Well, it's been a while since I've posted on here because I've been really busy. I've still been workin on the truck here and there and I think I finally got everything worked out to get it inspected. Here's the stuff that needed fixed and what I did to fix them.

Windshield wiper motor was good. It had a bad fuse. I traded the fuse out and put new arms and blades on it. I drove it home from my dad's house in a storm and the wipers work great. There's a new problem though. My heater doesn't blow. I had to keep wiping the inside of the windshield off with a shop towel so I could see. Now I need to figure out what I need to do to get my heater and fan to work.

Mirrors. They weren't initally a problem. I was driving it and the glass and gasket came right off and shattered on the ground. The driver's side mirror is all I had. I bought a new mirror assembly from autozone that doesn't quite match the passenger side, but mounted that mirror in the place of the driver's side mirror and then used the mounting hardware to mount my passenger side mirror. Now I have both mirrors!

Exhaust - I took it to a shop and had them run dual exhaust with 2 single chamber mufflers. It's not true duals, but it sounds awesome.

LIGHTS!!! One of my biggest problems was the lights and wiring. I didn't have blinkers, tail lights, parking lights, license plate lights, reverse lights, or low beam headlights. The low beam headlights was just a bad fuse. I can tell the switch is starting to go bad because I have to manhandle it to get it to switch from high to low sometimes. The parking lights/tail lights should come on whenever you pull out the headlight switch. I found a brown wire that was ran from the tail lights and license plate lights to the parking lights up front. This same wire ran to the fuse box and to the actual switch for the headlights. After following this wire all around hell, and the use of a multimeter, I found out that the connection to the headlight switch was loose. I tightened that up and that didn't fix it. I put the meter to the socket in a tail light and got nothing with the headlight switch on. I put the meter to the license plate light and got 0.45 volts. I knew this meant it was getting power but not enough to light the bulbs. I put the meter where the fuse goes for the lights and got the same reading. After jiggling the wire that goes into the fuse and tightening up the connection, I got 11.66 volts. I put the fuse back in and TA DA, all my lights worked. The next problem is the brake lights didn't light whenever the tail lights were on. If the tail lights were off, the brake lights worked fine. I replaced the bulbs with new ones and that fixed the problem. Next was the reverse lights. I took the bulbs out and put a meter to them while the truck wasn't running but it was in reverse. They both read 11.5 volts but wouldn't light the bulbs. I replaced them with new bulbs and still didn't light. I put it back in park so the socket wasn't powered anymore and then took a screwdriver to the metal terminal inside the socket. I pryed it up a little bit to try to get a better connection to the bulb. Put the old bulbs back in, put it in reverse, and TA DA!!! Reverse lights work. The blinkers work now too. I'm not sure what I did to make them work, but all of them work.

I'm taking it in for a state inspection today (Missouri) and I think the only thing that won't pass is the windshield. There's a mechanic I've been going to for years that might pass it. If not, I'll just cough up a little money for a new one. I'll need one eventually anyways.

After I get this thing inspected I still need to change the valve cover gaskets. My speedometer doesn't work either. The transmission fluid still needs changed. And there's a few other odds and ends that needs fixing.
It's awesome though how I finally got this thing ready for inspection and the only thing I paid someone to do was put on my exhaust.

I have a funny story to go with taking my truck to a mechanic. I took it to this place that's supposed to be really good. I've never been there before but I've heard people say it's alright. I drive my truck there the night before and leave the keys in the drop box with what I need them to do. The next morning they call me at about 10am, they open at 7am, and say that they can't get my truck started and they've been trying all morning. I told them there's a problem with the choke and they have to play with it but it'll start and run and once it's started it'll start up easy. I talk to a different guy at about 2pm on my way home from work and they say they still can't get it started and I'll probably need to rebuild my carburetor or buy a new one. They said there's something seriously wrong with it and it's not getting enough fuel to stay running. They say the only way they can get it started is to spray it with starter fluid and it'll only run for about 10 seconds and then die. I told him a few other things he can do to get it started and he said he will try in a little bit. I show up with my wife and her sister at about 330pm and the guy isn't there. They said they still haven't gotten it started. I go over to it and the air filter and housing is removed. There's a few screwdrivers laying there and a can of starter fluid. I close the choke most of the way, pump the gas a few times and crank it. After a few attemps it starts right up. I leave it running, get all of this guy's crap out of my engine compartment, and back it up infront of their garage door. As I'm doing this, one of the guys that was working on it shows up. He said he just tried to get it started 20 minutes before I showed up and it wouldn't start. I told him not to worry about it and I'm taking it with me. He said ok and didn't care. The place was full of cars waiting to be pulled into the garage. So I drove it down the street and they put my exhaust on it the next morning. Everytime I've tried to start it since then, it's started right up every time.

