N00b with a 72 c20

[JointTech]

my plan is to get a few more things torn off, wheels and tires for instance. And then Ill think about selling. Most of the trim was shot but I kept the emblems and the trim around the back of the cab. Got a few other nick nacks like the mirrors ill get rid of then. I was actually planning on just paying them forward. Im not really interested in the horse trading. not my thing.

[JointTech]

yea there were lots of sheetrock screws in the trim.... Interior as well. havent gotten to them yet though

[JointTech]

new tools. vacuum gauge, compression test kit and a timing light. Need to get back out there and work on it.

[JointTech]

Put in a new Interstate 800CCA battery.
Tried to set the timing but failed. Still working on it.

[JointTech]

Got my new toys in today.


All new lights and lenses all the way around.

Headlight relay kit, new xtravision headlights, LEDs everywhere. New reverse lenses and LED bulbs. Gaskets and screws.

I took all the old lights out today and will start installing the new stuff tomorrow.
Looks like the tail lights have 1157 ends on them so they will plug right up but the sidemarkers are going to take some splicing and crimping.

[TXTruck]

Which headlight relay kit did you go with?
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[JointTech]

LMC. i havent put it in yet. heres that thread
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s....php?p=5867896

[JointTech]

Got all new exterior Lenses/bulbs/kit in LED.
New headlights and headlight relay kit.
The front parking/tail lights/side markers are sealed LEDs in the lense.
Got new lenses and replacement LED bulbs for the backup lights. (nobody makes a sealed reverse light lense with LEDs )


The taillights and front parking lights use a 1157 adapter.
The sidemarkers are hardwire. 3 wires. ground/parking/turn
parking is a less bright than turn. It looks like turn uses more LEDs.

The rear sidemarkers took an extra minute of thinking to get them to work.
Since the OE is only 2 wire and didnt blink i had to connect parking and ground to the original harness. Then I spliced the third wire for turn (which is a way longer wire on the lense thankfully) to the turn signal wires for the rear.
Yellow on the drivers side and dark green on the passenger side.

I will start on the front sidemarkers and new headlights tomorrow

So far I'm pretty happy with the items. The lenses are all tough plastic and the LEDs are really bright.

The only think I'm not thrilled with is the taillight gaskets i bought. They are neoprene and way thinner and flimsier than the OE gasket that came out. I think if I lived somewhere with any rain I would have siliconed the lense since LEDs cant be replaced I shouldn't have to ever take it off.

Will get pics of them installed tomorrow.

[JointTech]

Heres some pics. Not the best so I made a movie.
I did notice one funny thing today. The rear sidemarkers are also brake lights... Since the taillight brake light is the same wire as the turn signal and I tapped off the turn signal to make my sidemarkers light up I now have side brake lights as well. LOL

I hooked up the front LEDs today. Youll notice my parking and sidemarker blink at the same time. I completely bypassed the sidemarker wires and tapped directly off the parking lights.

I did that because the front sidemarkers blink by removeing power from the running light circut. This worked but didnt take advantage of the second set of brighter LEDs in the sidemarkers. By tapping off the front running lights I get dimmer running and bright flashing.

I also couldnt get a pic of the brakes by myself but they are bright!

Also need to trace down a problem with the reverse lights which never worked.

ill put in the headlight relay kit and new lights tomorrow.

View My Video
how do you embed a video so you can just click it in the thread???






[/QUOTE]

[JointTech]

Found the problem with my backup lights. I looked at the neutral safety switch and first thing I saw was the 2 purple wires were jumpered not on the switch. The backup lights were still plugged in but I got no conductivity between the to connectors at any gear selector position. I pulled it off and the thing is crusty. Barely moves by hand and sounds grindy.

My small parts house doesnt work on weekends and it would be monday before they have one so I went to crap boys and ordered one to be here tomorrow for $11.

Hopefully that fixes it at which point all my exterior lights will be working.

[JointTech]

took my saddletank to the radiator place to have it cleaned and sealed. Going to use the saddletank instead of the behind the seat firebomb.

[TXTruck]

I'm guessing your truck came with the saddle tank from the factory, right? Is it just on the driver's side? How do you switch between the cab and saddle tanks?

So, after a month and a half, can you give an update on your satisfaction level with your LED lights?

