JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
Additional Seat Info
For more info & pictures of the seat fit as promised, see Seat Choices for the Truck and Wagon.
For more info & pictures of the seat fit as promised, see Seat Choices for the Truck and Wagon.
1959 Pickup
- Thread starter JohnMelon
- Start date
JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
Glass
This passed weekend Jack calls a buddy to come help him install his windshield. He and I had talked about the How-to conversationally, but he's never hands-on installed a piece of automotive glass in his life... and the buddy he has coming over to help, while a good young man, does not yet seem to have a ton of mechanical experience under his belt.
I've been working nights, sleeping days. One afternoon in the middle of the run of shifts I walk into the garage on my way out, just to see what's been going on. Here's what I see:
Perfect fit. Nice job. No paint scratches. No glass cracks.
And don't you know, one of the things I've been hearing about for some time now is that the outside of the division bar had to be body color.
Of course, it is:
But from discussions and messaging while I was on-shift, it seemed as if he was having a little trouble getting the door glass inserted into the new, aftermarket rubber and window regulator base. Out of concern for having to force it to the point of cracking, he wanted to wait until I was off so we could look at it together.
Looking at it we were able to tell that the metal channel is made to pinch the rubber to hold the glass, but it was a tight install; really tight. To get the metal to flex to where it opened but didn't lose it's memory, I suggested using the press.
He thought I was kidding.
I wasn't:
Just because you have 10, or 20, or 100 tons of pressure at your disposal doesn't mean you always have to use all of it. Together we put the glass, rubber, and metal channel in place on the press between some blocks of wood and applied a little pressure to the assembly.
With rubber soaped-up we gradually applied clamping pressure, wiggling the metal channel as we went. When we started to feel play between our stacked pieces and the press from wiggling the metal down, we knew the assembly went together a bit and we could again apply a bit more force, tightening things up again:
Somewhere in the middle of the process I commented to him, "I hope my next picture isn't of a bunch of pieces of glass on the floor."
I don't recall him laughing.
After we were done I told him, "I've never done glass in a press before. That was fun."
"No... it wasn't." was all he said, somewhat more relaxed now though.
He's got the passenger side in the door now, attached to the regulator and surrounded by new felt, but I stopped his progress for dinner.
Tomorrow will bring more.
This passed weekend Jack calls a buddy to come help him install his windshield. He and I had talked about the How-to conversationally, but he's never hands-on installed a piece of automotive glass in his life... and the buddy he has coming over to help, while a good young man, does not yet seem to have a ton of mechanical experience under his belt.
I've been working nights, sleeping days. One afternoon in the middle of the run of shifts I walk into the garage on my way out, just to see what's been going on. Here's what I see:
Perfect fit. Nice job. No paint scratches. No glass cracks.
And don't you know, one of the things I've been hearing about for some time now is that the outside of the division bar had to be body color.
Of course, it is:
But from discussions and messaging while I was on-shift, it seemed as if he was having a little trouble getting the door glass inserted into the new, aftermarket rubber and window regulator base. Out of concern for having to force it to the point of cracking, he wanted to wait until I was off so we could look at it together.
Looking at it we were able to tell that the metal channel is made to pinch the rubber to hold the glass, but it was a tight install; really tight. To get the metal to flex to where it opened but didn't lose it's memory, I suggested using the press.
He thought I was kidding.
I wasn't:
Just because you have 10, or 20, or 100 tons of pressure at your disposal doesn't mean you always have to use all of it. Together we put the glass, rubber, and metal channel in place on the press between some blocks of wood and applied a little pressure to the assembly.
With rubber soaped-up we gradually applied clamping pressure, wiggling the metal channel as we went. When we started to feel play between our stacked pieces and the press from wiggling the metal down, we knew the assembly went together a bit and we could again apply a bit more force, tightening things up again:
Somewhere in the middle of the process I commented to him, "I hope my next picture isn't of a bunch of pieces of glass on the floor."