It's kind of a long story and long post, but thanks for reading it if you made it through the whole thing. I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say.. Take care!!

 

Did it pass?

 

Thats great to hear dude! Very glad you got her going good and just a few more things to fix up!

So how do you like the truck overall? Ill bet you have alot more respect for it now that YOU have put in all the hard work!

 

I took it in and the guy wouldn't pass it because of the windshield. It's got a crack that goes across the middle of it. I took the keys back from him before he went and looked at anything else and failed it. I took it to my regular shop that is under new management now and they are a bunch of dcks. Some of the old people were there and told me to come back saturday morning and they will pass it lol.. So now it's back to the waiting game.

It's not shifting right. Whenever I take off, I'll push in the gas and I can hear the RPMs go up but it won't shift until I let the gas off. The only way to get it to shift to the next gear after that is to floor it. I'm not sure if that has to do with the carburetor, the transmission fluid not being changed, or the spark plugs not being changed yet. Any suggestions? Should I take it and get the transmission flushed? They say they hook it up the a machine and run fluid through it to flush it. I hear if I just drop the pan and change the filter it only changes out 4 out of the 12 quarts. Any truth in this? Suggestions?

 

Flushing it via their pump is certainly the easier & faster method; the manual method
involves removing the pan & screen filter, this will drain I guess around 4 quarts. The rest is
in the torque converter, you usually drain that via a plug on the front accessible by removing
the access cover right by the oil pan.

Dunno about your shifting problems, I haven't had an automatic transmission in close to 15
years and certainly not one that was computer-controlled (not saying yours is, I just really
don't know). If it's mechanical, my first suspicion is the kickdown linkage from the carb to
the tranny needs adjusting but that's just a guess. There are also some vacuum-actuated
gizmos on some transmissions that might affect this, too.

 

I definitely don't perfer an automatic transmission. How hard is it to convert it to a manual and what would be a good manual transmission to throw into my truck, if I could get my hands on one?

 

My wife was following me home yesterday and she said there's flames in my exhaust. She said it was really bad whenever I would push the gas, but it would even do it whenever I slowed down. The flames weren't shooting out the pipes, but she said she could see down the pipes and they would light up. Any ideas why this happens, how to fix it, and do I have to worry about my truck catching on fire?

 

Thats great to see your progress. i'm kind of in the same boat.

 

I'm guessing late ignition timing &/or running extra rich & not burning up all the fuel in the mix.
A tune-up &, if necessary, a carb kit should sort it

 

the T19 is a great trans. mine has 416,000 miles and still works.It has never been rebuilt.

 

I got it to pass inspection on Saturday! Now I can drive it around legally!

I replaced the spark plugs, wires, cap, and rotor yesterday. After doing this, it is idling rough. It sounds like it's going to die or stall and is puffing black smoke out one of the pipes every once in a while. If I put the gas to the floor, a big cloud of black smoke appears. I drove it down the road and it seems like it drives a lot better than it did, but once I stop and let it idle in drive, it is rough. It's worse in gear than it is in park. I'll note that the gas tank is almost empty so it could be sucking down all the nasties that is still in the tank. I'm thinking about overhauling the carburetor. Think that's a good idea? What else could lead to this sort of thing? I'm 99.9% positive that the gapping in all the plugs are right and I didn't mix up the firing order.

 

The black smoke is excess fuel - it seems worse in gear because the engine is under slight load.
Rebuilding the carb would be a good idea, you'll soon recover the cost. Also, an engine running rich is going to wear the bore & rings much faster than normal because of oil dilution.
The tank may need a clean out, but if you have a good fuel filter it's probably not the problem