'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

[Erik the Awful]

Baseball sized hail heading this way. I pulled WCJr out of the shop and put my wife's car in.

0FG. It needs a new windshield anyways.

 

[Erik the Awful]

It's been an unproductive week on WCJr. I put the A/C fuse back in and SHAZAM! I have a functional climate control system. Almost. I found the refrigerant lines empty, so I know the system needs freshening up.

In the meantime I spent lots of money on RockAuto. Ordered rear brakes for the Mustang. Then my wife asked me to check out the windshield washer on her Chrysler 300. Nozzles were broken - another RockAuto order. Then my son tells me La Cucaracha won't start. I got a description of the problem, hauled my junkyard tool box over there, and he pulled the coils to find oil in the #2 spark plug hole. Hint - if your Altima 2.5 is misfiring, check for oil in the plug holes. Guess what? A new valve cover gasket doesn't include the spark plug tube seals - you have to buy another valve cover. RockAuto got another $50 from me.

- BUT -

The A/C parts for WCJr are in the same warehouse! I ordered a receiver/drier, retrofit fittings so I can charge it with R-134a, and a new orifice tube.

I did get my plastic clips in so that I can use ALL the screws to hold in my parking lamps. I got a nice large-gauge ring terminal kit so I can finish wiring up the center console, which may become a moot point if the TH700R4 is dead and I decide to put the NV3500 in (I'm still looking for a clutch pedal!). I also got replacement lug nuts from when the wheel fell off. Some time in the next few weeks I'll take that wheel and the two gouged Corvette Gran Sport wheels I have over to the wheel shop and have them fixed. In the meantime I'm contemplating taking the steelies off my Cadillac and putting them on the truck.

Then yesterday the new valve cover for La Cucaracha came in, along with all the A/C parts. I've been achy this week (cholesterol medicine does that - enjoy your youth and burgers while you can), but I finally dragged myself out to the shop to start replacing A/C parts. I started by pulling the orifice tube out.
View media item 32278Metal chips? SOB! Now I need to order a compressor. A condenser was already on the list due to the old one being a flat-finned mess. I went to disconnect the receiver/drier. Over the years I've collected quite a collection of tools, but I've never needed to buy a 1 1/4" wrench. The few occasions where I needed one I was able to use my Knipex pliers. Guess what I bought today! Is that smoke coming from my credit card?

Later I boogied over and handed the valve cover to my son to install along with a new set of plugs. Half an hour later he took La Cucaracha on a test drive. Pulling up to an intersection the car stalled and wouldn't restart. He jiggled the key a few times and it magically restarted. Wonderful. The turd of a car needs an ignition switch for the low, low price of $160. The lock cylinder and ignition switch are ONE PIECE, which also means the door locks will no longer match the ignition.

Fortunately, this morning I got a message on the Facespace Marketplace asking about the Suburban. The guy asked for a picture of the glovebox sticker so he could see the axle code. Well, crap, I've never even checked that on the 'burb. Turns out it has 3.73 gears and a 10-bolt Posi. Sold it a few hours later. I have a very mild case of regret that goes away every time I look at the cash.

Can't work on the truck tomorrow. For Mother's Day my wife wants physical labor by way of organizing her shop.

 

[Erik the Awful]

This afternoon I finally dropped the pan on the TH700R4.
View media item 32291The fluid's more brown than red, but it's not opaque, so no water contamination.
View media item 32292Plenty of metal sludge on the magnet. I think the transmission is at the end of its life.

I went ahead and cleaned the pan, trashed the broken cork gasket, drained and junked the transmission filter, installed the new filter and gasket, re-installed the pan...

...and I'm out of transmission fluid. I also have both my 5-gallon waste oil buckets full, so I'll take them and get them drained so I can dispose of the old fluid.

If you don't have a parts washer, you need one. I have the Harbor Freight parts washer with some actual solvent from Tractor Supply. It's amazing for cleaning stuff like this.

While I was at it I worked on the relay harness for the electric fan. The Sniper controller has an output for a fan, so why not use it? I have an old fuse-holder for PAL fuses on my parts shelf, so tomorrow I'll find a way to mount it near the battery. The electric fan, center console, starter solenoid, and Holley will get power from it.