I don't recall him laughing.
After we were done I told him, "I've never done glass in a press before. That was fun."
"No... it wasn't." was all he said, somewhat more relaxed now though.
He's got the passenger side in the door now, attached to the regulator and surrounded by new felt, but I stopped his progress for dinner.
Tomorrow will bring more.
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JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
While you can read about our door-window faux pas on Indian John's thread on the subject, we still haven't got back to finishing the glass installation.
It isn't because he's sitting around though. He was in Denver this Mon & Tues getting poked, prodded, processed, and swearing into the USAF. (Delayed-Entry sees to it he won't ship-out until after High School graduation this summer.)
And this morning before school he brought the truck to a semi-local shop to get a set of duals run from our split manifold and some low-restriction mufflers. They brought it into a bay and put it up on a lift so we could go over all the particular "bend here, run it there, what about this and that" with both Jason, the shop manager and Cody, the tech doing the work, before we left. We've been dealing with this particular shop for over 15years. I drive passed a few others to get there now, others who may very-well also be good, but I've never had a reason to go anywhere else.
Barring any unforeseen issues, we expect to go get the truck tonight and return the rented trailer. Hopefully this weekend we'll get back to the glass.
It isn't because he's sitting around though. He was in Denver this Mon & Tues getting poked, prodded, processed, and swearing into the USAF. (Delayed-Entry sees to it he won't ship-out until after High School graduation this summer.)
And this morning before school he brought the truck to a semi-local shop to get a set of duals run from our split manifold and some low-restriction mufflers. They brought it into a bay and put it up on a lift so we could go over all the particular "bend here, run it there, what about this and that" with both Jason, the shop manager and Cody, the tech doing the work, before we left. We've been dealing with this particular shop for over 15years. I drive passed a few others to get there now, others who may very-well also be good, but I've never had a reason to go anywhere else.
Barring any unforeseen issues, we expect to go get the truck tonight and return the rented trailer. Hopefully this weekend we'll get back to the glass.
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JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
Driver's Glass is In
He got a late start yesterday but was still able to get the driver's side vent and main glass installed. I believe temperatures were in the teens and our little propane-tank mounted Mr. Heater really doesn't keep up with that kind of cold very well. At one point I walked in and saw him holding his wrenches in front of the catalyst just to get the chill off the tools.
"That cold metal will suck the heat right out of your hands."
Like any of us, he gave all the mechanicals a good inspection, cleaning, and lube while he had it apart. Both of these windows open and close with ease, much easier than I remember in any of my old trucks. With all new rubber and felt, it looks like they'll seal well too. A trip down the road when all is done will tell.
He still has the other side and the back to do, but he's making progress one day at a time.
He got a late start yesterday but was still able to get the driver's side vent and main glass installed. I believe temperatures were in the teens and our little propane-tank mounted Mr. Heater really doesn't keep up with that kind of cold very well. At one point I walked in and saw him holding his wrenches in front of the catalyst just to get the chill off the tools.
"That cold metal will suck the heat right out of your hands."
Like any of us, he gave all the mechanicals a good inspection, cleaning, and lube while he had it apart. Both of these windows open and close with ease, much easier than I remember in any of my old trucks. With all new rubber and felt, it looks like they'll seal well too. A trip down the road when all is done will tell.
He still has the other side and the back to do, but he's making progress one day at a time.
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JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
All of the glass is done, as is the exhaust:
and we put the bed on to fill in the back of the chassis.
He obviously still has some things to work on, (power steering pump, bed metal work, tail lights, etc.) but it's great to be posting about a running vehicle!
[video=youtube_share;dH-79h84Uu8]https://youtu.be/dH-79h84Uu8[/video]
and we put the bed on to fill in the back of the chassis.
He obviously still has some things to work on, (power steering pump, bed metal work, tail lights, etc.) but it's great to be posting about a running vehicle!
