Yesterday was a milestone day as the truck made its first trip down the road. I made a trip around the block (so to speak) which for me is about 5 miles.
The good: The engine ran well and the transmission shifted through all the gears. The speedometer calibration went well. The engine oil pressure, coolant temperature, and charging voltage all were good. Driving down the 2 lane country road at 60 mph wasn't scary, steering, and braking worked fairly well (see below). Both the interior and driver's side rear view mirrors seemed stable (not excessive vibration). It may have been the excitement of actually driving it but the interior noise level didn't seem too bad.
The not so good (not really bad but): The engine idle speed was high (like 2,000 rpm) but was able to be adjusted down to 6-700 after the drive without any problem. The steering wheel is off center when driving straight (need to adjust my drag link). There was a tendency for the rear brakes to lock up if I hit the brakes too hard - I suspect I need to investigate how to modify the system to avoid this problem when the bed is empty.
I need to retrain myself to remember that the truck does not have self cancelling turn signals.
A post trip inspection did not reveal any new concerns. I need to complete some loaded (engine load not necesarily truck load) miles to breakin the engine and probably need to do some carburetor calibration work (seems pretty rich). I need to get the toe in checked because I do not trust my tape measure technique. And I need to make a trip to the gas staion as I have a low fuel warning now, this will help me know how much fuel is left in the tank at low fuel warning and then calculate how much of the 16 gllon tank capacity I can actually plan on using.
