After another few weeks I found some time to spend on my truck. I finally set the timing. Wow, what a difference! Fires right up, even hot. I wired up the tach, that's kinda nice. Replaced the way to short fan belt that we had to pry on but needed something to run the truck. I put a 2 inch longer one on. Perfect. I spent some time cleaning up, (hiding) the wiring mess under the hood, then did some touch up painting on the Chevy orange that took a beating during the original install. Photos might not show it, but it looks a lot better under the hood. Also, the fuel gauge works.
My plan this afternoon was to change the headlight switch and straighten out the gauge cluster. The switch works for the running, tail and headlights, but the dash lights don't work. My new switch is different enough that my lack of electrical knowledge stopped me from getting it done. I messed with the original switch quite a while, but wasn't able to fix the problem. I put it back the way it was. Bummer. One of the many projects that take hours and produce nothing in return. Oh well, I did straighten out the gauge cluster. I'll buy the correct switch and try again.
Took the truck for a couple rides today. Ran great although I'm still expecting some catastrophic failure. Drove 54 mile round trip to East Lansing. Then put 4 gallons of gas in it. 13.5 MPG. I don't think I drove it at all in the few weeks since I filled it previously. This afternoon I put another 25 miles on it. I now have over 100 miles with nothing leaking, (to the point of sidelining me), falling off, (not including an emblem screw, or anything that fell off on the road that I'm not yet aware of), or catching fire. I'm starting to like driving this truck. Haven't taken it on the expressway yet.
At 2000 RPM in 5th gear I'm doing 60 MPH according to my GPS speedometer app. (The app is pretty accurate compared to my newer Sierra) Seems like a pretty good situation to me.
On the short to do list is welding on a couple tabs to the 57 Chevy truck rear end for the 47 knee shocks. That should help to stabilize the rear end of the truck a bit I think. Also, seat belts. That should help to stabilize the rear end of the pilot.
