What did you do to your non-G Body project today [2024 edition]

[CopperNick]

With the cover for the Monte's radiator air duct completed and set in place by way of both storing it and keeping it from getting dinged, my attention turned back to the Indian Chief Girder front forks that I had been working on during the winter.

What I had been waiting for finally appeared HOT WEATHER!!!😀.

Got the forks out of the basement, converted my portable vise to a jig to support the forks and had at 'er. Sanding, priming, shot, resand, tack rag, reprime in red this time, sand the red, second coat, check surface, shoot the color; Red, of course, let it flash and cure for a day, check the shot, color sand, second color coat, Clear coat. Discover damage to the fist clear coat shot due to the fixture scritching the existing finish. Feather that out, plus a few other owwies that all-of-a-sudden arose to aggravate me, tack that, reprime, and reshoot the color for that specific area only. Clear coat, clear coat, clear coat. Walk away and let it dry.

Adapted my wheel truing stand to support the fork upper pivot tube using one of the truing shafts. Dismounted the spot lights from their stand and brought the stand in to support the other end; slipped a section of thread rod into the axle clamps and ran on some nuts to each end to keep it from trying to escape. Brought the fork in from the shop and set it on the truing stand to finish drying, Thinking as many as two or more weeks before I consider returning it back to its trees and going ahead with the front end re-assembly. That finally done................

Back to the van. Did the annual summer chassis grease job and checked the prop shaft cross bearing retainer cap screws for tight. Put the new jack with its custom lift spacer under the front end and lifted the van high enough to get the jack stands out; put the van on the ground!!

Went for a first start, primed the oil system and BUPKUS!!!! Not even a whisper of a click. Battery charger alleged that it had done its job and the battery was ready to boogie. Being chronically suspicious by nature, I phoned the Napa shop, found that they had AGM compatible solid state chargers on deal, and bought one. That unit told me that the battery was 95% percent charged and only took about 10 minutes to finish that job. Twist of the key, and??? STILL BUPKUS!!!

Okay, no hair available to tear so start checking the wiring. No rats, mice, coons, snakes, or rabbits to blame so, broken connections, loose wire ends, WTF?? Get out my self propelled continuity tester, hook it up, and it makes all kinds of good noises so not the subsystems.

Tester says that I have power on the fat 3/8ths stud on the solenoid, and this is a van so the starter can be got at without having to slither under the vehicle and dig around, so a fast trip to the tool box and back with the longest shank cabinet point screw driver that I have, and jump the main wire to the solenoid and RRRR-rrr, RRRR-rrr, RRRR-rrr, RRRR-rrr; it's Not the starter. Only thing left to consider is the neutral safety switch. Which is located on the steering outer jacket underneath the dash but not so hard to get at, which was good because it was not plugged in!!! HUH?!?!

Only thing I can think of is that I unplugged it when I was trying to track and identify the colors of the wires for the key switch and did not remember to plug it back in or was planning on revisiting that location for further digging around and got side-tracked (lot of that going around in my world recently) I had already taken a poke at it a bit earlier and felt that it was hooked up but evidently it had disagreed with me and wanted to be attached correctly. it is a two tab connection so both tabs have to be mated to the socket or no joy. Snap it into place, again, and RRRR-rrr, RRRR-rrr, RRRR-rrr, RRRR-rrr; Well, All Right!!!

Still took a bit more coaxing before it elected to fire. Not surprising as the float bowls were empty and the fuel pump needed to catch up which took a minute. The other aspect is that the choke is set soft and it is so warm that any encouragement of the carb with the wha-wha pedal can kick the choke off and annoy the engine into being finicky to fire and idle. But it did.

Still need to fire it again and check the gears since I did drop the pan and change both it and the oil out for new. Also have to check the stick to make sure that the pan is full' I may have to slightly lift the nose of the van up an inch or four to get level to get and accurate check on the pan. Perils of being raked,nose down.

