'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

[Erik the Awful]

Right about the time I received all those parts, the temperature dropped to 40* and stayed there for two days. I'm not laying on my back on a concrete floor in 40* weather. Today it stayed 40* until after lunch, then suddenly the clouds parted, angels sang, and the temperature went up over 60*. GAME ON!

I got the headlight replaced, the ignition coil plug changed, and the plug wires on. I put some 1200* continuous thermal sleeveing on the #6 and #8 plug wires and routed all the wires with some old Moroso plugs wire spacers I've had laying around for ages. The sleeving expands over the plug boots, but goes back to 5/8".
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hsp-204008

The truck fired up and ran nicely, and I drove it around the block. There were some occasional backfires and stalling, but the Sniper seems to be learning a bit. What concerned me was the transmission shifting funny. I'd checked the fluid a couple months ago, before I got the truck running, and it appeared fine, but after doing a bit of driving, the fluid is now about two quarts low. No more driving until I add a couple quarts of Dexron.

With the engine oil warmed up, I drained it and pulled the stock oil pan I'd repaired. The drain plug threads look like crap, probably why it kept leaking. I put on Summit's 2nd cheapest pan, because I was willing to spend $3 to have them paint it. The factory oil pan came out without having to raise the motor, but Summit pan requires raising the motor an inch to get it in. Then I put the same oil right back in. I'll know tomorrow if the pan cured my oil leak.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g3503b

The power steering pump is leaking now. An average car in the junkyard has about 90% of its parts still in good condition. This truck's hitting below 50%. Except the headlights! 3 out of 4 were good. That raises the average, right?

 

[Erik the Awful]

Today I topped off the transmission fluid and drove it to the gas station and back. Ran like crap, but fortunately the fuel gauge works. On the way back it was backfiring and stalling. I pulled it into the shop and checked the timing - 20-30* advanced. I have an exhaust leak, but it's in the right bank and the O2 sensor is in the left bank. I tightened the right side header up anyways and it still leaks. I never did reseal it with copper permatex, but I may have to.

After a bit more farting around with it I drove it to the car wash. Didn't help, the truck's still endearingly ugly. The backfiring and stalling is getting less and less, and the truck is able to accelerate uphill a little. I'm getting some pinging with heavy throttle, so I may have to switch up to 91 octane. The distributor is currently running without computer control, so I may wire it up to the Sniper as well.

By the time I got home the power steering pump was screaming. When I shut the truck off the pump kept whining for a few seconds. I think it's hosed. I don't think I'm going to do much with the truck until I change the power steering pump. If it's seizing up, it may be causing some of the stalling issues.

The truck is annoyingly loud. I'm going to have to invest in another muffler and some tailpipes.

Small victories. I'll take 'em.

 

[Erik the Awful]

As soon as I saw my stimulus check, I hit "Place Order" on RockAuto. The door hinge pins should be here today, and the power steering pump and hoses should be here tomorrow.

In anticipation, I built this:
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I may have made it too wide:
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...but it looks like it'll work anyways. It's short enough to fit under my Mustang's door, and has enough reach to hit the Suburban's door. The height adjustment on the individual wheels allows me to tilt it a bit. The lower support is part of a road sign we removed from the undercarriage of my son's car after he wrecked it. The upper support is 1 1/2" .090" wall square tubing I stole from my wife's project table. The inner posts are 1" conduit sliding over 3/4" conduit, sleeved with pipe insulation. The outer door posts are 1/2" rebar with old heater hose off my Jaguar. The screwjack is from a random car.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Don't you hate it when you're watching a how-to youtube video and the jerk skips a whole lot of steps to make it seem easier than it is? Like, "detach the fuseblock", "intuitively know that to detach the fuse block you have to snap it to the side, then cram it out of its mounting tabs" and "repeat for the instrument cluster connector". Most importantly, "yeah, you're not going to be able to get the dash out with the A/C vents in place because they're blocking you from separating the wiring harness from the dash". But, hey, let's include unnecessary stuff like "remove the steering wheel".

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Got it done anyways.
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I know what you're thinking, "You had the interior nearly finished. Why would you rip the dashboard back apart?

Targeted elimination of jackassery. I'd scored a nice A/C harness from Pull-A-Part a couple weeks back, and yesterday I went to install it, but at every turn I found more stupid.
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No wonder the A/C controls wouldn't power up.

If I can I'm gonna hit up Pull-A-Part tomorrow to try and score some of the correct connectors. Even on a good day everybody there exercises social distance.

Also, a right front fender panel... and a radio harness... and a passenger window switch... and an air dam... and an A/C relay... and an A/C condensor.

