Los_Control

Thank's @bkahler .... @JBNeal beat ya to it 🤣🤣🤣 Actually helps me a lot by looking at your photo. ..... how the bracket transforms from the bed to the tail light mounting. Here is what I'm working with. Is for a 40's - 50's chebby truck and will not work as is .... but I had nothing to start with. Summit was having a huge clearance sale 2 years ago and I bought a bunch of stuff from them .... the bracket was so cheap $2-$3 ,,,, can not buy the metal to make it for that price .... so while working on other projects scheming on how will fix it

Do you by chance have a view of the frame showing the mounting bracket to the bed? I have a new chebby license plate bracket (It was cheap ) Will have to do some slice and dice to make it work, just curious what the original looked like. And have been working with the welder this week, be a good time to slide that project in. I can figure it out, but would be appreciated if you have a photo of it.

I'm sure from past conversations that you know more about the gross weight placement than I do. This was added on by the owner and could be anywhere that can easily be seen .... for me it is on the lower front side of bed near the cab corners. From what I know, that sticker or plate is to declare how much weight you paid for at the tax office when you renewed your registration. .... you can pay more 1 year and then less the next year .... I believe there was a minimum you had to pay .... then if you wanted to haul more weight you can pay more and then use a 6K gross weight instead of 5K This is my understanding of how it use to work. I'm not sure if they even have that system in play today. .... If they do have it, and you are using both .... I think the interesting conversation would be between you and the police while you show the registration to prove you paid for the higher weight limit posted on the truck. Just saying, it makes sense to me why they had 2 different weights posted .... Not sure it even matters today. I was once told I had to post a sign on a 1966 Elcamino ... I paid the weight tax, never posted the sign. Today I think they just charge you what they want and no sign needed.

@bkahler I should have mentioned, you need 12V for this conversion to work. You have other options for 6V. I did get the conversion completed .... really is not that difficult to do and hoping it works as well for me as it has for others. I had to go back to the beginning and find TDC and wire it from there .... been so long I forgot where the rotor was pointing before I pulled it. While I was at it I pulled the plugs and opened them up to .045 for increased horse power ... should gain at least 3 HP from that trick. Hoping my 7mm plug wires hold up ... they were new a few years ago and very little use, should last a little while. I do need to buy a new coil though .... the one I have requires a external ballast resistor and the first step in wiring the HEI is to bypass the ballast resistor. ..... wondering if there will be any benefit to using a coil like this? Petronix 1.5 ohm In the meantime have been working on the steering wheel .... this thing was total junk but had to give it a try. Using the PC7 product it is coming out OK .... will need lots of sanding and a few coats and more sanding ... it will be fine in the end. Getting the shape of all the finger grips in the bottom will take hours .... Oh boy, were having fun now

I thank you for the suggestion, it was very plausible that it could be my issue. I do think it is something simple like that, since I have tried all the obvious things with no luck. I was just trying to inject a little humor into the situation .... I really am frustrated with the car at this point. I need a good laugh Next up will be to remove the plenum and go through all the wiring and checking grounds and vacuum routing. Not til after the new year though. .... I just need a break from it.

I replaced that fuel pump about 5K miles before removing it .... the pump is about 3-4 years old because I let the car sit for 2+ years before changing the motor for the 2nd time .... the crack is not age related. .... just early failure. That is something to check, the pump and lines have some proprietary connections on them and I remember there is a L shaped vent that comes out of the tank. There is a supply fuel line, a return line and then a vent line that comes out of the tank and is about 12" long and has a funny plastic cap on it ..... something I will have to take a closer look at.

@oldodge41 Another swing and a miss .... it did not make a difference removing the gas cap .... it did make me think though. I do not know how the tank vents without getting under it and looking .... I assume removing the gas cap would be enough though. I think about the brake power booster had mud dobbers (bees) plugged up the vacuum line inside the canister and had no brakes ... or could not bleed the new brakes until after I found and cleared the blockage. I'm just grasping at straws at this point ... I wonder if it is possible a faulty brake power booster could cause run issues like I'm experiencing? I would expect it to cause a issue but would not come and go depending on speed driven .... But it is one item on the vehicle that is questionable. The brakes have worked exactly as expected, good solid pedal on the top ..... today on the way home while thinking about it ... pedal felt a wee little bit harder .... could just be my imagination while reaching for straws ... will watch it. The reason why I wonder is if bees could get into the vacuum line of power booster, could get into vent line of gas tank.

I heard this on the internet so we know it is true 🙄 Story is the post that come through the battery case do not seal and the fumes leak out ... the trick is to apply some dielectric grease around the post to seal them. My truck does not count because the cable been disconnected for a few months, I have the grease around the post and no scrunge around them. The caravan I just had the cables off a week or two ago and same story ... no scrunge around them. If this theory is true, I imagine some batteries will leak worse then others .... for some reason GM side post batteries do not have this issue .... no grease on my chebby and no scrunge.

