'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

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Erik the Awful

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Today was productive! The factory antenna was long gone, replaced by a parts store cheapie that had been broken off. A couple days ago I put the nut splitter on it to break it loose and threw it away. The firewall grommet on the antenna cable was junk. This morning I went to Pull-A-Part and got the entire antenna, cables, plastic fender panel, and grommet. Got it installed.

After my previous fixes, the thermostat housing was still seeping, so I pulled it.

View media item 32215I'd installed it, thinking there was still enough meat on the housing to seal. Doh! I dug around and found the housing that came on the trashed engine that was in the truck.

I finished up both seat mounts, but still have to install them.

The bulkhead connector is installed, and I have an 8 gauge wire ready to run to the center console, where I'm going to branch it from a fuse panel into the three circuits for the seat heaters and the cigarette lighter receptacles.

I cut all the now-surplus TBI connectors off the engine, pulled the wiring back to the EFI bulkhead, wrapped them up and zip tied them out of the way. I finished getting the Sniper circuits wired with nice connectors, and temporarily ran the handheld through the door and into the cab. The initialization was easy, and when I did the test crank so it could initialize the tach signal, it busted right off and ran. It died pretty quickly, but after running through a few more tests it settled nicely and ran great. It was as easy as advertised.

I warmed the engine up per the instructions and tried to set the IAC, but somehow got it screwed up and now it's trying to run with 30% IAC all the time. It's pretty bad when the instructions that come with the unit only have a single paragraph on setting the IAC with no pictures, and don't tell you how to reset it if you screw it up, but a third party website tells you exactly what to fix. https://www.efisystempro.com/efi-pro-hangout/holley-sniper-installation-startup-troubleshooting They even call Holley out on their poor instructions. I've read up on how to reset it, so that's tomorrow's project, along with installing seats, installing the center console, and finding a way to run the handheld Sniper controller into the cab.
 

Erik the Awful

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I went out yesterday and finished installing the seats. The drawers in the seat mounts drag on the carpet, but it's not bad, so I'll deal with it. I ran the wiring for the seats, but I'm going to have to trim the bottom of the back end of the center console to get it to fit nice.

View media item 32216I'm still getting coolant on the shop floor, and I discovered the lower radiator hose has swollen. It looked okay when I decided to reuse it, but in the last couple months it went bad. The oil pan is also still seeping out of the drain plug.

I drilled a 5/8" hole in the firewall and fed the handheld Sniper controller through it. The grommet I have doesn't fit snug around the cable, so I'm going to have to be creative with the electrical tape.

I tried to set the TPS, but the truck wouldn't start, and the IAC ran up to 80%. I was reading the directions, trying to figure out how to reset the IAC to 0% with no success. Then I noticed when I was cranking the rpm was still reading "Stall".

AHA!

When I was installing the distributor I'd noticed the locking tab on the coil's tach connector was broken, but I rolled with it anyways. Sure enough, the connector had backed off the coil. I re-secured it and the truck fired right up. I followed the directions and set my TPS. Then I saw smelled something burning and saw smoke. I fried the #6 spark plug wire on the header. I thought I had a spare plug wire laying around, but I only have half a set of MSD wires with the old-school distributor plugs, not HEI plugs. I taped the burned up plug wire with electrical tape in hopes of keeping the electrical pixies in the wire, but no good. It has a dead miss. I took it for a drive around the block anyways.

View media item 32217I hit up RockAuto and ordered a new coil plug, a set of decent spark plug wires, a lower radiator hose, and a new low beam lamp. I'm going to order an oil pan and some spark plug wire protectors from Summit in the next day or so, along with some 8 gauge wire and terminals from Amazon. Sonofa... the 'cheap stuff' is really adding up.

Until I get parts in, I can work on the console and finish cleaning up the engine wiring. I also need to remove the spacer and trim the air cleaner assembly so I set it directly on top of the Sniper. I'd like to hide the Sniper as well as possible, and with the spacer the air cleaner sits up too high.
 
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Dubs

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I went out yesterday and finished installing the seats. The drawers in the seat mounts drag on the carpet, but it's not bad, so I'll deal with it. I ran the wiring for the seats, but I'm going to have to trim the bottom of the back end of the center console to get it to fit nice.

View media item 32216I'm still getting coolant on the shop floor, and I discovered the lower radiator hose has swollen. It looked okay when I decided to reuse it, but in the last couple months it went bad. The oil pan is also still seeping out of the drain plug.

I drilled a 5/8" hole in the firewall and fed the handheld Sniper controller through it. The grommet I have doesn't fit snug around the cable, so I'm going to have to be creative with the electrical tape.

I tried to set the TPS, but the truck wouldn't start, and the IAC ran up to 80%. I was reading the directions, trying to figure out how to reset the IAC to 0% with no success. Then I noticed when I was cranking the rpm was still reading "Stall".

AHA!

