Topic: Project first gen waaaaaay overdue!

[Stocker]

It is the devil's truck    I also have 666 in my address and one credit card.

Hmmmm, that would help to explain your childhood   




j/k     

[kneedownnate [OP]]

Hopefully the dentist will clear me to do physical stuff saturday so I can get some more work done on the truck, sure need to get some more clearance between the tires and body!  I'd like to remove the bed before installing the bodylift and get the frame all cleaned up, maybe do a quick check of the factory fuel lines and make sure everything is kosher.

[KYOTA]

kneedowndamion

[kneedownnate [OP]]

I'm waaaay too lazy    Finally did the final cut on the front fenders today I hope    I'll try to snap a pic tomorrow.  We'll see when I get bigger tires and shove the axle forward.  Hammered down the driver's side pinch weld while the inner liner was off, but in order to get it how I want it I'll have to pull the tires.  Pinch weld had 2 knife edged pieces sticking off the front, right where the tire would contact 

There was a cheap set of isuzu rear springs on craigslist that would have been perfect for finishing my front springs, but I lagged on getting them and the ad's gone now, but I may have an old email from the guy.  I'm pretty sure the leafs would have been the right length to use the 2nd, 3rd and 4th in my fronts to flex well and keep it fairly low.  Once that's done I'll probably move on to the rears and set up the t100 springs, which should ride well and have decent flexibility too.  There's just so much other stuff that I'll need to do at the same time with no budget 

[kneedownnate [OP]]

Well, some not good news.  I've been driving this thing for the last 3 or 4 weeks after doing a little jetting on the carb and it'd been running fairly well.  Noticed a clunk in the front end recently so I jacked up the left tire and the bearing was still nice and tight, but I probably adjusted it maybe 3,000 miles ago.  Only looseness I found on that side was the steering box, but I knew about that.

Jacked up the right front and there was a lot of play in the bearing.  Cool, started taking it apart, tightened it up and went to spin the rotor and there was another clunk.  Looked at the tie rod and there's at least 1/3" play up and down!  I'm just glad it didn't give out when I went to my parents for thanksgiving.  I don't drive it like a 4by on buckhorn pass, especially when people are nice enough to pull over for me when I come up behind them quickly  

Right now I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't want to half ass it, but I don't want to put money into something I'll likely change before long too.

Oh, and I tried to snap a pic of where the temp gauge sits when driving since it's always fairly low, but that doesn't work out too well on a stock 1st gen   

[NorCalToy]

I might have some of my stock steering sitting around still. Ill try to remember to see if any of the stock TRE's are good. If its worth saving its yours.

[te51levin]

Right now I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't want to half ass it, but I don't want to put money into something I'll likely change before long too.

I just checked Napa's website, and their very cheapest outer tie rod end has a list price of $12.18.  Their best lists at $48.87.  You'll pay less than that in either case, but at $12, it's not worth deliberating over.  Even if it only lasts six months, you got your money's worth.  I'd buy their best and be done with it, but I'm too poor to afford cheap parts 

Little late here.  Will try to catch up with you tomorrow. 

[kneedownnate [OP]]

Thanks blake, I'll probably check with napa tomorrow and maybe just buy the cheap one to get by, but if not I'll let you know if I need yours.

[kneedownnate [OP]]

Holy crap, I let this sit idle for so long!  Finally replaced the tie rod end not long ago and what a difference, doesn't wander around so aimlessly now!  Also made a bracket and got the Holley red fuel pump in, only to find out the first one was no good.  Sweet, hooked up the other one I had and it ran but didn't pump fuel    Dawned on me that holley sometimes puts the bracket one way, sometimes it's 180'd, and sure enough this one was mounted backward 

I'd jetted the carb pretty lean in an effort to get better mileage, but it seemed to stay bad since I had to get harder into the throttle to go anywhere.  Went back to fatten it up to hopefully have enough power in the primary to get around and it ran like poo.  Changed out the idle jet to the biggest I had and it cleared up a bit but still bubbled.  Screw it, we had a fishing trip planned and I figured I'd just deal with it.  Well, essentially I did.

Headed out just after 4am to hit the river, and just after 5am the truck cut out and died, luckily right before a big turnout.  Pulled over, popped the hood and started looking into it.  Carb had fuel in it, but not much, so I adjusted the float higher so it'd store more fuel, then looked for anything that'd plug it up.  Checked the filters and they looked fine, hit the pump and it didn't sound good.  Took off the fuel hose and ran it and it kicked out some fuel.  Hooked it all back up, fired it off and it ran but still cut out and wanted to die.  Tested the pump again and it had already lost it's prime. 

