720inOlyWa Posted March 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2015 Wow- nice spotting! Yes, cruise control. I wonder if it is stock, or aftermarket. Like the AC, I am not a huge fan of cruise control so, since it isn’t hooked up anyway, I was going to carefully pull it. The dash has a few cracks, for sure. Not like my 2WD, which is crack free. I may cap it someday, if I hold onto it long enough. 1 Quote Link to comment
84720FourWheel Posted March 26, 2015 Report Share Posted March 26, 2015 It was a dealer option I think. I had everything but the control and the cable broke. Mine had a purple box haphazardly wired up under the dash. I'd take a few small cracks over the canyons in my dash. 2 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted March 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2015 I didn’t know you could order cruise control for these. It makes some sense, I guess. Any little doohickey convenience to get the damn cars out the door! I would be glad to remove mine carefully and send it to you. I have no use for it. It was obviously disconnected when the Weber carb was installed and the canister and assorted wires, cables and hoses are all there. I was going to pull it out anyway, along with the (poorly repaired, currently disconnected) AC. As for the canyons in your dash- you must have checked out dash caps by now. That seems like a cheap and highly effective way to turn back the clock on your dash. I have seen them for under $100 and may eventually go that route myself. To enjoy the driving experience fully, I need a decent dash and a reasonably fresh windshield. My 4x4 dash will probably get the cap for that reason alone. I think can go without lattes for a month to earn my new dash cap. I was lucky that my 2WD dash is flat perfect. So I keep it well lubed. What I need now is a great resource for King Cab carpets. Not the crap version replacements, but the real deal moulded King Cab carpet set- in black. Looking back, I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have a very fresh and complete 85 KC in the local wrecking yard for a while. I got a lot of great stuff off of it, but now, I need all that stuff again! 2 Quote Link to comment
84720FourWheel Posted March 26, 2015 Report Share Posted March 26, 2015 I no longer have the Hitachi installed so the cruise is useless for me as well. I've definitely considered a dash cap, but I'm going to straighten out rust before I sink too much into the interior. 1 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted March 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I hear you on that, 84- rust abatement is always the priority... But I ordered a dash cap tonight anyhow! As Elvis once said: “Dang, I jus caint hep it!“ So we will find out if the dash caps are as alluring in person as they are on YouTube. I may pull the entire dash, if it isn’t too much trouble, to deal with the front vent portion, which I suspect is not a part of the cap. We shall see. Beautiful day today, and I had other shit to do. All day, I was thinking ‘a few hours of this and I could button up the front end of the engine...’ I gues it is going to be nice tomorrow. If so, off comes the splash pan and down comes the oil pump! 2 Quote Link to comment
84720FourWheel Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I hope the cap fits well. If so I may look into that option. Otherwise, I was thinking about dremeling out the cracks, filling them with expanding foam, and re wrapping with some new vinyl. 2 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted March 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I have seen that work well, too. Amazing, what you find on YouTube. 1 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted March 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 This weekend, a lot of Ratsunlike activity in my driveway, including; honed cylinders, removed, stripped and painted the skid plate with Por15, removed the rest of the timing chain cover, lower pulley, cleaned everything up inside the timing chain chain area, prepped the door windows for satin black paint along the top and sides. And along the way, (x3) foamy treatments with the soft brass brush to the areas around the AC pump, underside of the distributor, steering box, radiator brackets and over on the other side, where the frame number lives. So much dirt and gunk buildup, it was astonishing. I could never let it get that bad. I found a good quality 13mm box end wrench in the goo pile where the skid plate meets the frame. Yes, the skid plate traps dirt and gunk easily, but the remedy is simple: douche it out down there when she gets dirty! I look forward to that chore in the future. I expect the dash cap and steering wheel leather restoration kit will arrive sometime this week. Nice fru-fru jobs to look forward to. In the mean time, I will flip the skid plate over and shoot the front side with bed liner paint as I begin a day of heavy lifting. I am going to try to get the front and head back on the engine before the serious rains hit on Wednesday. You can really see the black and brown thing coming together nicely as it gets tightened up, cleaned up, painted up. Until yesterday, I hadn’t actually sat in the ST seats that I rehabbed a while ago. They feel a whole lot better than my regular King Crab seats. Nice kidney support! 4 Quote Link to comment
84720FourWheel Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 Nothing better than freshly cleaned parts. Except for maybe NOS parts! :w00t: Have you cleaned up the transfer case skid plate? I think the PO(s) of my truck didn't drop it to change the gear oil so it got packed with grease/dirt. We've got a parts washer in the shop at school, so it made quick work of it. Just a heads up, it may be bent (it is a skid plate after all) and you may need a pry bar to get the holes lined up. 2 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted March 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 Geeze, I didn’t head far enough south to even look at the tranny skid plate yet! Man, it is complicated under there! 1 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted March 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 Got the timing chain, tensioner, guides, and cylinder head all back on today. Whew! Now it is just a matter of putting things back together, rehabbing and cleaning as I go. I could be driving it to the gas station any day now!... 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 You are doing a fine job! 1 Quote Link to comment
