LUVTruck.com

Just thought I'd relate my latest tale of another LUV that would have otherwise been left to rot being revived. I have been sorta waiting until I got it on the road and some of the bugs worked out, but at last its what I'd call a runner. I sold my white 79 4x4 a while back, which came to me full of problems from wiring and mechanical issues to abused interior and a horrible body lift. When it left, I had brought it up to nice looking inside/out and a solid daily driver. Now I'm starting back up with another basket case. This one has years of prior-owner-shouldn't-own-tools-itis.

The latest patient is another 79 4x4. This time its black, well sort of. The last owner painted it with textured trunk paint. You know the stuff with all those little chunks of blue gunk in it? It also has 60 series tires on chrome outer/gold center modular 15 inch rims. Not exactly a match for a 4x4. The doors, hood, and bed all appear to have been swapped from a yellow 77 truck. The cab and fenders are original and were once white with a dual pinstripe down the side. There is a dent in the back right corner of the bed (easy fix) and both rocker panels have a little bit of a ding in them, but the whole body is rust free. The interior is downright nasty looking with two exceptions. The seat was not long ago recovered in plain brown vinyl, and the floor has only a little surface rust under the scraps of black carpet. The dash of course is toast, but it is limited to cracks on the upper portion, so a cap should cover all the bad spots.

Mechanically, it has good and bad. I started with what I thought was a head gasket problem, but found the head was cracked into the #3 combustion chamber. I put a good head together with the bottom end and it runs, though with a slight knock at mid rpms. It runs solid and has good compression and oil pressure so for know its good enough. I had to pull both calipers apart and clean the crud out so they wouldn't stick, and it needs a wheel bearing repack on the side that was really getting hot. (both sides really though) The idler arm bracket bushing is totally shot, but the rest of the steering linkage is still fairly tight.

I had an uphill battle getting it just roadworthy. The gas tank had a half inch of some pinkish crud in the bottom, enough to clog the pickup tube. Most of the lights were screwed up somehow or another. It has 4 headlights, but only two were wired. Three out of the four were actually factory original Toshiba bulbs that still put out light.

Here's the list of what has been done so far:

Head and gasket replaced
Oil changed 2x, seafoam added first time to clear glop
Weber 32/32 carb installed (manual choke, not staying long, my test carb)
Brake calipers rebuilt, good pads installed
Replaced taillight assemblies (had paint on lenses and broken parts behind)
Cleaned paint from lenses on front turn signals
Replaced broken grill
Replaced broken headlight surrounds with ones polished down to chrome
Cheap Grant steering wheel replaced with Mikado wheel
Rewired 4 headlights into 2 light harness, relays to bat in progress
Headlights upgraded to halogens
Fuel tank replaced (now to fix the F--$@#! guage sender in the rplcmt tank)
Rear diff pinion nut retorqued, hoping to hold off rebuild for a while
rewired fuel pump to relays instead of acc hot wire
Paint overspray removed from all outer window surfaces (ugh, it was nasty)
Wiper shaft seals replaced
Windshield gasket leak sealed


Next on the list:
Patch a crack at the muffler inlet (until I can get it in to have 2"+ pipe run)
Repack front wheel bearings/hubs and replace a broken lug bolt
Straighten front bumper (its not bad, but has a couple of areas that need help)
Swap carb to stocker, need auto choke back, might try the 32/36 I have before it gets put on my 77 though
Pull fuel tank sender and repair/replace
Replace heater control valve(slight leak)



So far I'm out $150 for the truck, $25 for a head gasket, another $30-40 in intake/exhaust gaskets and hoses. Actually, almost all the gaskets/hoses I had stocked up before I ever bought the truck. Everything else has been has been sweat equity and parts pulled from my collection. I took a gamble on the head not having it machined/cleaned at a shop, but that would have cost almost as much as the truck. It is well within spec for flat, and after I got done it was almost as clean as a freshly shaved job. So, from junker to driver, it has cost me around $250 to get this one back on the road. The only cost at the time I put it together was oil, filters, antifreeze, and can of Seafoam. Won't be long at all and I'll have more in gas spent than money on the truck.

Plans for the future? I have thoughts of lift, tires/wheels, maybe 2.3l or 2.6l isuzu motor, but one thing is for certain. There will be a full paintjob, the trunk paint has to go, and soon

Good deal man. You need to get some pics of it posted...

_________________
Resident lurker

yes pics definitely....I wanna see that snazzy paint job!

sounds like good news about the dash and being able to be just capped.

just re-wire the entire thing.....guess I say that cause I like wiring....

_________________
03Cobra

luv4me, about the wiring... it showed. I plan to copy some of what you did by hiding as much of my wiring as I can. Can't say that I like wiring though!

_________________
Resident lurker

ok just be sure and make a diagram.....I couldn't stress that enough.
very helpful and keeps you from being way confused!!! lol

_________________
03Cobra

Hopefully it wont be too bad, I got a new harness from ez wiring. So having the wiring labelled every 5in should help a little... I'll make a diagram too though, thanks.