[JointTech]

i dont know if its factory or not. It had a valve in the cab on the rocker to switch between the tanks but it wasnt connected. Drivers side only. The filler is in front of the rear tire as opposed to behind the rear tire I normally see.

I already took the main tank out and had it in the bed. I was in the process of mounting it inside a truckbox when I decided to instead use the saddle tank and get rid of the main tank completely. It was still holding old gas so im hoping its ok.

I dont really drive the truck so I can't say if the LEDs are any good or not really. They are still bright and nothing has fallen off in the sun it sits in all day.

[JointTech]

I put in a new dome light from LMC> Its not impressive. Kinda cheap feeling plastic. Fake chrome does look good for now though

I had to clean up the driver side door plunger but couldnt get the passenger side working. SO I picked up a new plunger but the threads were to small. dangit.
So instead of waiting and searching I just tapped a new hole. Ill clean up the other one some year when I get to doing body work.

[JointTech]

Put my cargo light back on with new rubber nuts and spacers and a new bulb. All my lights now work. hehehe..

Hopefully get my new sending unit for the gas tank this week and get that installed.

[JointTech]

Well I couldnt find a new sending unit that wouldnt require a bunch of work to get a pickup tube into.
So I took the sending unit from the saddle tank and sandblasted it. Opened up the resistor on the side and it was completely filled with sediment and the sping and contactor were eaten up.

So I took the float rod out of the sending unit from the main tank. Bent it to match empty and full in the saddle tank. Since it still had a good spring and contactor on the rod I got 0-90 ohms on a full sweep!!!!

Then the side of the resistor kept coming off because the tabs dont like being bent out and back and one broke off. So I just tack welded the cover on.

I took the saddle tank out to the truck and wired it to my stock gauge and it came up as empty!!! everything working!!

now I gotta get bolts tomorrow from Home Depot to rehang the tank.
I also need to figure out how im going to run the fuel line since the steel line is on the other side of the truck and I have to go across the drive shaft.

anyway heres some pics for posterity.

[bollybib]

I enjoyed reading your (not so boring) thread. I like C20 threads like this. Cool truck, you have made some good progress with it.

[JointTech]

cool thanks for stopping by!!

Today I ordered Wilwood D-52's in Black for the front. Drilled / slotted 8 lug rotors. SS Braided brake lines. And a new power booster/Master cylinder/Proportioning valve.
Got it all from Scotts Hot Rod Shop. They were helpful in the presale process. Hopefully shipping etc goes as smoothly.

Back on the gas tank... I ordered 14" carriage bolts to hold the tank up. I checked fastenal for SS, they wanted $53 each!!! I went with Zinc coated for $6...
They wont be here until next monday so all my projects are on hold until then.

[JointTech]

Tried again today to set the timing and find TDC. runs better but still crappy. backfires from time to time and has some runon when i shut it off.

On a good note I went to the junkyard on saturday and got one of those under hood retractable lamps from a later model chevy and a washer fluid bottle with the builtin pump.
Found a fillerneck from a nissan I think. i pulled a few and now forget what the one I kept came out of. going to mount it between the truck box and bed instead of on the outside of the bed.

[ThreeQtr]

I had a similar problem years ago, even took mine to a buddy who built race cars, he didn't fix the problem. The guy I sold the truck to found that the vacuum advance on the distributor was the problem with the one I had.

Other ideas?

[JointTech]

Originally Posted by ThreeQtr

I had a similar problem years ago, even took mine to a buddy who built race cars, he didn't fix the problem. The guy I sold the truck to found that the vacuum advance on the distributor was the problem with the one I had.

Other ideas?

Well I think its a TDC problem. When I first checked the timing it was WAYyyy before TDC. Like probably 25 BTDC.
I adjusted it to 12 BTDC. its at 10 now.

I think my timing notch in the balancer has slipped.

I tried to reset TDC but the sticking a pen in the sparkhole trick didnt work.

I have a hard time spinning it by hand by myself and trying to feel where TDC is with the pen/chopstick.

Also it seemed like no matter where the piston is I can still stick the pen all the way into the cylinder. So probably I dont know what the heck im doing.

I ordered a cool tool. TDC setter thing. Its screws into the sparkplug hole and has a rod with a spring on it. So as the cylinder goes up the rod will go up. and when it goes down the rod will go down.

