Hi all! So I got a lot done on the truck this weekend and thought I’d post an update.
First thing was to get the bed off the truck. It was completely rotted out and without it I would have much better access to everything underneath for restoring the frame and hydraulics for the dump bed. All the bolts underneath were rusted hard so I ended up cutting them all off with a grinder. I used my tractor to remove the bed from the truck. With the bed off the truck I turned my attention to the brakes. I plan on replacing all of it but I really want to know what kind of shape the truck is in mechanically before committing to that work. The master cylinder was frozen with the plunger completely compressed. When I say frozen it was also literally frozen. After removing the cap, I tried to use a turkey baster to get whatever fluid was in there out and it was all ice. Pretty bad sign right off the bat. I went ahead and removed the master cylinder and took it apart. It was completely full of rust and all the parts were in bad shape. I will be replacing it but wanted to see if I could at least get it working enough to get the truck rolling. I cleaned the heck out of it and removed all the rust and cleaned up the bore the best I could by soda blasting it and ultrasonic cleaning. The bore is beat up so, I used some 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper to get it the best I could. I cleaned all the original parts in the same manner and lucky the rubber parts looked serviceable. I reassembled it and put it back on the truck and went about bleeding the system. Bleeding was straight forward from that point on and to my surprise it held pressure even a day later, so I think I’m ok for now.
Next up was the clutch not disengaging which I figured was surface rust on the flywheel and pressure plates keeping it stuck like an Oreo cookie. Using the tractor, we put it in gear, pushed down the clutch and pushed it. It only took a few feet and it freed itself.
With the clutch and brakes sorted I went on to the motor to get it fired up. Last week I rebuilt the carb and figured this would be the easiest part. I cleaned and reinstalled the fuel lines, installed an electric pump and went to start it. Immediately I ran into problems with fuel coming out of the throttle linkages. From what I understand that is where the overflow hole is. I turned the pump off and back on and never experienced that issue again. I validated the pump is a 3-6psi pump so should be close to within range. Long story short I never did get it running. I’m sure I have a fuel issue as I have spark. I basically ran out of time and will have to revisit this again next weekend. I think I am very close here and just need a minute to think about it. I’ll be traveling for work all next week, so it’ll be a long week waiting to figure this out. Anyway, sorry for the long update. I’ve posted a couple of pictures with the bed off.