Only downer at this point is that I did not manage to get the A/FR gauge up and running. The gauge is in and so is the harness for the O-2 sensor but Innovate insists on a clean full power supply direct from the ignition switch which would be a no brainer if I had an 84-86 steering column assembly that has the ignition switch on the mast instead of in the dash. 38 year old steering columns for vintage vans are high on the local unobtanium list and even scarce out on the peripheries so that did not help matters any. That version of the plan would have included a complete steering column change to the newer? version which would have given me open access to the key switch. Thing about the newer column is that they have a greater mast diameter which could have interferred with the column cradle and securing clamp. So no new column, no cruise, no intermittent wiper; for now. The last chapter of that saga has yet to be written.

Pictures?? neh, could be.............................





Nick

 

[CopperNick]

And for the photophiles, just a few shots of the Fork legs for my 1947 Indian Chief project. The biggest problem in shooting the paint for this was to figure out how to support the part without bruising or lacerating the freshly shot layers while they dried.

And this was my solution. At the axle end I slid in a section of thread rod for a place marker and used a couple of nuts from my polishing jig to hold it in place. What it is being supported by is the central post from an old free standing living room lamp that I found in the back lane I dunno how many decades ago now. As a lamp it was junk. As a support post for a pair of work lamps, it had found its second calling. For this exercise, I simply dismounted the lamps and set them aside to be re-attached once the paint on the forks has done drying; couple of weeks to be safe. I so do Not want to have to redo this job, it was a MPITA with all the waiting just for warm enough and dry enough weather to pull the shot.

For the top end, I had the idea of slipping the shaft from my m/c truing/balancing stand through the upper tube and securing it in place using a pair of the retaining collars. The outboard ends of the shaft are sitting on the roller bearings on each end that the shaft normally sits on for testing runout or side play on a wheel so no complications there.

The whole business is now down in my basement and can veg there unmolested until I am ready to rehang the forks and finish the entire front end re-assembly..........maybe in the fall as too much else to do and too little warm weather left to get it done in.


Nick

 

[86LK]

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And for the photophiles, just a few shots of the Fork legs for my 1947 Indian Chief project. The biggest problem in shooting the paint for this was to figure out how to support the part without bruising or lacerating the freshly shot layers while they dried.


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And this was my solution. At the axle end I slid in a section of thread rod for a place marker and used a couple of nuts from my polishing jig to hold it in place. What it is being supported by is the central post from an old free standing living room lamp that I found in the back lane I dunno how many decades ago now. As a lamp it was junk. As a support post for a pair of work lamps, it had found its second calling. For this exercise, I simply dismounted the lamps and set them aside to be re-attached once the paint on the forks has done drying; couple of weeks to be safe. I so do Not want to have to redo this job, it was a MPITA with all the waiting just for warm enough and dry enough weather to pull the shot.


View attachment 242855




For the top end, I had the idea of slipping the shaft from my m/c truing/balancing stand through the upper tube and securing it in place using a pair of the retaining collars. The outboard ends of the shaft are sitting on the roller bearings on each end that the shaft normally sits on for testing runout or side play on a wheel so no complications there.

The whole business is now down in my basement and can veg there unmolested until I am ready to rehang the forks and finish the entire front end re-assembly..........maybe in the fall as too much else to do and too little warm weather left to get it done in.


Nick

kinda looks like my garage with all the crap packed away in there 😆 , except you can actually WORK in your garage. I have to pull stuff outside

 

[CopperNick]

😀!!! The pop that was just heard was me bursting a thought bubble here. Those pictures weren't taken in my garage/shop. That set of shots was done in my basement! The wheel balancer is located and zeroed to Indian Project Bench Two. All zeroed means that the fixture bubble is centered in its little bath of alcohol. If you look at the background in the one shot, you can see the clock, red of course, and it is actually located on the multi-level upper sideboard that sits on Indian Project Bench One. Yup, that job has so many components waiting to be installed that when I built those benches a few years ago, I ended up creating two of them. The legs are 2x4's that were cut to match and then bolted together. The matched pairs were then attached to each other using stringers and the whole thing measured for square. Come to think of it, somewhere on this forum I think that I actually posted pictures of the build. Anyway, the top counter is 1" plywood and and so is the shelf below. Both One and Two are on wheels so they can be moved around if space is needed....(Yeah, Right.......like my basement is long on surplus space for anything......)

