Lord Yod,
I know this is getting a little off topic, but I have some problems with your arguement (at least in my case). Sure I understand that my truck pukes out a lot more emissions than a modern truck gallon for gallon, but I drive my truck very little. I appreciate having my old truck when I need it and I'm lucky to put more than 4K mi on it in a year. It seems a tad unfair to point the finger at my old truck that I put around in every once in a while when adding all the emissions due to inefficiencies of all the SUVs (and the miles put on them commuting) is OK. Making owners responsible for smog equipment that OEMs are not is another sore subject. Lastly, I understand we're trying to clean the air, but no other state in the union is going this damn far. Ever been to Oregon? How many older vehicles do you actually still see cruising around here in CA?
Even more off subject, many states institute actual inspections. This state doesn't care if headlights are out, windshields are cracked, brakes are lousy, or tires have tread but come hell or high water ___ forbid someone actually be allowed to keep their properly working, well kept up OLDER vehicle on the road. I know the picture all depends on how you perceive it, but the State's priorities and how it handles them have gotten a little messed up.
My $0.02

 

thank you you are correct how can they blame are trucks which some are not daily drivers for poluting when there are other trucks that pollute more i see plenty of cars in ca that won't pass a safty check all the old cars have been junked for the most part

 

in my town, a non-op is not valid for purposes of storage. all vehicles regardless of age must be currently licensed and insured even if its locked in your garage. under the health code, any law enforcement agency in California can remove a fence, or garage door to obtain access to any non-compliant vehicle. a non-op will satisfy the state, but local jurisdictions can ignore it if they choose. so here in my area, all vehicles must be current and insured if stored on your property. my trucks are not driven regularly, I just dont want to scrap them, there is nothing wrong with them, but they wont pass. my 76 F-150 has a 1970 engine in it so there are no provisions for air injection etc. it was built like that when this area was outside the smog area, and was legal at the time. when California expanded the smog district, that truck had to be smogged. at the tailpipe it passes, but since it doesn't have the equipment, it fails., my 76 crewcab is similar, the book the state has for equipment lists equipment that it does not have. (perhaps Canadian trucks are different?) so even though it passes the tailpipe test, it flunks the visual.

I dont drive either truck, but would like to rotate the fleet every so often. both trucks are worthless here since they cannot be smogged, even though both are rust-free nice trucks.
I'm all for clean air, but cars are less than 1% of unburned hydrocarbons in California. over 90% is caused by fuel dumps of landing aircraft. why should I pay, for their pollution?


California sucks.

 

the dmv just today sent an "invitation to renew" for my 76 F-150. it didnt mention anything about needing a smog check, just insurance, so I'm going to send it in ASAP before they change their minds...

 

hmm, I wonder why I havent recieved an invitation to renew since I bought my truck.... seems as though no matter how many times I register my truck and tell them of my address... mine simply gets "lost in the mail"....

 

I have a po box, and only the bills seem to make it, everything, and I mean everything else get lost in the mail.

 

just give the guy testing it some quick cash and your truck will pass visual been there done that

 

Tetraruby300> As far as a mandatory safety inspection, I'm 100% for it. In NY you get one at the same time you get a smog, and it has a signifigant impact on the pieces of junk driving around. I see 4-5 cars per day that I can't perform the smog test on because of things like inoperative brakes, bad tires, broken suspension pieces, etc. I would definitely feel a lot safer driving around if I knew that everyone else had to pass an equipment safety inspection.

Ok first off, nobody is 'pointing the finger' at you or your truck. I guarantee that you are NOT the problem case with a truck that only sees 4k a year. But to put this in perspective, the 'inefficiencies' of newer SUV's comes only from their poor gas mileage. A vehicle in the 6000-8500 pound range (most trucks and SUV's) has to comply with set limits that are NOT that much higher than a car's. For instance, the limit on a 98 passenger vehicle <5999 GVW is something like 35 ppm HC on the 15 mph test. For a 6500 GVW truck, it's closer to 75 ppm. Not that different, right? Now let's go back a few years to 1978. The limit for a passenger car is around 250 ppm, maybe 300. On a truck, the limit is closer to 500. (I don't have my manual in front of me, so these are ballpark figures.)

As far as Oregon is concerned, um... If you drive through Oregon, you can quite easily smell things OTHER than car exhaust. Smell the flowers, smell the sea, smell the piles of dog s*** on the side of the road. Drive through LA and all you smell is the damn smog. People get lung cancer from the smog in California with disturbing regularity. Oregon doesn't have the smog problem that California has because they have a MUCH lower population.

To put this in perspective, Mexico City has just about the worst smog in the world. When you register a car there, the tag tells you what days you can drive it. People die there regularly from lung problems related to smog. By regularly, I mean more than 1 per year, I mean 3-5 per MONTH.

When you just pass the tech $200 to pass your POS car, you aren't doing any of us any favors. Instead of doing that, spend $450 on smog repairs at a licensed station after failing a test, then go to a referee and get a smog extension. If you are referred to a Test-Only station, after you fail put in the application to the CAP program. There ARE ways to save money, you just need to put in the effort.

Lastly, if you guys need advice for getting your truck to pass, just post here and I'll see what I can do.

P.S.: WHD507, a 1976 truck with a 1970 engine SHOULDN'T pass, don't complain that it won't. Smog inspections were instituted because guys removed the smog equipment from their cars and swapped in older motors. If you do some research, it's EASY to mod a smog-legal engine and still pass emissions. In your case, get the equipment from a 76 truck and put it on. As far as the other one, it sounds like you have a Canadian truck and that's most likely a grey market vehicle. Go to the referee. (800)622-7733. Good Luck.

