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7/24/11
The front amp
continues to not function. I did find, however, the elusive
SpectraSonics amp setup, so I can send or give them to Greg at
Monolithic. I will call him tomorrow and see what his schedules portends
for a visit here. If he is another few weeks out, I will pull the dually
front amp out and send it along with the SS stuff to him.
Randy feels I need
another AC outlet in the truck, so I will reconnect the passenger side
later this week.
There are two leaks
in the cooling system: 1-the oil cooler at the op, likely the gasket and
2-something at the lower left of the radiator core. This leak is not
observable, as the fan and shroud shield it. So this whole assembly must
come out for a look. Meanwhile, I carry a gallon jug of water with me at
all times.
Kelly and I pulled
the radiator/intercooler out, and we see no obvious point of leakage.
Sam from Allstate will come by in 30 minutes and pick it up, as I don’t
want to grunge up the Tbird.
I am about to
pressure wash the engine compartment, and look for the core support
bolts which I believe to be loose. This may require sliding the
condenser out.
I will leave the
opening I cut in the vertical member of the core support, as it now
allows-AS IT SHOULD HAVE-for access to remove the bolt EASILY. I may
expose the right side bolt as well at this point.
Kelly and I were
elated that we got the f---n bolt out. Perhaps this will cure much of
the front end rattling.
I will take the
truck to DPS for whatever is required to seal up the oil cooler gasket.
I am DEFINITELY not going to attempt it again this time!
I drove 50 miles one
way this morning to Ventura to Coast Driveline, but Mark was intolerant
of my 42 minutes late arrival due to traffic, so booked TWO other jobs
in my place. Mighty fast work on his part! I drove home, and removed the
driveshafts and took them to Cannon in North Hollywood. He is a strange
guy. His office looks like someone backed a truck full of driveshafts up
to the door and hit the dump button. He is a driveshaft hoarder. Perhaps
I’ll take some pix tomorrow.
Anyway, he claims my
front shaft is very heavy, and might be a balance culprit. He will let
me know tomorrow. This half was made by Wenco 5 years ago, and appears
to be quite overkilled, and not to much benefit.
This could end up
being $400 if he replaces that tube. The rear U-joint was starting to
wear.
Oh boy.
The whole thing came
to $240, and made no big difference. I will have the wheels all balanced
individually, and see if that helps.
We put it up today
on the rack (on its maiden voyage on the new casters), and used about 4
cans of degreaser, power washed the WHOLE underside and engine, and
serviced the air cleaner.
I had Flip’s check
the wheels and tires, and they found nothing. Still some vibration.
Power Brake Bob came
by yesterday to do the Impala brake line bleeding, found some adjustment
issues, and got the Impala working great. He stayed last night and found
two or three issues with the dually:
1-the right wheel
bearing was WAY loose. He and Kelly got that wheel off, greased, and
back on. Bob says the brake pads in front are charcoal, so we will be
replacing those shortly.
He sees there are
two proportioning valves on the brakes, and feels the rears are not
properly powered.
On the way back from
some errands, the truck started to heat quickly. We pulled into a
Chevron, and after 5 minutes of frustrating dribbling of water into the
radiator, I looked under and saw the lower hose was not on!!!
I bought 3 gallons
of drinking water and 2 gallons of coolant, a total of $46, and with
patience got 4.5 gallons of liquid back in, SO FAR SO GOOD.
Utterly amazing.
You gotta be alert
to EVERYTHING.
Bob REALLY knows his
stuff. And his innovative skills are not limited to brakes. He has some
really good ideas on the KK.
The dually brakes
are better: higher pedal, more pressure. However, the out-of-round rear
drums are now showing themselves. So I need to have them turned, maybe
tomorrow. The replacement of the wobbling rotor seems to have cured the
freeway vibration. So I replaced tires and rebuilt the driveshafts, only
to find it was the rotor.
The entire front
rotor assembly was replaced, as now are the rear drums, another $300.
The pulsating stopping is worse than ever, the pedal is lower, and the
truck hops around under hard braking at speed.
Bob will not return
until at least Thursday. I need to get the right rear emergency brake
cable replacement in hand before he comes. I will try Kay Distributors
tomorrow for that.
We will probably
replace the left front rotor, to make this an ALL new brake system.
Of course not a
single rise in temp, using no water, but still carrying the fiver in
case.
Bob Sweeting did
work on the brakes, and they got worse. It turns out the new right rotor
assembly is not true. We took off the rear drum assemblies today and had
them turned. Still wobbly. Bob then pinched off the right front wheel
caliper hose and we took a test drive. That showed the left side NOT
wobbling.