[video=youtube_share;dH-79h84Uu8]https://youtu.be/dH-79h84Uu8[/video]
Pivnic
Well Oiled
NICE WORK JACK! IT's Cool to be where you're at in your project now isn't it? Looks like you'll be ready for Moab! I've been sick as a Dog the last two weeks which means I haven't been out in Floyd's Garage for two Weeks. It's making me Crazy! Keep up the Great Work! See ya in Moab! John (aka: Pivnic)
JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
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Pivnic
Well Oiled
Sorry you haven't felt well. Maybe it's withdrawal.Hope you get back to Floyd's Hotel real soon.
Thanks John. I'm hoping to get back to Floyd's Garage on Friday or Saturday. Pivnic
JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
Another Step Closer to Moab
Last night he replaced the power steering pump while I reverse engineered the Spartan turn-signal switch to work with the Cherokee wiring harness, lighting the brake and directional lights. They are inboard of their final mounting location in this image, just dangling while I solder.
We also turned our collective attention to a dripping oil pressure gauge fitting and got that taken care of. The old-style, lift-latch seat belts are on order and we're all registered for the Moab Rally.
We still have a few more things to take care of before it's a full-fledged, daily driver and ready for the 6-1/2 hour drive out, but we're getting closer day-by-day!
Last night he replaced the power steering pump while I reverse engineered the Spartan turn-signal switch to work with the Cherokee wiring harness, lighting the brake and directional lights. They are inboard of their final mounting location in this image, just dangling while I solder.
We also turned our collective attention to a dripping oil pressure gauge fitting and got that taken care of. The old-style, lift-latch seat belts are on order and we're all registered for the Moab Rally.
We still have a few more things to take care of before it's a full-fledged, daily driver and ready for the 6-1/2 hour drive out, but we're getting closer day-by-day!
Tilatobawillys
Well Oiled
Looks like you two are making a lot of progress. Congrats on the first drive and moving right along to prepping for the rally. Are you two going to drive the truck there?
JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
That is the plan.
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JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
A Month Since the Last Update
Another good thing about this board and keeping a build thread like this is to be able to look back to see what - if anything - has been accomplished.
Since the last post:
We've straightened and installed the tailgate.
Although it doesn't look like much compared to the other bodywork he's completed, it is functional and will add significant gear-carrying capabilities to our cab-and-chassis for going places like The 9th Annual Old Willys Forum Moab Rally.
And considering its as-found condition, well... again, it's more functional than it was a year ago:
We've also tested a questionable Engine Coolant Temperature sending unit:
and not getting the intended connection, decided to see how it was supposed to operate before getting and installing a replacement:
Afterwards, having sorted out all of our cooling issues, we replaced our temporary Prestone-yellow gallon overflow catch with something more appropriately sized:
and installed retractable 3-point shoulder harnesses:
with their matching, old-style, lift-latch release belts. (He was having no part of the modern, push-button releases in this cab.)
His dash is still a big hole with wires sticking out. We have only oil pressure indication at this time. Since we put the more-modern Jeep internals in the original Willys housing, we "recalibrated" the speedometer by changing the location of the numbers on the face and we're waiting on the printed vinyl decal from a local printer for the gauge face. More on that process in a bit.
I donated the horns from my old '53 Pontiac Chieftan to the cause and he's installing those while we wait to get back to the gauges. We've also been playing with the ever-popular Willys wipers and tinkering with things in general as they come up while driving around. As I sit here and think, I remember we still need to get a hose for the gas filler and a rod for the transfer case shifter; but that's where we are with it.
It's road worthy and almost travel ready.
What a trip it's been!
Another good thing about this board and keeping a build thread like this is to be able to look back to see what - if anything - has been accomplished.
Since the last post:
We've straightened and installed the tailgate.
Although it doesn't look like much compared to the other bodywork he's completed, it is functional and will add significant gear-carrying capabilities to our cab-and-chassis for going places like The 9th Annual Old Willys Forum Moab Rally.