_________________
Resident lurker

oh and if you pull the entire harness out of the truck, lay it on the ground as it would sit in the truck, you can kind of get ideas on how long to make the new harness.

_________________
03Cobra

thread hijack complete......

_________________
03Cobra

Sorry about that 800xl!

Sounds like you've put a fair amount of work into the truck. When it turns out just they way you want it to, it won't seem like work at all...

_________________
Resident lurker

Not exactly a hijack. It is true I have some wiring work to do on this thing. I've almost got the cab grounded well enough to get rid of the glowing gen light. I planned to wire the headlights through relays straight to the battery already. So far I'm not having any probs running 4 bulbs over the wiring from the 2 bulb truck, but I worry that some time the thermal trip circuit breaker under the dash is going to decide the little bit extra of wattage is too much. I blew the main lighting fuse on my 77 once, sliding sideways around a corner on a gravel road in complete darkness, that was enough for me. Wiring priority number one right now is getting the gas guage to work right though. I know I rely on it too much, I'll end up walking if its not fixed soon.

One other tidbit I found today. The heater control valve on 77 and older trucks is mostly metal, and pretty well built. The valve on 79 (perhaps 78s) and newer trucks is an all plastic pile of crap. I have one on a 1980 truck that is not so worn I can tell they leak without having water in them. Out of four 79-80 trucks, that is one that *might* not leak. To swap for the older, better style you have to take the valve off bracket and all (just the bolted on part) but they seem to interchange just fine.

I know what you mean about those valves. took the metal one (among a host of other things) off my 75 before I sent it to the yard.

I've been having a problem w/ my 76 lately. seems when I pull out the lighting switch, the pass side blinker doesn't work. when the running or headlights are off though, it works like it should. driving me nutty...

_________________
Resident lurker

The only place those circuits could be easily connected would be in the front combo lamp. If the bulb is in crooked it might connect the park light circuit to the blinker circuit. Other than that, I would think it would be a short in the harness, somewhere, anywhere. Pull the bulb on the front, try it, if everything works right then you know if wiggling the bulb around to fit in right is going to help or not.

I just spent a couple days getting the front and rear turn signals working right on this truck so I know how much of a pain they can be. At one point I had all the front park lights and the tail lights working, until I stepped on the brake. Then one of the tails went out and the brake light on that side didn't come on. Don't know why, but the bulb was not making good contact and that is what it decided to do.

I didn't check the bulbs out I will have to check that, thanks...

_________________
Resident lurker

More progress over the last couple days. Last night was fuel delivery time. After rewiring the fuel pump back over to the relays, I pulled the Weber 32/32 because I got tired of the loose adapter plate whistling at me. Swapped in an adapter I had just lapped nice and flat, cleaned up, and made new gaskets for. Topped it off with a Weber 32/36 that I've had sitting for quite a while. Of course right off the bat it ran like crap. Still pulled hard going down the road, but would not idle at all.

This morning I pulled both idle jets (look for a brass screw on either side side of the carb body) and the ends were clogged with gunk. Cleaned them up and shot some seafoam deepcreep in the holes they came out of, and stuck them back in. Without stepping on the gas it took about 1/3 of a rev for the motor to fire up, and now it idles like it was electric. I even set my coffee cup on the valve cover while it was running. After I did lean best idle adjustment I went just out of town for a spin. Dry pavement tire spin from a full stop and noticable 2nd gear bark isn't too bad for a 1.8L with nothing but carb.

What I like most is that it now starts without effort, hot or cold. One press of the gas when its cold to cycle the choke linkage, turn the key, and I can drive away. That old 32/32 manual choke was aggravating. It ran great warm, but to drive it while it was still warming up you had to constantly adjust the choke for the first 10 minutes. Performance is just slightly better with the 32/36, I guess even a 32/32 weber is a lot more flow than a stock Hitachi.

Just thought I'd update this and add a couple pics. The truck is running pretty well, though I think I will need to rebuild the Weber before too long. I'm holding off because it is already hard to keep in under 70 and the back roads around here. Any tickets would cut into the budget for the truck.

Spent the day freezing my butt off pulling the front bumper and getting some turn signals in place that work all the time instead of when they feel like it. I also got the last of the painted-black-by-some-dumbass marker lights replaced and capped the day off by bolting on the brush guard that has been hiding in my garage.

Before I got started:


After (wife driving just leaving in the bg ):



In case you are wondering, yeah that is 4 headlights and 4x4 on the same truck. Its sort of like that Johnny Cash song: "I got it one piece at a time and it didn't cost me a dime" You also get a pretty clean shot of what the quad light trim bits looks like if you strip that ugly paint off them. Now if I can just get something besides those 15 inch 60 series tires on there. I can't wait to get them slicks out on the snow/ice the weather is promising around here at the end of the week.