I had the same issue with my '88 and ended up replacing it with the Cunningham shaft which got rid of the rag joint at the same time. They weren't a very robust design in the first place so surprising they have lasted this long. The only thing I noticed afterwards was that the rag joint actually...
It's always the way when you get new shiny paint and then everything around it looks worse by comparison. When I painted mine I got new light lenses and badges etc, then the window rubbers and door handles etc needed upgrading but it was worthwhile as the whole truck looked new then. You are...
That looks cool. I am impressed that you are trying new things and learning along the way, you are getting far more out of this experience than just a cool truck.
Mate, I hate to be one of those guys but, you really need to put the guard back on that grinder. If you ever had a disc fragment in an enclosed space like that you will know why. Now that I have said that, it's coming along nicely.
I got the Moates setup first but due to the awkward placement of the ECU in the 1988 it was a major pain the swap chips and not enough headroom to fit a quick realease socket so I ended up with the EBL and am absolutely impressed with it.
Having it go into open loop just at idle can be beneficial if you are having trouble with a rough idle, so not really something to be too concerned about as it goes closed as soon as you start rolling again.
When lifting the throttle body you need to lift the bracket that holds all of the cables to it the same amount so that the geometry of motion stays the same.