Amazon says it will be here today so hopefully I can get that to work and fix TDC, then retime it.

[JointTech]

well thanks to the forum I found my TDC mark was way off. no wonder it looked so off when i put the timing light on it originally and why it ran like crap when i set the timing "correctly" based on a bad mark...

So I tried the finger in the hole and a chopstick and a pen. Didn't work for me. SO I found this cool tool that threads in the sparkplug hole and has a rod with a spring on it so as the piston goes up and down the rod goes up and down and you can see whats happening.

Here it is at TDC.


Here it is at TDC and you can see the mark I made which is where the notch in the balancer is. WAaaaaaay off....


So I didnt have a fancy grease pen or any special paint or a timing tape. SO I rednecked it. Wrapped some paper towel around a screwdriver and hosed it down with spray paint.


I dabbed a little at the 0 mark with my "brush"


then I scraped off my old mark and made a nice new one.

Set the timing to 11 or 12 BTDC. Set the idle to 750. Dang thing runs like a top now!!

[JointTech]

shifted better and obviously ran way better once I got the timing straighten out. But it still isnt right. If I'm at half throttle or more it wont shift out of 2cnd. Just keeps getting louder until I let off the gas.

I ordered a B&M adjustable vacuum modulator. Got under the truck and pulled it out. Dumped half a quart or more of tranny fluid all over the HOAs new asphalt... ooops.

Put the new one in and left it at the default setting as far as the adjustable screw.

Man it shifted nice and smooth after that through all gears at 1/4 throttle. I thought I was home free... thought to soon.
took it up a long hill on a side road. first to second shift was fine. gave it some gas in second and it felt like it slipped badly and made a squealing noise kind of like a belt slipping but higher pitched. let off the gas and it caught and started pulling again. Gave it some gas again (hey I cant trust my first instinct). Slipped again.
When I let off the gas after the slip it does shift to third and keeps going.

So I'm assuming the new modulator is putting enough pressure in the tranny now that its highlighting the bad parts in the old girl..

ah bleh. so what now. new tranny? Rebuild this one. Go ahead with the 200r4 conversion?

always something to work on, but thats why I got it. oh i mean to go get stuff from home depot for the wife

[JointTech]

removed everything from the transmission but ran out of time before I got to the bell housing bolts.
While I was under there I found this. Anything look funny?


steps I took:
-Remove vacuum modulator hose and retaining bolt.
-drain as much fluid as possible out the modulator hole.
-Drop the pan and remove the rest of the fluid. I still hate GM for not putting a drain plug on the pan. 1/2" socket
-Remove speedometer cable. Just took a light squeeze with pliars to get it loose enough to hand loosen.
-Remove torque convertor cover - 7/16" socket
- remove torque convertor to flexplate bolts. 9/16" socket. I used my hands and the crank bolt to spin the motor to get to them.
I used a screwdriver and a pair of pliars making sure not to touch the teeth on the flexplate to hold it while breaking the TC bolts free with breaker bar.
- remove transmission cooler lines. compression fitting. i used a 1/2" flare nut wrench.
- remove transmission power plug thingy on the side. just pulls out.
- remove ubolts things from differntial yoke to remove rear drive shaft.
- remove carrier bearing and remove front shaft. i wanna say that was a 5/8" nut with a 11/16" bolt head on top. dont spend 10 minutes spinning the nut for no reason...
- remove shift linkage.

I made sure to put all the bolts back where they came from so I dont lose them. except the TC bolts until i get it dropped.


Thats as far as I got today.

I also built a tray for the jack.



its not very steady side to side but it will be fine when there are 2 of us guiding it down.

Hopefully get it pulled tomorrow. and to the rebuild shop on monday. then back in next weekend.

Hopefully by then my new drilled/slotted rotors from scotts hotrod will be here. But it looks like I need to get to the suspension work sooner rather than later.

[JointTech]

Note to self; there's a reason they say to put the front on jack stands. Its really annoying when you drop the tranny and find it wont come out from under the truck...

I found they went ahead and skipped one of the top bellhousing bolts.

the passenger side of the crossmember didnt have any of the top bolts and the bottoms werent even tight.

I had to unhook the ebrake cable to be able to move the cross member back with a BFH.

But shes out and in the back of my buddy's truck to go to the tranny guy tomorrow.