Promise... the build

Selahdoor

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Cleaners and additives. Not sure, but I don't really think that ATF is going to clean anything any better than what is in there now. Going to do it anyway, but just sayin....

What is in the tank, and is being run through the engine...

Whatever fuel was left in the tank. Maybe 3 gallons or less???

About 14 to 16 gallons of fresh fuel.

Enough of this, to treat about 50 gallons...
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And enough of this to treat about 50 gallons.
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Pretty sure that between all that, there isn't much left for the ATF to 'clean".

Also pretty sure that all that cleaner and the gunk it is dissolving and carrying with it, wouldn't be surprising to find out that some or even most of the smoke is now coming from THAT.

One of the reasons I agree with just getting a couple tanks of fuel run through.
 

Selahdoor

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Threw my back out today. It's bad.

Could be better tomorrow, or it might be a while before I can do anything else.
 

Selahdoor

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Still bad today. Getting old is not for wusses...

Frustrating to have to just stay still for a few days when there is stuff to be done.

Reminded by a friend yesterday, though. The truck will still be here when I can get back to it. :)

If I push it now, even just a little, I'll pay for it, in how much longer it takes to recover.

At least I can research. And maybe with my limited knowledge, help someone else.



I have doc and dentist appointments the next two days. Maybe by friday I'll be back at it.
 

DaveBen

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Still bad today. Getting old is not for wusses...

Frustrating to have to just stay still for a few days when there is stuff to be done.

Reminded by a friend yesterday, though. The truck will still be here when I can get back to it. :)

If I push it now, even just a little, I'll pay for it, in how much longer it takes to recover.

At least I can research. And maybe with my limited knowledge, help someone else.



I have doc and dentist appointments the next two days. Maybe by friday I'll be back at it.

I have turned 70 several months ago and I can tell you that the wait is worth it! I am just off Radiation Treatment for Vocal Cord Cancer. So far is has been successful. I still take it easy and give my projects twice the days. :Thumbs Up
 

Selahdoor

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If this thing's running that rough when it's cold are you a 100 percent sure that your glowplug system is functioning correctly?
Yes. I am.

If the glowplugs are not working, you will have problems starting it. Mine starts first try, every time. It even started first try, after I had replaced all the injectors. If there was ever a time you'd have to crank a while, that would be it.

Once it is started, the glowplugs have little to nothing to do with the way it runs for the next 5 minutes, anyway. :)
 

Selahdoor

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I have turned 70 several months ago and I can tell you that the wait is worth it! I am just off Radiation Treatment for Vocal Cord Cancer. So far is has been successful. I still take it easy and give my projects twice the days. :Thumbs Up
I'm only a few short years behind you. And yeah, what takes someone else a half hour, may take me as long as a week. But I eventually get it done!
 

Jason1377

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Still bad today. Getting old is not for wusses...

Frustrating to have to just stay still for a few days when there is stuff to be done.

Reminded by a friend yesterday, though. The truck will still be here when I can get back to it. :)

If I push it now, even just a little, I'll pay for it, in how much longer it takes to recover.

At least I can research. And maybe with my limited knowledge, help someone else.



I have doc and dentist appointments the next two days. Maybe by friday I'll be back at it.

I suffer from back pain/lower back n diabetic nerve pain try a lil light yoga sounds funny. Your truck will be there a long time sir I'm frustrated with my truck as well but was reminded it's a truck a person's health comes first both body/mind best of luck with good vibes sir.
 

BrassBandit

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Yes. I am.

If the glowplugs are not working, you will have problems starting it. Mine starts first try, every time. It even started first try, after I had replaced all the injectors. If there was ever a time you'd have to crank a while, that would be it.

Once it is started, the glowplugs have little to nothing to do with the way it runs for the next 5 minutes, anyway. :)

I didn't realize it takes that long to clear up, must have missed that part. I only mentioned it because I had a problem last year with my glow plugs where only about half were working, the truck would start fine but then lope hard and blow white smoke until it ran for a minute. I attributed this to the fact that only half the cylinders were getting good combustion due to the flow plugs nor working. They do stay lit for quite a while after you're engine starts and you can confirm this by watching the draw on the battery.

