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7/31/07 The wiring is not yet completed on the FIRE repair. Gary has some ideas on why the AC is not triggering, and we are waiting on a vacuum canister due in tomorrow at AutoZone. The vehicle is drivable, windows work, but no AC, and some other functions are not up to speed. The windshield wipers work, but not the washer function, as Mike broke the union connecting the two different sized vacuum lines/water outlets together. Mike is due back tomorrow, and I'm hoping our parts come in and we get the vacuum system corrected. 8/28/07 We did get it all back together, but then the AC just wouldn't work consistently. I had played with the connector and thought there was something in the wiring or connector that was intermittent. Finally, TODAY, Roy and I messed with it and Roy felt there was a bad connection in the plug at the compressor. He fiddled with the contacts, we put it back together, and the system seems to be working. We then addressed the noises under the front end whenever I hit the slightest bump. Roy and I pulled out the headlight surrounds, added some screws to the grille which were missing, tightened up the right turn signal lamp with some creative work, and I remade the radiator hold-down brackets. The brackets were attached to the rear top fin of the radiator with self-tapping sheet metal screws, which had worked loose. I bent the bracket in my handy-dandy brake and provided access to bolt it through the fin. I also added some rubber padding under the hood prop rod. All this summed in a small difference in the noise level. I looked under again and the sway bar bushings looked shot, so Roy pulled the sway bar off and I went searching for bushings. The bushings should arrive tonight around 6 PM at AutoZone. Without the sway bar it was slightly better, but there still is something moving under there. Next we will make some battery hold-downs to eliminate them as a source of ballistic noise. I also wrapped the AC line where it was tinkling against the intercooler tubing, and added a wire support for the intake and air cleaner to keep it from bouncing on the fender well. Perhaps in sum it will all make the difference. NOW, I have to get working on the gauge cluster panel. We also did some finagling with the loss of power to the cluster. For a while, it was EVERY OTHER time I started it that the power was off to the cluster. After about 15 of those, it started to become random. Multo weird. 9/1/07 Roy and I spent Thursday making a battery hold-down for the driver's side battery. We also remounted the power/fuse system on the fenderwell, and added a mount to the wood computer box between the fuse box and battery. This, too, helped somewhat with the vibration, however the major “rattle” is not yet corrected. More looking to be done. 9/21/07 I had Papa Joe Montalto out here to work on the Graham radiator, and commence on the left side dash panel for the dually. Joe said I needed to buy a complete original bezel before he could start any fabrication. I did so, and made a template up myself. It may or may not be ultimately usable, but I'll go as far as possible with it while Joe works the radiator project. Notwithstanding our efforts, there still are some rattlings underneath. Everything drives fine and works, but the odd noises are frustrating. They sound so much like exhaust hitting the floor. I'll check again.
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