I only know about '72 Chevelles. Maybe it was just God’s mercy to me, but they used the same master cylinder, with or without the booster. I have a vague memory of playing “find the right push rod,” since there were some variations, but the pedal worked fine. Your truck is close enough in time that it may be similarly simple. On the new vehicles, I’d be afraid to mess with these things. The ecm/pcm might dump the high energy ignition voltage through the driver’s seat to recondition unsubmissive humans.
While we’re on the topic of brakes I went ahead and changed my lines. Passenger front had a collapsed line, found that out when i had to beat that caliper off of the rotor when I was working on the suspension. Caliper is still a little sticky but I can rotate the rotor without any leverage now so it should be fine. Bled the brakes using an old drink mix jar and some rubber hose, flushed all the old nasty junk out and there were some little chunks that came out with it. Pumped until the line showed clear.
Did my rear brakes the same, I figured to change that hose while it’s easy with the bed being off. Flushed the old crud out just the same.
It’s getting too dark so I’ll do Driver Front tomorrow along with the pads. I didn’t look at the drums, I figure if I just ignore them they’ll be fine.
Got my driver’s floor in. Put my bench seat back on because I hope to at least get the bed frame done this week/weekend so I can drive it around to keep it running good. This engine takes a long time to get up to temp when you’re just idling in Park so I’m not doing much just idling it. Wasting guzzoline.
When I was doing the prep work for the floor pan I noticed a giant bulkhead hole that appears to be factory. It had the wires for the kickdown solenoid and some mattress foam shoved in. I think I’ll reroute all my extra accessory wires through that hole and find a way to glue a bicycle innertube to seal it off. Maybe take the wires out and pop rivet or button head nut and bolt the rubber in place and poke a hole with a big needle in the rubber for the wires to go through.
I still need to replace this rocker panel, and patch along the bottom edge of the seat pan. At least now I feel like I won’t fall through the floor if I hit the railroad crossing too hard.
I used to be able to buy seal kit for caluper brakes. mostly all they need is the piston blown out with compressor air, hone the bore lightly enough to remove any internal rust, clean her up and right bake together, it might be a way to fix one now days with price gouging happening in every FEILD.
I noticed that if I used the woodgas throttle as an air bleed that I got inconsistent AFR readings day by day. With the woodgas throttle totally shut and just using the gasoline carb I was able to get a very stable 14:1 ratio at idle with a near perfect 14.5:1 when put into gear. No lean pops, and no stinky eye burning richness.
Only issue with that is I had to have the idle turned way up to get to 600 RPM and it’s taking up some of the accelerator pump travel.
Pretty simple solution, just drill some tiny holes in the throttle blades. I’ll start with 1/16" for each blade and see how much that improves things. Apparently this is a common issue even on the big Holley carburetors, but normally it’s only a problem with a big lopey cam where idle needs to be high to prevent stalling. In my case it’s just because my engine is so big and the carburetor is so small.
I wonder if I’m going to have issues with the carburetor icing over? It sweats like crazy from how efficient the atomization of the fuel is. Intake still feels warm, but the plenum and carb are always cold.
I have never had a carb ice over but cold fuel is always a plus. It was probably not really helpful but we always took bags of ice in a cooler to the drag strip and packed them around the intake manifold before a run.
Well I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, and I decided to just put the bed back on the truck. Now I need to get more fuel neck hose for the filler relocation. Or buy one of those bed filler kits. Luckily it’s not pinched or anything.
Also got an Antique Auto tag for this truck, makes me absolutely emissions exempt, and property tax is cheaper. There’s some stipulations that I’m not to drive it unless I take it to a show of some sort or exhibition. If that ends up being an issue I can always revert it back to a normal plate again.
I’m still glad I took the bed off. It let me address things a lot easier like changing the fuel tank and changing my brake hose, and suspension maintenance.
One other thing I’ve been thinking of is having just one gas pipe, and have the other side that I drilled a hole for be my fresh air intake.
