Dave maybe drop the trans pan and check the pick-up tube and screen filter.
James don't they say BOAT = Bust Out Another Thousand

 

I had a long post typed out yesterday and hit the wrong button and it was all gone

So in short James, it is a $500 truck and just going through it to make it safe. You knew the brakes needed looking at and the linings were good but the wheel cylinders and master were NFG big time!
As for the floor I dont know how the body was staying on the frame so needed to fix that. I know I have to do something with the gas take / old gas, been running it off a small gas can.
I will patch up some of the rust holes like at the top of the windshield but not making it into a show truck by any means.
The little rain we got last night I see the inside get a little wet but I also know the roof vent does not close all the way so ......

Sound like you were busy on the boat. I never got into boats and I lived 1/4 mile from Long Island Sound. Had buddies that had boats and always doing something to them.

John, I did not know the ball was outside I thought inside
Thanks for looking for the PDV for my truck. It must be in one of the bins I have here but I am going to be a new one as I dont know if either one would be good?
I forgot you had that bin and with the plastic bags thinking it was so you could bag & tag the parts you pulled off the trucks so you knew what you had later.

Hope to get my sons truck front end back together so I can get the DJ back in the garage and bring the garden tractor up to start pulling the motor.
Got an email they are shipping it out so hope to have it here in a week.
Dave ----

 

Got to love Rock Auto .......... NOT!
We spent over an hour trying to get the new pitman arm back on. Looking at it aft5er trying I took a file to the splines to see if it would slip on.
Even I was under the truck trying to get it on and when my son had it at the bench to check it with the old one it hit me!
Measure the 2 sides of each arm as the new arm would not even start to install. After measuring we found the new arm was either made wrong or not for his truck.
The opening was larger on the wrong side and it fit if you turned it around So we ended up reusing the old one as it was still good.
Next hold up was my son's fault with the idler arm. It would not fit on to the drag link when bolted to the frame?
He took it back off so we could check the new and old and that is when I seen he was trying to bolt the wrong side of the part to the frame.
Once I turned it around it in his words "fit like a glove"
With all that we did not get a lot done but I am sure tomorrow we will get it finished as I need to get the DJ and the garden tractor bad in the garage.

Then again my grandson will be with us, school has been canceled, son things because of the teacher rally in Raleigh?
Dave ----

 

The 8-ball was on my safety shut-off bar behind the tail light:


Well my intake manifold swap project is underway, but not completed. I am pleased to say everything came apart with no problems, nothing seized, but I did find that the intake manifold bolts were not tight. All of them were "one-hand" loosen with the ratchet, at no point did I need to put any effort in it. Also I figured taking the plug wires off the drivers side would allow me to move the distributor cap out of the way and make more room, and when I did that I found that 2 of the 4 spark plugs were loose enough to turn by hand. So I tightened them and need to check the other side as well. Andre has ribbed me plenty for not bearing down hard on bolts and just "snugging" them and I have to admit this might prove his point.

True to my prediction, I had to leave partway through the job to go chase parts. I needed some stainless lock washers for the valve cover bolts, a flange bolt for the dist hold-down, a new fuel filter, and some oil & filter because I figured this will be a good time to do my oil change. That killed more than an hour but when the time came to put everything back together, I found my RTV was just a ball of rubber. Randy was over at the house and said "wait here" sped home and got a tube for me, said anytime I need it to let him know because he gets as much as he needs through work.


The intake valley looks great, that red glyptal I used in 1994 has held up well.


I didn't do anything to the carburetor as the Holley 500 has been working great, but I did put in a pot with some kerosene and scrub the funk off with a toothbrush.

I was not able to install the carburetor yet, as I don't have the right size studs. I estimated what I thought I needed but I was at least 1/4 possibly 1/2 off. I have bag full of studs in my carburetor box, but they are all either too short or too long!3 inch long studs should be perfect. I called O'Reilly's to see if they had what I needed; they said would have to order it; $4.99 for the stud kit, $15 shipping, and would not be here until May 7. Wow. So I ordered them next-day on Amazon for $8 so some time tomorrow I should have what I need to finish the job.


If you ever need some carburetor studs let me know, I have quite the collection going.

 

Looks like we were posting at the same time! I was gonna say get a magnifying glass and some sandpaper because you may be able to find a casting number or part number on the old pitman arm so that it can be cross-referenced, but if it's in good shape and you reused it then that is a moot point.

 

Inside of the motor does look . Even with all the oil changes I do I dont think mine are that clean.
It's always something that holds you up from completing a job and I hate that.
I will keep you in mind if I need carb studs, looks like a nice collection and again just not what you needed.
For the Javelin I used threaded rod to make the carb, hot air choke assy. in the manifold and Tstat housing studs.

