Jeff Balazs

I agree with Bob. And I would be looking real hard for a loose or weak wire connection. Not sure why we should be concerned if the rear axle or springs are grounded? There are no wiring connections to them. If you have made the battery ground connection properly at the transmission cover and you have cleaned all the mechanical connections there is absolutely no need to add any ground straps to these trucks. Won't hurt anything but it isn't necessary. Jeff

???????? Could have only come from PP As much as I liked the look of DD..even I get it. DD needed some protection from the elements or things were going to get bad. Makes sense. Long live Dolly Dodge! I wonder how long El Scorcho will last in it's present condition? Jeff

Yep. Another thing you may have to try is making a few jumper wires and bypassing some of the harness with direct connections. You will find it...I have no doubt of that. Jeff

He is not the only one I have always been very fond of the way Dolly Doge looked. I do get it.....but I did like the way it looked. Must have a bit of desert rat in me. I just hung the rusty old original drivers door off my truck in the shop. I plan on "lettering" it with a cutting torch to make it into a sign. Jeff

Well I would consider doing something like this with a 2bbl. It will be interesting to hear what Jim Sheppard has to say about the 2bbl set up he just completed. Jeff

I would tend to agree with Mark.......but in reality it wont do any harm to add a ground strap. Lots of chassis grounded machinery comes equipped with redundant ground straps.The bottom line is you always want a good solid ground. Do what you have to do to make certain you have it grounded. By the description of what happened on the road though it sure sounds like there is a loose or bad connection somewhere between the generator and the ammeter. Either way best of luck tracing it down. This kind of stuff can be frustrating......you just have to use a process of elimination to pinpoint it. Jeff .

Thank you Hank. Just something fun. Jeff

If you send me a coin with your scottish looking face stamped on it. That is just an old buffalo nickel epoxied into a recess in mine. I had a hard time choosing which side to face up as they are both so iconic. Iron Eyes Cody won but the Buffalo is way cool too. What a great american design........just like the truck it is going in to.

Here is one I just finished turning for my truck. I got a little bit of a cowboy and indian theme going on. Jeff

Not sure about the need for extra ground straps......especially since you have a fresh engine and were apart recently. I have my ground cable from the battery to the top of the transmission cover. Never had any ground issues anywhere on the truck. I can see this happening on one that has sat undisturbed for a long time with lots of corrosion but you should have good clean mechanical connections. I think it is far more likely that you have either a loose wire connection or a bad terminal ...at maybe the ammeter? Hth. Jeff

Me too. Very exciting indeed. Well done. Jeff

Wish I had a good answer for you but I skipped all this and put an single wire alternator on mine. I have a feeling though that it is going to be something relatively simple. Polarization or a bad connection. Something like that. You may have to check continuity on wires from one end of a connection to the other end. When you do find it treat it as a learning experience. It is much better than beating yourself up. Jeff

Tim; Can you be more specific on this dual B & B set up? Surely a pair of the carbs originally intended as used as a single carb application would be too much? For example I have a 230 which came with a DTG1 carb. Are you saying that running two of these DTG! carbs would work properly? Jeff

Well perhaps? But the question remains .... does anyone here put these dual or triple carb set ups on an exhaust gas analyzer? Without this step I think all you are doing is wishing and hoping it is kinda close. And many of these old carbs are not all that tuneable either....at least not like a webber. Jeff

I suspect that a lot of these dual carb set ups are being run much too rich. For initial set up about all you can do is go with something that has worked for someone else. This selection method leaves a lot to be desired. There are a lot of variables and in most cases you are going with a seat of the pants evaluation. I wonder how many of these get put on an exhaust gas analyzer and run at a wide range of speeds and loads? I suppose if your reason is to gain some wow factor then this is OK.....but the real gains come from an engine which is getting the correct fuel to air mixture all the time. How many of you have gone to the trouble of actually knowing for a fact that your mods are truly working correctly? My take on a lot of these sorts of mods is they are done most often for bling. And that is OK if that is really what you are after. Surely there are small gains to be had by just bolting some of this stuff on. But it has been my experience that the real work just begins there and isn't really done until it has been fine tuned using the correct instruments. Jeff

In the midway position......up and down.....fore and aft.

It is possible to repair these cables as long as the outer jacket is salvageable. Often times the inner cable will have stretched and you can cut some off the end and swedge the fitting back on. I did this to mine and it has worked just fine for quite a while. Post some pictures of yours and one of us may be able to figure out a fix for it. Jeff

A whole lot better! Hopefully you can find the correct link etc...without too much trouble. Jeff

Joe; Wire size to the coil per the instructions is #20 awg copper to both terminals. Jeff

Joe; You should call Pertronix and double check with them that you have ordered the correct coil. It probably is but it depends on the specific module you have in your distributor. Be sure to check your wiring sizes against the instruction list. The new coil is a 40k volt item so starts should be very quick. Also I would suggest you adress the crispy wires and old switch you have. They may still be working...... but this sort of stuff can cause a lot of problems for you if left in place. Beside the obvious one's the potential for added resistance or intermittant current flow due to worn or dirty contacts can cause electronics to fail prematurely. If you protect that module it should last a long long time. Hope this helps. Jeff

Joe; If you can confirm you are losing the spark then that would help narrow things down. I would get the matching coil and carefully check the wiring if it was mine. There have been folks that have had problems with these systems because of mismatched parts and incorrect wiring. Pertronix is very specific on wire size to module and coil. Can't remember the size at the moment but it is small and needs to be. Jeff

Joe; Did you fit a matched coil from Pertronix as well as the module? Also what sort of shape is your wiring in? Old ignition switch? Is it losing spark....or is it just dying? If you still have spark when this happens then it could be something like a fuel pump. Just some ideas. Jeff

Tim; I agree but it doesn't alway behave that way for long. Jeff

Yes stuff like this is really annoying. I really think that it is because of all the junk parts we allow into the country. A lot of the replacement ignition parts are the same......and just don't hold up like they should. Seems like nothing much is made here any more and it shows. I know I have spent an inordinate amount of time finding workarounds for a lot of that stuff. Jeff

Exactly......and yet even the matched combo that came in a fresh kit leaked. Not sure if it is bad tip material or poor fit up but either way it is something we used to be able to pretty much count on that we can't any more. Jeff