@Norman89 do you think a normal oiled pod filter would be okay out in the elements or should I hunt for a shrouded one? I guess I could make a doohickey that just holds a spa filter so rain wouldn’t be an issue.
Been fighting one of my brake calipers, it keeps locking up after a short time driving. I replaced the rubber hose last year, and I rebuilt the caliper over the weekend to no avail.
I ordered a new rubber hose, maybe I pinched it or something. Also have a new master cylinder ordered. The caliper is basically clamping down on the rotor as hard as it can, which I know is usually a fault of the hose acting like a 1 way valve.
I work on the brakes today. Changed the master cylinder.
Now I’ve somehow disabled the ignition circuit. No power to half of the fuse block. Tried taking the bulkhead out and spraying with electrical cleaner, no dice.
Starter still works, lights still work. I’ve just somehow borked the ignition related circuit. I can’t wait until I can go and get Ron’s Dakota.
Edit update: I wiggled some bundle of wires near the steering column and my ignition is back. Clearly I’ll need to redo the wiring someday.
Took it on a short test drive. Brakes feel a lot lighter than the old master cylinder did but they still stop the truck fine. I think it was the old MC that was giving me issues with the brakes locking up. Beforehand they’d brake pretty hard as soon as I was at maybe 1/8 travel, and now I have more travel until the brakes really clamp down(maybe 3/4?), but the pedal doesn’t bottom out. I probably need to adjust or change the shoes on my rear brakes. At 1/4 to 1/2 travel I’m slowing down or lightly braking, and at 3/4 is really where the stopping happens.
I won’t really know until I try to go on a longer drive. Fingers crossed and knocking on wood.
Also got my license plate lights in and wired up. They shine nice and bright.
Tom if it makes you feel any better, I could get an Antique Plate for my 1996 Cavalier as of this year. NC considers any vehicle 30 and up as “Antique”.
Nice to hear you got your brakes working
I still have issues with my right front caliper, i need to replace it, but here in Sweden it’s pretty hard to get the correct one, there are a lot available on the net stores, but when i’ve ordered, i’ve got caliper for thinner discs every time, and a lot of trouble sending it back. I wish it was possible to buy one “over the counter” somwhere.
That’s one reason why I decided to rebuild the seal this caliper instead of buying a new one. I was afraid I’d get a passenger car caliper or something.
Your better served to fix what you have anyway, all the new parts are offshore Chinese junk right out of the box. I even got a bearing SKF brand the other day “made in China”
I don’t think we build anything anymore it’s all outsourced and quality control doesn’t exist
I’ve finally got the throttle cable finished for the woodgas throttle and it’s everything I wanted out of the concept. It behaves like a tractor hand throttle, staying in place for the most part. I think once I add the lever again it’ll be even more stable.
If it is any consolation, a vehicle only has to be 26 years old to get the antique plates in Michigan. So anything built before the turn of the century now qualifies.
You probably still have the '76 bicentennial plates with the flag on them hanging up in your shed too.
My great aunt got upset at me when I said ‘oh you have those antique blue and green canning jars!’ and she said “those are not antiques, I bought those new!” Then she proceeded to go into her storage room and pull out some -really- old canning jars. These were my mom’s these are probably antiques!
I’m just a day away from driving the truck on charcoal, with the ole reliable Kristijan style flute updraft. I think I have a bag or two of charcoal I put up in the shop to give me enough fuel for testing. I hastily made a mixing chamber last night but I need to check it for leaks. Had to fill up a lot of bad gaps because my hand slipped using the plasma cutter a few times since I was so out of practice.
I’m glad the wood I get from work is super dry, I hope if I try to make some charcoal tomorrow evening I won’t make a lot of smoke. It rained heavily on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ve been in a drought so I’ve been afraid of burning anything. Once I get my WK done I won’t have to worry about stuff like that and just chop away.
I think the woodgas bug is a bit like Lyme disease, it never goes away but has its seasons of intensity. I’ve been wanting to work on my projects but I’ve just been so busy, and have been pulled into other people’s problems and projects.