And considering its as-found condition, well... again, it's more functional than it was a year ago:
We've also tested a questionable Engine Coolant Temperature sending unit:
and not getting the intended connection, decided to see how it was supposed to operate before getting and installing a replacement:
Afterwards, having sorted out all of our cooling issues, we replaced our temporary Prestone-yellow gallon overflow catch with something more appropriately sized:
and installed retractable 3-point shoulder harnesses:
with their matching, old-style, lift-latch release belts. (He was having no part of the modern, push-button releases in this cab.)
His dash is still a big hole with wires sticking out. We have only oil pressure indication at this time. Since we put the more-modern Jeep internals in the original Willys housing, we "recalibrated" the speedometer by changing the location of the numbers on the face and we're waiting on the printed vinyl decal from a local printer for the gauge face. More on that process in a bit.
I donated the horns from my old '53 Pontiac Chieftan to the cause and he's installing those while we wait to get back to the gauges. We've also been playing with the ever-popular Willys wipers and tinkering with things in general as they come up while driving around. As I sit here and think, I remember we still need to get a hose for the gas filler and a rod for the transfer case shifter; but that's where we are with it.
It's road worthy and almost travel ready.
What a trip it's been!
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Coming together, looking forward to seeing the real thing in Moab...
agne2520
Well Oiled
Way to go guys. It's been fun for all of us to watch the progress.
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YellowHornet
Bigger Hammer
Congrats on the project, loving it. A got a question about your rear axle. Looks like you ended up using the donor Cherokee rear axle if I read this right. How does it fit as it is narrower than the stock D53? Are you using any wheel spacers?
A friend just offered a Cherokee to me so this thread just got very interesting to me as it is well documented.
A friend just offered a Cherokee to me so this thread just got very interesting to me as it is well documented.
JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
Chris,
We kept both rears while trying to come up with the best way to go while building and considered many, many of the options. Ultimately, we did end-up using the Cherokee Rear axle with a couple of spacers to make up the difference between it and the stock Willys rear. At the time it was more of a "let's do something to keep moving forward on the project", but it has turned-out to be a perfectly acceptable long-term solution. The word I use when I'm driving this Willys is "effortless". To this day he still can't wipe the smile off his face when he's driving it.
It was also necessary to move the spring pads outward to match the Willys suspension, and rotate the pinion upward due to the built-in lift in our case. The truck's wheelbase is longer so new driveshafts were also necessary even though all was from the same donor if I also failed to mention that in earlier posts.
He has built himself a reliable, and exceedingly cool, daily driver. As his 4-wheeling adventures grow to those more in line with my past, Pivnics, and many of the others on this board, his mechanical experiences and vehicles will undoubtedly grow with them... just as they have for the rest of us through our years. He can then go to Dana's, or Rockwells, or whatever he wants/needs, but as it is he's just having too much fun.
Thanks for asking.
We kept both rears while trying to come up with the best way to go while building and considered many, many of the options. Ultimately, we did end-up using the Cherokee Rear axle with a couple of spacers to make up the difference between it and the stock Willys rear. At the time it was more of a "let's do something to keep moving forward on the project", but it has turned-out to be a perfectly acceptable long-term solution. The word I use when I'm driving this Willys is "effortless". To this day he still can't wipe the smile off his face when he's driving it.
Regarding some of the concerns we had and other might have as well:
The stock Chrysler ring gear that has served well in almost 3 million Cherokees will give long before the wheel spacers inflict any of the Internet diffused misinformation about the wheels being pushed out and allegedly adding sufficient leverage to break an axle. People forget there's an outer bearing at the end of the tube and one in the center at the carrier.
One only has to take a look at what they're working on to see the idea of adding sufficient leverage to the short stub of axle protruding from the outer wheel bearing to snap the shaft may be theoretically possible, but it is not a practical concern. That much force applied to a single wheel during regular driving will break the wheel first (I've given-up two over the years) or would roll this truck over sideways before the axle gave.