I went to LKQ yesterday and found a clutch pedal. Hopefully the auto still has some life in it. If not, I'm split as to whether to rebuild the 700 or just go for the NV3500 swap. I now have all the parts except for a shift boot. I'd rather have an automatic on a tow pig.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I nabbed a couple extra A/C lines to the evaporator this morning and straightened them in my vise. I mixed up a gallon of hot, soapy water and ran it through the evaporator.
View media item 32295The pan at the bottom is pretty much just acting as a funnel to the pan on the ground. I got some soapy oil, but no shavings or dirt clods. It didn't leak into the cab. I then ran a gallon of hot, clean water through. I finished up by shoving a rubber hose into the top fitting and blowing air through until I wasn't getting much water. The vacuum pump will take care of the rest.
View media item 32296I put fluid back in the transmission, but it's raining, so I'm not inclined to test drive if I might end up on the side of the road.

I did get my fuse block installed next to the battery for the electric fan, heated seats, and Sniper. I'm waiting on 50' of 12 gauge black wire from 4rcustomswire.com so I can finish up the fan wiring. Then I'll post pics of that setup.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Someone asked a question about Vortec heads on a TBI last week and Schurkey commented about having to drill a bypass hole in the heads if you run a standard SBC pump.

"Huh." I thought to myself. "I didn't have to drill a bypass hole. I used the Vortec water pump... When I originally put the motor in my Suburban. I have it in the Stepside now, with the older style water pump. Crap!"

Sure enough, in all my switching the motor between trucks and reading up on the differences between the applications, I had forgotten all about the bypass holes. I really didn't want to remove the heads and waste the gaskets just to drill holes in them. Solution? Junkyard Suburban water pump and re-plumbing the heater hose. The water pump on the left is the older-style internal bypass water pump. On the right is the old, leaky water pump off my Suburban - I already had the newish water pump on my truck.
View media item 32317Note the two tubes at the top. The one on the left goes to your heater core. The one on the right goes to the heater hose outlet on your intake manifold. My heater hose had already been cut a bit shorter, so I threw in a piece of conduit to keep the heater hose off the header.

There's also some discussion about Vortec water pumps on TBI blocks, and this pic shows why. The old style pump on the left has a coolant port under the bolt hole on the passenger side, while the Vortec on the right does not. The port in the block is between sizes for a standard bolt thread, so I tapped mine metric and found a bolt that would thread in it. I cut the head off the bolt, put a slot in it for a flathead screwdriver, put some RTV on it, and threaded it in until it was flush.
View media item 32318With block plugged for a Vortec pump and the coolant bypass sorted, it was time to move on to my junkyard find. I was at Pull-A-Part Saturday morning, looking for a water pump, and I spotted an underhood storage compartment with no top. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I nabbed the storage compartment, the vacuum can, the windshield washer bottle, and the bracket. While I was wrenching, my eyes wandered under the next truck over, and I spotted the lid to the storage compartment! Always scan the ground around you - you'll never know what treasures you'll find.

My truck didn't have holes in the right places for these, so I measured, drilled holes, and discovered it's two inches too high to mount the windshield washer pump. The hood hits it. The bracket didn't want to sit any lower because it's already mashed against the inner fender. New washer out, old washer in. Shazam!
View media item 32320I'd been playing around with my Mark VIII electric fan, and it was a dud. I yanked the speed controller off and ran power directly to the fan. It worked. I grabbed some thick wire, some heat-shrink butt splices, and a spare relay (they're cheap by the handful at PAP). Power runs to both terminals of the relay. The ground side of the coil runs to the Holley Sniper. The default setting is on at 190*, off at 180*. Sounds good to me.
View media item 32319Finally, I promised a pic of the battery wiring. Sorry it's a bit fuzzy, but that's a fuse box from an early '90s Mazda 323. When I was an RX-7 fanatic I grabbed these all the time from 2nd gen RX-7s and 323s. I have one on my Cadillac and one on the Jaggernaut. They're great for providing fused power to higher amperage components.
View media item 32321The main wire on it is going to my firewall pass-through to power the center console, power seats, and seat heaters. I'll have a smaller fuse box in the center console for those items. The small red wire along the fender goes to the Sniper. The instructions say to run it straight to the battery with no splices or fuses. Sorry, but it's my truck, and I'm not inclined to burn it down. The White/Red wire that splices to a red wire is going to the fan. That leaves me two more taps I can power stuff from. Stereo amp anyone?

 

[Erik the Awful]

The truck's been backfiring after warmup. I knew I had a passenger side exhaust leak, but the O2 sensor's on the driver's side. Still, there's a remote chance some reversion was pulling the fresh air into the driver's side header collector. Last week I pulled the passenger side header loose, put copper RTV on the metal shim gasket, and reinstalled it. It solved the header leak I'd been hearing on that side and also allowed me to hear the driver's side header leaking. Now the truck's popping and backfiring right after startup, and checking the display the Sniper says it has a target air/fuel ratio of 12.5:1, but at idle it's sitting at 17-18:1.