Just a suggestion. I hope you're feeling better soon I know what back pain is like after herniating a disc in my back last fall. As my mother never fails to tell me, you only get one back so take care of it Haha.
 

Selahdoor

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I didn't realize it takes that long to clear up, must have missed that part. I only mentioned it because I had a problem last year with my glow plugs where only about half were working, the truck would start fine but then lope hard and blow white smoke until it ran for a minute. I attributed this to the fact that only half the cylinders were getting good combustion due to the flow plugs nor working. They do stay lit for quite a while after you're engine starts and you can confirm this by watching the draw on the battery.

Just a suggestion. I hope you're feeling better soon I know what back pain is like after herniating a disc in my back last fall. As my mother never fails to tell me, you only get one back so take care of it Haha.
Yep. If I 'nurse' it, it takes longer for the lope to go away. Maybe 7 to 10 minutes.

If I over-rev it, it gets warmed up, sooner, and the lope smooths out some. Then, it still takes at least 4 to 5 minutes to get warmed up enough.

Guy named Tyler, on youtube came here to get advice. I saw his video. His was same year, and everything, as mine. Only difference is that his is crewcab. Mine is regular cab. His ran the same as mine. Loped, smoked, etc. Mine is much worse, but his was bad enough that I could call it similar to mine. As opposed to all the other videos of "badly running 7.3idi na's" out there. LOL

Anyway, advice given to him, here, was IP timing. He advanced it some, it fixed the problem some. Advanced it more, and the lope went completely away. Now he has some smoke left, and is thinking air leaks and/or injectors.

Well, I have fixed the air leaks and put in good injectors. So I am REALLY hoping that once I can move again, and I advance my IP... I'll see significant improvement like he did. I've taken so long to get to this point because I wanted to do things logically. Take care of what was right in front of me, instead of skipping on to the next possibility without really fixing what I knew was bad, right in front of me.... And well... Because I take a long time to do what a healthy youngun' would do rather quickly. LOL But I do get there, eventually. :)



Take your momma's advice. Be REALLY careful about your back. I herniated disks when I was younger too. But I was in construction. And I let guys poking fun about being a wuss, keep me pushing the limit. Carrying too much, etc... Then I had to have surgery. I have metal plates, and bolts and nuts in my back. Yeah, you don't want the kind of pain I get when I throw my back out of whack again.

If I could do it over again, I'd tell the bullies braggarts and bulls#$%%&rs, where they could stick their insults and peer pressure. I'd even quit some jobs I had, if it took that... When you are young, you don't think long term. Quality of life when you get old is just not something you consider. But when you get here, you'll wish you had given it more concern... Be careful of your back. Wear eye protection when needed. (I have blind spots in my eyes.) Hearing protection when needed. (I have hearing problems.) And a respirator when you need it. (I worked, crawling around in basements and attics, blowing in asbestos insulation, with absolutely no protection at all. Now I get out of breath walking to the end of my driveway.)
 

Selahdoor

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Well, finally I got some more work done on the truck.

A combination of throwing out my back, and having to recover from that... Bad weather. And just life circumstances, doc appointments, dentist appointments, etc... Kept me from making any more progress on this.

Monday, it turned sunny, very late in the day.

Yesterday, it was sunny when I got up. I was NOT going to waste that opportunity! Took a handful of excedrin for the back, and got busy.


First thing I did was to test the old injectors. Using my DIY pop tester. Man, those things really sucked! 3 of them popped at a little over 1400 pounds. 1 popped at 1600. 3 popped at 1800. 1 popped at 1900. All but 2 of them leaked.

Glad I replaced those.