One only has to take a look at what they're working on to see the idea of adding sufficient leverage to the short stub of axle protruding from the outer wheel bearing to snap the shaft may be theoretically possible, but it is not a practical concern. That much force applied to a single wheel during regular driving will break the wheel first (I've given-up two over the years) or would roll this truck over sideways before the axle gave.
It was also necessary to move the spring pads outward to match the Willys suspension, and rotate the pinion upward due to the built-in lift in our case. The truck's wheelbase is longer so new driveshafts were also necessary even though all was from the same donor if I also failed to mention that in earlier posts.
He has built himself a reliable, and exceedingly cool, daily driver. As his 4-wheeling adventures grow to those more in line with my past, Pivnics, and many of the others on this board, his mechanical experiences and vehicles will undoubtedly grow with them... just as they have for the rest of us through our years. He can then go to Dana's, or Rockwells, or whatever he wants/needs, but as it is he's just having too much fun.
Thanks for asking.
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YellowHornet
Bigger Hammer
Thanks John, that is exactly was I was looking for!
JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
Back on Post #172, I wrote of using the more-modern donor Cherokee internals in the stock Willys housing and mentioned, "More on that in a bit".
It was really somewhat of a fiasco for a while; not the mechanical side of things, that went quite well actually. The Cherokee Speedometer, Temperature, and Fuel gauges all fit in the stock gauge case with little more than drilling some mounting holes for the new mechanisms and some slight grinding. I should have taken some pictures of the process.
The only difficulty we encountered was removing the needles from donor Fuel and Temp. They were sufficiently glued (or pressed) to the center pin that the rotating pin pulled out of the fuel gauge with the indicator needle, rendering it useless. We ordered a new one (under $30 delivered, I think) but used one from a Wrangler since the needles can be removed and installed with finger pressure and are of the same physical size and 0-88 ohm scale as the Cherokee sending unit.
A noted difference is the Willys Fuel & Temp gauge needles are read from the underside of the arc. If we followed this needle-pointing-down convention with the newer gauges, they would have read backwards, (i.e. Cold on the right of Hot, Empty on the right of Full). You can see we chose to install the newer mechanisms in their normal-to-factory-installation, arc-on-top configuration.
The Speedometer needle does not hit the Temp needle when dead-cold and stopped since it sticks out further from the face.
The "fiasco" came in with our chosen method of "calibration". We knew at first glance that the Cherokee & Willy speedometers had different zero's and scaling. First thoughts were to go the standard speedo-drive-gear changeout, but since the printed scaling would never match between old and new, our solution was to cut a cirlce from from a piece of lexan for a face-back and have a vinyl decal printed. We'll want it the size of the large Willys face but with the numbers printed to match the radials of the smaller Cherokee face. No brainer.
We brought both faceplates to the local Sign-a-rama, and said
"We want this [the Cherokee] face printed on this [the Willys] size circle in this [the Willys] font."
"We can to do that. That's easy!" said the girl behind the counter, "We'll email a proof for you to authorize and then we'll print it"
"Cool!" We walked out with a smile.
Almost two weeks later I'm calling them.
"Oh, I'm sorry. We've been busy. We'll get it out to you in a day or two."
I'll spare you all the sordid details but our first proof was just the Willys face copied, period. Send it back with a very polite translation of "Nope, You have two of our gauge faces for a reason. It wasn't to copy just one."
"Oh yeah. That's right! I'm sorry."
Various emails and phone calls ensued. Proofs were honestly less than High-Schooler-learning-to-use-a-program quality. Many excuses. Repeated apologies.
Six weeks with no changes to our original design/discussion but 13 proofs later, I'm in the middle of another exchange on the phone and Jack chimes in with,
"Dad. They don't deserve our business."
