Thanks, Krewat,

Agreed. This is a first for me. and I'm no spring chicken...

Well, I ran the hose in a loop from the water pump direct to the intake manifold, so shouldn't really be anything back there. The leak that I saw just kind of appeared at the top of the flywheel/clutch dust cover, ran down the front of it, and dripped to the ground. I took the cover off last month and found about a cup of coolant in the bottom, but it is dry now.

Yep, first thing I thought of - I topped it off, just to make sure, but it was really still full.

Man, I don't know. I guess I'll just cruise the neighborhood extensively for a few days (as soon as I have the throttle in place) to see if I can get it to come back.

 

Sounds like a plan

Fill us in as you go

 

Hooked the throttle up yesterday, started 'er up, and cruised the neighborhood several times. Damn - steers like a bear! Got up this morning and did it again. Probably a total of 40-50 minutes drive time by now, maybe 20 miles.

Result: no coolant leak showing anywhere (although I do have some oil dripping near the rear of the engine once it warms up). Checked the oil for the milkshake look, oil looks good so far. Temp gauge staying a little under mid-range.

Since I have no idea where the coolant was coming from, I'm going to go with the idea that it had pooled in the bell housing dust cover from the original gasket failure and the flywheel turning threw out most of it, which is what I saw. Add in a month's evaporation, and now it's all gone. Hey, it could happen.

So I'm going to close this thread out since there doesn't seem to be any coolant problem to pursue at this point. I will add to it if the leak comes back, though. After a few highway speed trips on I-10, anything could happen.

For now, think I'll move on to the steering.

 

Thank you for reporting back

Sounds like a solid theory. Hope it works out

 

Thats a win in my book..... Its small victories with these trucks..... That whole gifted hoarse theory...... drive on and dont look back.... I too im tackling my steering, was gonna wait until winter, but the steering valve thought other wise and is leaking like a strainer.....

 

Off-topic for this thread, but convert to a power-steering steering box

I did it to my highboy - best thing I ever did.

 

Makes sense to me - I hope to convert to power steering if I can figure out a budget version of the upgrade.