 

[Erik the Awful]

"I'm gonna get out there early today, get the dash back together, get the power steering pump on, it's gonna be awesome!"

Best laid plans of mice and men. Stupid truck fought me all. day. long.

I started with the power steering pump. "I've done this before, I have my handy homemade tool!"
View media item 32249...and... I broke it.

Quick trip to Harbor Freight. They have a $20 tool and a $40 tool - BUT they had an open box special on the $40 tool for $30! Kaching!

Got it home, read the instructions, set it up correctly, and...
View media item 32248Are you @#$%ing kidding me?

Another $20 at O'Reillys for a new pulley, drove home, and realized I didn't buy any power steering fluid. Doh!

I got the new pulley on - the $40 Harbor Freight tool is a champ. I went to install the pump and the top bolt for the bracket wouldn't go in. I had to loosen EVERY bolt on the accessory bracket before it would go in. Finally got the pump on and the hoses installed.
View media item 32250Went to work on the dashboard. It's been two days, and I can't remember where ANYTHING goes. Put bolts in, take them back out because something else goes in first, put more bolts in, take some back out...

And then I spot a whole 'nuther batch of idiocy. The driver's door harness has been chopped off and reinstalled with twist nuts!

...but I already have the dashboard back on, ready to swing up into place.

I really want to kick the previous owner in the junk, but it works. F*** it. I left it alone and bolted the dash back into place. I really hated doing that, but if I'd dug into that part of the harness, it would be another day before the dash went back into place, and I'm really scared I wouldn't get it back in place correctly. Hell, I'm pretty sure it's not exactly right now.

Got the dash mostly buttoned up. I pulled the Sniper display harness out of the dash so I could re-engineer its routing and firewall grommet. Yesterday at Pull-A-Part I realized I could get the windshield washer grommet and hose, and they would work in combination to properly seal the display cable, while still being large enough to fit the connector through. The secret is to use the hose as an intermediate grommet. Slit it to slide the wire inside, and BINGO! ...Umm... kinda. It was a real PITA getting the connector through the larger grommet. I had my wife hold a pair of pliers, expanding the grommet while I tried to gently use a pair of long needle-nose to feed it through. I'll know tomorrow if the connector survived.
View media item 32251Thankfully, my daughter grilled some bratwursts and corn on the cob while I worked, and a glass of homemade hard cider finished off any productivity I might have had.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Got the dash back together and fluid in the power steering pump. I haven't yet put the A/C fuse in, but I think I'll do that tomorrow. The harness had a couple extra connectors that my harness didn't have, so I'm hoping it's compatible.

The Sniper's display cable is dorked. I'm hoping I can convince Holley to send me a loose connector and pins because I really don't want to have to slit the grommet and I also really don't want to buy another display. I can build a connector. I sent them an email - we'll see how it goes.

I got the driver's door pins and bushings installed. It still sags and doesn't fully close. I also got the pin on the spring-loaded stop replaced, but I can't get it to fully seat. Anybody got a trick for that?

I still need to replace the pin for the passenger door's spring-loaded stop, but I won't do it until I figure out what I did wrong on the driver's door. At least the passenger door doesn't sag.

 

[Erik the Awful]

For reference, the display on a Holley Sniper uses a 4-terminal CAN connector, specifically a Mizu-P25, P/N 52117-0411 with terminals P/N 50039-8100. $4.24 from Mouser, plus $7.99 shipping. The terminals are 22AWG, so my crimper should handle them okay.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Thursday afternoon I fired up the truck and drove it to let the Sniper get some more self-learning. It fired up nice and was running good. The passenger door rattles, so I rolled down the window and the rattle went away. I'll have to pull the door panel, put some sound deadener in the door, and tighten up all the rattley bits.

I was making a loop around the square mile where I live, and one of the mile stretches is particularly bumpy. I hit a bump, and the truck lurched sideways. "Hmm... that feels like something's broken. I'll have to check that out when I get back." I continued around until I was about a block from my house. The truck lurched and the left rear wheel passed me, nearly hitting a car coming the other way!

I'm pretty particular about not putting nuts or bolts on unless I intend to tighten them, and I know I torqued the wheels after replacing the wheel cylinders. As I was walking to get my jack and a breaker bar I was wondering if someone had loosened the lugnuts in the two days I had it parked in the driveway. However, I'm not in the habit of making enemies, so the list of potential suspects is limited to that neighbor who's still upset my dog got loose five years ago and peed in his flower beds. I don't think it was him.

Then I remembered the aftermarket wheels I had on my Jeep several years ago. Every time I installed a wheel I had to tighten the wheel, drive it, and re-tighten the wheel. It was a real pain in the butt. Guess how I discovered that problem?