After my post on Monday, I went back out and resealed the passenger header. If you don't love copper RTV, you haven't used it. The stuff is amazing. I let it cure overnight and yesterday I fired the truck up. It's still popping, but I think I need to reset the learning on the Sniper.

Then the truck started screeching. I shot a bit of silicone spray onto the idler pulley and it quit for about five seconds.

WTH?

Oh well. I broke the last original side marker light last week, and it's in the same RockAuto warehouse as the idler pulley and the A/C condenser. What's another $90? Parts should be here by the weekend. At that point all I'll need for the A/C is a new compressor. That's gonna have to wait until mid-June when I get my performance bonus.

 

[Dubs]

I have the Fi-Tech system. When is was fixing side issues like you have it was way faster and simpler just to do a re-learn vs waiting for the system to make the subtle changes on it's own. I'm sure the Holley is the same way. The software at core can't be that much different. It's a read, test, alter algorithm.

 

[Erik the Awful]

It wouldn't surprise me. When I was shopping for a system I was talking with a guy at church who just put a FiTech on his Boss Mustang. He said the guy who built the original FiTech licensed his technology out to Holley and FAST. I don't know how true it is, but that's usually how it works.

On that note I need to tell about the resolution on breaking the Holley Sniper's connector. I sent Holley's tech support an email and to date have heard nothing back. Let that be a warning if you're shopping for systems. I got the repair parts from Mouser, but as I was disassembling the connector with my glasses on and still needing a magnifying glass, I discovered a piece of plastic interfering with one of the terminals. I straightened it out and the connector works reliably again. I'm keeping the extra parts just in case.

 

[Dubs]

It wouldn't surprise me. When I was shopping for a system I was talking with a guy at church who just put a FiTech on his Boss Mustang. He said the guy who built the original FiTech licensed his technology out to Holley and FAST. I don't know how true it is, but that's usually how it works.

On that note I need to tell about the resolution on breaking the Holley Sniper's connector. I sent Holley's tech support an email and to date have heard nothing back. Let that be a warning if you're shopping for systems. I got the repair parts from Mouser, but as I was disassembling the connector with my glasses on and still needing a magnifying glass, I discovered a piece of plastic interfering with one of the terminals. I straightened it out and the connector works reliably again. I'm keeping the extra parts just in case.

According to the work history of the creator of Fi-Tech he and his partner were the ones that have written the majority of the software tables for both GM and Ford, and their software is still used in todays vehicles being manufactured. So it could be some what true about working with Holly in a way.

Holly is really weird on customer service. One product line has the best service ever and a different line has just **** service. So I guess it depends on what team is assigned to service?

 

[Erik the Awful]

I've been meaning to build a new bracket to support the alternator and finally got around to it today while waiting on my new idler pulley. I took one of the original brackets off the motor, chopped it below the bend, welded in a section of 3/4" conduit to extend it half an inch, and installed it on the alternator. I think it'll work.
View media item 32331I've been working on installing the rear sway bar the last few days. The stock Suburban end links are designed for a sway bar that goes over the rear axle, but the shocks are in the way on my truck. I chopped the fronts of the sway bar mounts and welded on grade 8 washers so I could use exhaust clamps to mount the bar under the axle. I ground off the rear rivet on the passenger side shock mount and put a bolt through it to hold the front of the sway bar mount as well. Then I drilled the frame for the rear of the sway bar mount, bolted it in place and took measurements for the driver's side sway bar mount.
View media item 32332The stock end links were about 4 3/4" between bolt holes, but I needed 8". A quick trip to Patriot Steel and I had 10' of 5/8" .090 wall tubing. If I need a foot, I'm buying ten feet because I'm not going to waste their time and I'm going to use it anyways. I also picked up more 14 gauge sheet just because. I chopped the end links in half and welded them into sections of tubing. The rod connecting the end links has a .465" diameter and the 5/8" tubing has almost a .500" diameter. It's a little loose, but since the only dimension that matters is 8" between the holes, I didn't really care if the link ended up a hair crooked.
View media item 32330Mounted. I still need to level out the exhaust clamps, and if I feel froggy I'll drive the truck around to the welder and tack the exhaust clamps in place. The passenger side parking brake cable is also on the wrong side of the shock and rubbing on everything, so I'll fix that as well.
View media item 32333The rubber bushings are all intact, but well worn. The poly rebuild kit is only about $30 on RockAuto, but I'm not polishing this pig until I get it functional as a daily driver.