God I love him!
I sat down at the same PC on which I'm typing now, an older steam-driven model with nothing more than stock software and I make a white-on-black-circle version of what you see in the picture above... with the intent to take it to Office Max or Kinkos for commercial-quality finalization & printing.
"Here's your proof, sir." I tell him.
"I think it would reflect the gauge lights better if the background were white." is his reply.
Click "negative" to reverse the colors. Poof! White background / Black numbers. Hit print.
"It looks too modern like this." he says, "It really doesn't fit."
"Customers!" I rail back sarcastically as a pull some leftover, resume, parchment-looking paper from the drawer and slide it into the printer.
Third time's a charm.
"Perfect!" He's grinning.
Well.. almost.
After a period of days we elect to change the tick marks to stars and such, but the design was approved and the Constitution-paper version was installed into the gauge to take a ride down the road, verifying that I really got the numbers were they should be for speed. That's what you see here, plain paper.
I've got the digital file to take anywhere I want for printing while he can see what he needs to while driving.
I'm going to cut another back for the real deal since I missed the mark on aligning the blinker indicators below the 1 and 8, but that's as difficult as cutting and drilling an 1/8" piece of plastic. I'll just be more precise with my layout now that we have successful proof of concept.
It was really somewhat of a fiasco for a while; not the mechanical side of things, that went quite well actually. The Cherokee Speedometer, Temperature, and Fuel gauges all fit in the stock gauge case with little more than drilling some mounting holes for the new mechanisms and some slight grinding. I should have taken some pictures of the process.
The only difficulty we encountered was removing the needles from donor Fuel and Temp. They were sufficiently glued (or pressed) to the center pin that the rotating pin pulled out of the fuel gauge with the indicator needle, rendering it useless. We ordered a new one (under $30 delivered, I think) but used one from a Wrangler since the needles can be removed and installed with finger pressure and are of the same physical size and 0-88 ohm scale as the Cherokee sending unit.
A noted difference is the Willys Fuel & Temp gauge needles are read from the underside of the arc. If we followed this needle-pointing-down convention with the newer gauges, they would have read backwards, (i.e. Cold on the right of Hot, Empty on the right of Full). You can see we chose to install the newer mechanisms in their normal-to-factory-installation, arc-on-top configuration.
The Speedometer needle does not hit the Temp needle when dead-cold and stopped since it sticks out further from the face.
The "fiasco" came in with our chosen method of "calibration". We knew at first glance that the Cherokee & Willy speedometers had different zero's and scaling. First thoughts were to go the standard speedo-drive-gear changeout, but since the printed scaling would never match between old and new, our solution was to cut a cirlce from from a piece of lexan for a face-back and have a vinyl decal printed. We'll want it the size of the large Willys face but with the numbers printed to match the radials of the smaller Cherokee face. No brainer.
We brought both faceplates to the local Sign-a-rama, and said
"We want this [the Cherokee] face printed on this [the Willys] size circle in this [the Willys] font."
"We can to do that. That's easy!" said the girl behind the counter, "We'll email a proof for you to authorize and then we'll print it"
"Cool!" We walked out with a smile.
Almost two weeks later I'm calling them.
"Oh, I'm sorry. We've been busy. We'll get it out to you in a day or two."
I'll spare you all the sordid details but our first proof was just the Willys face copied, period. Send it back with a very polite translation of "Nope, You have two of our gauge faces for a reason. It wasn't to copy just one."
"Oh yeah. That's right! I'm sorry."
Various emails and phone calls ensued. Proofs were honestly less than High-Schooler-learning-to-use-a-program quality. Many excuses. Repeated apologies.
Six weeks with no changes to our original design/discussion but 13 proofs later, I'm in the middle of another exchange on the phone and Jack chimes in with,
"Dad. They don't deserve our business."
God I love him!
