Thank you Dentside Lover

 

Good afternoon DTO.

Many thanks for the heads up.

I just read it now, AFTER I was finished.

You crossed my mind several times since Wednesday, and no, never when I was in the shower.

While I was lying at an angle on the mechanic creeper, with the back of my head up against the garage door for support whilst firmly holding the drill, feeling my ribs, or kidneys, or something, take a beating, wondering how much more stiff my neck was going to get, I thought of you under your truck repeatedly attending to the rear seal.

Drilling 1 hole in each I-beam and 4 holes into the chassis shouldn't have taken long, and yet I started on Wednesday and only finished today.

I've appreciated your honesty throughout this thread, and although I'd like to blame someone else, I can't, coz it was only me in the garage.

So here's my honesty story.

Back in November I drilled a hole into one I-beam, using a 1/8'' bit, then a 1/4'' bit, and finally a 3/8'' bit.

The first two went quickly, but the 3/8'' took a while, and that's with alternating between 3 brand new 3/8'' bits. I forget how long, but I got it done in an afternoon. (I used WD40 whilst drilling.)

I had to stop the project coz the sway bar hit the bump stop on the passenger side, and the angle to the chassis was way off.

The bracket had to be spaced out with a 1'' spacer, and I had to get new 2'' longer sway bar end links. (Thank you Energy Suspension.)

Which brings me to Wednesday, and all good to go to get this sway bar fitted.

I suddenly remembered that I had a tin of ''drilling oil''.

Great, this won't take long.

Once again the 1/8'' and 1/4'' holes didn't take long at all, but here we go again with another new 3/8'' bit. (All bits were cobalt.)

The rpms were low, the bit got oil every 20 seconds, and yet nothing much was happening, and the drill bit head still looked new.

It must be the drill bits !!

So I went out and bought two new ones on Thursday.

OMG, same problem.

After a few hours, with several coffee breaks, it dawned on me that the oil must be preventing the drill bit from cutting. Exactly like engine oil prevents piston rings from touching the bores.

So I wiped away all oil, used WD40, and sloooowly but surely I got the second hole drilled.

I knew something was wrong, but didn't know what, so I chatted to my mechanic friend, Mr google, and low and behold one needs drilling compound/paste, not oil or WD40, for Terminator 2 metal.

So, off I went on Friday to get some.

With my new paste, I drilled the 1/8'' and 1/4'' holes into the chassis nice 'n quickly, and the swarf looked 'normal'.

But OMFG, not again, the 3/8'' bit was on strike, and no amount of bribery was going to get it to work.

After quite a bit of pondering, I decided the bits were blunt, even though they felt sharp-ish.

So, first thing this morning I went to the hardware shop and got their last 3/8'' bit.

Armed with a new bit and drilling paste, I started again, and lookee-here, lots of swarf, and the holes were done in minutes.

Why is it that we always seem to learn things 'the hard way'.

So, to anyone thinking of fitting a sway bar, or drilling into their chassis for whatever reason, use drilling compound/paste, adjusting the rpms to suit the drill bit size, with cobalt or titanium bits.

 

For someone who 'has never taken care of himself and never will', you're not doing a bad job !!!!

I'd be pleasantly surprised if it was a Doctor who suggested Omega 3 and garlic to you.

I used to get omega 3 from wild caught salmon, but alas, these days one normally only has access to farmed salmon.

Farmed salmon has a grey/whiteish colour, and has to be injected with something to give it the natural pink/orangey color. Something's wrong with that picture !

I thought you were joking when you said you take a multi-vitamin (MV) for 'old men'.

Your MV probably contains calcium, magnesium, D3 and zinc, so your combined intake may be too high, with the exception of the D3 which is probably less than 1,000iu.

If the calcium combined is greater than 700mg, then that could cause you a cardiac risk as mentioned previously.

I see now why you started on a calcium supplement, but next time you're at the Doctors, show him what you're taking.

Better still, blood work, inclusive of calcium and PTH !!

Read this for interest : https://my.clevelandclinic.org/healt...hyroid-hormone

If a Doctor tells you to take vitamin K2 to take the calcium from your blood and put it into the bones, fine, but check your PTH level once a month for 3 months.

K2 does the exact opposite of PTH, and can make the PTH plummet.
(You won't see that in a Cleveland Clinic or equivalent article. )

Thank you for the foot zoning link.

LOL at the Grouch trio. I love the fact that these professionals, in the true sense of the word, have great characters.

