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1988 Build (70k)

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Discussion starter · #201 ·
That is the point we are at, but oh well. The tool had the capability I found out after, I think it was a Harbor Freight and I am not looking forward to doing it all over again this winter lol if I only had a garage and some extra cash to throw at it again. I put about 1,500 miles on it a year if I am lucky just around town, but I totally hear ya.
 
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#202 ·
PinkFloydEffect said:
No I did not double flare, seriously. I got bad advice I guess...

Yes I am learning, but according to some people aka jmaack727 learning is not acceptable you have to fall out of your mother as a mechanic or you are a retard (his shit does not stink of course but hey...his only friends are online so I feel bad for him). Actually it was garaged in a barn for 12 years not sure what happend with the rust I think it was a winter truck.
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The dumb ass needs to find another hobby...

If it sat on dirt, that would explain a lot of it.
 
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Discussion starter · #203 ·
No kidding right

Yeah dirt floored barn, it has rust but I am happy with the truck I can always build another chassis someday.
 
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Discussion starter · #205 ·
Its thick, but I don't have the time for that non-stop I have hobbies outside of forums. If you want to call each other assholes do it with your friends in real life if you have any you completely take the fun out of it behind a keyboard. Oh well just leave me alone over here I'm done with this matter I am whatever you people want to call me I really do not care.
 
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#207 ·
Yeah, well youll find out the problem areas in the winter. Cold will shrink the metal and you might find some leaks.
 
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Discussion starter · #208 ·
Good point I wouldn't have thought of it, I will keep a close eye on the level and replace lines when I can get garage time.
 
