This is a post of an on going saga but since i can't find my original postings on the subject, I'll provide a little background and then go into the meat of the last few days. First off before i begin, most of the work over the past days has been one handed. My right hand is pretty non-functional cause it just got fuzed (sp?). I've been going absolutely stir crazy not being able to do anything except watch reruns of old movies. I snuck out to the shop and got busy.
First thing done was the dog head mod. Slight variation that I did was to remove the wires from the plug. Easy to do and makes for two less wires that must be cut and modified. All you do is insert a small screw driver into the face of the plug (where it plugs into the old switch) give it a little twist and it almost falls out. Two wires fit perfect on the male connectors provided with the dog head. I cut the other two and used a one handed wire stripper to strip the other two. Picked out the correct sized yellow connector and poof, done. Drilled an extra hole for the second bolt holding the dog head on its plate (vise works wonders), scrounged up a couple correctly sized bolts with lock washer and reinstalled everything. Total time taken: two hours. Have to think out each step, scrutinize it thoroughly and give it a try. Ended up redoing several tasks more than once but I kept busy and got it done. Pictures are already posted repeatedly so i won't take one unless someone really needs to see it.
Second job is and has been since purchase a recurring fuel deivery problem. I confirmed today that somewhere between the tank and the filter is an air leak. Once the engine shuts down, the fuel drains back into the tank. The truck would start but once the filter fuel was gone, engine shut down every time.
Parts changed included: mechanical pump, fuel filter, fuel sending unit, almost every hose, fuel filter manifold (didn't work, bought the one for a dodge CUCV, slightly different and wont work on a Chevy), two electric diesel fuel pumps (burnt the first one up) assorted wiring, hoses, clamps and that's about it. Most of the hardware (clamps bolts, etc) came from my immense hoard of hardware accumulated over the span of decades worth of yard sales. got almost one of everything. Somethings I didn't know i had.
Before the surgery I set up the new electric pump, a 5 gallon can of clean diesel, fuel hoses and assorted wiring for the pump. the idea was to completely bypass everything except the mechanical pump and filter and see if it would run. Ran out of time and battery juice so today i finally was able to test the idea. Been charging the batteries slowly for the past two days so they had a good solid charge.
The test: I placed the pump so it sat on the body just in front of the front battery. Placed a coffee can next to the rear battery for the filter drain. Cut a 5 +/- foot length of 5/16th fuel hose and ran it from the diesel can to the intake on the pump. The out put from the pump was routed to the input to the mechanical pump using a two way bayonet fitting. Once all the connections were visually checked i hooked up the pump and pressurized the system. Everything was working great, fuel was flowing from the bleed port, all was good...no it wasn't. I faintly heard the sound of dripping into my drip pan under the truck. Dog gone fuel filter is leaking. Swapped the filter out, still leaking. Pulled the manifold, nothing looked wrong. Re-hooked up everything, still leaked.
At this point, sanity would tell most intelligent mechanics to stop, put everything away and go order parts. Nope, not me. I are a 100% trained military mekanik. I kan fix anyting!!! So (bleep) it ....SAFETY NOTE: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!! I plugged in the pump, shut off the bleed valve, made sure the drain line was closed and ran for the ignition switch. After three tries, VROOM she started up with a big cloud of Wyoming dust. She's been sitting for almost a year not running at all and that dust gets into everything. Anywway, after letting it run until I could push down the peddal and the squeal went away (another problem, another day) I shut it down and ran for the pump to shut it down. Total run time was about 10 minutes. The longest i got it to run before was 20-30 seconds. Now i know she'll run and run good, I'll backtrack to the tank and find that darn leak so I can have my shop back.
Things left to do: replace shocks
Fix fuel problem
repair window washer fluid tank (hole halfway up the side)
Install new rearview mirror (was in my parts stash. Didn't even know I had it)
Replace rear bumper and pintle (gonna be a while, gotta create a fixture to pick it up IT'S HEAVY!)
Then do the nitnoids...paint, restore the interior...all that fun stuff.
Time for medicine, hands in heap big ouch mode. more later.