84720FourWheel Posted March 31, 2015 Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 I can't wait to see that on the road! 1 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted March 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2015 Well, it wont be tomorrow... Actually, although it looks like a bomb went off under my hood, things are actually coming along very nicely. With that neato super magnet tool, I was able to re-place my distributor drive shaft and install the oil pump and distributor this morning- from above! and on the first whack! who knew?!?. Now it is pretty much a matter of taking all of that stuff that is loose in there, and bolting it all back up in place. I clean as I go, which explains the sharp demarcation between clean and dirty. That crank pulley used to be caked with a half an inch of mud, grime, and oil. Now you can see the timing mark again... 1 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted April 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 Whew! I couldn’t leave it at that, so... how about a rained out photo. I got chased off the job this afternoon. Had to bake a salmon for Mary instead of replacing belts and hoses.... Weather report sounds like shit. No more driveway mechanikin’ for a few days, I reckon... 2 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted April 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 I just got the chance to go check my work from late last evening and I discovered that in my haste, I put the distributor drive shaft in 180 degrees off. After all of the learning curve I have been through with this damn shaft, you would think I would nail it first time, but no. (Hey, it was getting dark out there!) I remembered the last time I was trying to get this just right, it took several attempts- meaning going under the truck, pulling the oil pump, pulling the shaft, fitting it back in, coming out from under the truck and checking it by looking down the dizzy hole. there had to be a better way. Certainly the pros don’t spend half a day bouncing back and forth, from under the truck to looking down the dizzy hole to find you are still one tooth off, right? So I invented a tool to hold the drive shaft in place. Invented is probably too strong a word, because certainly others came up with this too, I just haven’t seen it before. By attaching a couple of rare earth magnets to a stick, I can hold the shaft in place while I pull the oil pump. Far more important, with the oil pump off, I can just reach in from above and fiddle the shaft into the correct position WHILE looking down the dizzy hole before re-attaching the tool to hold it there while I re[place the oil pump, also from above. With this little tool, a job that took hours before took just 7 minutes to complete this morning. Clamped in place and holding firm. Be sure to use a good, long screw to attach the magnets to the stick! 3 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted April 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Bolted up the intake and exhaust manifolds today and swapped out the oil filter. Took the radiator to the dip tank, re-attached the re-painted skid plate. Bit by bit... 2 Quote Link to comment
bananahamuck Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 I like your inventiveness. FYI , If you line up the little dot on the driveshaft and the V cut in the pump before you shove it up in there,, it is usually very close if engine is at TDC.. Oh i just noticed it's one of those blasted Z engines,, not sure if my suggestion is accurate now 1 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted April 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 I made a huge ass discovery last night as I went through the process of restoring my leather steering wheel cover. The original ST wheel had an amazing leather cover, beautifully stitched and immaculately dressed. I had never actually seen an original cover that was intact before I scored one with a decent cover myself. It was badly faded and salt stained, and the leather was parched and pretty dirty too, but the leather itself -and the stitching- were still intact. I could either use it as is, cut it off and replace it with a Wheelskin, or try to restore the leather in place. I chose the latter and went searching for a re-dye kit. I came accros a video on YouTube from the Leather Repair Company. It looked so damn promising, I ordered their steering wheel kit. (http://www.leatherrepaircompany.com/) Man, was I ever impressed with the result! The video hardly does justice to this system, it is that good. It seems to have done a magnificent job of dying it a nice deep black, and the leather itself seems to be rejuvenated too. It looks and feels fantastic! It even squeaks in your hands, like new leather! Once I shoot some satin black on the front side spokes, you will be hard pressed to tell it from a NOS ST steering wheel. Have you ever seen an NOS ST steering wheel on the market? Me neither. But this one is going to come very close, once it is done. Here it it with the spokes painted, drying in place. Charp! 3 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted April 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 Wheel rehab is finished! 1 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 That wheel looks great! It would look even better in my king cab with the black interior! LOL Exactly what did you order to get the results you achieved? 1 Quote Link to comment
84720FourWheel Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 Looks great! Makes me want an ST wheel... 2 Quote Link to comment
720inOlyWa Posted April 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 I ordered the steering wheel restoration kit, black. But it came with a red and a blue bottle of color, so I suppose most browns could be achieved with my kit as well. They ask you when you order, what color you want. Leather Repair Company. Check out the Youtube vid, too. 1 Quote Link to comment
Brohemius Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 That wheel looks amazing man. Well done. Fourwheel i think it makes everyone want an ST wheel haha! 2 Quote Link to comment
Gradyfest Posted April 4, 2015 Report Share Posted April 4, 2015 Looking good, very inspiring! Makes me feel lazy on my 720... 2 Quote Link to comment
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