We reversed it, and
the right side showed as the culprit. Mind you, this is a NEW $200 rotor
assembly. We will turn that one Monday morning at Brake Masters (they
did a good job for $20 today), and hopefully that will end the matter. I
got a brake pedal rubber cover, so that looks and feels nicer.
This brake thing is
approaching $1200.
I still have three
rotors to return Monday for about $400 cash.
Drove over to Brake
Masters, and they wanted $150 to pull off the wheels and turn both
rotors. We took them off (well Bob did), and they turned them for $30
for the pair. Bob got it back together, and says the surfaces need to
seat in, but otherwise all is good. I still have to locate a right rear
e-brake cable, as the CarQuest repair cable was of now value.
Bob suggest going to
the dealer, which I will do tomorrow on my return-the-rotors run.
Still have not
gotten Nick to do the fender work on the dually.
JJ and I went to the
NHRA Museum today for a fascinating panel discussion on the last day of
Lions Drag Strip.
On the way home we
stopped in Hollywood at Musso and Franks for dinner. We parked around
the corner on Las Palmas, and came out to find the truck TOWED.
We walked about a
mile and a half to the tow yard, and for a mere $225.50 PLUS $68 for the
parking ticket, I got the truck back.
RIDICULOUS!
The sign is not well
posted, and it turns out we got there JUST before 6 PM.
I have blown off the
lower radiator hose three times in the last few months. I had Kelly
double clamp it a week ago, and it popped off two days later in the
driveway. Either there is great air in the system, or a head gasket is
pushing pressure in the system.
I will contact DPS
on Monday for an opinion.
The radio/CD is
HORRIBLE in its loose-ground symptom, and of course the non-working
front amp. There is AWFUL alternator whine in the system. So sad that
Rob Anderson no longer will pay attention to the car projects. This and
the condor are in big need of hifi help.
I left a message for
John at DPS.
The puke tank was
empty this morning, needing about a gallon.
Strange.
John took it for two
days, and all he did was drive it about 5 times around the block to
purge the air in the system. He claims no other issues exist. I brought
it back here, and a week later it has not overheated, but has a drip
under the oil cooler. I’ll top the puke tank off and keep watching.
So today it blew the
hose off again. We had water on board, and got it back on in short
order. John now asserts that his previous two possible causes are NOT
the problem, and that the inverted radiator and the low puke tank are to
blame. How did this thing work for 6 years then? He asserts that it must
be making steam.
I have mocked up
another puke tank to go further back and higher, and I will go there
tomorrow to show him and get his thoughts.
I predict that I
will make this thing, and it will not solve the problem.
I have not made the
elevated tank. I may just put a gallon bottle on the hood temporarily.
I am losing nearly a
gallon a day.
I think I will in
fact do the elevated take-off-the-hood reservoir thing. This will at
least end all conjecture about the low reservoir being the issue.
I’d love it to be
the cure.
But I really think something else
is awry.
The driver’s door
strap pulled through, so another must be found or made.
I went by DPS and
talked with John Hamlin further on the cooling issue. I ran by him my
idea of another upper tank, and he thought it was good.
So today JJ and
Kelly and I hooked up a tank in the center at the firewall, over the
turbocharger, and teed into the smaller of the two lines from the puke
tank. We removed the hood for the exercise and to allow the tank to sit
freely.
The truck appears to
have lost no water on its drive today. We’ll see tomorrow.
The hifi front amp
has come on a couple of days in a row at startup, then quits. The right
side battery positive terminal was a little loose, and I put a different
bolt and some washers on that connection.
I checked the oil
and no sign of water in the crankcase.
Nick promises he
will take the truck on Wednesday 5/9/12.
Sure.
I towed the KK to
Gardena, and the darn thing overheated coming over the pass. I made it
home, peaking about 221 briefly, and spending some time around 22-217.
It took almost 4
gallons of water. The capacity is around 5 gallons.
Not good.
So while the higher
puke tank is doing SOME good, there is clearly a more fundamental issue.
I’ll report this to
John Hamlin at DPS tomorrow and get another look at it schedule for
soon.
John reached his
race expert guy, named Guy, and this fellow said something is broken
somewhere in the motor, and the engine must come out. This could be a
cracked block, bad heads again, whatever.
This is expensive
news, though not unexpected given all of the previous stuff mentioned
above.
So next week it gets
the big deal over at DPS.
I replaced the
crushed muffler from the rack accident months ago, for $170, and
unfortunately this did NOT cure the heating. I then drove to Allstate
Radiator and Sam said the radiator was certainly not clogged, so that
takes that out of the picture, too. I did a test up Woodley hill, going
full throttle for about 6 seconds, and the temp jumped 12 degrees within
15 seconds.
