The '55 is looking great, Ryan! Hope the "problems" all turn out to be
smaller than you think. Great work so far!
Tom Caperton
'47 2nd 3100
-----Original Message-----
From: Border,Ryan <rborder@fcxena.fc.hp.com>
To: oletrucks@autox.team.net
Date: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 6:50 PM
Subject: [oletrucks] 55 2nd (wanna'be'rod) update
>
>Well, on the 4th of July, after laying dormant in my garage for several
>months, my 55 2nd finally rolled again.
>
>I finally got the new wiring harness installation completed. There were a
>few final puzzles to sort out, including trying to figure out how to make
>the tail lights work properly- the included instructions
>had directions for GM, Ford, and Mopar steering column harnesses; but
>nothing for an "oletruck" with an aftermarket simple switch for the turn
>signal indicator. In the end, the solution was a small "logic box"
designed
>for trailers, that sent the current to the proper bulbs with the associated
>inputs.
>
>The truck refused to fire up initially. It was acting like a bad ballast
>resistor- it would seem to fire, until I took the current off of the
starter
>solenoid. When I bypassed the ballast resistor, the
>starter would spin, but not engage; obviously something wrong. I had
doubts
>about my installation of the ballast bypass wire- and sure enough, when I
>disconnected it from the starter, and bypassed the now toasted ballast
>resistor I could get it to fire.
>
>Well, sort of. After much diagnosis, it turns out that my points weren't
>opening. It took at least an hour to diagnose this, but with a little
>adjustment there, I got a strong spark, and the truck started right up.
>Strange thing is, I wasn't mucking about in the distributor- perhaps I
>smacked it while working on the oil pressure plumbing (pulled instrument
>cluster for re-wiring) or something.
>
>One of the poles on my (Mallory) coil was also completely stripped. I
ended
>up having to solder a the distributor wire onto it... but I think I dumped
>too much heat into the pole in the process- as some clear fluid (melted
coil
>resin?) appears to have efluxed from the housing. It's still functioning-
>but I'm not at all confident that all is well.
>
>I replaced the ballast resistor on Monday, but doing so made the truck run
a
>lot worse. It's really rough now. I suspect it has something to do with
>my "eyeball" points adjustment. Would this indicate my point gap is too
>wide or too narrow? (reducing coil voltage making it run rough). Anybody
>got a good guess at the gap or dwell specs for a generic 350 circa ~1972?
>
>Also, the truck had left a big puddle of what I thought was engine oil in
>the drip pan (I mean big). Funny smell to it though, and it turns out that
>it's tranny fluid (it's brown like engine oil though, with sort of a sulfur
>smell). Dip stick was reading high (cold) so I hoped maybe it was just
>overfilled. Nope. Sure enough, lost the tranny on Monday. Let things
>cool, and limped it to the nearest gas station- dumped a quart of ATF in,
>and some stop leak; and it was fine. The extra load from the now working
>torque converter, coupled with the rough running engine left it barely able
>to idle though... still needs a lot of help. Runs really strong when you
>put your foot in it :-). It is also dripping oil, when running, from (I
>think) the front seal on the oil pan. Unfortunately, the only way to get at
>this area will be to pull the whole engine out... PO welded in a BIG
>cross-member as the motor mount.
>
>It was great to get it going again, but all in all, rather discouraging to
>still have so many (seemingly serious) problems to sort through.
>
>On the bright side, every electrical component seems to be working. This
is
>a huge improvement. The instruments all work; with the exception of the
>ammeter, which I simply chose not to wire (don't like sending that much
>current up under there). And the heater core doesn't leak. And everything
>under the dash is painted and very tidy. And the dash is painted. And
>everything is fused. And the hood is painted. And all the suspension and
>brake work (last project) seems to be working OK. And I can drive at night
>now. I have brakelights, I actually think I'm legal now. Probably need
>mirrors to be totally legit.
>
>A lot of progress, but a lot of work in front of me to turn this thing into
>more of a driver...
>
>Put a new pic up for your perusal:
>http://home.earthlink.net/~rborder/truck/rfq_9907.JPG
>
>Don't worry, when complete the whole nose will be purple. First body
>project had to be the front fenders (both rusted out so bad that the doors
>couldn't be opened, and otherwise pretty much just beat to hell).
>There's just a base-coat of yellow on them- at the time I had yet to decide
>upon a paint scheme. Just going to drive it for now, sorting mechanical
>bugs out, but the next project will probably be pulling the
>front sheetmetal off again, and getting the rest of the flames done. Need
>to solve some door clearance problems though, so as not to scrape fresh
>(finished) paint off the back edge of the front fenders.
>
>The chrome grille and headlight surrounds are rougher than the picture
makes
>them look. I have a painted set in good shape, which I'm considering using
>(painted purple) for a monochrome front end. Rechroming would be
>expensive... Opinions?
>
>Ryan.
>55 2nd 3100, Colorado USA
>oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
>
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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