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Discussion starter · #209 · (Edited)
Bought new tires, for the front 215/60-R15 and for the rear 245/60-R15. Now I just have to wait until spring to roll on them:
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Now that the front has been getting closer I have been rendering the rear end, by the way my blue base color is going to be either bright white or a metallic silvery grey. The soon to be vanity plate will be centered set in a box on a non-embossed (sport) gate with the handle and third light shaved, using the old school bar for black and I might make that black break away on the sides towards the taillights instead of that sharp line at the gate/bed split. The taillights are something I want to keep Mopar/Dodge/Chrysler and something that is a rear show only no wrap around lights as the factory lights do (I believe that requires a side reflector to be street legal) the ones in the rendering are from a Dodge Rampage flipped upside down and reversed. I will be using a straight welded rollpan and I am undecided about the exhaust exit choice, either way I like the modern touch of exiting through some mesh to save your exhaust opening paint on the body:
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Discussion starter · #210 ·
Okay so here we go again I decided to dump some money into this project to upgrade the electrical system and freshen the engine up a bit. I finally completely killed my old used and abused EverStart so I invested in an Optima Yellow Top
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To keep that new battery topped off on short rides I upgraded the 65A alternator to 136A, I couldn't even find a 136A alternator for my truck so I purchased one cheap off eBay for a "97/98 Jeep Cherokee"
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The wiring as you can see is all the same which is why I bought it
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This is where I started running into problems, the bottom mounting hole was the same but the top was slightly larger. Jeeps do not use the same tension i-bolt on the top so I had to improvise with the one mine used
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The only spacer sleeve I could find was too long, wider then the already larger hole with a slightly larger ID then the bolt but I made do. Bored the hole out wider and pressed in the sleeve, cut off the remaining length and its solid...
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Sadly I resorted to a thin layer of duck tape to center the bolt and it worked fine (one way tensioning)
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For now I am using the stock harness but I will be running 1/0G cable(s) soon so that cracked edge on the cable shield/guide is no problem
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The only thing I did have to do with the wiring on this alternator was drill out this terminal ring and the wire bundle support on the other side, apparently the larger casing has larger posts
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This alternator came with a serpentine belt pulley figuring I could just swap them...nope; the shaft is larger so I'm assuming the 120-160A use a larger casing and 7/10" shaft while the 115A and under use the smaller casing and 6/10" shaft so I had to have the seller send me the correct 7/10" double V-groove pulley
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Two new alternator belts....
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Checkout how nasty and old my belts were the lettering is barley visible
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Discussion starter · #211 ·
I might as well do the AC delete idler while I'm at it since there is a nasty squeal when I rev it up
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Just my luck the KnuKonceptz negative terminal busted on me so I replaced it with a different model
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My leaky valve covers! I decided it was finally time to pull them off
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Replacing things just kind of snowballed on me and I ended up doing the breather and PCV valve too
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I got cover gaskets to stop the leak (just cork I only need to get a few thousand miles/few years) I also got PCV and breather grommets and a pump belt to ensure no more squealing!
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I have had a warped steering pulley on the truck since I bought it (grandfather used a 3 point pullet to remove the pulley when he changed the pump) so I bought one from the junkyard and changed that too
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While the covers were off I painted them using VHT high temp paint, I cut a new breather hose and removed the screening I had placed over the air cleaner housing inlet
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The old greasy nuts were loose and never stayed tight so I got these stainless all metal locking nuts with washers
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Tried some hammered metal finish paint...I may do more accents in this
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Other side....
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Discussion starter · #213 ·
Falling back on my exhaust I never finished it and I needed a quick cheap tailpipe setup (the local shops are crazy) so for the time being I welded some flex pipe to exhaust angle pieces...it honestly sounds amazing for a V6!
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I got sick of my stiff rear end and had to try something so I removed the overload leafs and installed 2" blocks while I was at it...made a great difference in the way the rear moves it, it moves side to side a tiny bit more where needed (should get a rear sway bar) and it moves up and down smoothly with the bumps now instead of sending vibrations through the truck, in fact it was so stiff those $10 rear shocks never got a chance to move and were fine to ride on.
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Those cheap $10 shocks I installed have long seen their life already within just a few thousand miles so I snagged these KYBs on clearance for around $30ea WOW what a difference seriously will never be making that mistake again! Between the front KYBs the rear leaf removal and my new tires it rides much better now.
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Oil was leaking onto my newly painted valve cover so I bought a new cap:
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The rubber plugs seem to dry out and fall off way too frequently and I have no need for the vac tree so I replaced it with a brass plug:
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I thought I was having an engine overheating issue so I replaced my temp switch and CTS:
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Still chasing a running temp issue I changed my O2 sensor...aimlessly throwing money at an experimental TBI V6 that I have no plans on keeping...
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My problem ended up being my ignition coil overheating and boiling oil out...it has been doing this apparently slowly over the last 3 years can you tell from the firewall? haha
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It turns out my grandfather had replaced the OE coil with this one before I bought the truck because it was having ignition problems which turned out to be the pickup coil inside the distributor. He bought the cheapest one he could fine which says right across it USE WITH EXTERNAL RESISTOR well I think he thought the AM radio EMF capacitor was a resistor...it is still unclear but the OE coil is believed to be internally resisted or its resisted inside the computer box. So I replaced the oil bath coil with an MSD E-Core style which ran amazing un-resisted wired backwards (wiring diagram is a LIE) for about 10min and it blew my computer or at least the circuit in my computer (which I replaced and will tell you all about in the next post I had to mod it)
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I ended up swapping the MSD for a fresh one and replaced my computer after tracing it down with a multi-meter to a missing run circuit; the auto shutdown relay was being triggered. This time I installed a resistor and it has been working great no problems...however I am unsure if I even really need a resistor if I get my hands on another spare computer I am going to run it un-resisted for a better spark because granted it was ran backwards when the computer blew it has great throttle response with no resistor!
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Discussion starter · #214 ·
*...limited to 12 images in one post my ass...* I always suspected a faulty IAC the thing just idles so damn high so I did that and no help, but the old one does have quite the rattle if you shake it. I put the engine in D disconnected the CTS and crank the plunger in and it brings it down a bit and cranked all the way in it does help a little until the battery gets disconnected but I would like to see better idle control its just horrible...only thing I can think of is MAP sensor and TPS and I'm done.
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Discussion starter · #215 ·
So as I explained I blew the computer, this was my original and I was running it with no cooling tube and a screen over the vent hole. It was extremely hard finding a local replacement I could not find any 88-89's and 90-91 used only one plug (large one at top). Most 87's were carb but then I found an 87' with TBI and it had my computer, possibly it was only used in 88' since I can not confirm 89.
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Checkout the inside full of crap sucked in through fender, its stuck to the plastic:
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I thought I had instantly found the problem when I saw this but they all look this bad which is probably why they stopped using the dual board design with the power board on top with that separate white plug:
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If you compare to the corners exposing the rear board you can see how much of a difference there is:
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Sadly this was the only one I could find it was out of an 87' plow truck with 230,000 miles so I only used the front power board but it got it up and running:
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Without the cooling tube (was planning on a classic chrome topper filter) I thought it would be a good idea to install a cooling fan exp with almost a quarter of a million miles on the computer:
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Its just another small touch almost looks factory installed, the ground wire exits to the left and grounds to the fender under one of the computer box mount screws:
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Discussion starter · #216 ·
The hot line exits on the top right and travels with the factory harness almost unseen exiting by the firewall under the blower motor resistor harness. This was my attempt to tap into the resistor power feed line supplying 12v to the cooling fan only when the ignition was in run but not in ACC and it works....but only when the blower fan is off; I am unsure why this is, possibly due to the fact I am running a newer 5 wire resistor on a 4 wire harness which required two wires to be combined to work I forget what that situation was:
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Sadly, this was the last mod/upgrade I will be making to this truck....fun is over my friends. I bought a 96' SLT 4x4 (ext cab) which will be my truck for at least the next few years while I build a new street truck. I will be doing a font end swap; I am keeping my hood, grille, bumper, core support etc and selling my 88' with the 96' clip on it. All I am keeping is my battery, stereo, wheels and surprisingly the dome light which is a bit hard to come across and my 96' does not have the flip down light with vanity/map light...my BMW seats will stay with the truck I never found them comfortable to begin with. All the money from this truck will go directly into a reg cab/short bed chassis build with 2" lowering spindles and lowering springs, 4-link rear coil over conversion with air support (all function not for "slamming") entire frame painted and cleared with stainless brake lines and 8.75" LSD rear end with Jeep disc brake conversion. That should put me over budget for the chassis from what I make off this 88' then I will work on a 46RH with a 408ci stroker before I put the same style body on it and continue where I left off here....we are talking at least a few years but the rust is catching up with my 88' the frame was in a collision, the engine sucks and so does the entire drivetrain but its a running driving truck with low millage so its best to just get out of it while I can :(
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PinkFloydEffect
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