What I have done/found on Ole Blue today

[That Guy]

I was actually surprised that nothing was rusted together. All of it basically fell apart. The axle stubs came loose from the hub with the slighted tap with a hammer, all the bolts came loose fairly easy, hub wasn't rusted in... it was nice. There is absolutely no rust on this truck. Even the knuckle came out with just a few moderate whacks with a 2lb hammer. 

 

Got everything buttoned up and...WOW.... it's steering is almost on par with my Prius. Better than the 2012, and way better than the chevy. Alignment is out, but I'll take it.

[dripley]

Mine was anything but easy.

[Mopar1973Man]

Agreed. My wheel joint required 100 ton press. Then ballpoint required exploding one before figuring out a trick. Even my shock required 4 foot cheater bar. Nothing comes off easy.

[LorenS]

On 11/28/2020 at 1:58 PM, dripley said:

I do have 3 sealed new old stock ones for the drive shaft. Thats the ones on mine that are still OE.

Over 500k miles on driveshaft u-joints?!?! That's amazing! 😲

Edited November 30, 2020 by LorenS

[That Guy]

12 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Agreed. My wheel joint required 100 ton press. Then ballpoint required exploding one before figuring out a trick. Even my shock required 4 foot cheater bar. Nothing comes off easy.

It took some persuasion the u joint to come out. Ended up bending one of the ears on the shaft slightly. Got it straightened out and hit it with a hammer near the joint with pressure on it till it went BANG... 3 or 4 times and that was fun. But it was only a 20 ton jack in a 30 ton press. My shocks came loose without fuss, didn't even need both arms. Did that in the field. 

 

I happen by SouthMainAuto on youtube every now and then, seeing cars from up north with the salt... a rust bucket down here is considered solid in some on those places.

[That Guy]

I was digging around in my growing collection of 2nd gen parts looking for the spacers for the coolant hose along the exhaust manifold (found it) and found a mint driver side door grab for a 94-98 that I didn't realize I had. I simply didn't have one there. Last I touched the interior, I replaced the driver side door panel with 99-02 one and the grabs are different. With that, the interior of the truck is finished. It's nice to have so many parts you start forgetting what you have.

 

The heater is now hooked up and works well, but the vent actuator for the defrost/dash vents is bad and means it is stuck on defrost currently and, the cable for the blend door came undone. I'm trying to figure out if it is worth rolling the dash to reattach it or just use a tiny set of vice grips on the end of the shaft by the passengers foot. So far the vice grips work well enough to deter me from touching the dash for the time being. Im hoping the actuator is still good on the parts truck. Looks reachable without touching the dash as well. That is right after the brakes on the list.

 

About 2 weeks ago I finally got around to wiring in the fuel pump and the fog lamps. I honestly haven't the foggiest idea of what I did previously to get the fuel pump keyed to the ignition. Whatever I did ended up a stripped end of the + wire loose laying on the driver fender. It is now working off of the number one fuel pump relay that was unused until now.

 

I originally had the last fog lamps wired in the way the factory had it with a factory switch. Since mine didn't have the harness from the factory so I made a simple wiring harness for it. It was lazily and cheaply done, but the terminations were well done. I elected not to wire it in the factory manner this go around. Instead of using the headlight switch as a power supply, I pulled the power to the relay from the keyed feed wire in the fuse box that feeds the fuel pump. I ran the ground of the relay to a switch in front of the xfer case shifter which is then grounded to the dash frame. Works well, and no chance of leaving them on by accident.

 

The red wires are factory splices, the white, blue, brown and purple are my splices. I used pre tinned aviation wire (the white braided stuff) simply because that was just sitting around.

 

 

There was an oil leak from the valve covers and thought my seals needed replacing again. They are silicone ones from when I replaced the factory ones years ago, but they seemed fine and perfectly flexible so I reused them. Since the truck isn't even registered currently, I haven't been too worried running around the farm. I decided to put my borescope to use and saw that the gaskets had just been pinched under the covers on the back side of #1 and 6. I took the covers off and reset the gasket. Still looks/feels new. I believe that fixed it but we'll see.

 

Now there is the brake issue and the power steering leaking from some unknown location. Apparently the reverse lights don't work for some reason. I'll have to deal with them once I get back to the farm towards January.

Edited December 7, 2020 by That Guy

[That Guy]

I have finally made it back to Louisiana, and by extension, my truck. 

 

I am greeted by no power steering or power brakes. Degreased and pressure washed the engine so I can look for leaks. Somehow, it appears as though my power steering tank is leaking at the big oring between the pump and tank. It leaks with the engine off and sitting. 

 

Also finally bit the bullet and ordered a fan shroud from summit. Waiting on it to get here through shipping delays. 

 

Final discovery, I have one cylinder that has considerably more blowby than the others. Opening the oil fill while running shows a noticeable chuffing that you can feel. Not sure what to do on that yet.

[dripley]

Well I cant help with all that from here. But I life goes like it looks I will be in LaPlace LA soon. Any chance that is near Bossier city? 

[That Guy]

Thats down by NoLa, I'm literally on the opposite end of the state along I-20. End of the week we are all going to Arizona for a wedding. After that, be working on the truck a bit more.

[Mopar1973Man]

On 6/8/2021 at 10:25 AM, That Guy said:

Somehow, it appears as though my power steering tank is leaking at the big oring between the pump and tank. It leaks with the engine off and sitting.

Sad but true you need to buy a power steering pump. There is no option that I know of to just purchase just the o-ring.

 

On 6/8/2021 at 10:25 AM, That Guy said:

I have one cylinder that has considerably more blowby than the others. Opening the oil fill while running shows a noticeable chuffing that you can feel. Not sure what to do on that yet.

 

Compression test will tell the full story. I don't trust blow by test being its possible to have one cracked piston and still pass the blow by test. Being that @jlweldingwas the one that proved that when he was fighting a miss fire problem years ago right on this forum.

[That Guy]

May be able to source an oring from mcmaster or some such, but ill likely just get another pump. 190k of a farmer never changing or checking the fluid,im sure its a bit worn.

 

As for compression, there is one cylinder that sounds audibly different as it runs in idle. Has done it since I've had the truck... so 2011? I'm not losing sleep over it anyway, but it would be nice to know. Maybe original owner glazed a cylinder? Said he used to idle it all day when doing work... 14 hours a day in the field. 
 

Side note, I was offered $8600 cash a few days ago for it. Turned him down. 

[Haggar]

Try these:

 

 

HTH

Hag

[Mopar1973Man]

Right on I didn't know this was available.  Cool!  thanks for the info I'll keep that in mind!

Edited June 17, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[Dieselfuture]

Looking on rock auto they have oring kits too, thinking of getting an Edelman one as my housing is damp, I'm sure just a matter of time before big oring leaks.