Since today was a major rotation and sorting and moving day for the contents of my shop, I guess I will have to take some pictures of my Infamous Bay One as it is actually Empty right now! Not for long, but four hours of concentrated effort this afternoon got the whole bay sorted and everything re-assigned and pigeon-hole according to pending need or demand.

I might just happen to have a buyer for a double wide sized furnace and maybe a Generac portable generator that I acquired during the last power outage and never got set up; still in the box and unassembled.

Oh, and yeah, I get the push it outside thing too. That is something that pretty much has to happen if I am dealing with stripping or sanding heavy metal or bits that have been out in the swamp for more than a lifetime. In fact I have a Blazer sway bar that might just make its way to under my Monte that is going to need some serious sanding and smoothing to find out what is under the multiple layers of Kay-rudd.


Nick

 

[MrSony]

fixed the floppy tilt on the k1500. lost the ****ing upper spring.

mad is an understatement.

 

[CopperNick]

So today, due mainly to apparent necessity, became a spark plug changing day. The recipient was my non G-Body G-10 van. Here we see the corpsicles of the old plugs. Reading from left to right you first see in order 8, 6, 4, 2, and then next in sequence, 1, 3, 5, 7. That little length of hose residing in between the two banks became my go to tool when it came time to thread in the new plugs. You'll see why in a pic or two.

All that blurriness is actually the layer of carbon that had managed to deposit itself on the old set of E-3's that had been in there. I will honestly say that i did get my money's worth of of these plugs as they survived the FI-Tech Fiasco, 2 years of Covid and minimal service time, and a couple of more years after that.

A last pic of the carnage that might be a little clearer as to the carbon footprint that I've amassed. My 1/4 drive torque wrench graciously consented to be the pedestal for the plugs to sit on for the pictures.

To get some idea of the archeology here, that solitary blue wire on the right side in the upper right hand quadrant of the picture is a spark plug lead, probably for Number One. That is the Only plug that can be got at from unde the hood. For all the rest you have to remove the Dog House inside the cabin and go fishing.

And my use of the term "fishing" was by no means coincidental. Although the plugs and the wires in this group of pictures seem to depict an easy to work with location................UH-UH!, No Way, Nitsch. For plugs 2-8, there is just enough room to get a plug wrench in to get them loose and a couple of fingers to finish extracting them For the install, That little section of fuel hose was THE installation tool. No way or room to get a socket in there and line the plug up with the hole otherwise. It now has a place of honour in my Specialty Kit for doing plugs.

To put this in perspective, it might prove to actually be easier to swap out plugs when there are headers involved than doing a plug swap on my van. The van never did get headers and this is one of the reasons why. The other was availability; by the time I gave them any consideration, vans were not a trendy thing anymore and most mfgrs had delisted them. Just as well.



Nick

 

[Bonnewagon]

A cooler day today, so I dragged my welding table out and proceeded to fabricate the second roll bar floor re-enforcement plate for the '68 Firebird project. I clamped the 3/16" diamond plate down to the table, heated it up with my cutting torch, and whammed on it with my small sledge hammer. I needed a 90° bend, followed by another 90° bend. Then a cut-out for the front seat bolt holes. It took me all day but was worth it. Too tired for pics.

I also hooked up the new 'T' grade welding gas hoses, and new Harris anti-backfire valves. Two at the regulator, and two at the torch. It takes a bit more pressure to get past two arrestors, but well worth the redundancy for safety sake.