@oldodge41 .... just so you know, you just ruined my day. Here I am happily working on my 49 Dodge and you pop up with something that makes me pay attention ... I'm curious now about venting and wonder if it could be as simple as that? I can not monitor fuel pressure while driving. I never shared this photo, I just boxed it up and threw it on the shelf for future parts. This fuel pump is a few years old but has possibly 5K miles on it since I installed it. And it still creates the correct pressure for the car .... I had a rattle in the rear of the car and I was suspecting fuel issues so even though it only had 5K miles on it I changed it anyways. What would cause the body to crack like this? .... This was my strange rattle. It was not a cheap pump, I paid up for it to get a better pump ... I just wrote it off as a defect and I got suckered .... Is it possible that the vent is plugged and causing issues with the fuel system? I dunno, seems like I will not sleep tonight though unless I remove the gas cap and go for a drive

I would be curious what others think of the reliability of the gyromatic? I think I would want to see paper work or some assurance that it has been rebuilt at some point of it's life. Just hard to believe that a 75 year old automatic transmission does not need new seals at some point of it's life. I wonder how easy and available the parts would be to get today .... then who would open up the transmission and do the work? .... Something that you may want to learn to do yourself. Just my opinion, adding the gyromatic gives a different level of maintenance and care to you car. Requiring different types of information and skill. Besides that, the guy sounds like a flake .... he wants you to take it to his mechanic .... talk to the mechanic first and see what his opinion is of the car ... chances he is familiar with it already. $5K for a running driving car does not sound bad to me .... In a better market it would probably sell for more. Today's high inflation has more people wanting to sell and fewer willing to buy a project car or a toy for fun. You just need to look your car over and decide that you can take care of everything it will need.

Can I peek? 😜

Thats why it is suppose to be easier to work on older OBD1 cars 🤣 I have been thinking about one of the MT2500 scanners, several on Ebay for about $300 .... they have some cheaper .... think it is important to get all the literature and extra connections that come with them .... A complete set. This one seems to be all there and $300 .... will not give the same info as a OBD2 scanner but will be better then what I have now. To be honest, I'm not sold on the idea this scanner would really help me much in my current situation .... it might give me a better clue though.

I tried changing the sensor and made no difference .... It started acting up as normal about 20 miles outside of town as it always does. .... took the back way home at 50mph and ran fine. Not sure how to test the wiring there ... turned the key on and with a 12V test light got no power to the sensor. It could be less then 12V or may need car running to actually get a signal .... have to remove the coil to get to it so no starting the car. I honestly believe now I have changed every sensor that connects to the pcm .... back to removing the plenum and go over all the electrical and vacuum

Probably overthinking it .... I'm guessing it would be a good idea to keep a brass shim as a sacrificial piece between the steel collar/shaft and the aluminum housing. Probably be just fine without a "protective shim" ... but the factory did it this way? I have 3 shims installed, I know now I need to remove 2. Removing 1 is not quite enough. I put orange tape on the shaft just to keep the 2 shims from falling off and getting lost. If I remove one of them, along with the bottom shim, would be correct end play ... but no sacrificial brass shim between collar and body? OTOH, if I just milled a few thousands off the bottom of the housing ... I can keep all 3 shims in place. 2 shims inside the body keeps everything up off the floor and probably a good thing ... cap and rotor fits fine. I imagine the body is cast and no 2 are identical ... why they have shims ... mine needs trimmed. A wise man would probably remove 2 shims and call it a day

Thank's @Sniper, I was not aware there are 2 coolant sensors. OTOH, I have lots of spare parts with 2 junk engines. 🙄 .... Sure I have another one around to test with. Certainly is plausible ... never happens til after you run it a ways on the highway and always after the same period of time on the same stretch of road ..... shortly after the engine is good and warmed up. And it started after installing this engine, could have been DOA. Kinda puzzled now, it has been a few months since I installed engine .... really can not remember that sensor .... wondering if I even plugged it in? 🤔 ... sure I did but am curious. I have since changed every sensor on the engine and just cant place that one. I will have to take a look today and see if I can change it.

Only code right now is (52) rich fuel mixture. I have replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel pressure regulator. I have checked the fuel pressure at the rail and is exactly what it should be .... pressure takes several minute to bleed down when shut off. I did swap the original pcm with a used pcm, and made zero difference .... pcm is good or both bad in the exact same way. Not sure what you mean by coolant sensor .... have done nothing with it .... dash gauge seems to be accurate.