 

it does pass the tailpipe emissions test, it fails the visual test. if this program was about cleaning the air, it should be based on tailpipe emissions, not whether or not all the right vacuum lines are there or not.

former governor Pat brown's college roommate holds the patent for the smog pump, do you think that might have something to do with the way the CARB charter is written?


you dont think that planes dumping thousands of gallons of raw jet A every time they land could have something to do with the hydrocarbon counts?

its not a slam on you, its frustrating for me to deal with this program, my F-150 was legal with the 1970 engine years ago when it was done, it had an exemption years ago before current laws went into effect.with the passing of smog check II it fails, the 1970 390 needs smog heads/intake/brackets/etc. to pass, plus cats according to the book, but 150s didn't have cats in 76!

the crewcab was built in Canada, because all crew cabs were built in Canada. (other than heavy trucks built in Kentucky, with Canadian-built cab assemblies) it has passed dozens of smog checks before, but the standards and the books changed with smog check II. now its expected to burn cleaner than when new? I have the old smog check receipts, and the standards they expect now, and much lower than what it passed with before, and lower than the expected standards when new.

 

I think I just solved my crewcab problem too, I just bought a 155" WB frame and drivers door with a title, all from a 1973 F-250 chassis cab. all I have to do is swap frames, and door, and my crewcab is now a 1973, and smog exempt... best $100 I spent all day.

 

the DMV manager in my area told me today if I got in before 12/31, you can slip in with a 76. ( I have an apointment tomorrow) the law dosnt go into affect untill 1/1 this especially applies if yoru truck expires before 12/31. but can apply at DMV descresion as long as you renew before 12/31.

after 1/1 your screwed...

 

I hate California. i'm movin to the South. GA or Bama or somewhere where my truck can be smog exempt. If i have a 78 with a 75 frame how can i tell them it's a 75. the door tag would say 78. i'm confused on how to change frames and come out ahead. couldn't i just change the door tag from my parts truck which is a 75 F-250 in my name? I think this would be the way to go.
-Aaron

 

you could do that, I doubt anyone will ever check the frame VIN on a 78 err 75. I wanted to do a frame-off on this crewcab anyway, so this is my ticket. crewcabs have a chassis cab heritage anyway, so I'll build up this frame, and then swap cab and bed, and paint them along the way, blew the tranny in it yesterday, so its the next project anyway...

 

Ok, to get a vehicle recertified as a different year, there's some sort of process you go through at the DMV, I think it's the same for reviving a junked car. I would call them up and ask them.

whd507, the tailpipe emissions test is either the Smog Check II test(what's called an ASM 5015/2525 test) or the old test(TSI, two speed idle). Now, on the ASM we drive the vehicle at a calculated load at 15 mph, then under half that load at 25 mph. I imagine you drive around a bit faster than 25mph sometimes, right? And maybe you let it idle, say at a stop sign, occasionally? Now what you have to realize is that the state smog inspection is REALLY a carefully thought out approximation for the federal EPA emissions test.

The reason we don't do the EPA test is because of what the test entails: the vehicle is put in a chassis dyno cell, and run on a preset load/speed program for 24 hours, then idled for a bit, and then sits there for a bit. ALL the air in the room is put through the gas sniffer, so it catches EVERYTHING that comes off the car. Tires melting a bit? Machine'll catch it. Drips a bit of gas now and then? Definite fail.

The reason the visual/functional test is performed as well as the emissions test is because I can tell, from looking at your vacuum hoses etc, if your truck is going to be polluting within the limits at say, 65 mph, which we obviously don't test.

Now let's say for example that you removed the carbon canister from your truck. This will not do a SINGLE thing to the emissions test. Why? The canister doesn't purge under a load, it does it when you're cruising on the freeway and at idle. If you don't have it hooked up, two things happen: a) your emissions at idle/cruise are going to be a bit high because of a lean mix, and b) your gasoline will be evaporating, which can be up to 2000 ppm HC.

I could go on for the other systems, but let's just leave it at this: EVERY SINGLE EMISSIONS COMPONENT is necessary to keep the truck running within the limits. If something breaks or is disconnected, it obviously won't be working properly and whether or not you pass the emissions test, I can tell that you'll be polluting too much driving down the road.

Now, as far as that '70 motor in the '76 F150 goes, just get yourself a donor truck with a 76 motor and put the emissions parts on it. Or even better, change to the correct motor! Putting an older motor in a newer vehicle is specifically against the rules, because it's downgrading the emission controls of the vehicle. Just like you can't take a 428 SCJ from the early 70's and put it in a new Mustang, you can't put a '70 390 into a 76 truck. I don't see what's so hard to understand about this...

P.S. You're absolutely right about the planes... The REAL culprit here is heavy industry. The way the system is set up now, a big company that has a lot of polluting factories can set up a subsidiary that buys old polluting vehicles and crushes them. (Cash for junk cars, ever heard that one?) They keep records of these, and at the end of the year they get a certain amount of 'credit' towards their pollution limits, meaning they DON'T have to clean up the factories as much. Instead they can just buy POS cars that nobody drives anyways...

 

the crewcab fails because it was built without the charcoal canister, the older books show a version without evap canisters, teh new books dont. so I cant pass without adding a bunch of stuff. I have to retro-fit a different tank that has the provision, and add the lines, and two canisters to make it pass visual. the truck never had it and everybody that looks at it agress that it didnt. it has also always been registerd in california since new.

the real issue, is changing the laws after the fact.

I'm overriding the problem, by cheating I suppose, but at this point I really dont care. I've played by the rules forever, and the rules keep changing, so to hell with it.

its smog exempt now, so I no longer care...