I finally got-a-round-tuit, and rebuilt the carburetor. During the disassembly, I realized why Gerald was so fussy about cold starting. There is no choke. The choke linkage is hooked up to the idle cam, but no way to actuate it.
After cleaning and re-assembly, I set the choke manually by hand. He fired up instantly! Then.... Gas everywhere. The carb over flowed. After a few minutes of banging my head
, not wanting to tear the carb open again.. I pulled the top off and re-installed the old float needle and seat. Problem solved. It is aggravating to know that a simple needle/seat that costs a dollar, from a rebuild kit could cause a FIRE!
Anyway, that is behind me now. Gerald is running good, and will start cold if I pop open the hood and manually set the choke. No pictures, because rebuilding a carb is boring.
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Gerald now has tunes! The goal was to spend as
little $ as possible, be completely
stealth, and have a system that will
blow away a current factory stereo. I spent a few months of collecting parts, and scoring some killer mis-priced deals on Amazon. First up, installing the Pioneer H.U.
Using some 22g, bend up a sleeve to mount the head unit in the dash.
(a few spot welds held it together, not pictured)
Mounted in the dash:
I had some scrap textured ABS plastic, that I glued to the face of the dash trim plate. With the bezel installed:
Then I mounted a Soundstream stealth 3ch amp to a 16g sheetmetal bracket.
Mounted discreetly behind the ash tray.
Next up, these baby speakers went into the dash. Proper dash speakers in these trucks present a problem. No space to work with, and not easy to enclose them. After throwing a few ideas around on the audio forum, another member recommended to try a full range speaker. This design is called a BMR. The simple explanation is due to its design, it can play a full range of sound without distortion and doesn't need to be enclosed. They won't win any competitions, and lack mid-bass. But, for less than $40, they work. No distortion. If I didn't have a budget, I would have done 4" mids and tweets in the dash, in the $400 range. For this project, I was not willing to spend that kind of coin. Compromise.
I made a baffle from a piece of 1/4" plastic, and mounted to the dash.
Installed.
Repeat other side.
Last piece of the puzzle, an 8" subwoofer, (ported and tuned).
Overall, I couldn't be happier. This system exceeded my expectations! I have very little $ invested, and it met my goals. Unfortunately the dash speakers are lacking, but for stealth, bang for buck, they sound good. If I were to do this again, the only thing I would change is the dash speakers for a set of component 4" speakers. They wouldn't be stealth, but with some time and fabricating, I could make them look like the factory put them there.
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That's it for Gerald for a long while. Next phase would be an LS swap, but I don't have the time or the space for that. For now, it runs, drives, and
sounds good! I enjoy driving around town, and listening to my tunes. This truck is rough, tough, and has character! And, for the right price, its always for sale.