Another quick update. I got the oil changed this morning. I was surprised at how black it was, considering that it had very little run time on it. It had been in the engine since last year, so changing it was in order. I did a quick "pre-flight" check on all of the things that I had touched since last fall. Everything looked good, so...there were no more excuses. It was time to fire it up! Attached is a pic of the new gauges with the engine running. Everything was working as it should. The "belching smoke" is shown in this video. Disregarding the smoke, the engine sounded like it was running well, so I said "give a hoot, don't pollute." No, I didn't! I said screw it, I'm driving it! Down the driveway and to the stop sign, then back to the garage. Twice. Then parked in the garage. Went inside to do something, came back out and fired up the truck again. No hesitation to start. Drove it down the driveway, to the stop sign, then left and down the street. Actually made it into 2nd gear! First time ever (for me)!!! Three point turn and back to my garage. Parked in the garage. Odometer shows half a mile driven in total. This is huge for me!!!
Now the not so great. The engine stumbles and wants to die when decelerating. It actually did die 2 or 3 times. It fired up on the first try on those times that it did die. Then there is the matter of the old girl being quite a handful! The engine sputtering doesn't help and the muscle memory for driving a manual transmission is still there, but it really seemed like a lot of stuff was going on all at once! I'm sure I'll get used to it once the engine issue is resolved and I get some hours behind the wheel. I'm guessing that I'm getting the true 1953 experience! I also discovered that 1st gear is not forgiving when driving. It seems that the truck only wants to use 1st to get rolling and then get it into 2nd. 2nd gear was much more forgiving. I haven't bucked a vehicle since 1977 when I was learning the manual transmission. That is, until today! LOL, it was funny. 2nd gear it is! Dang, I'm close!