When I was installing the distributor I'd noticed the locking tab on the coil's tach connector was broken, but I rolled with it anyways. Sure enough, the connector had backed off the coil. I re-secured it and the truck fired right up. I followed the directions and set my TPS. Then I saw smelled something burning and saw smoke. I fried the #6 spark plug wire on the header. I thought I had a spare plug wire laying around, but I only have half a set of MSD wires with the old-school distributor plugs, not HEI plugs. I taped the burned up plug wire with electrical tape in hopes of keeping the electrical pixies in the wire, but no good. It has a dead miss. I took it for a drive around the block anyways.

View media item 32217I hit up RockAuto and ordered a new coil plug, a set of decent spark plug wires, a lower radiator hose, and a new low beam lamp. I'm going to order an oil pan and some spark plug wire protectors from Summit in the next day or so, along with some 8 gauge wire and terminals from Amazon. Sonofa... the 'cheap stuff' is really adding up.

Until I get parts in, I can work on the console and finish cleaning up the engine wiring. I also need to remove the spacer and trim the air cleaner assembly so I set it directly on top of the Sniper. I'd like to hide the Sniper as well as possible, and with the spacer the air cleaner sits up too high.

Seats look really good in there!! You're getting a fire lit under my butt to get mine put in.
 

Erik the Awful

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Doo eet!

I'm fortunate that I have a job where I can telework, and the current pandemic is just giving me more opportunity. If I need a break from the computer screen, I go into the shop for a few minutes until my eyes quit hurting.

That said, I can't stay out there, and most of my productivity has been after my workday ends. Still, sitting at my desk for hours motivates me to get out and do something else when I get the opportunity.
 

Dubs

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Doo eet!

I'm fortunate that I have a job where I can telework, and the current pandemic is just giving me more opportunity. If I need a break from the computer screen, I go into the shop for a few minutes until my eyes quit hurting.

That said, I can't stay out there, and most of my productivity has been after my workday ends. Still, sitting at my desk for hours motivates me to get out and do something else when I get the opportunity.

My office is my home. I'm in the aerospace/military/medical sectors. So right now I'm extremely swamped. Plus we are a contract manufacture so people are wanting things done ASAP. But I can't go turn wrenches and get stuck under the truck while I'm trying to figure out what someone wants built or look at a schematic.
 

Erik the Awful

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I had a job change/promotion in December, so I'm learning new tasks. A lot of my work load has been self-paced online training. During the day I do small organizational tasks, or minor wiring, whatever needs done so I can tackle the bigger stuff in the evenings. When the evening comes I can't sit still. I might be able to watch a show on TV, but afterwards I feel like I'm not getting anywhere in life, so I either do chores or work on the truck. I hate chores, so...
 

Dubs

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I had a job change/promotion in December, so I'm learning new tasks. A lot of my work load has been self-paced online training. During the day I do small organizational tasks, or minor wiring, whatever needs done so I can tackle the bigger stuff in the evenings. When the evening comes I can't sit still. I might be able to watch a show on TV, but afterwards I feel like I'm not getting anywhere in life, so I either do chores or work on the truck. I hate chores, so...
Ah, I'm lazy. Watch a lot of tv. Mostly car shows. Motor trend app is awesome
 

Erik the Awful

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I thought I'd posted this, but I forgot to. Here's the SoffSeal, mostly installed. After this pic I put some on the back wall. The floor took most of a roll. The back wall took about 1/4 of a roll.

View media item 32218I used 3M headliner glue to secure it to the floor. It'll be a real pain if anyone ever needs to remove it, but I drove the truck around the block once I got the carpet in, and it's much quieter than a bare cab. I've never driven this truck before the new motor and exhaust, and I don't know if the SoffSeal is much quieter than the stock padding.
 

Erik the Awful

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New coil connector next to the old one that's missing the locking tab. This should cure any future no-start conditions. I'm not exactly happy the wires are both black.

View media item 32219Here's another stupid-simple shop tip. All these tiny parts come in little plastic bags. Put 'em in a drawer, and when you're removing parts, put the hardware in one of those little bags and duct-tape it to the part until you finally get around to reinstalling it six months later. Trust me. It makes it crazy easy compared to hunting for hardware. I have a small drawer reserved just for ziplock bags.

View media item 32220Tomorrow's projects arrived via USPS, UPS, and FedEx today. Funny thing, I ordered an IAC for my daughter's Focus a week ago and it's still en-route via the Post Office (Postal "Service" my butt).

View media item 32221Ever walk past your truck and suddenly realize it's been missing a body part for the last nine months and you hadn't noticed until today?

View media item 32222I'm that guy.
 

BIG_1088

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Ever walk past your truck and suddenly realize it's been missing a body part for the last nine months and you hadn't noticed until today?
I'm that guy.

i do it all the time, my truck is both a monday truck and a former farm truck, so its safe to say lots of stuff fell out over the years :anitoof:

but i've been watching this thread for a bit, and let me tell you that's a beautiful truck you got there even if it was a massive problem child at first

-big
 
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