vette. The tire pressure monitoring sysyem receiver had stopped working. These cars came stock with run flats, so rhey put the tpms in them so you new when they were flat. I do not have run flats on it, but wanted the system fuctioning to get rid of the messages.
I "upgraded" to a newer system in 2016 with all new oem parts. I do not remember when it stopped working, but finally wanted to get it sorted. Too bad the reciever is now discontinued. I was able to get a used one from the Corvette forums. It was a OE from an 03. Got it installed and it works, we will see if it lasts.
Corvette is becoming less and less of a project. The only thing on the list to do to it is get the wipers working. Probably more on that next week...
I bought and installed some resonators in my tail pipes of the Sierra. They cleaned up the harsh raspy noise making the truck more enjoyable to drive. Also added a little tip to finish them off.
Hydroboost/ hydraulic. It runs off the powersteering pump.
Is it an aftermarket kit or manufacturer? I know Ford used it in mustangs, but haven't looked into how hourd it would be to reconfigure and what power steering pumps it will work with. I'm starting the build of a 54 International, was thinking about these hydroboost setups to avoid any vacuum problems if I go with a lopey cam.
[This message has been edited by TM_Fiero (edited 08-14-2021).]
I bought it from performance OnLine. Which I do not recommend. Their stuff is cheap/ China junk. I had to remake the brackets as the ones they provided were ugly.
The unit is at least a remanufactured GM.
The same setup can be found on Chevy trucks, suvs, and vans. If you are going to go with a Chevy engine, you could probably go to the junkyard and find the whole setup.
Went and bought a 4l80e from a guy on Craigslist today. I needed this in order to make progress on the Blazer. I need to get somethi gs straightened out on ny secret project, then I will be able to remove the rusted out cab floor, get the new transmission mocked up and the new floor installed.
Finally growing up and got my first big block. I wanted to swap an aftermarket top end on it, to make it worth a dam, but availability of parts seems to be an issue.
Getting rid of clutter and starting to "hot rod" it a bit.
The exhaust manifolds have an air injection system on them with dual belt driven air pumps. I am deleting all of that. The tubes going into the manifolds are rusted off. I was surprised to see how far the tubes protruded into the ports.
[This message has been edited by LitebulbwithaFiero (edited 10-22-2021).]
Those Air injectors are bizarre.....On my CVX-20 Jet boat I have a 460 Ford....the first time I rebuilt the engine (Back in 2003) was because I heard a metallic clanking- Had my Father and an engine-builder friend listen; "That definitely sounds like metal against metal!" Then in 2017 I heard the SAME sound......Was using a hose to try to pin-point it....Around the back of the engine and then I FELT air puffing against my hand...
The Ford 460s had the Air injection INTEGRATED into the head......the AIR would go into a passage cast into the head.......Each head had an opening on each end of the head- Boats don't use Air injection so those passages are capped off with a mini freeze plug.....one of those plugs had rusted out....SO I simply bought a new one and pounded it back into the hole- problem solved.
Of course, the engine did not need that first rebuild! (My engine guy stated he had found nothing MECHANICALLY wrong- and now I know why) (And while in a car or truck the engine compartment is OPEN at the bottom, the boat compartment is closed off so the sound was substantially different from what we are used to hearing with an exhaust leak; IT sounded exactly like two wrenches being clacked together)
Took an empty NP205 transfercase housing into work today to bore the input bearing bore open. Going from a 27 spline output transmission to a 32 spline output transmission requires the larger 90mm input bearing instead of the smaller 80mm bearing.
Started by helical boring it out .02" under with a button cutter
Then boring it to size with a finish boring head in to passes.
Finished it up with a nice chamfer.
[This message has been edited by LitebulbwithaFiero (edited 11-06-2021).]