If I was first installing the arm I would have seen earlier what was going on. It was only a short time that I was under the truck trying to install it when a laid back and the light bulb went off.
Thing is the steering box is in a tight place and you cant see it when you are pushing the box up to get the arm on it and when you let go of the box the arm moves off the splines.

I am sure the worst is over now. We have to change out the other hub on the knuckle, put both of them back on and when we get to the rotors & pads he is changing them as we are there.
Put the 2 tie rods back in and tighten up everything and put cotter pins in. Last is to set the toe enough so he can get it to a shop.
Oh the fun

I want to do the trash and take the Crown Vic for an oil change before my son & grandson get here so should be a busy day tomorrow
Dave ----

 

Sounds like yall have busy weekends. Hopefully yall don't have the same forecast I do, which is 1.5" of rain over the next two days. It's been grey, cool and damp all week here.

Yall stay dry and enjoy your various activities.

 

Saturday we dont have a choice at the Ham & Yam as the club is running the car show part and they are not going to cancel any of the party because of rain.
All we can do is hope it is not to bad and try and stay dry.
Dave ----

 

It's been overcast rainy and cool here as well. I'm still not finished with my intake swap. The fuel filter I ordered came in, but the fittings are too small. It fits 1/4 inch hose, not 5/16. I looked it up to see if it was O'Reilly's mistake and it's not, the description says fits 5/16 line, but it is smaller. A 1/4 inch hose slides right on easily. So it's the manufacturer's fault. The old filter was good, it's not clogged, but I won't reuse it unless I am sure which direction I had it installed. Otherwise whatever dirt it has trapped in the past years gets flushed out directly into the carburetor.
*Update: I dug through old pictures and found one from 2024 that I can just see enough of the filter to verify which direction to reinstall it.

Now I am just waiting on Amazon to drop off my carburetor stud kit, the app says "between 3pm and 5pm".

Since the thermostat I pulled out was NOT in a failed / open position, it got me to wondering why I didn't have any heat. I took the hose and tried to push water through and got sprayed in my face from back pressure. Barely a trickle came out. So I forced water through backwards and I had some resistance at first, but then a bunch of black water came through and after that it flowed fine. I guess I had a blockage from some funk, maybe now it will work better. My new thermostat is a legit Robert Shaw 160. So no need to worry that it will ever fail in the open position.

On the china wall seal, a lot of enthusiasts say ditch the gasket and just squeeze 1/4 thick RTV on the wall. I have always used the gasket, but this time I thought I would try it their way. So, the manifold is installed with no gasket on the china wall in front or rear. Cross my fingers and hope for no leaks, otherwise I am redoing the whole job again a month from now!

 

I think you mean the Robert Shaw stat will not fail closed? Any reason why the 160 stat and not a higher temp stat?
Before you placed the manifold on the motor did you let the RTV skim over a little? Then did it squish out a little?
Oh and it had to be really clean / oil free for it to work. I used carb or brake clean to clean the oil off the wall and manifold.

On the filter I would have gone to the local parts store and picked up the right one than risk putting the used one back on the wrong way.

We got my sons truck together and out of the garage. It stil needs to be put on the rack to put everything back in spec.
DJ fired right up and got it in the garage and then pulled the tractor from shed to garage behind the DJ.

Motor is due sometime Tues but I may have to take Mary for X-Rays. Wed. I get needle in my eye and I cant bend over or lift anything for a day or 2 so that may take Thru. out of the picture.
Fri Mary goes in for an operation and will be in the hospital for 2 to 3 days so maybe next week I will be able to hit the tactor motor swap.

I also need to pull the deck, 60 inch and like 300#, to swap a pulley so the blades spin a little faster to help cat the crap weeds I got. They are why I got to go slow.
I also need to sharpen another set of blades and install them and I want to check the spindles as I believe the bearings are bad. They have made noise since I got the tractor back in 2015.
Should be fun next few weeks
Dave ----

 

The problem with modern thermostats is that they fail open. It sounds good in theory, but in reality if it "overheats" one time, it is forever locked open. If I have a 160 t-stat and it reaches 195 (which is not overheating or hot enough to cause any problem) the thermostat sees it as overheating because it's 30+ degrees above the temp it's set to operate at, so it locks itself open. I just wanted a basic old school thermostat that won't lock open. Get hot? Fine. Go back to normal after you cool off

While waiting for my carb studs to come in, I went ahead to change my oil - then realized I had bought the wrong filter! Not paying close attention, I bought Wix 51516 instead of 51515. So I had to go back to O'Reilly's again, I swear they have seen me more in the past couple of days than my wife has.

Got back home and changed oil, perfect timing as the delivery guy showed up with my package. But yet another problem; the studs they sent me were 3-1/2 inches, not 3. The 3-1/4 were already too long. Shaking my head! So I did what I should have done in the first place, got some threaded rod and cut 4 pieces to 3 inches. Voila, I can mount the carb.