But as you know, even after replacing them the engine ran really rough. Loped so badly the entire truck rocked with the lope. White smoke like a cloud making machine.

~~~

So the next job up was to advance the injection pump timing.

I got the stuff that was in the way, disassembled.

Made up my wrench. Got the nuts loose... No way was I going to be able to spin that and hold it in place while I tightened the nuts back up.

So, I stuck the open end of a 3/4" wrench on the square place at the top of the body of the pump. And ran a ratchet strap from the box end of the wrench, over the fender and down to the passenger tire, where I hooked the other end to the wheel.

Ratcheted that until I had moved the pump far enough. And tightened the nuts again. It worked!


Now, I have seen a lot of videos by now. I have seen some trucks running almost as bad as mine, and then seen them after they advanced the timing. But none of those ran anything like as badly as mine did.

They all advanced the timing the thickness of a dime. Then tried it again. That was enough for most. Some had to do it again for the thickness of a dime again. And still some had to do it for three thicknesses. Well, mine was running so badly that I just went for two thicknesses right away.

BAM!!!! Thing smoothed right out! Almost all the smoke is gone.

Here's the vid.
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Now...

It took 20 to 30 cranks to get it started. Once warmed, it starts without even one full crank-over. So I am wondering if I over-timed it.

There is still smoke. Very little compared to what it was like before. Quite a bit more, if you step on the throttle.

While the smoke could STILL be just the fact that there is a bunch of cleaner in the fuel that is being burned...This still leads me to leaving it where it is for now, and running it for a while to see what happens.

I am really hoping to have this thing on the road by next monday or tuesday.


~~~


This morning, I went out to start it. Intending to see again, what it starts like when cold.

Cranked it and cranked it and cranked it.

At about the place where it started cold yesterday, it started acting like it was actually trying to start.

I continued this for a while... And continued. Dang it, it wants to start, why won't it just start????

Then remembered that I had laid a plastic chicken feed bag over the intake, before I shut it up, yesterday. This is to keep rain water from getting into the intake.

So... Yeah, I was starving it for air. LOL

Took that off, and in about two to three cranks she started up. Acting like you would expect it to act after being starved for air. (Including plenty of smoke.)


So, I screwed up a pristine cold start. Didn't get exactly the info I wanted. LOL

But in thinking about it, I think that had the bag not been there, it probably would have started at about the same place that it started yesterday. If anything, maybe just a bit sooner.

So, gonna have to let it sit and get good and cold again, and try again tomorrow.



Today... I am having to walk and move real carefully again, because I hurt my back again yesterday.

But... I am going to try to get some work done on the headlights, at the very least.

Here is a pic, to start with...
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There is a black plastic plate that goes all the way across the front. Under the grill. This plate is the mounting plate for the lights and the parts of the grill that surround the lights.

It has been broken, on the driver's side. You can see the fiberglass repair that was attempted.

Good try. As, I have to say, are all the other 'repairs' that I have found so far. MUCH better than you see from the average DIY'er. In fact, if I had the fiberglass stuff myself, I might actually try to repair that again, with the fiberglass. I would fiberglass front and back of that plate. Plus, I would fiberglass into place, washers, where the holes are.

But it didn't actually hold, and the hole where the mount/adjuster clips into, has become wallered out. Plus, there are other cracks that aren't obvious, but they ALL add up to it being impossible to mount and adjust the headlight.

The best thing for this would be to find one in a junkyard and just replace that entire plate. Not likely I am going to make it to a junkyard any time soon.

So I am going to make a pattern from the passenger side. Cut a piece of tin, to match that pattern. Flip that... And bolt it to the driver's side.

That is what I will be working on today. Trying not to move around, any more than I have to.
 

IDIBRONCO

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Here's my take on this. From what i can see, it appears that some body just slapped the fiberglass on there with no prep work. You need to have scratches in the plastic for the fiberglass to hold. Sand it with some 36 grit sandpaper first. Of course fiberglass isn't really a good way to repair cracked plastic in the first place. There's a special glue to repair broken/cracked plastic. Another way is to hold the two plastic pieces together so that they don't move. Then take something like cotter pins (I've used 2" finishing nails) and heat them up with a propane torch (MAPP gas). Then when they are hot, push them into the plastic. They will melt into it and actually makes a fairly strong repair when you're finished. It won't look pretty, but in your case, it would be mostly or completely covered up when the headlights and turn signals are in.
 
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