I got Darth Haul running well enough to take her down the street for a pizza and beer run. I’m having a little issue pulling gas from the tank, and after a little roadside troubleshooting I believe there’s something in the tank clogging the pickup. I’m planning on driving her 12 miles out and back to Brian’s place on Saturday, so I’m going to take the boat tank and a length of fuel line with me for backup.
I did get some more of the tasks checked off the master list:
The temperature sender from the green truck did in fact work—I heated it with a heat gun and then hooked up the wire and grounded it, and it tested properly. So I pulled the sender from the Sniper kit out and swapped this one in. Good to have another working gauge!
The passenger door hinge got swapped out, the door adjusted, and now the door closes correctly for the first time since I bought this truck. I had to get a bolt to put in one hole because it was stripped, but it went successfully. While the doors were broken down, I did clean them out, swab them with Rust Converter, and spray on a layer of rattlecan IH Red. And at the same time, with some fresh H-F wire wheels, I cleaned off the drip rails, masked them off, and used that same rattlecan to cover them in red up to and on top of the edge.
Finally, I dragged all of the timing tools out, plugged the proper vacuum hoses, and attempted to dial the timing in again. It seemed like every adjustment I made retarded the timing even more than before: reducing the air/fuel mixture while adjusting the dwell, all the while keeping an eye on the timing and vacuum. It’s running OK now, although the idle is still high, but it’s not dieseling anymore at shutoff, which is nice. I’m hoping I can get the heads at Brian’s to help me work on it a little more.