 

[CopperNick]

So after doing the plug swap, I decided to take a pass at the choke on the AVS and see if it was also part of the problem. Going as far back as my wars with the Holleys, chokes have been a MPITA for me. All my Holleys ended up with cable pull manual chokes and it was a stone B**** to get them to cooperate. The only place they ever ran well was, oddly enough, up in the Black Hills and at temps around the 100+ F. point at 9 AM!! Cool air or high humidity and they flat out refused to cooperate.

The AVS did come with an electric choke and it did work right, right out of the box. Set it lean or light, however you should wish to describe it, so that the choke would come off fairly easily and quickly, even on the coldest days. Last two years, no problems; this year, well WTF????

First test fire with the new plugs, the mill still needed some pedal encouragement to fire and even though it now idles quite well, the choke is still a non starter. Fortunately the blade is frozen in the off position so that the mill will run but without a choke to help things along it will take forever to warm up to where I would be happy to drive it.

My first potential culprit was the choke element assembly. While I was doing continuity and voltage tests on the circuits, that cap and element got Hot. Hot enough that I pulled both the wires and shut down the master power switch. It cooled off okay but made me wonder if one or more coils of the element had "welded themselves together" and it was not responding to power input. My indie speed shop had a kit for an Edelbrock so out came the old one and in went the new one. No difference.

So I made the reluctant decision to see if I could find some sanity among all the self aggrandizing videos and did manage to score one nugget of knowledge from all the dreck and drivel.

With that nugget in mind, I went back into the choke and took a peek at the little lever and its pull off rod, along with that little piston. Fired some choke cleaner into the air vent passage for the choke. Supposedly it is there to let cool air enter the choke body to keep temps down to a dull roar for the element. It seemed to be clear but the linkage rod that supposedly actuated the choke plate continued to bother mee. I could move it, sort of, but not far, and the choke butterfly definitely did not appear to be reacting to any movement of the rod so, on a hunch, I shifted over to the throttle side of the carb and tripped the wah-wah linkage at the carb. SURPRISE!

The butterfly plate Drops into full choke; everything moves like it ought to, including this other rod which also seems to be actuated by the throttle and which, to my surprise, has its upper end attached to a tab that is secured to the butterfly plate cross shaft. Moving the rod by hand shows me that there is a small eccentric or cam located behind that tab and it also rides that butterly cross shaft.

So this is interesting but what is even more interesting but makes me very unhappy is that that little eccentric also flops around wildly. It seemingly does what it should but it is not particularly precise about its movements and it does seem to have some influence on how and why the choke plate will or will not close like it is supposed to.

Forget You Boob or the "Ain't I grand, I just cleaned my fan belt with a tooth brush and baking soda" Dude. For this I need someone who knows their way around this carb at a far heavier level than I do. The big question here is, Is that little eccentric supposed to flop around like it does, for whatever reason, or has it worn out after only two summers of service and, if so, do I now need to have a chat with my vendor to see if this problem is under warranty or not?

I suppose that I could submit a request for technical assistance with Edelbrock but then I'd have to deal with either a whole bunch of pointless suggestions or worse, with an AI of some kind, rather than a Mark One Mod ? human being.


Nick

 

[CopperNick]

So I did manage to ease on by the Speed Shop and get a peek at a still in the box carb and that little tab attached to that piece of linkage wobbles around on it as well. Thinking here that my next steps will be to take a series of pictures as well as locate the install guide to see if has anything to offer.



Nick

 

[MrSony]

Picked up a spring from a square body suburban for my tilt.
Nothing better than a nice tight gm tilt column after dealing with a floppy mess.

My regal got so bad when I would turn left the ignition switch would shut off.

I'll gladly spend the 5 hours cussing than have one of them little ****in screws fall out and jam the wheel.
The hardest part was getting the stupid ignition rack to stay, but wheel bearing grease (sparingly) usually holds things in place. I also use 8-32 machine screws in place of the god awful pivot pin tools that snap to draw them into a socket.