I sat down at the same PC on which I'm typing now, an older steam-driven model with nothing more than stock software and I make a white-on-black-circle version of what you see in the picture above... with the intent to take it to Office Max or Kinkos for commercial-quality finalization & printing.
"Here's your proof, sir." I tell him.
"I think it would reflect the gauge lights better if the background were white." is his reply.
Click "negative" to reverse the colors. Poof! White background / Black numbers. Hit print.
"It looks too modern like this." he says, "It really doesn't fit."
"Customers!" I rail back sarcastically as a pull some leftover, resume, parchment-looking paper from the drawer and slide it into the printer.
Third time's a charm.
"Perfect!" He's grinning.
Well.. almost.
After a period of days we elect to change the tick marks to stars and such, but the design was approved and the Constitution-paper version was installed into the gauge to take a ride down the road, verifying that I really got the numbers were they should be for speed. That's what you see here, plain paper.
I've got the digital file to take anywhere I want for printing while he can see what he needs to while driving.
I'm going to cut another back for the real deal since I missed the mark on aligning the blinker indicators below the 1 and 8, but that's as difficult as cutting and drilling an 1/8" piece of plastic. I'll just be more precise with my layout now that we have successful proof of concept.
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Gojeep
Well Oiled
Nice solution there. Similar to the white backgrounds I do for the 84-97 XJ Cherokee that I sell on my site.
JohnMelon
Sharpest Tool
It's been a few months since I've posted any truck progress. That's only because 2 weeks out of High School and still 17 at the time, with less than 1,000 miles on this build, Jack went to San Antonio, TX to start his USAF career working on E-3 Sentry's. Basic Training is a memory and he's less than a month away from graduating Tech School. Talks and letters now revolve around the few weeks he'll be home in December.
The truck mostly sits in our yard, waiting; but I'll drive it around from time to time, sometimes to work and back, just to keep it from stagnating.
The fact that I just can't wipe the stupid grin off my face while I'm driving it has absolutely nothing to do with the frequency of the road trips. It's a completely selfless gesture.
As you all know, the more you drive something the more you notice things to improve upon. His plan has always been to take with him as soon as he is able so I've been tinkering on this-and-that - little things - while I've had it. Here you can see that while the fuel gauge reads way beyond "Full", the low fuel light is on:
It was actually reading well below empty, further than the gauge would normally go, due to a faulty Fuel Level Sending Unit and the Low Fuel Circuit was operating correctly. I took it upon myself to change the old sending unit while he's away.
The gauge reads properly now.
I also noticed some play in the Turn Signal Switch Housing that I didn't like while I've been driving. I drilled the column and collar for a small, homemade pin to lock it more securely in place when clamped.
The pin is sufficiently short so as not to come in contact with the shaft as you turn the wheel and sufficiently long to hold the switch rock-solid in place. No wiggling necessary to switch or return to normal position.
The truck mostly sits in our yard, waiting; but I'll drive it around from time to time, sometimes to work and back, just to keep it from stagnating.
The fact that I just can't wipe the stupid grin off my face while I'm driving it has absolutely nothing to do with the frequency of the road trips. It's a completely selfless gesture.
As you all know, the more you drive something the more you notice things to improve upon. His plan has always been to take with him as soon as he is able so I've been tinkering on this-and-that - little things - while I've had it. Here you can see that while the fuel gauge reads way beyond "Full", the low fuel light is on:
It was actually reading well below empty, further than the gauge would normally go, due to a faulty Fuel Level Sending Unit and the Low Fuel Circuit was operating correctly. I took it upon myself to change the old sending unit while he's away.
The gauge reads properly now.
I also noticed some play in the Turn Signal Switch Housing that I didn't like while I've been driving. I drilled the column and collar for a small, homemade pin to lock it more securely in place when clamped.
The pin is sufficiently short so as not to come in contact with the shaft as you turn the wheel and sufficiently long to hold the switch rock-solid in place. No wiggling necessary to switch or return to normal position.
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