awesome work man. Glad you finally got a glitch free maiden voyage.
I was able to drive mine on an 8 hour trip to get it home.
Sad thing is I haven't done more than take it around the block since.
Found a tank split in the radiator after getting it home.

 

I guess I will provide a little update. 1st let me just say my mind has been a little preoccupied the last few days b/c I was just laid off from work last week. That has kept me from thinking too much about my truck. That being said, I did manage to drive it a few times & to my surprise, I discovered that my oil leak is back. I don't know if my block has some imperfections near the crank that have caused the new rear main seal to start leaking again & until I get some time to pull the tranny again to inspect it I won't know for sure. I've also noticed that my tranny seems to have a leak but I think it's just the tranny pan gasket so that should be a fairly simple fix.

The big problem I'm facing right now is that I can't figure out how to wire my electric radiator fan switch so that it will only work when the ignition is on. Currently I have it wired thru the solenoid mounted on the fender. This works but the fan keeps turning after I turn the truck off as long as the thermostat that's mounted in the radiator indicates that the coolant is above the setting on the ****. I hope to spend a little bit of time tomorrow between job hunting to see if I can't find a wiring solution that gets the job done.

I also hope to take some pictures of my truck as well.

 

That's ruff man I know I had a hard time when I got laid off but life got soooooo much better afterword. Good luck on the job search!

 

Just a quick update. After my 1st two tanks of gas, I'm averaging 19 mpg. That includes a rush hour drives (mostly highway speeds from 40 to 70 mph) & some in-town driving. Not bad considering she's such a brick. I forgot to take pictures when the sun was out & the weather is going to be pretty crappy for the next few days so I'll hopefully get a chance to take some pics soon.

 

19 is pretty good for these aerodynamic bricks.
Glad to see it is staying drivable after all the issues.
I hope the job hunt is going well.

Do you have any pics of the back side of your cluster after installing the new gauges?

 

I haven't had a chance to work on my gauges yet. They need some fine tuning but I'll lost some pics once I get it all straightened out

I drove into a strong gusty head wind yesterday & she truly is a brick. I felt the truck struggle when a strong wind would blow. Haha

 

I am considering swapping out my gauges but think I will wait until I get a spare cluster.
Mine also only has idiot lights for amp and oil in the cluster.
I have a full set of gauges under the dash but I would love to have them in the cluster.

 

The big problem I'm facing right now is that I can't figure out how to wire my electric radiator fan switch so that it will only work when the ignition is on. Currently I have it wired thru the solenoid mounted on the fender. This works but the fan keeps turning after I turn the truck off as long as the thermostat that's mounted in the radiator indicates that the coolant is above the setting on the ****. I hope to spend a little bit of time tomorrow between job hunting to see if I can't find a wiring solution that gets the job done.

My electric fan is out of an old Thunderbird and it does the same thing. When I pull it in the garage after driving it, the fan runs for quite a while but shuts off on it's own. On another note, I hope you show up and Pistons and Paint next November, I'd love to see your project.

 

I will definitely be there for Pistons & Paint this year. Hopefully she'll be in much better shape by that point.

 

Yesterday afternoon the sun was out so I made a run to the recycling center & decided to take a few pics while I was there. She's still a long way from being done but at least she drives like a champ & looks good doing it.







Today I took a little break from job hunting to install a cheap/temporary stereo in my truck. I bought a cheap $49 stereo & two 6" speakers from Wal-Mart a couple of months ago. This is certainly not a pretty installation & I will definitely put something nicer with a much more professional install down the road but at least I have some tunes in the meantime.



I don't have a picture of it but I put a 6x9 two-way speaker in the stock dash location & two 6" speakers in small speaker boxes behind the seat.





Once I get a job & get my Subaru back on the road I plan on spending some more time getting the interior dialed in.

 

don't feel bad, I have a 15 year old panasonic dual **** radio in the dash hooked to a tweeter thats glued to a gauge mount and screwed into where the ash tray bucket goes.
I still have the original 1970 speaker in the dash but it's locked up and garbage.

 

I need some help! My carrier bearing decided that it had enough & decided to separate itself from the rubber housing. I was driving at about 70 mph when I noticed a grinding noise. I pulled over & discovered that the front driveshaft was pushed all the way into the transmission & the bearing was in front of the housing. The rear axle was still long enough to be holding on so I limped home. It was a brand new carrier bearing as of about 300 miles ago so I'm assuming it wasn't too old. I have the angle at the carrier bearing to be almost flat so I don't think that's the problem either. Any thoughts?

 

Couldda been just a bad bearing.. **** happens sometimes ya know? Replace it, maybe with a different (and better?) brand, and run 'er again. That might be one of those parts to keep as a spare in your vintage tool box. If the bearing goes bad again, then we got some head scratching to do.

19 MPG? Wow... that's really good. 'Must be all them 'tronics.

About the ECM... I suggest fabbing a housing and using a computer power supply fan to keep air circulating around it. 'Could also run it with a duct to source fresh, cool outside air.

Nice work on your rig... especially the time frame in which it's getting done.

 

I ran the wiring harness inside the dash so my brain box is squared away.

 

Wouldn't you know it, I drove my truck 40 miles west to go ride dirt bikes on Friday & on the drive home I burned out 3rd gear. I limped home at 35 mph on a 1 lane road. I finally got the parts in for my Subaru so I'm focusing on getting it back on the road & then once I get a new job I'm going to pick up a used AOD transmission. I think my TV/kickdown cable is what caused the problem. I discovered that it had come loose so next time I'm going to tighten the crap out of it. Petunia keeps testing me but one day I'm going to finally work out all the bugs.