Luckily I keep spare diaphram pumps in the truck, so I grabbed one that already had nipples on it, hooked it inline and modded the connectors to plug in well enough.  Fired it up and it seemed to run fine, so off we went! 

Ran great the whole way up and over the dirt road and back again, but as soon as I hit the highway it started cutting out again    Pulled over and did a quick check and it seemed to be pumping again, took off and it almost immediately started cutting out, so I milked it to the parking lot of a nearby store and got into it again.  It held idle when we got there so I thought MAYBE I'd pushed something bigger through the filters and it was plugging a jet, but no dice.  Looked through all the jets and passages I could and it all seemed to be clean and functional, hooked it all back up and it again seemed to be pumping and running fine, so we again lit off, and again it started cutting off a mile down the road, then worked fine, then cutt off again, so I aimed it for another turnout (luckily there are quite a few in the area) and got into it again.

Now I was starting to get pissed, and it didn't help that my friend needed to be back by a certain time.  Forgot to mention, I'd also tried to adjust the choke closed a bit to help mask the fuel starvation issue but forgot to release the pressure in the radiator first, so I forced a leak in the water choke and it wouldn't stop leaking, so I now had 2 issues to deal with.  Tried fixing the coolant leak but could only slow it down.  Popped off the top of the carb again, and this time it was nearly dry.  Swapped out the old dirty filter coming off the hardline, hit the pump and it wasn't any better.  Around this time a chp officer showed up and asked if there was anything he could do or anybody he could call, but it was really pointless.  He asked if we'd had trouble around 5:30 and we said yes, and he said he'd seen us when he was on his way to work that morning, and said he could give my friend a ride if we were still having issues when his shift was over in a few hours, which we both thought was pretty bitchin!

Grabbed yet another pump, swapped in the nipples, modded the connectors to plug it in, hit the switch and it sounded much better than the last one and pumped fuel quicker too!  Truck fired right off and sounded good, but coolant was leaking quickly from the choke, especially when revved at all, so we topped off the radiator and figured I'd just watch the gauge and would pull over if it started going up.  Luckily I have that bigass 2nd gen 3 row which holds quite a bit of coolant, but I figured I'd better avoid revving if possible, so off we went again.

Truck ran great coming back and even seemed to run a little cleaner where it would start bubbling before.  Stopped at the rest area by whiskeytown lake to check the coolant since it'd be easier than trying to pull off in town if it began overheating, and the radiator was still full!  Drove my friend to his house nice and easy, dropped him off, then headed home.  I decided to romp on it pretty good a few times on the way home and was pleasantly surprised, it ran much cleaner at higher rpm and even felt like it had decent power again!  I just don't think the holley was strong enough to keep up with my jetting.  Not because the pump isn't built to flow that much, but because it was removed from service because somebody thought it was bad, and for once they were right! 

The whole time I kept saying I bet there's something in the tank sucking up against the pickup tube restricting flow and decided to transfer the fuel into the 2wd when I got home and plan on dropping the tank this week and flushing the factory fuel lines.  Truck should have at least 550,000 miles on it, so there's bound to be some gunk floating around in the tank.  I'm NOT looking forward to that, though I do need to replace the filler neck anyway.  I know a mouse is or was living in the frame, and I've found wasp nests in the truck, so who knows what I'll run into when I go to pull the tank    Here's a pic of what was my nice little holley setup, which I'm keeping in there in hopes of some day buying another holley to replace this one with.  I didn't notice till I just snapped the pic, but you can see the filter is still pretty full of fuel too.

[te51levin]

Ah, the little square box. I remember trying one on my '79 Corolla because it was marginally cheaper than a mechanical pump, and I hadn't learned not to be cheapskate yet.   It didn't have the capacity to support more than about five seconds of WOT.  I ditched it in favor of a stock mechanical pump and never had a problem since.

[kneedownnate [OP]]

Little square box has always kept up with demand before, it was the holley that had issues.  Part of the issue is all the pumps I own but one were removed and presumed bad.  Just sucks that they actually got it right with both holleys    $100 or more for a new one 

[te51levin]

Forgive my faltering memory, but does this cylinder head not have a fuel pump boss or something?

[kneedownnate [OP]]

Correct.  In fact, I posted up a lot more this morning, but for some reason it didn't actually post    I'm thinking it may be time to source another head and send it your way for, well, you know 

[te51levin]

Hmm.  Cut it in half on the bandsaw?

[kneedownnate [OP]]

Maybe, or do some porting and set it up to run efi 

I'm seriously thinking I'll gut the 81 2wd, pull the entire harness and everything out of the 91 runner, swap in the 22re, dash and hvac crap and kinda take the easy way out - the hard way. 

[te51levin]

Maybe, or do some porting and set it up to run efi 

Oh, OK, no problem.  We can do that.