I wonder why cancer introduced itself to so many different parts of your body.

Which reminds me, I mentioned not taking the test jab anymore, if taken already, but I forgot to say why.

Repeated test jabs and booster jabs can weaken the immune system, and can awaken cancer, both of which YOU don't want.

 

Made me think of this song

 

If I dug any deeper I'd be in Australia !!

 

I think I'd rather do my rear main again that to have to go thru that.

Thing are soo different these days for me.
I'm really old.
Not near as flexible as I once was.
And not making excuses, my shoulder does give me some problems.
And I think I should be able to do everything as good or better than I did when I was younger.

Like my dad used to say, "it takes me all night to do what I used to do all night.




My 1979 F-250 was a camper special and came from the factory with front and rear sway bars.
I took them off so I could do this.
400 4-sp, rear Detroit locker, front Ford trac-lock and it was dual fuel.
Running on propane was just like if being fuel injected because there was no gasoline in the carb to give me peoblems.
I LOVED that truck and wish I still had it.


It was all used up when I sold it.


I busted a couple of knuckles drilling these holes for my receiver when I installed it.
Drilling went OK until just before it went all the way thru the bit would catch and rip the drill out of my hands.
The drill had one of those handles attached to it so you could hold on to it and I busted that right off the drill.

I don't want to drill any new holes for my new front tow hooks.
We'll probably weld them in place.

 

I've checked it up to 60 mph against these little speed meters.
An it took 45 seconds go go 1 mile at 80 mph.
You would have thought the factory tires size would have been more accurate than with these taller tires.

 

Was there a transmission, or gearing change at some point in its life as well?
Or were the original tires some sort of optional larger diameter tire to begin with perhaps?
Now I’m curious exactly how tall your tires are on the vehicle. Are they metric, or are they old flotation size?

 

I have no idea what or if anything has been changed.


According to my Marti Report the tire on the left is what came on the truck from the factory, 7.50x16".

Ironman All Country M/T
The tire on the right is what's on it now, 285/75R16 Ironman All Country M/T.
Specs list them as being 33" tall.


These were the first tires I bought for the truck.
Deestone D503 7.50x16".

DEESTONE D503
Specs list these as being 31.7" tall.
The speedo was fast.

What ever was changed if anything was I'm glad it was changed.

 

I don't know it to be that it was "on purpose", but back in the pre-digital days, I heard, was told often that manufacturers built in some error so that the reported speed was a little higher than actual speed to provide a cushion, that it made for driver satisfaction. I also recall being told it was built in the mix of ratios, tire size, etc ... to ensure that any error didn't cause tickets.

 

I had more stuff show up today.
I have just about everything I need to wire in a trailer towing wiring harness and a brake controller.
And the truck is no where near ready to pull a trailer.


Every once in a while I pull a boner. I'm almost afraid to tell you about this one.

I had an exhaust leak on the right side, easy fix - I have more gaskets.
Pulled the right hedder, cleaned the head and hedder real nice.
Put the new gasket in, the last one I had.
It leaked even worse.

So I ordered two new sets of Hedman Hedder gaskets and replaced the right side tonight and....
no leak.

I'm sure everyone knows exhaust manifold gaskets and hedder gaskets are not the same.
Well I do now.

I wonder what's next??

 

I don't doubt that one bit.
I think the first vehicle I ever owned that had an accurate speedo was my 1989 Mustang LX 5.0L.

 

Well if you get a leak sooner than later....try Remflex https://catalog.remflex.com/category_s/97.htm And make sure there is NOTHING on the mating surfaces IE the head, the header flange and or your hands like grease, oil, spray, lube. Any chemical that gets on the gasket can cause a premature burn out.

Also check out header hdwr that has a large built in washer to apply/spread more torque force on the flange. Like this head or the other pic. JUST the head design on the 2nd one.




Also check out Nord Loc washers. https://www.nord-lock.com/nord-lock/products/washers/

 

I had good luck with soft copper header gaskets with my l&l header back in the day on 460's. Took a few te-torques but after that they were good for years

 

Thanks again, and once again, Kenny was the problem.

I had the mating surfaces spotless, the problem was I used an exhaust manifold gasket and not a hedder gasket, they are not the same.
The first one that was leaking was because there was old gasket material still stuck to the head when I put the hedder back on.



They don't leakless, they don't leak at all.

I am a Cars fan and I have a huge collection of Cars, Planes and Fire & Rescue characters and memorabilia.