I started the engine, let it run (poorly) for about 30 seconds, then got out to make some checks. I had fuel leaks, so I snugged all the clamps down again. Went back over all the coolant clamps just to give them one more tweak. Advanced the timing a little, got it to where the car would start and sound good. I did not want to set the timing alone because my shifter has a way of vibrating itself into gear, so I waited until my wife had a few minutes to help me. Just needed her to sit in the car and not let it come out of park. Put my timing light on and boom; it was already perfectly on the blue line (which is what I painted it many years ago and always used - I think it is 6 degrees?).

So since it seemed to be running good I let it idle to warm up just for 3 or 4 minutes. That's when my drama started. I've been chasing coolant leaks and the whole thing seems to be a complete fail. I think the problem is that I did not use RTV anywhere except on the corners and along the china wall. I should have used it around the coolant ports as well.

 

I think you have the stat backwards. If a normal stat fails it fails closed, will not let water pass and over heats.
The Robert Shaw when it fails, fails open and that is why a lot of people run it so they dont get stuck somewhere.
I dont know how the RS stat does it, to fail open, but that is what I hear.
When I was doing a cam break in on the drag motor the normal stat stuck closed and temp got pretty high.
Thing was it was working 3 weeks earlier as all I did was pull manifold not the stat?

That sucks about the leak. Sometimes stopping a bunch of times you loose place what you were doing

On the studs I would take the ones you just got and cut them to the size you need.
The short ends go in the manifold so thread a nut down past were they need to be cut, measure, cut and round off the end and the nut should come off but if not it will fix the threads.
If all I had was threaded rod then I would use it like I did but nothing wrong using the studs and cut to size.

Got to finish getting things together so I can head out for the Ham & Yam show.
Dave ----

 

I definitely should have just cut 1/2" off the longer studs and gone that route, but it's funny when you're in it you're so focused you missed the obvious solution. But the threaded rod is in there and working fine so I'll leave that part alone for now. The only downside is that with the studs that are made for it you have fine thread up top and use the small nuts that take a 7/16 wrench which fits better in a tight spot, vs the full size 5/16 nuts which take a 1/2 inch wrench, but my space is not too tight and I was able to get them on with no problem.

On the thermostat I specifically searched for regular thermostat, not "failsafe" thermostat, and what I found was that the old Robert Shaw design is not a failsafe, it's supposed to be a regular old style where if it gets hot, it opens, and when the engine cools down it goes back to closed, instead of being locked open. I hope that's what I got as the "failsafe" are too sensitive and lock open too easily. The Robert Shaw is a "high flow" and supposed to be able to open even under high pressure. Knock on wood!

On the "fail open" type the way they do it is like a hook or a snap inside the housing and if it ever gets hot enough to push that far open it snaps into the position and is locked there.

My back and hands are hurting so I am not going to tackle the intake job today, I might just kick back in my recliner and take it easy all day.

 

I thought all RS stats were "fail safe" open
Maybe they make 2 different types, fail safe & high flow?
I know for racing Moroso sold washers with different size holes to replace the stat and you would find the size hole that would keep the temp where you wanted it.
I used one in my uncles 302 I built for off road racing and never had a problem with temperature.
After my drag car over heated on cam break in I pulled the stat and cut the "valve" and spring out and put the washer part back in.
Never had a problem with the temperature on it either. It would build heat before the run so it made power and was good at the end of runs even if I Round Robbin the car.

The thing is the coolant can flow too fast so it will not pick up the heat from the motor or get rid of it in the radiator and why removing the stat all together for that reason is not good.
The washers with the hole slows down the coolant for that reason.
Dave ----

 

After being out in the cold & rain yesterday I got a late start. Took the Vic for it's 30,000 mile oil cchange.
You know how them places are and they tried to upsale me a coolant flush as it is due at 100.000 miles. This was after I told him the car had 30, 000 miles for their records.
I had to ask "100,000 mile flush"? and he said yes and I had to tell him it only has 30, 000 miles

After a little nap and I started work on the tractor. First was to pull the 60" 300 lb deck this is a PITA BIG TIME!
Once out pulled the belt covers and it was packed with grass so I cleaned and blew it the last off it off. I have a larger pulley to install to speed up the blades and may do that tomorrow?
Then started on removing the motor. I was going to undo the wiring and maybe some items but there was no easy way with the wiring when in the tractor. It was when I went to try and remove the starter and not able to get to 1 of the bolts that I seen the motor has a main harness plug. I also dont know what the new motor comes with so I dont know what needs to come off?
After seeing the main harness plug everything went like butter and the motor is ready to be lifted out. When I have the new motor I will know what needs to be moved and I can get to all the bolts too.

I been checking on the motor after they sent an email it was being shipped and *** of 6:20pm today the motor is in Garner
They said Tuesday but maybe I will get it Monday? All I can do is hope.
Dave ----