I got the truck jacked up, scavenged three lug nuts from the other wheels, and installed the wheel to get home. Every wheel had at least one lugnut that was loose. The stud holes in the wheel are wallowed out. I have a good wheel repair shop locally, so I'll find out how good they really are.

I hit Pull-A-Part this morning and got a new left rear drum and backing plate. While I was at it I picked up a rear sway bar from a Suburban.
View media item 32269After I got home I realized my rear axle doesn't have the mounting tabs. Doh! I'll have to engineer something. Also, I lost one of the mounting brackets somewhere between the donor vehicle and my Mustang. Doh!

I grabbed a handful of connectors off various donor vehicles to replace the broken connectors I'm still finding on the truck. I mostly know of all the broken connectors, but I never remember to grab replacements unless I write them down in advance. My A/C condenser is also trashed, and would likely contribute to engine cooling problems in the coming summer.
View media item 32270So I grabbed a good condenser from a donor truck. I didn't remember that the conversion to R134a happened after my truck was built, and I got a 134a condenser instead of the earlier R12 condenser. Anybody know if the R134a condenser, filter/drier, and hoses will work with the R12 evaporator and orifice tube?

Now for the tricky bit. By the time I got home, the truck was whining - just like a bad power steering pump, but the power steering pump is brand new. Whatever was whining was dragging on the motor, trying to stall it out. If I shut the engine off, the whining doesn't stop immediately, it winds down. With the belt off, the alternator squeaks, but it spins fine, charges fine, and stops immediately with the motor. I think I replaced the water pump, but I can't remember. The studs look brand new. The tensioner looks old, but is in great shape. It also stops immediately with the motor. The A/C compressor freewheels just fine with the clutch unplugged.

I'm thinking transmission. When I was fixing the wiring in the dashboard, I found more evidence in the dash the truck had been underwater. Transmissions are usually sealed pretty good, and even though they have a vent, the air trapped in a transmission keeps fluid from intruding. When I'd pulled the dipstick I hadn't found any evidence of fluid contamination, and I also ended up adding two quarts. Other than the TV cable being a bit loose, the transmission shifts perfectly. I'm at least going to perform a fluid/filter change, but I also have an NV3500 in the shop...

Anybody have a clutch pedal assembly they're willing to part with?

Edit: If I ever race it I'll need a bumper sticker that says, "You just got beat by every truck in the junkyard."

 

[DirtBag]

Man...your resolve on this thing is amazing....I would've given up a long ways back. Keep up the good work!

 

[Erik the Awful]

Man...your resolve on this thing is amazing....I would've given up a long ways back. Keep up the good work!

I already gave up on the Suburban. I still need a truck.

I have this reverse-Midas-touch thing with wrenching. Every project I touch turns to a nightmare of weird problems. Either rarely seen, almost insurmountable problems, or every minor problem in the book. I bought this truck because I was sick and tired of getting bogged down on other projects, and hey, it's a Chevy. There are tons of cheap parts out there that bolt on. So far it's been much easier, but more stuff is broken than I've ever seen on another project. That background makes the perseverance a bit easier. Funny thing, this doesn't happen when I've wrenched for the Air Force or other people.

I have a 500 Cadillac powered Jaguar that has never run right at the track. Pecan shells in the radiator. Bad gas - so bad that flushing the tank didn't help. Wiring issues. Wheel fitment issues - Corvette rims fit but Corvette Grand Sport rims don't. A rushed assembly didn't help.
View media item 32274I have a '58 Sunbeam Alpine that is going to require a complete re-engineering of the suspension because a) it came with no brakes and b) I'm not spending a fortune sourcing Girling calipers from England. Also came with no drivetrain, no wiring, no interior, and no floorboards.
View media item 32273I had an '83 RX-7 that I build into a real wicked street car, but about the time I got it running right I discovered severe rust in the rear suspension mounting points and had to scrap the shell. Have you ever drilled your own carburetor jets? I did for this car. It ran 15.189 at 93mph on a naturally aspirated 70 cid motor.
View media item 32272I rebuilt an '06 VW Beetle TDI that had gone under the back end of a pickup. It took me a year (no more German cars!), and my daughter drove it for a year, then the turbo went out. It's been sitting two years now. I'll sell it cheap!
View media item 32275I have a '69 Cadillac Calais that I built with the 500 that's now in the Jag. I got ripped off on a transmission rebuild and lost momentum on the project due to starting on the RX-7. I'm considering putting the original 472 back in it. It has headers, a big cam, ported heads, and an Edelbrock carb. It also has rust holes, a rotted interior and a hail-damaged windshield. Still needs the TH400 rebuilt. I'll also sell it cheap.
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