So it is almost
certainly a cracked head again, a $4000 affair.
This will tap me out
on all fronts.
I bought a little
beater truck to trade away for some landscape work here, and am thinking
maybe I should keep it for myself.
The beater is gone
on the landscape trade, and driving the dually works if I never exceed
900 degrees EGT. This is TOUGH to do. But doing that allows me to let it
idle indefinitely with the AC on (but the AC will freeze up eventually),
and drive VERY tamely on mostly flat ground. No hills of any
consequence, except at low speed, including never-before thought-about
little hills on the freeway, etc. Sepulveda Pass is daunting and
challenging, and SLOW.
I went out this
afternoon to attempt to correct the front amp not turning on, using the
zener diodes supplied by Greg Schuk of Monolithic Sound.
NO GO.
I also found the
subwoofer amp nearly flaming at 201 degrees of heat sink temp!
Holy crap!
So that is coming
out and being shipped tomorrow to Greg, along with the front amp, and
two other amps I have here.
The truck also has
an odd vibration (we’ve talked about this before) between 60 and 70. It
is not always happening, sometimes not when first starting out on a cold
motor.
I have replaced the
driveshaft, changed tires, replaced the right front wheel bearings, had
it aligned and balanced, and this is still happening.
Obviously I have not
found out what it is as yet.
I got a compliment
today at lunch from someone who had not seen the truck, asking if it was
a new truck.
This has been said
many times before.
Not quite, but
thanks.
Nick is going to
need at least a week to repair the fenders, once he gets to it. I need
the Bird running for that.
AND, the engine
repair will likely be a two-week deal as well.
I found two labeled
wires/fuses hanging down near the fuse box, one for instrument lights,
the other for the fuel gauge. I will plug them in later and see what
gives there.
So far plugging both
wires in results in no change. So there must be a fuse in line to the
radio.
DPS is pretty much
moved now, and tomorrow I am hoping John can take the truck in and start
on it. I got the Bird back today in drivable condition, but not
completely repaired, and that will work fine for now.
I tapped into the
white fuse panel, the one with all pins and no fuses, and found some hot
pins. I put push-ons on three wires, and had power to the radio and
charger plug. But now the radio does not come on.
More checking to be
done.
The front and woofer
amps are out and in a box, ready for shipment to Monolithic.
The truck is at DPS
since Thursday 7/5/12. John says it will take a week.
I saw it yesterday
afternoon with Jerry. John was not there.
The cylinders have
heat marks at the top where the rings are at TDC, and some striping
about 3/4” wide down the four right sleeves at the same place in each of
the back three cylinders on the right bank. Hamlin feels THESE are the
terminal damage indicators, and says the marks at the top of all the
cylinders are machining marks. But NONE of that striping is on the left
bank.
I am scared I need a
whole new motor.
I have ordered an
80K mile used motor from Florida for $5650. It will run over a thousand
to install it plus some parts. So this whole thing is looking right
around $7000. This will virtually clean out my bank account.
Time for some paying
work.
The engine arrived
today and I JUST scraped together the $4K for the motor in cash. PBB
required a little prodding to get his $1600 in on time. I purchased a
used motor from Florida, then canceled it. They have not refunded the
$5650. So I was down to very little in my account, hence the critical
nature of PBB’s funds being in on time.
This place offered
an option of no core for no warranty. I might just consider that.
In apparently
typical fashion, the used engine has a defect. It appears to have been
hit in the pan rail area. Repair to this area would run about $3K. The
seller asserts there was no damage, but I put him directly to Hamlin to
explain the nature of the problem. My expectation is that I’ll see
another motor here come Monday or Tuesday. This puts completion of the
dually out at least 10 days from now.
Additionally, the
original $5650 done by VISA for the first motor from Florida has still
not been credited, so my bank account is at a few hundred dollars.
The repaired used
motor got returned to DPS yesterday (Friday), and John says look for
around Tuesday. I’ll presume Wednesday at the earliest. I am getting a
new water pump.
As of this writing
STILL no refund from Florida.
I may call the
attorney general there on Monday if this credit is not completed by noon
on Monday.
Today is Tuesday and
John has not started on it yet, having to pay attention to another
larger job first. He will start on it tomorrow, and now predicts Friday
for completion.
The Wells Fargo
credit has not happened, and WF has called me today to say they left a
message for Brigman. If not answer and confirmation that Brigman will
issue and immediate credit, they will file the complaint, refund my
money, and hope that the complaint stands. WF gets only one change to
move on a complaint, so they want to be sure they are good on it.
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