So I watched a few vids today .... there is a lot of info out there on this mod .... Dead Dodge garage made it pretty simple to understand. Thought I would add this here as a heads up. I did get my distributor back together today and the last piece to install was the drift pin for the collar. I found I had to remove the bottom brass shim for it to line up and install the pin. I put all the shims back in as they came out of the 1949 distributor. Even removing the 1 shim was not enough, with the pin installed the body now rubs on the collar and does not spin freely or no end play. .... Just a heads up to check for proper clearance before you button it up. So after I clean up the bench tomorrow, I get to take it back apart. I'm thinking the brass shims between the pieces are good to have .... I'm guessing my best way to correct this would be to remove a couple thousands from the body of the distributor, so the brass shims will go back in place. Note to self, check that the distributor fits into the engine block before final assembly.

I was just sitting here doing some reading and research .... I think I can, they say you can use the earlier 4 pin style. Mine is a 4 pin that sits inside the distributor and has no heat sync ... also is not HEI. I believe HEI you would gap your plugs at .045 and my truck uses a .035 gap. Then I wonder if that is really a problem if I'm just looking for reliability and not performance? So after thoroughly confusing myself, I decided to just follow the directions and go with the parts they recommend The AC DELCO ICM is only $50, I will need to get the coil bracket and heat sync from a wrecking yard. I will need to upgrade my plug wires ... thats fine, needs new ones anyways. All the needed parts will still be less then going with the Mopar ECU and their $130 pig tail. And have AC DELCO reliability.

using shrink tubing to cover the bare wire is what some have done.

Very good info there ... and very specific to get the ICM/coil from a 1996-2000 chebby. .... AC DELCO has some really good parts and is cheaper then just the Chrysler pigtail ... whats not to love? I'm trying to figure out if my 1991 chebby stuff will work the same? Makes sense that I have a chebby and have known good working spares on the shelf ... I replaced last summer while doing a tuneup .... just would be nice to have trucks that share the same parts. Mounting is different, just not sure about internal voltages and have a question out on the chebby forum to see if there is a difference .... I will get the 1996 parts if that's what I need .... be sweet if I could use the 1991 though.

That's good advice there Dave .... I pulled a plug to take a peek. ... almost 1500 miles on them. I think my next plan, after the Holidays ... Is to pull the plenum. Both vacuum and electrical run under it and I will get a chance to spend time and make sure I did not miss something when I installed it. All the main harness plugs I cleaned and used dielectric grease on them .... except the ones I missed Doing the engine swap, I may have got in a hurry and missed something when connecting those items and installing the plenum .... double check my work. Also this plenum I noticed has a lot of oil in it from when the engine blew up ... I have been moving the plenum and all the sensors/TB over to the new engine .... The old dried oil is 3 years old now and I doubt it would be a issue ... I have 2 clean plenums so will swap it out. I also have the modified fuel rail that is working fine and the injectors have 188K miles on them. I do not think it is a injector issue, but have 2 other sets of injectors can clean and test then install them. Currently just frustrated with it and need to step away from it before I blow it up

You can if you use the left foot for the starter 😛

Weeel, there is a old rumor going around about Grandpa's Suburban. 🤔 He got drunk one night and the old rumor goes, he hit a parked car and raced home so fast he created a rod knocking. Then he painted the car cream white because thats what he had lying around .... He would never drive the car on the road and while moving it around his junk yard the bearing froze and locked the engine up .... car sat since the mid 1960's ... just a rumor of course. 🙄 I have a 1951 Ford V8 that was locked up tighter then a drum .... I found a mouse nest under the intake. tried everything and could not get it to break free. I removed the timing chain and the crank was locked up. I started by removing all the rods/pistons from the block ... all looked fine and was a fresh rebuild before engine was parked. I then started on the main caps and again they looked fine ... except the last one by the rear seal ... had a drop of mouse pee on it and that was enough to lock it up. Once I removed the bearing, looks fine ... the crank has a slight bluish color in the tiny spot .... I plan to assemble it with the same bearings .... but just a drop of mouse pee locked it up. Your engine has a story to tell, you are this far into it .... would not hurt to just remove and inspect the bearings and then put them back where you found them .... you have 9 sets down there and just one bad one is all it takes.

OK, now you have me interested ... I have been planning to go with the ECU ... Ignition control module. In fact I was going to order one yesterday .... I have all the parts for final distributor assembly now. The ECU is reasonably priced, but also need a electrical pigtail to connect to the ECU .... I thought I was going to have a heart attack. RockAuto wants $85 for the pig tail, so I check Amazon, they want $130 🥵 So now I'm curious what this HEI is you speak of to work with this conversion?

Think Dave has a good idea. One advantage to fixing yours is they are already painted .... possible to straighten yours without damaging the paint or maybe just a little touch up. I remember your bed was pretty rough and needed lots of replacement parts. Seems the hinges can bend fairly easy with abuse .... not too much effort needed to bend them back. And they should last unless you want to start hauling grain in it again.