'76 GMC G2500 Longbed

[vwnate1]

Yep , I love 'em too ! .

I grew up on a New England Dairy Farm (Milking Shorthorns) so old trucks with 6 Bangers will be my meat until they pry my cold , dead fingers from the steering wheel .

FWIW , the Thinwall 292 C.I.D. InLine 6 cylinder engine , was GM's very last true InLine truck engine and it's a CHEVROLET engine , not a GMC L o n g Motor .

C'est La Vie .

My brother came over yesterday and we got more done , I of course found out a bunch more I need to do yet , rip the dash binnacle all apart and figure out why the temp. & fuel gauges go crazy when I use the hazard lights , plus no dash illumination and the turn signal indicators work reversed , I'm betting it's a ground fault and current is back flowing through the gauges and dash lights , we'll see .

I found an N.O.S. turn signal cam part in a old FLAPS near me , these were 'A' items back in the 60's through the 80's but are now long forgotten about , I paid $17 (ow) for a bit of plastic but it fit and all , just turned out to point the turn signal lever off at a 45° UP angle so I took it bock out again and installed a passable used one I scored in Pick-A-Part so now the turn signals work again and the fu%&(ing WOOD SCREW the DPM installed in lieu of the hazard button , only mangled the first turn of threads so I was able to carefully thread the ' Just So ' correct original screw back on with the correct button... sheesh .

I also discovered that GM used several different " start "plates under the steering wheel as this steering column was assembled out of God alone knows what junk and was missing parts and the horn contact brush was broken off , I replaced it all with parts from a '74 Chevy P.U. and the steering wheel is now canted three splines to the left... it looks like P-A-P and I will continue our 40 year long partnership a while yet .

I masked off most of the new seats hardware and began dying it red , my brother thinks it looks good , I'm wishing I could find a Saddleman seat cover in red....

I hope to have that finished to-morrow after work so it's dry enough to install the seat Tuesday after work .

The passenger side door trim panel is now red and looking pretty good , I'll install it _after_ I'm done wrestling that big seat in ~ no need to gouge it when my son heaves as I hoe...

I also replaced the comically wrong accorion typ upper radiatorhose that was crispy and rubbing against the P.S. resivoir ~ this guy was going to let his 16 year old DAUGHTER drive it it was a death trap , now it's just a great old work / Farm truck again .

The regular old Delcotron alternator is a recent rebuild and it charges a nice , even 14.5 VDC even at idle speeds , as the headlights are kinda yellowy I'm thinking they're the originals and maybe I'll replace with some Halogen ones or maybe a pair of # 6015 truck sealbeams , these are great but few know about them , I've been buying them for $1 Ea. at closeouts for years...

.

[Zig]

Originally Posted by vwnate1

FWIW , the Thinwall 292 C.I.D. InLine 6 cylinder engine , was GM's very last true InLine truck engine and it's a CHEVROLET engine , not a GMC L o n g Motor .

Sorry to have typed without thinking. At least the tailgate says
GMC
That's close~

[vwnate1]

It's still a darn good truck , not like the new Cadillac pickups I see with rhinestones on them , all over L.A..... sheesh .

SWMBO has been making it impossible to work on it so to-night I hope to drive it home and yank the entire driveshaft for service and maybe the leaky exhaust manifold too , plus some other fiddles , as it'll be dead in my drive a few days until I get the driveline done , I may rip into the dash board as it's wonky in a new & strange way , I hate having non working things , no illumination etc. .

I'm thinking of re-connecting the original fuel tank again too as the cap on the added on 2nd tank seems to leak upon takeoff from a dead stop .

I have to wait for my son to get some time to help me load the new seat in , I've dyed it red as best I can , I hope it looks O.K. , it should be clean & comfy , that's the most important part to me .

I got a strange call from an old freind Tuesday night , I think they're angling to ride along with me... might be fun but I'm still trying to get SWMBO to go .

[vwnate1]

Finding DPO mistakes and broken things is good

Last night I discovered the carby is a recent rebuilt (good) & they neglected to use any lockwashers in mounting it so it was loose and wobbling back & forth (more good as now I've found the wierd idle problem I'm sure .

I also found two blown out exhaust header to head gaskets , that's a plus too as each of these little niggly things I find & fix , means it'll run better when I button it back up .

This time , NO stripped / crossthreaded holes although a few missing or wrong hardware issues and some old stiff , cracked and leaky hoses .

It's a 6 cylinder and has twice that many hoses under the hood . Once I stop all those vacuum leaks , it'll run tops again , doesn't run bad now but idles too fast and misses at idle occasionally .

The bi-mettalic choke spring thingie was of course, assembles bass-ackwards plus the snap on cover was 180° out , that's a common thing and easily rectified .

I really need to find a service book on the Rochester MonoJet single barrel carby ~ it has an electric anti-diesel / idle speed control solenoid that needs adjusting , on the back of it is a big nut with an allen screw in the middle , I *think* I'm to loosen the nut and turn the allen screw to adjust the idle but I'd rather know for sure before I wreck a $75 parts I'm not going to find in the junkyard .

I'm confident this thing will whizz though the SMOG test once I get all this done .

I dropped the driveshaft , only the front U-Joint was notchy although all were dry and stiff being the originals . It's supposed to be picked up to-day for rebuilding , the center support cusion is shot too .

# 1 son says he'll come over Sunday morning and help me load in the new seat .