['68OrangeSunshine]

Reminds me of one of Robert Redford's less successful movies, "The Electric Horseman''.
I fixed a couple of electric gripes on my Stepside.

I'd been having trouble with the charging system. A new Batt, Alternator and EVR in August, had resulted in the new EVR being defective -- despite being an O'Reilly lifetime warranty replacement. It charges -- sometimes -- but the field coil/contact would stick, causing the Red GENERATOR light on the dash to stay on after removing the key. A sharp thump on the left fender, near the amber reflector lens, would kill the light, by unsticking the contact. After the Batt went dead last week, from not disconnecting it overnight, and the Red light sneaking back on, I suspect -- I decided that New parts are all NFG. I cannibalized the EVR off my '67 K/10 Suburban [marked 5/97] and put it on. Works greak. Charges 14+ VDC at idle. No Red light w/key in OFF.

Then I went after my dead Tach. It had stopped, indicating 1800 RPM at all speeds, engine on or off. Instrument lit up with all the other gauges, but that's a different circuit. A brand new Auto Gage 2300 Tach [same item] was $65 at Jegs and $64 at Summit. Before I plunked money down on a new tach, I had to make sure the wiring was all normal, or there wasn't a dead bee stuck in the internal clockwork.
Continuity from the coil terminal thru the firewall to the line just under the dash 'rang' good. Then I pulled the Instrument Panel. Sure enough, there was a break in the red [+] line to the tach, caused by that red wire getting caught by the in-cab clutch spring, that tore it apart at the butt splice terminal. A new butt splice, and after putting it all back together, worked fine.

While I had the dash apart, I wanted to replace the plastic connecting multi-plug that goes into the printed circuit on the back of the instrument panel. One of the 'Ears' [locking tabs] had broken off. I had gotten a new plastic housing from Classic Industries, but last night, it could not be found.
So I quit while I was ahead and just buttoned it up.

Also R&R'ed all the Radiator and heater hoses on the '71 Jimmy. There was a hole in the old lower radiator hose. That required a back flush, a detergent quick flush, adding 2 gallons of 100% Prestone cut w/2 gallons of distilled water, and a new radiator cap. Now it only needs alignment and fixing the leaky P/S gearbox, and it's good. Although the big yellow shocks are covered in greasy black dirt. Can't remember when I last changed them out...